October 18th, 2025 – SkillCycle
The start of a new calendar year is a time to celebrate successes, reflect on challenges, and prepare for the year ahead. As teams finalize HR initiatives for 2024 and scan the horizon for 2025 HR trends, many companies are using HR trends for 2024 as a baseline while shortlisting the top HR trends 2025 that will shape strategy next.
“When change is expected, you need to map out how you’ll scale plans to achieve company targets,” says Kristy McCann Flynn, CEO and Co-founder of SkillCycle. “A leaner, meaner philosophy of doing more with less won’t help you hit your goals.” That guidance is especially relevant as leaders sift through emerging HR trends 2025 and decide where to invest time and budget.
Why keep a sharp focus on what lies ahead for workplace and HR trends that really work? The turmoil felt over the last few years has yet to settle in many sectors. The number of employees considering leaving their jobs in the past year increased from 19% to 26%, according to PwC. That reality is pushing organizations to look closely at HR technology trends 2025, including skills intelligence, AI-powered learning, and better manager enablement, to protect retention and performance.
“Companies need to accept that some changes are here to stay,” says Rebecca Taylor, Co-founder and CCO of SkillCycle. “They need to empower and enable their workforce to be able to adjust to those shifts.”
From adaptations to how and where people work to embracing new platforms and data practices, there will be changes to navigate. Organizations that tune into their workforce’s evolving needs, and use the 2025 HR trends most relevant to their goals, will be better prepared for what is to come.
In this article on 2024 HR trends, we’ll explore:
It may be tempting to think that the most significant disruptions to the way we work are behind us. However, many underlying challenges have existed in one form or another for years and are likely to surface in your company if they haven’t already. For example, in many organizations, skills gaps have been building over time and are now a problem that can’t be ignored.
“The opportunity to fix these issues is now, and companies need strategic initiatives to do so,” says McCann Flynn. “Simply checking boxes won’t cut it.”
Identifying, interpreting, and prioritizing trends are essential first steps in building a ‘future of work’ strategy, according to Gartner. Assessing the impact of these trends will help you improve your ability to prepare for what the future holds.
Below are the top HR trends 2025 HR teams are prioritizing, with practical actions.
Move beyond “hybrid vs. remote” and focus on how work actually gets done. Set clear norms for asynchronous collaboration, team-based scheduling, and outcome-focused goals. In a tight labor market, rigid presence rules can push talent to look elsewhere, so equip managers to measure outcomes instead of attendance.
Gartner lists leader and manager development, culture, and strategic workforce planning among the top HR focus areas for 2025, which aligns with this shift in practice. Use these 2025 HR trends to redesign team agreements and improve performance without defaulting to blanket mandates.
Treat skills as the unit of currency. Build a live skills inventory, connect learning to role moves, and make internal mobility a visible path to growth. This is one of the most impactful emerging HR trends 2025 because it tackles both performance and retention.
LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report shows that internal mobility is a high-leverage tactic for aligning skills with business needs and shortening time to fill. Make “time to first internal move” and “new skills earned” executive KPIs.
Map where AI is used, what value it creates, and how it aligns with business goals. Prioritize responsible use with clear policies, human-in-the-loop checks, and shared ownership across HR, Legal, and IT. Plan for agentic AI that can analyze skills gaps, suggest learning, and schedule training, but pair it with AI literacy for managers and employees.
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index reports rapid AI uptake and names AI literacy as the most in-demand skill of 2025, which makes this one of the defining hr technology trends 2025 and among the top HR trends 2025 to formalize.
Use AI and data to tailor onboarding, learning paths, and career development to each person’s goals. Pair personalization with mental-health supports that people actually use, such as flexible scheduling, access to resources, and teams that normalize conversations about stress.
As HR trends 2025 mature, the edge comes from combining targeted growth opportunities with sustainable workloads and credible manager support. Gartner’s 2025 focus areas around culture and change management back this integrated approach.
Make purpose and sustainability part of your employer value proposition, not a side note. Include gig workers and contractors in communications, feedback loops, and recognition so they can contribute at full strength.
With ageing populations and persistent labour shortages projected across OECD economies, diversified talent models are a strategic response, not a stopgap. This context shapes HR trends 2025 around workforce design and long-term planning.
Positioning your company for what is next should go hand in hand with deciding what to leave behind. Work is still changing fast, and both employers and employees are adapting in real time. This is the moment to retire outdated ideas and replace them with practices that reflect HR trends 2025.
Purely tying compensation to short-term performance can undercut the behaviors you want in 2025, especially learning and internal mobility. Many organizations are shifting toward skills-based pay by adding skill premiums and recognizing applied capabilities, not just output.
WTW reports growing use of skill premiums and hiring bonuses for digital roles, while its 2025 guidance urges aligning rewards with skill application and future needs. Treat base pay as market and role aligned, then link variable pay to verified skill growth, certifications, and impact in new roles. That approach supports upskilling and faster internal moves.
