Research digested – 2026 LinkedIn Talent Report – The Talent Velocity Advantage, Linkedin

About this research

LinkedIn surveyed 1,240 talent professionals and 607 learners across the globe to find out what talent leaders are doing to support workforce development. As a part of the research, LinkedIn also analysed platform data derived from one billion members, 14 million jobs, and 5 million profile updates per minute.

Key findings

Most companies lack “talent velocity” – 86% of companies lack adequate talent velocity, while only 14% qualify as talent velocity leaders.

The report defines talent velocity as the ability to identify skills, build or acquire them, and mobilise talent in real time to meet market demand. Talent velocity leaders are organisations that have mature career development initiatives that contribute to business success.

Talent velocity leaders show far greater confidence across a range of outcomes.

Compared with laggards, leaders report substantially higher confidence across several business measures:

  • Confidence in profitability: 88% vs 65% (+23 pts)
  • Confidence retaining critical talent: 76% vs 50% (+26 pts)
  • Confidence attracting critical talent: 83% vs 56% (+27 pts)
  • Confidence aligning talent to changing priorities: 85% vs 49% (+36 pts)
  • Leaders invest heavily in both AI and human skills.

Employees in leader organisations are more likely to develop several critical capabilities:

  • 2.1× more likely to develop AI literacy skills.
  • 1.6× more likely to develop AI engineering skills.
  • 1.6× higher adoption of in-demand human skills, including communication and adaptability.

Additionally, 93% of talent velocity leaders say human skills are more important than ever.

Certain human skills stand out in leader organisations.

Velocity leaders are more likely to develop key collaboration-related skills compared with laggards:

  • Building trust: 5.5× more likely
  • Influencing others: 4.3× more likely
  • Intercultural skills: 3.5× more likely
  • Interpersonal leadership: 3.5× more likely
  • Operational excellence: 3× more likely.

Skills agility and retention pressures are widespread.

  • 89% of organisations are concerned about skills agility – delivering the right skills at the right time
  • 88% are concerned about employee retention.

Learning opportunities are identified as the number one retention strategy, alongside coaching, mentoring, and internal mobility.

Internal mobility and flexible talent models are increasing priorities.

  • 72% say internal mobility is more important than ever
  • 56% say gig opportunities are becoming a higher priority.

Leaders are moving toward skills-based organisational models.

  • 90% of chief people officers say organisations will increasingly organise teams around skills rather than job titles.

However, only 30% of organisations globally currently use skills-based workforce planning.

Five organisational accelerators drive talent velocity.

The report identifies five transformation areas where leaders outperform laggards:

  • Leadership momentum
  • Culture as catalyst
  • Leading on AI
  • Integrated talent ecosystem
  • Career power

Employee growth and career development sit at the centre of all five accelerators.

What to act on

Organisations should treat workforce development as a core strategic capability rather than an HR programme. Only 14% of companies qualify as talent velocity leaders, yet these organisations show significantly higher confidence in profitability, talent attraction, and workforce alignment. The research suggests organisations should integrate career development and skills building directly into business strategy, ensuring leadership visibly sponsors employee growth and internal mobility.

Companies should also accelerate investment in both AI and human skills simultaneously. Employees in leading organisations are 2.1× more likely to develop AI literacy skills and 1.6× more likely to build AI engineering skills. At the same time, leaders emphasise human capabilities such as trust-building and collaboration, which appear several times more prevalent in leader organisations.. This indicates that AI adoption strategies should be paired with structured learning programmes that strengthen interpersonal and leadership capabilities.

Organisations should move toward skills-based workforce planning and internal mobility systems. Although 90% of CPOs expect teams to be organised around skills rather than job titles, only 30% of companies currently use skills-based workforce planning. Developing a shared skills architecture and integrating it across hiring, learning, and internal mobility would help organisations identify skill gaps and redeploy talent faster.

Read the report https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/talent-velocity-report