2020 was a hell of a year for…the entire world. No doubt many people leaders are still trying to figure out all of the repercussions of COVID-19, civil unrest, natural disasters, and other disruptions that left almost no industry untouched.

While some of those 2020 repercussions will undoubtedly carry over into this year, we're really hopeful for 2021.

Why? Many of the challenges faced last year accelerated much-needed discussions and cooperation between different factions of HR functions – Learning functions started talking about mobility and skills; performance groups started talking about manager roles, and everybody started talking about DEIB. Indeed, one of the most promising things we saw was a convergence of people practices – one that we think will continue into the new year and beyond.

Stacia, myself, and our team starts each year by trying to understand some of the larger trends we're seeing – it helps us drive the research and make sense of the world. This year, we built a pretty picture summarizing the top ones we'll be talking about in 2021.

As always, please give us feedback! What would you add?