Move to in 2025: expand skills-based pay ranges, add clear criteria for earning skill premiums, and connect incentive plans to learning milestones and successful role transitions. EY also notes variable pay remains widespread, so redirect a portion toward skills development metrics rather than only short-term performance targets.
Loyalty is earned, not assumed. The modern psychological contract includes autonomy, well-being, and purpose. When those needs are not met, people move.
Research highlights how psychological contracts shape trust and engagement, and that breaches damage satisfaction and retention. Treat career clarity, manager credibility, and realistic workloads as core to your value proposition, not perks around the edges.
Move to in 2025: make stay factors visible. Publish career paths, improve manager coaching, and align work norms to flexible, outcome-based practices. Internal mobility is a retention lever that many still underuse, and recent data shows promotions and internal hires are not keeping pace with demand. Fix the gap by posting roles internally first and tracking time to first internal move.
Snacks and games do not fix misaligned work. In 2025, the employee experience is the employer brand. Continuous listening and co-creating policies with employees drive credibility and performance.
Qualtrics’ 2025 trends emphasize experience design and ongoing feedback at scale, while multiple industry voices point to employee experience as the engine of brand strength. Build programs people actually use, like tailored onboarding, learning paths, and mental-health supports with flexible scheduling.
Move to in 2025: run a simple listen-act-share cycle each quarter, report what changed, and measure impact on engagement and retention. Use these hr technology trends 2025 to personalize learning and career recommendations, and to surface early warning signals when teams are stretched.
AI for its own sake wastes time. In 2025, HR teams need learning-first programs that align AI with company values, legal requirements, and real business outcomes. Start by mapping where AI is already used, then tie it to skills you want to grow and the metrics you plan to improve. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index notes that AI literacy is now the most in-demand skill in 2025, and it rises alongside human strengths like conflict resolution and adaptability. That means your learning plan should pair AI tools with the human skills machines cannot replicate.
Treat skills as your operating system. LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report highlights internal mobility as a top priority, and shows that “career development champions” measure success with metrics like internal mobility rate and new skills delivered for the business. Put those measures on your executive dashboard.
Keep the stakes clear. PwC’s 2025 AI Jobs Barometer finds that skills in AI-exposed roles are changing faster, with AI-skilled workers commanding significant wage premiums. HR processes that ignore AI’s potential will slow the organization down. Build skills pathways that help people learn, practice, and apply new capabilities on the job.
Managers sit at the center of engagement, performance, and change. In 2025, their role expands to coaching, inclusivity, and using AI-enabled insights to guide work. Gartner lists developing leaders and managers, culture, change, and HR tech optimization among the top focus areas, which lines up with the shift from supervision to true coaching. Equip managers with practical toolkits, AI literacy, and outcome-based management habits.
Well-being is not a perk. The World Health Organization recommends organizational interventions that reduce psychosocial risks at work, alongside manager training and accessible support. Build a quarterly listen-act-share cycle, set clear workload norms, and train managers to spot early signs of overload. Track outcomes such as absence, turnover, and time to proficiency after leave. These moves align with HR trends 2025 that prioritize sustainable performance.
Disruption will continue. Plan for agility by tying reskilling to mobility and by designing teams that can flex. LinkedIn’s 2025 data shows internal mobility is rising as a priority because it shortens time to fill and improves engagement. Layer in demographic reality. The OECD’s 2025 Employment Outlook warns of structural labor shortages as populations age, which makes faster reallocation of skills inside your company essential.
Frontline employees keep many industries running, yet often have fewer tools and fewer paths to grow. Give them equal access to digital learning, recognition, and career ladders. Make micro-learning mobile-first, surface shift-friendly growth opportunities, and ensure managers can see skills signals, not only schedules. This is a practical way to extend your skills-first strategy to the people closest to customers and operations.
Healthy teams do better work and stay longer. Make well-being part of everyday operations with clear workload norms, access to support, and managers who know how to spot early signs of stress.
Managers are shifting from task supervision to coaching and culture building. They set clear outcomes, enable flexible work, grow skills on the team, and use AI insights responsibly to guide decisions.
Start with purpose and guardrails. Map the problems you want to solve, choose tools that fit your values, set ethical guidelines, and build AI literacy for managers and employees. Keep humans in the loop for sensitive decisions.
HR becomes skills-first and experience-led. Expect more internal mobility, more personalized learning, and closer partnerships with business leaders to adapt quickly. The goal is a workforce that can flex, grow, and perform through change.
Begin with three moves. Publish an AI use policy with role-based training. Launch an internal talent marketplace with skill profiles and clear mobility rules. Run a quarterly well-being review that turns employee feedback into visible changes.
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