What economic outlook do you see for 2026? What are your expectations for the intellectual labour market?
For 2026, I expect the economy to continue rewarding efficiency, adaptability, and smarter ways of working rather than growth at any cost. Many organisations will stay focused on optimisation and sustainable performance.
In the intellectual labour market, AI will become less of a trend and more of a daily tool. The hype has not disappeared, but curiosity is increasingly replacing fear. Professionals will be valued not only for their expertise, but also for how effectively they use AI to improve quality, speed, and decision-making.
For HR, this creates strong opportunities to optimise processes, improve analytics, and reduce repetitive work, allowing teams to focus more on the human side of business. 2026 may be the year AI simply becomes part of everyday high performance.
What do you think about recruiter burnout and constant high fluctuation?
I think this case is frequent because most recruitment teams I’ve met have a reactive approach or position in the organisation. The need for talent occurs, then recruiters have a task that is very urgent and ‘needed yesterday.’ Another reason causing burnout is that recruiters need to adapt their approach to talent needs and perspectives. Considering a job change is a crucial and huge decision any human needs to make – which makes this challenge more complex than it appears at first sight. One of the potential solutions lies in a strategic approach to recruitment and co-creation of these strategic processes with key internal stakeholders. That’s why we at Empple believe facilitation is the next big skill in the HR & EB world.
What values guide your daily operations?
Human2Business & Community Approach
We start everything with a conversation – because we believe employer branding should too. Our community work and our consultancy work aren’t separate things; they feed each other. By giving back to the ecosystem, we help build something bigger than any single project. Everything is connected, and if we want to make a real impact, a human-centric approach isn’t optional. It’s the whole point.
Community Is the Fuel for Change
When people come together, something shifts. We believe that by supporting the right people – the ones already pushing for better in their organisations – the impact multiplies far beyond what we could do alone. Change is always happening. Our job is to make sure the people driving it don’t have to do it without a community behind them.
Different Perspectives on EB
Our community brings together HR professionals, marketers, communicators, employer branding specialists, and business leaders – and yes, we think that’s exactly right. Employer branding lives at the intersection of all of these fields, and the best work happens when those perspectives are in the same room. That’s why every Empple program is intentionally mixed – different backgrounds, different lenses, one shared goal.
What goals does your team work towards on a daily basis?
Bringing more to the community – meaning we always want to try new formats, bring speakers they haven’t met before and just think about how every activity could be special.
Hybrid approach – most of our activities are hybrid because we always try to involve people from different locations. Also, international experts within our network bring a lot of cool perspectives and we like to stay connected with them.
Learning from each other – everything started because of this goal and making more space for people to learn from each other. That’s why we have the 6th generation of best employer branding projects coming in October.
Thank you for the answers Katarina Šonjić, Founder at Empple & Employer Branding Consultant!