HR Priorities and Challenges for 2025: Firsthand Insights from HR Experts
HR and talent leaders have navigated significant disruption in recent years and shifts in the business and talent landscape show no signs of slowing down. Disruptors have included the global pandemic, adapting to remote and hybrid work, the Great Resignation, a cooling economy and widespread layoffs, and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence, to name a few.
As we look ahead to 2025, organizations are continuing to identify ways to maximize business efficiencies in a challenging economic environment. As a result, HR teams are doing more with less and CHROs and talent must scale their teams’ capabilities to meet the evolving workforce needs of the business.
To prepare for success in 2025 and beyond, we recently collected expert insights from seasoned HR leaders by asking about their perspectives on human resources challenges and priorities, as well as the impact AI will have on the HR function.
We gathered insights from the following HR thought leaders, who are also members of SucceedSmart’s esteemed Board of Advisors:
- Deb Bubb, Co-founder and President, the Institute for Moral Imagination
- Julie Currie, Ex-Chief People Officer at Grail
- Elaine Davis, Board Member, Advisor, former CHRO at HealthComp
- Jenny Dearborn, Chief People Strategy Officer at BTS
- Edie Goldberg, Future of Work Expert, Author, Talent Management Strategist
- Sanjay Sathé, founder and CEO of SucceedSmart
- Jill B. Smart, Former CHRO Accenture, President Emeritus National Academy of Human Resources
Continue reading to learn more about 2025 HR trends and priorities.
What do you see as some of the top priorities for HR leaders in 2025?
Workforce planning
“Workforce planning is one of the top priorities all HR leaders need to focus on in 2025 – specifically what work will be done by AI, what work will be done by humans, and what work will be done by humans using AI,” said Dearborn.
“Hiring focused primarily on immediate company needs is no longer effective in today’s evolving and fast-paced business environment,” shared Sathé. “HR and talent professionals need to take a long-term, strategic approach to workforce planning to identify the roles and skills needed to drive long-term success. A proactive workforce planning strategy also requires developing a talent pipeline of both internal and external qualified candidates for future open positions.”
“Talent planning and management are critical priorities as skills needs change rapidly,” added Smart. “Businesses are also evolving so rapidly that they have new requirements for talent. HR leaders need to continue to make the organization more flexible and agile to adapt to change better and faster; which includes making sure HR has the right technology in place.”
Layered talent acquisition and management to address generational diversity
“HR leaders in 2025 and beyond should prioritize a layered talent acquisition and management strategy that addresses the generational diversity we see in the workforce today,” shared Davis. Older workers are staying longer and younger elements are less constrained by aging notions of career, loyalty and longevity. One size doesn’t fit all and I expect HR leaders will need to create workplace experiences that address unique generational needs while still pulling the threads that create a unifying culture.”
Financial acumen
Davis continued, “HR leaders also need to develop more financial acumen. With 20% of US businesses now owned by private equity (and this is a trend that is accelerating), it’s important for Chief People Officers (CPOs) to understand the financial hydraulics that underpin investment in a business. CPOs have to generate measurable financial returns in the people dimension.”
What do you expect to be the most pressing challenges for HR leaders in the coming year?
Cultivating positive, purpose-driven work cultures
“Following this year’s election cycle, we are seeing a renewed focus on the need to cultivate positive, purpose-driven work cultures,” said Bubb. “The 2024 election was dominated by fear, polarization, and intense speculation about the impact of the election’s outcome on the foundations of our democracy, our economy, and our freedoms. Increasingly, people are turning to their employers to provide the clarity and stability we are not experiencing elsewhere. We need places where we can work together, constructively, on things that matter.”
Retention and succession planning
“I see combined pressing challenges and priorities that include retention of current talent and creating a positive and engaged workforce,” highlighted Currie. This also includes a focus on succession planning.”
“Given the current challenges in attracting and retaining talent, mastering the employee experience will be the key differentiator that will help companies to excel,” said Goldberg. “Do employees have purpose and meaning in their work? This helps drive productivity and performance and reduced turnover. Do the systems and processes facilitate or hinder getting work done? This differentiates an organization filled with frustrations vs. a company where one gets to focus on making a positive impact through their work. Do they operate in a hostile work environment or an empowering one? Culture is everything when it comes to creating a work environment that people want to work within.”.
Artificial intelligence
“The use of AI, including how to use it, risks, impact on talent, how can HR take advantage of it for their own function will be a top priority and challenge for HR leaders in 2025,” added Smart.
“Artificial intelligence isn’t a technology implementation, but a change management challenge,” said Goldberg. “HR needs to help not only train employees to understand how to leverage AI in their daily work, but they also need to help create a mindset about why generative AI is your friend, not the enemy. Generative AI will not replace your job. The person who can leverage Generative AI is the person who is coming for your job. Addressing the fear in the organization is the responsibility of HR. HR needs to facilitate a culture of experimentation and give employees permission to innovate with the technology.”
