“The first priority is building workplaces that perform,” says new CIPD chief executive

Opening the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition 2026, Neil Carberry called for greater ambition, influence and accountability from the profession as well as promising the CIPD knows it too must do more.

Addressing delegates in Manchester, Carberry argued that decisions about people, skills, management and workforce capability are central to the UK's economic prospects - and that the profession has an increasingly important role in helping organisations respond to the challenges ahead. 

Weak productivity, technological change and pressure on skills were testing organisations' ability to grow and perform, but none of those challenges could be met without great people practice.

"Do not treat workforce capability as something to attend to once the economic strategy has been written. It is the economic strategy." 

Influence, he told the audience, should be earned, not asked for.

He challenged people professionals to be clear about the outcomes their work delivers, and to speak the language of the boardroom without abandoning the expertise that makes them distinctive.

"We should earn it, not ask for it. By demonstrating that your expertise makes a difference to what the organisation is trying to achieve." 

Carberry stressed that the responsibility for stronger performance does not rest with people professionals alone. 

Chief executives and boards, he said, should invest in their people teams and see workforce and culture as drivers of performance, not just cost.

Government also has a role in creating the conditions for stronger organisations, better skills and a more productive labour market. 

But the profession must be prepared to challenge itself, develop its capabilities and demonstrate the value it brings to decisions about how organisations operate and change. 

A more ambitious CIPD

Carberry also set out his expectations for the CIPD, saying the organisation must strive to be "relentlessly useful." 

He said the CIPD should be alongside its members throughout their professional lives. That means helping them navigate difficult decisions, giving them a community to develop new capabilities, and providing evidence they can trust and practical support they can use.

The organisation's success, he argued, should be judged by the value it delivers to members and the difference it helps them make in their workplaces.  

The question, he said, is not simply whether a process has been improved or a programme introduced, but "What changed because we were there?"