January arrives with that blank-page feeling shared by both organizations and professionals.
Companies define their strategic priorities while thousands of people assess whether they are in the right place. This year, however, that overlap takes on particular relevance: 2026 is shaping up to be the moment when decisions about work models will stop being tactical and become defining factors of organizational competitiveness.
The data confirms it. Fifty percent of European investors anticipate an increase in mergers and acquisitions activity in 2026, while DC Advisory forecasts 15% more activity globally. Behind these figures lies a reality that is reshaping the talent landscape: local companies being absorbed by multinationals, geographically dispersed teams, and structures that are constantly being reconfigured.
And here the paradox emerges. While organizations move toward inevitable geographic dispersion, many of them—especially in markets such as Spain—have opted for a full return to on-site work. The logic is familiar: cultures that need to see their employees in order to validate that they are being productive.
But the pendulum that swung from forced remote work during the pandemic to full on-site presence in 2025 is encountering resistance. And that resistance is not ideological, but generational and strategic.
Young talent redefines the rules of the game
New generations do not see flexibility as an added benefit; they consider it a basic condition. For them, working from anywhere is not a whim—it is a legitimate expectation when companies themselves are becoming global.
Now, how do you attract international talent while demanding full on-site presence? How do you compete for top professionals in a context where seven out of ten companies worldwide struggle to fill positions? Many organizations have yet to fully grasp that they are competing in a global talent market where employee experience has shifted from being a differentiator to a condition for survival.
To understand what this concept really means, we need to look beyond surface-level benefits: it is about designing every stage of a person’s journey within the organization to strengthen employee engagement with the company’s purpose.
M&A processes redefine the geography of work. A company that acquires another inherits teams across multiple locations. Leadership training that was planned to be delivered in person becomes unviable because there is now a leader in every city.
According to the CMS European M&A Outlook 2025 report, 38% of companies identify transformative business operations as the main driver of their acquisitions, followed by growth into new regions. More diverse teams, cultures colliding, work models that must be harmonized. In that scenario, rigid on-site work policies are operationally unsustainable.
What employee experience means: from aspirational concept to strategic imperative
Until now, talking about “employee experience” sounded like HR rhetoric. But 2026 marks a turning point: organizations that do not genuinely place people at the center will face a silent but devastating talent drain.
This is not just about flexible hours. It is about rethinking the entire experience of working in an organization: from onboarding in merger contexts to how restructurings are supported, from decisions that affect people to the coherence between discourse and real policies. The challenge is significant because it requires a deep mindset shift. It means moving from managing “resources” to supporting people, from controlling presence to enabling outcomes, from imposing one-size-fits-all models to recognizing that each professional is at a different stage of life.
The agenda that cannot wait
If one thing became clear in 2025, it is that organizations are moving at breakneck speed. Between one sprint and the next, decisions are made that impact the lives of thousands of people. In that accelerated pace, it is easy to postpone uncomfortable conversations, strategic decisions about culture and talent, and investment in improving the employee experience.
But postponing them is no longer an option. Companies that enter 2026 with agendas genuinely centered on people—those that see geographic dispersion as an opportunity, that design adaptable work models, that invest in leadership capable of managing human complexity—will be the ones that gain competitiveness, innovation, and the ability to attract top talent.
Those that remain anchored in control-based models, in managerial cultures that measure hours in a chair rather than real impact, will discover that the talent market does not wait. And that in the war for top professionals, experience is no longer a differentiator—it is the only sustainable advantage.
By Mariana Socorros, Partner at Olivia Spain.