From reaction to discipline: how Chief People Officers’ priorities have shifted in 2026
April 1st 2026
Executive summary
Over the past nine months, the focus of Chief People Officers across private equity–backed healthcare and life sciences businesses has shifted meaningfully. What began in 2025 as a period defined by pressure, pace, and constant response has moved into something more deliberate. As of April 2026, the conversation is less about managing through disruption and more about refining the organisational levers that drive performance.
This reflects ongoing dialogue with CPOs from our July 2025 roundtable through to more recent discussions this year. While the underlying challenges remain familiar, the way organisations are responding to them has become more targeted, more commercial, and more closely aligned to value creation.
When we last brought this group together in mid-2025, the agenda was dominated by immediacy. Talent gaps, leadership stretch and rising expectations from investors and boards were creating sustained pressure across organisations.
Today, those pressures have not disappeared but the response has matured. The conversation has moved on from what is happening to what needs to be fixed, strengthened, or rethought to deliver against increasingly demanding growth plans.
What is emerging now is not a new set of priorities, but a more disciplined approach to the same challenges shaped directly by the realities of the past year.
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