Signal 66% of C-suite leaders call moving beyond functional boundaries important; 7% report great progress

Summary

In Deloitte's 2026 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 66% of C-suite leaders said it is very or extremely important for their organizations to move beyond the limits of traditional functions such as HR, finance and IT. Yet only 7% reported great progress, even though 58% said efforts were underway. Deloitte attributes the gap to limited functional capacity, mismatched capability and a lack of end-to-end data and processes, which leave functions unable to coordinate across the business at speed. Functional headcounts and management layers have also grown, adding cost without driving growth. Almost half of respondents cited internal constraints such as organizational structure as the main barrier to change.