For years we talked about the future of work as if it were a distant horizon shaped by technology, hybrid models, and shifting expectations. Useful, but vague. What we were really circling was a much simpler question: can our organisations sustain human beings over time without draining their health, trust, skills, or ability to perform.
In 2026 the future of work is no longer a trend forecast. It is a design challenge. Human sustainability gives this challenge a name and a direction of travel.
What is human sustainability
Human sustainability is an organisation’s ability to maintain and grow the human capacity it relies on for performance. It reflects whether work strengthens the health, skills, judgment, adaptability and trust that drive productivity, innovation and stability. It asks whether the system is creating long term organisational value by expanding human capability, or quietly eroding it. In practical terms, it is about protecting the core asset every business depends on: people’s capacity to do high quality work, now and in the future.
Human sustainability: the missing clarity
Deloitte also found that trust and human sustainability were top concerns for more than 14,000 business and HR leaders across 95 countries. Whist, the McKinsey Health Institute projects that improving workforce health and wellbeing could unlock up to 11.7 trillion US dollars in global economic value. Taken together, the evidence makes one point clear. When we talk about the future of work we are really talking about whether work expands or erodes human capacity over time.
Why 2026 is an inflection point
Several forces make this shift unavoidable. Boards and investors are asking harder questions about human capital risks and the long-term value of a healthy, skilled workforce. Measurement pressure is rising as organisations admit that outdated metrics are obscuring the real state of workforce health. Evidence shows that individual wellbeing initiatives cannot compensate for poor job design, chronic overload, weak management capability, or cultural friction. The future of work is now showing up in risk registers and board papers, not just conference keynotes.
A macro, mezzo and micro view of human sustainability
Human sustainability becomes practical when viewed across three interconnected levels.
Macro: the world people are working inside
Stress remains high across the globe for many reasons. In an environment of geopolitical tension, demographic pressure and rising chronic conditions, work can act as a stabiliser or an amplifier. Human sustainability begins by acknowledging the realities people are carrying into work every day.
Mezzo: organisational systems and culture
The central question is whether your systems leave people with more or less capacity over time. Engagement remains fragile and burnout is widespread. Many organisations still rely on industrial era assumptions about productivity, resourcing, and control. Human sustainability shifts the focus from wellbeing programmes designed to cope with this outdated approach, to the architecture of the organisation itself. Job design, workload, leadership capability, psychological safety, incentive structures, and fair opportunities all determine whether people stay well and continue to grow.
Micro: the daily experience of individuals and teams
One in five employees reports symptoms of burnout and managers continue to be the most stretched group while influencing most of the variance in team engagement. At this level human sustainability shows up in simple questions. Can people do good work without sacrificing their health or home life? Do managers have the bandwidth and authority to reduce load or solve barriers? Are expectations and tools aligned or are people constantly compensating for broken systems?
Questions for SLTs and boards in early 2026
Honest questions create the strongest inflection point. Here’s a few to get things started:
Macro
- What external pressures are we amplifying and what stabilising role could we choose to play instead?
- If human sustainability became a regulated metric tomorrow, how ready would we be to measure and report our real impact?
Mezzo
- Where do our systems extract more human energy than they return and what can we do to reverse that?
- What would our P and L look like if it fully accounted for human sustainability gains and losses?
Micro
- What does a sustainably high performing week look like for a typical employee and manager here?
- Are we leaving people more employable, more capable, and healthier after five years or less?
The real future of work
In 2026 the future of work is not defined by AI or hybrid policies alone. It is defined by whether organisations can create systems that protect and expand human capacity over time. This is where WellWise plays a vital role. WellWise has been designed using evidence-based frameworks to help organisations diagnose risks to human capacity that are embedded and often hidden across all levels of the organisation. It provides clarity for leaders and managers so they can be supported to act and be held accountable for the improvements within their areas of responsibility. Human sustainability cannot be embedded from the top down alone. It must live and breathe everywhere influence exists. That will be what defines the future of work.