Goldberg continued, “HR needs to be the cultivator of a culture that encourages enthusiasm for and experimentation with AI. While some companies have already reaped the benefits of generative AI, we have only begun to scratch the surface. Those who think generative AI will only help improve productivity are underestimating what is possible. I believe that with advanced skills we can leverage these new tools to improve decision-making, problem solving, and innovation.”
Davis shared, “AI: how will the HR function incorporate AI to drive a richer employee experience, reduce burden on HR teams, and facilitate faster, more informed analytics? How will HR ensure that AI in the business does not create friction for employees, both from job elimination and unintended consequences perspectives?”
Increasing medical care costs
Davis continued, “How will HR leaders grapple with the increasing cost of medical care? The benefits budget is the second or third highest line item for many companies and yet HR often takes very little notice of it, instead accepting a 10-11% renewal every year and being grateful that it’s not more. It’s time to take control of this line item and enact progressive benefits management to improve access, outcomes and cost.”
The ongoing debate about return-to-office
“The challenge for companies is to figure out how to create moments that matter when people are together in-person,” shared Goldberg. “Driving into work to sit in on video-based meetings all day is not an optimal work experience. Managers need to ensure that being together is used to create connections, share ideas, and discuss important topics that require collaboration to get to the best outcome. Intentionally crafting the employee experience will differentiate flex working strategies that work versus those that don’t.”
How do you expect AI to continue impacting HR teams and hiring in 2025 and beyond?
Improved efficiencies and more time for strategic work
“AI will continue to afford HR teams the opportunity to streamline administrative and analytical tasks and place a premium on the creative and strategic capabilities HR can bring to their organizations,” shared Bubb. “HR teams who focus on the experience they create for their partners and employees, who harness the power of AI to simplify, automate, and streamline processes and improve the employee experience, who reduce unnecessary costs and increase availability of resources for more valuable work, will find their roles increasingly interesting, rewarding, and impactful.”
AI significantly impacts workforce planning
“AI is all I am hearing about at conferences,” said Currie. “Here’s a summary of what I’m hearing: AI should be seen as a pilot not a passenger, such as helping the workforce use it on a day-to-day basis for productivity. HR leaders need to focus on effective workforce planning to ensure employees have required skills of the future given the changes in AI. Experimentation with AI in business will also continue impacting roles, sales, HR performance management, learning, and, of course, recruiting.”
An urgent need for HR transformation
“Given the impact of AI, the HR function will need a radical transformation, but they are not ready for it,” added Dearborn.
How can HR leaders continue to drive value and make an impact at their organizations in 2025?
Get ahead of business strategy
“CHROs have got to see themselves as business executives with specific expertise in the people dimension,” shared Davis. “Understanding the business model, flexing the talent pool to drive the financial metrics needed, and getting ahead of business strategy to ensure the people dimension is part of, and not an afterthought to overall strategy. Activist HR leadership requires full engagement at each and every business decision point. I see few HR leaders participating in business leadership. Forget waiting for the CEO to ‘cascade’ the strategy so that people strategy can be “aligned” to it — that’s so last millennium.”
“HR leaders need to be a business person first, then an HR person, meaning understand the business inside and out, add to the strategic discussion about growth, and initiate dialogue with business unit leaders about what they need,” shared Smart.
How can HR leaders prioritize diversity and inclusion in their 2025 recruitment, succession planning, and talent pipelining strategies?
Focus on a human-centered approach and relationship-building
“Successful DEI programs in this era will focus on a deeply human-centered approach to the work, concentrating on the values of inclusion and fairness, and building commitment to the business value of belonging,” said Bubb. In these programs, data will still be a crucial measurement of progress, but the emphasis will be on cultivating relationships, connections, and a focus on the values and behaviors that produce diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Partner with SucceedSmart to accomplish more in 2025
As you develop and implement your human resources and workforce planning strategy for 2025, having the right leaders in place is critical to long-term success. SucceedSmart is here to help you quickly hire qualified leaders for your organization.
SucceedSmart is the world’s first AI-led leadership hiring platform. We blend human empathy with AI led precision, empowering companies to accomplish more and to find leaders who embrace change and drive innovation. We challenge outdated recruiting models by delivering diverse, future-ready talent, faster and smarter.
Our talent pipelining capabilities enable organizations to proactively build pipelines of qualified, diverse executive candidates for current and future open roles, reducing time to hire from 4 to 6 months to 4 to 6 weeks, while decreasing hiring costs by up to 70% compared to traditional search firms.
Let us help you accomplish more with your 2025 leadership hiring goals — request a demo today.