Rebuilding Employee Confidence in 2026 with CHARGE®

Why HR Credibility Matters More Than Ever 

The 2026 Workforce Trends Report from Leapsome tells a sobering story: many employees are staying in their roles out of stability, not satisfaction. Perhaps most alarming, trust in HR is eroding: nearly half of employees say they don’t believe HR will protect them from harmful policies or act as a true advocate. 

For HR leaders, this erosion of trust is not just a reputational problem, it’s a credibility crisis. Without credibility, every policy and program risks being dismissed as another corporate initiative that won’t last. Employees are looking for leadership. They want clarity on how AI will change their work, reassurance that their well-being won’t be sacrificed for outcomes, and proof that their voices matter. This is where the CHARGE® framework comes in. 

The Origins of CHARGE® 

Monica Frede and I developed CHARGE in our book The Way of the HR Warrior to describe the six essential traits of a credible HR leader. Too often, HR is painted as reactive, bureaucratic, or disconnected. CHARGE turns that perception on its head. It provides a roadmap for how HR can earn and maintain trust, not by promises, but by consistent, visible actions. 

Here’s what CHARGE stands for: 

• Courage: The willingness to speak up, name the truth, and act visibly. 

• Humility: Knowing that HR doesn’t have all the answers, admitting when you’re wrong and having a growth mindset.  

• Accuracy: Getting to the root cause of the problem and making decisions rooted in data.  

• Resiliency: Being resilient is key to a successful HR Warrior. Role modeling change to prevent fatigue and building systems for recovery. 

• Goal-Oriented: Ensuring every goal ties to the business and advances both organizational outcomes and people outcomes. 

• Exemplary: Modeling the culture and behaviors you want others to follow. 

These six traits aren’t abstract ideals. They are levers HR leaders can pull today to rebuild confidence after disruption. And in the context of Leapsome’s 2026 report, they directly answer the biggest challenges facing the workforce. 

Step 1: Courage – Name the disruption and go first 

When employees don’t trust HR, the instinct might be to downplay the tension. But confidence grows when HR demonstrate the courage to name what others only whisper. 

In practice, courage might mean openly acknowledging Leapsome’s findings: that employees doubt HR’s advocacy, that many are disengaged, and that AI expectations feel unrealistic.  

Courage also means tackling one high-anxiety area head-on. If AI fears are rampant, commit to a time-boxed pilot with clear guardrails and communicate the timeline upfront. Employees will appreciate the decisiveness more than vague reassurances. 

Step 2: Humility – Re-engage through co-creation 

Leapsome’s report makes clear: employees are not thriving, they are enduring. You might not know everything in HR, so start with listening and focus groups. 60-minute sessions with cross-functional groups where the prompt is simple; “What would make work feel fair, focused, and doable in the next 90 days?” Document the input and post it publicly in a backlog marked “Now / Next / Later.” 

Humility also shows up in admitting mistakes. A “we got it wrong” or “we are evolving due to your feedback” on your intranet, where HR and leadership post course corrections, signals that employees’ feedback changes outcomes. That transparency transforms skepticism into tentative trust. 

Step 3: Accuracy – Create clarity between leaders and employees 

The Leapsome report highlights a trust gap: employees often feel leaders say one thing and do another, while leaders assume employees understand decisions more than they actually do. This disconnect erodes confidence. By using the listening focus groups, HR can get to the root cause of the distrust.  

Accuracy is the antidote. HR can bridge the gap by creating clear expectations:  

• What priorities the organization is focused on right now. 

• What employees can expect from leadership (e.g., communication cadence, decision timelines). 

• Where employees should go for accurate information about policies, pay, or career growth. 

Accuracy also means measuring and sharing the right things. Don’t just track outputs like meeting counts or survey participation. Instead, measure understanding: 

• Do employees feel clear on the company’s priorities? 

• Do managers believe their teams have what they need to deliver? 

• Is there alignment between what leaders say and what employees experience? 

Employees stop guessing, because HR makes the facts accessible, consistent, and transparent. 

Step 4: Resiliency-Protect energy and pace of change 

Employees aren’t rejecting change completely, they’re worn down by its relentless speed. HR must show resilience themselves while also helping employees develop it. Resiliency is not about pushing harder. It’s about pacing change, protecting energy, and creating systems that allow both HR and employees to recover. That balance is what makes confidence sustainable. 

HR as a profession needs this resiliency muscle as we have change on a daily or even hourly basis. How can we help the organization like we help ourselves?  

HR can equip managers with modeling resiliency rituals, like quick check-ins where the manager can ask, “What’s draining us? What can we drop or delay?” Even removing one low-value task a week signals that well-being matters. HR can help by offering training on stress management, workload prioritization, and adaptive skills builds long-term resilience across the workforce. 

Step 5: Goal-Oriented – Show business and human value 

Employees want to see how their efforts connect to meaningful outcomes, for the company and for themselves. As HR Warriors, we need to tie our goals to the business goals, therefore we are well equipped to help employees see the tie between their work and the business goals. 

When introducing AI, for example, state clearly: “This rollout will shorten reporting cycles by 30% and reduce after-hours work by 20%.” Linking goals to both outcomes ensures employees see HR as advancing the mission and protecting well-being. 

Step 6: Exemplary – Model people-first leadership 

Trust collapses when employees see one set of rules for them and another for leadership. Exemplary HR professionals know credibility is modeled, not mandated. 

Publish HR’s own service-level standards (like response times) and share your monthly scorecard—even when results are imperfect. Require managers to hold monthly 1:1s and quarterly growth conversations, and spotlight leaders who follow through. 

Most importantly, model the very policies you roll out. If there’s a hybrid agreement, HR and executives must follow it visibly. Nothing rebuilds confidence faster than leaders walking the same path as employees. 

Why CHARGE® Matters in 2026 

The themes in Leapsome’s 2026 Workforce Trends Report are clear: re-engagement, AI adoption, and balancing well-being with results are the pressing challenges. But behind each theme lies a deeper issue: confidence. 

• Courage and Humility confront the trust gap directly. 

• Accuracy and Goal-Orientation ensure programs are addressing the root cause and tied to business goals.  

• Resiliency prevents burnout by pacing change. 

• Exemplary leadership transforms policies into culture. 

Confidence doesn’t return overnight. It is earned through consistent, credible actions that employees can see and believe in. CHARGE® equips HR to deliver those actions, restoring trust, re-engaging talent, and building organizations ready not just to survive 2026, but to thrive beyond it.