International Day of Peace: How HR Can Build Peace at Work
- 5 Min Read
Peace at work is about more than avoiding conflict. From refugee employment programmes to better conflict resolution, employers are showing how HR policies can build inclusion, dignity and belonging.
- Author: HRD Connect
- Date published: Sep 21, 2026
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Peace might sound like an issue far removed from HR policy. But some of the conditions that underpin peaceful societies, including inclusion, dialogue, dignity and the ability to resolve disagreements constructively, are also built inside workplaces.
That is particularly relevant for this year’s International Day of Peace on 21 September. Under the theme “Investing in Peace: For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day”, the United Nations is calling attention to the everyday actions that build more peaceful communities.
For employers, marking the day does not have to mean issuing a statement about peace. There are practical ways HR policies can contribute, from helping refugees access employment to equipping managers to resolve conflict before it escalates.
Some organisations are already showing what that can look like.
IKEA: Creating pathways into work for refugees
Employment can play an important role in helping people displaced by conflict rebuild their lives.
IKEA’s parent company Ingka Group has been running its Skills for Employment programme since 2019, supporting refugees through work experience, language development and job-related training.
More than 4,300 refugees across 26 countries have now been supported through the initiative, with 600 completing the programme during FY25.
The approach extends beyond recruitment. IKEA recommends that organisations train recruiters in inclusive hiring, provide intercultural training for employees and refugees and clearly establish internal responsibility for refugee employment programmes.
The company has also worked with UNHCR to encourage other employers to create pathways into work for displaced people.
For HR leaders, the example demonstrates how refugee employment can move beyond a CSR commitment and become part of workforce strategy.
Starbucks: Removing barriers to refugee employment
Starbucks offers another UK example.
Working with Refugee Council UK, the company established a refugee hiring programme designed to provide training and routes into employment.
More than 400 refugees have participated in the programme, according to a 2025 CIPD Trust guide examining how organisations can recruit and support refugee employees.
The programme also highlights a wider issue around recruitment.
Refugees may have significant professional experience and qualifications while facing practical barriers to employment, from unfamiliar recruitment processes to language requirements and difficulty demonstrating overseas experience.
The CIPD recommends that employers examine whether job adverts contain unnecessary jargon, make application processes accessible to people who may not speak English as a first language and provide additional support during onboarding.
Peace and inclusion, in this context, can begin with something as ordinary as redesigning a recruitment process so more people can participate in it.
Acas: Building the skills to resolve conflict earlier
Peace at work is also about what happens when people disagree.
Workplace conflict is far from unusual. Acas research published in 2025 found that 44% of workers in Great Britain had experienced some form of conflict during the previous 12 months.
How organisations respond matters.
The most common route employees used to address conflict was speaking to their manager, reported by 45% of those affected. Another 30% had an informal conversation with the other person involved.
Yet almost one in five took no action at all, while nearly a third of those experiencing conflict said the issue remained mainly or completely unresolved.
Acas has made prevention, better conflict management and earlier dispute resolution central to its 2025-2030 strategy.
That should be significant for HR.
Managers are often the first people employees approach when relationships deteriorate, but organisations frequently invest more heavily in formal grievance procedures than in helping managers handle disagreements before they reach that point.
Training managers in difficult conversations, mediation, active listening and informal conflict resolution can make peaceful workplaces something organisations actively build rather than simply hope for.
Peace also means creating somewhere people can belong
The connection between employment and peace becomes particularly clear for people who have experienced displacement.
UK government research published in 2025 found that positive workplace experiences can support refugees’ wellbeing by providing financial security, self-esteem and a sense of belonging. Discrimination and prejudice at work, by contrast, can undermine those benefits.
This makes inclusion after recruitment just as important as access to employment.
HR teams hiring refugees should therefore consider what happens once somebody enters the organisation: whether managers understand the challenges displaced employees may face, whether appropriate language support exists and whether employees have opportunities to build relationships within their teams.
Regular manager check-ins, buddy schemes and clear explanations of unfamiliar workplace policies can all make integration easier.
Make peace part of everyday HR practice
International days can easily become communications exercises. A social post is published, an internal message is circulated and the organisation moves on.
International Day of Peace offers HR an opportunity to do something more useful.
Employers can examine whether managers have the skills to resolve disagreements constructively. They can review whether recruitment processes unintentionally exclude refugees and other displaced people. They can strengthen mechanisms for employees to challenge discrimination, bullying or hostility. And they can create spaces where employees with different experiences and perspectives can actually speak to one another.
The UN’s theme this year is deliberately focused on investing in peace “every day”. That is perhaps the most relevant message for HR.
Peace in the workplace is unlikely to come from a policy carrying that name. It is created through the systems that determine who gets an opportunity, whether people feel they belong, how disagreements are handled and whether employees feel safe enough to speak when something is wrong.
For organisations marking International Day of Peace, the question should therefore not simply be what they can say on 21 September.
It should be what their people practices are doing the other 364 days of the year.
