New research shows that companies demonstrating strong core values report 89% employee engagement, versus 53% at those that don’t. 

By Gillian Manning 

Culture and operating discipline are what separate the companies pulling ahead from everyone else. That’s the takeaway from Lattice’s newly released 2027 State of People Strategy Report, which surveyed more than 1,300 HR professionals across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, and other regions. 

Performance management remains HR’s top priority, and review cycles are speeding up, with 45% of organizations conducting monthly or quarterly reviews. AI is helping absorb some of that workload, with 74% of HR leaders saying managers are already using it to draft reviews.  

“I’ve seen firsthand how AI in our hands can be invaluable for optimizing our organizations,” says Ashley Alvarado, Lattice customer and director of people strategy at Away Travel. “AI can be a real force multiplier for enablement and productivity, and I don’t think that’s been unlocked to its fullest potential yet. Be the person who brings these ideas to the forefront and redefines what it actually means to be an HR function.” 

However, technology isn’t solving workforce burnout. Despite technological advances that can speed up tedious administrative tasks, HR leaders are strained. More than half of HR leaders (55%) have considered leaving the profession in the past year, even as more than half expect their teams and budgets to grow. This desire to exit the field is reportedly driven by feeling undervalued (39%), operating in crisis mode (35%), burnout (34%), and fears about AI replacement (21%).  

Lattice’s study also found that: 

• 76% of HR leaders say AI-assisted reviews are completed faster, 64% report better review quality, and 64% report higher completion rates; 

• 83% are excited about AI, and 44% of organizations now use enterprise platforms with AI built in; 

• 60% still hold ethical concerns about AI, and 51% report C-suite pressure to use it more; 

• companies that consistently demonstrate their core values see 89% employee engagement, versus 53% for those that don’t; and 

• 47% of HR teams say at least one solution purchased in the past two years fell short, most often citing functionality gaps (50%), integration issues (34%), and poor usability (34%). 

“As AI rewrites how companies operate, HR becomes central to business transformation,” says Sarah Franklin, CEO of Lattice. “This is no longer about running better people programs with bolted-on AI. It’s about redefining how work happens, how performance is defined, and how organizations build the capability to win in an AI-native world.” 

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