7 Trends That Will Shape HR in 2025

1. Skills Over Degrees
Momentum is surging around skills-based hiring, which is the idea that workers’ skills and capabilities matter more than their educational background or work history. Focusing on what employees can do—not where or how they learned to do it—widens the talent pool, helps solve skills shortages, and boosts retention, says Justin Ladner, senior labor economist at SHRM.

The practice is catching on quickly: In 2024, 81% of employers practiced skills-based hiring, up from 73% in 2023 and just 56% in 2022, according to research from TestGorilla, a talent assessment platform.

“The ongoing labor shortage provides a strong incentive for firms to search for ways to expand their ability to recruit and retain workers,” Ladner says.

2. Evolving Skills, Thriving Workforces
The need for updated skills in the workplace is accelerating—so quickly, in fact, that new employees may need more training even before they’ve finished onboarding, says James Atkinson, vice president, thought leadership, at SHRM.

Technology is driving this quickening pace of upskilling and reskilling. Quite simply, in a world where AI exists, employees’ skills can’t remain static. In fact, 83% of HR leaders believe upskilling will be essential for workers to remain competitive in a job market shaped by AI, SHRM data shows.


3. People Analytics Shaping the Future
In a still-tight talent market, organizations must find smart, effective ways to encourage long-term employee loyalty. A potential solution is people analytics, the science of using data on employee performance, skills, engagement, and sentiment to predict and shape the future of the workforce. 

People analytics can reveal a variety of insights. Combing through employee engagement survey data, for example, can help companies determine employee morale or recurring reasons for departure or turnover. People analytics can also identify potential learning and development opportunities, such as skills gaps that may hinder forward momentum.

Link also sees people analytics as an opportunity for employers to provide interventions such as mental health resources before such issues become a crisis.


4. The Concern Rise of Incivility
If the world seems less courteous or empathetic lately, you’re not imagining it. SHRM launched its civility campaign in 2024 precisely because of “rising concerns about an incivility in society that’s bubbling up and overflowing into the workforce,” Atkinson says.

The SHRM Q3 2024 Civility Index survey of more than 1,600 U.S. workers, conducted Aug. 27-Sept. 4, 2024, proved these concerns to be well-founded. 

5. The Benefits of Financial Wellness
There’s growing momentum among smart employers to thoughtfully consider the role they play in employee wellness. While physical and mental health have been top of mind for years, financial health is now part of the conversation.

It’s become crystal clear how deeply employees’ financial wellness impacts their personal and professional lives, Link says. As a result, more employers are beefing up financial wellness benefits. In 2023, just 14% of U.S. employees had access to financial planning benefits at work.

By 2024, that number doubled to 28%, according to PNC Bank’s Financial Wellness in the Workplace Report. By the end of 2026, nearly half of employers are expected to offer a comprehensive financial wellness program, according to Transamerica.

6. AI’s Impact on Talent Strategy
As AI usage becomes ever more ubiquitous, an increasing number of organizations are harnessing this still-evolving technology to transform talent acquisition. However, that’s a relatively recent development—of the 1 in 4 organizations that use AI to support HR-related tasks, nearly two-thirds only began doing so in 2023, according to SHRM’s 2024 Talent Trends: Artificial Intelligence in HR report. 

In other words, most organizations have yet to tap into AI’s vast number of potential applications. Those who are, though, most commonly put AI into play to support recruitment, interviewing, and hiring by streamlining or increasing efficiency.

7. Post-Election Regulatory Shifts
New regulations are introduced every year, but on the heels of a presidential and congressional election, 2025 could give HR professionals a bit of whiplash. Not only are new policies likely to come to the forefront, but it’s possible that existing ones may be scaled back or eliminated altogether.

For example, the new presidential administration could result in either a less or more pro-labor stance, says Emily M. Dickens, J.D., SHRM chief of staff, head of government affairs, and corporate secretary. If a worker shortage persists, she adds, “it will be very interesting to see how the government handles worker visas to allow workers into the country.”