HR leaders are navigating one of the most complex workforce environments in recent years. Recent data from DSG Global reveals a widening gap between the skills organizations need and the capabilities their teams currently have.
Succession planning is the top pain point for 66% of HR decision-makers, with 57% citing leadership pipeline shortages. Talent strategy pressures, including acquisition, hiring, and retention affect 70% of organizations, while 38% note the accelerating impact of AI on workflows. Together, these trends show that traditional talent models no longer keep pace with organizational demands.
Research from Project Management Institute (PMI) reinforces this challenge. Ninety-three percent of senior executives say they must rethink or reinvent their business model at least every five years, yet the top barrier to reinvention is a disconnect between planning and execution.
Hiring alone won’t close these gaps. Organizations must rethink how they develop, validate, and retain talent, starting with the project professionals responsible for delivering change. Project talent includes anyone leading strategic initiatives, from technology implementations and process redesigns to cultural and cross-functional transformation.
The Hidden Drivers Behind HR’s 2026 Pain Points
These challenges reflect deeper workforce issues:
- Rising disengagement: Gallup estimates disengagement costs U.S. companies $1.9 trillion annually, driven in part by limited growth opportunities.
- Persistent skills gaps: Teams executing high-stakes initiatives often lack the technical, business, and digital capabilities required today.
- Retention pressure: Career development remains the strongest predictor of retention.
Strategic initiatives succeed or fail through the people who guide them. When project teams lack structured growth opportunities, organizations experience familiar outcomes: delayed initiatives, higher turnover, and stalled transformation.
Why Upskilling Project Talent is Now a Strategic Imperative
There is a direct link between project talent capability and organizational performance. PMI Pulse of the Profession® research shows that projects led by professionals with high business acumen meet business objectives 83% of the time, and organizations that prioritize power skills saw 72% of projects meet business goals.
As digital transformation, sustainability, and equity initiatives accelerate, the need for adaptive, digitally fluent project talent grows. Project teams that apply AI directly to their work—such as scheduling, risk analysis, and decision support—see the greatest productivity gains. AI readiness becomes a strategic advantage when it is embedded into daily work rather than being treated as a standalone technical skill.
PMI Talent Gap data estimates that up to 30 million new project professionals will be needed globally by 2035 to meet the demands of growth and innovation, underscoring that today’s talent gap is structural, not cyclical.
Step Up: Redefining the Path to Project Success
According to PMI Step Up: Redefining the Path to Project Success with M.O.R.E. research, only 50% of projects deliver the expected value. Success increasingly depends on four key behaviors:
- Managing perceptions: Working intentionally to focus on impact and align your stakeholders’ expectations.
- Owning success: Taking accountability for both tangible and perceived value.
- Reassessing parameters: Revisiting goals, plans, and assumptions as needed to ensure work continues to deliver value.
- Expanding perspectives: Considering the bigger picture and tie to business objectives.
Organizations whose teams consistently apply these behaviors see dramatic improvement in project outcomes. Those that fail to develop people who can lead, pivot, and deliver strategic initiatives risk falling behind in innovation and transformation.
Skills-Based Hiring and Certifications: Strengthening the Pipeline
With succession planning and leadership shortages topping HR priorities, hiring alone is not enough to close execution gaps. Organizations need ways to assess and develop readiness to lead complex initiatives, and certifications can serve as credible indicators of capability, helping to reduce hiring risk, accelerate onboarding, and support internal mobility.
While no professional certification guarantees performance, PMI certifications signal standardized practices, applied experience, and a shared language for working across teams and leadership. They indicate readiness to manage complexity, navigate competing priorities, and deliver value.
PMI certifications support talent development across career stages:
- Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®: Signals foundational project skills, ideal for early-career talent and organizations scaling quickly.
- Project Management Professional (PMP)®: Demonstrates advanced project leadership, practical experience managing complex initiatives, and alignment with globally recognized standards—helping hiring managers confidently evaluate readiness for high-impact work.
- PMI Certified Professional in Managing AI (PMI-CPMAI)™: Prepares professionals to lead AI-enabled initiatives responsibly, embedding governance, ethical practices, and value delivery into emerging work.
Used thoughtfully, these credentials help organizations strengthen leadership pipelines, reduce risk, and ensure project teams are prepared to deliver strategic outcomes aligned with 2026 workforce priorities.
Five Ways HR Leaders Can Build a Future-Ready Project Workforce
Project management skills strengthen leadership at every level by creating clarity around goals, scope, success criteria, and timelines. Teams with these skills are better aligned, motivated, and able to navigate shifting priorities without burnout.
- Establish learning pathways aligned to project roles: Provide clear upward mobility opportunities to enhance retention and succession readiness.
- Build digital, data, and AI fluency: Equip teams to adopt technology quickly, enhance decision-making, and mitigate implementation risk.
- Develop power skills and leadership capability: Strengthen communication, stakeholder alignment, and leadership pipelines for complex work.
- Embed certifications into talent strategy: Use globally recognized credentials to validate skills, increase role consistency, and reduce hiring risk.
- Elevate project leadership as a strategic capability: Ensure project leaders are empowered to guide prioritization, drive transformation, and connect initiatives to business value.
The Bottom Line
The biggest HR challenges of 2026 demand bold, strategic action. Upskilling project talent is one of the most effective levers HR leaders can pull to strengthen leadership pipelines, reduce turnover, and ensure strategic initiatives succeed.
HR leaders who invest in project talent now are helping shape their organizations’ futures.
To hear more expert perspectives, listen to a recent conversation with PMI on the HR Chat Podcast.
Authored by Karla Eidem, PMP, PMI-PMOCP, Global Head of Transformation & Project Delivery at Project Management Institute