HR in 2024 and what lies ahead in 2025

HR in 2024 has been tough! This year wasnโ€™t just about the day-to-day BAU chaos or the usual surprises from the business. It was about navigating intense transformations, from layoffs and organisational restructuring to redefining operating models.

Across our network, HR professionals are exhaustedโ€”and it comes as no surprise!

You legends have been holding it all together, facilitating your peopleโ€™s success while driving business continuity. On top of that, many of you have faced tight budgets, new ways of working, and massive changes in your own teams.

Letโ€™s acknowledge that you really deserve a break! But just before you do โ€“ whilst itโ€™s fresh โ€“ letโ€™s reflect on what weโ€™ve learned and what might occupy our time in 2025.

HR's strategic seat at the table

  • In 2024, we saw more people leaders taking on strategic rolesโ€ฆ

For those of us whoโ€™ve been in HR for a while, itโ€™s been fantastic to see HRโ€™s evolution over the last few years. Finally, people leaders have a genuine โ€œseat at the tableโ€, and HR Business Partners are actively shaping major business decisions. This is where the real value of HR is realisedโ€”when our efforts directly contribute to business success.

  • 2025 will be about resilience and agility

Looking ahead, itโ€™s clear: the world isnโ€™t going to slow down. Disruptions will keep coming. AI is set to fundamentally change workforce structures and HR value chains. The political and economic landscape will remain volatile, with shifts in global supply chains of both digital services and physical production due to regulatory policies and evident trade challenges. And then there are workforce shifts driven by immigration, the potential normalisation of cryptocurrency (โ€œYou will hear โ€˜I want to be paid in Bitcoin!โ€™ very soonโ€) and the balancing act of advancing the D&I approach in the workplace.

Amid these challenges, HRโ€™s role will become even more critical. We must use our seat at the table to design systems and processes that empower our businesses to stay resilient, pivot swiftly, and deliver value inclusively to all our people.

Centralising People Services - the painful realisations

  • 2024 exposed the cracks in people processes

This year revealed some hard truths. As HR services have become more centralised, the true qualityโ€”or lack thereofโ€”of our processes has been exposed. Managers, already overwhelmed by expanding responsibilities, have been left navigating clunky, bureaucratic systems that seem designed to drain their time and patience. The result? Frustration, inefficiency, and a stark realisation that our processes donโ€™t meet the standard we expect.

  • 2025 will be about clarifying product ownership and focusing on user experience

The solution lies in clarifying HR product ownership. By leveraging design thinking and professionalising HR product management, we can create people products that arenโ€™t just functional but exceptional. Letโ€™s make the basic stuffโ€”hiring processes, performance reviews, employee journeysโ€”run so smoothly that managers and employees feel empowered, not encumbered.

Mid-level management gaps

  • 2024 highlighted the neglect of Foundational Management Development

Many organisations have come face-to-face with a glaring gap in 2024: mid-level managers lack basic leadership skills. Years of underinvestment in management development have left these managers unprepared for their roles. Theyโ€™re struggling to lead increasingly demanding teams, and the consequences are becoming impossible to ignore.

  • 2025 must include the building of foundational skills and navigating generational differences

In 2025, management development must become a top priority. Beyond flashy HiPo programmes, we need foundational leadership training that focuses on clear behaviours, tough conversations, and effective team management. Generational dynamics will also play a roleโ€”how do we support Gen Z managers stepping into leadership roles while balancing the expectations of senior leaders? This is where foundational development meets personalisation.

Prioritisation in HR work. HR in 2024 and what lies ahead in 2025

Prioritisation in HR work

  • 2024 saw many HR teams transition to quarterly prioritisation

This year marked a growing shift away from rigid annual HR plans to more agile, quarterly prioritisation. This change is long overdue. With work demands constantly shifting, quarterly planning allows HR teams to align more closely with business strategy and adapt to real-time needs.

  • In 2025, we should embrace professional portfolio management

The next step is embedding professional portfolio management. By managing work capacity and aligning it with OKRs, we can avoid burnout and ensure HR teams deliver maximum value. Itโ€™s about working smarter, not harderโ€”and itโ€™s essential for surviving and thriving in a fast-paced world.

HR tech - the Aritificial Intelligence revolution. HR in 2024 an what lies ahead in 2025.

HR Tech: The AI revolution

  • 2024 was about laying the foundations with updated HR/IS solutions

HR teams spent much of this year updating their HR/IS solutions to prepare for the future. The focus has been on improving employee experience, ensuring AI readiness, and streamlining service delivery.

  • 2025 will see a strategic revolution of AI in HR

But the real revolution is just beginning. Fourth-generation generative AI tools are poised to disrupt HR services entirely. Weโ€™ve already written about how AI is disrupting HR/IS in a previous blog post. Within a few years, AI chatbots could handle 90% of employee and manager Tier 1 queries. This means we need to invest now in upskilling and reskilling our HR services teamsโ€”not just to handle what AI canโ€™t, but to augment your skills with AI and potentially transfer into more behaviour-related domains of HR. 

Looking ahead at HR in 2025...

Weโ€™re not big fans of making wholesale predictions of trends. We know that some of our senior HR peers mostly roll their eyes when reading the trend, always feeling you are behind with everything! Every organisation will face its unique challenges in 2025, shaped by its context, maturity, and priorities. Some will be refining the basics, while others will be pioneering AI-driven innovations or building skills ecosystems.

But one trend must be universal in 2025: taking care of our own people teams. We cannot afford to burn out our people.

Letโ€™s focus on upskilling, prioritising, and innovatingโ€”not just for the business but for ourselves. The road ahead is demanding, but with the right tools, mindset, and resilience, we can lead the way.

 

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