The year 2025 marks another turning point for HR. Faced with demographic, technological, sociological, and societal changes, companies must adapt to attract, retain, and engage talent.
Hybridization of work, Artificial intelligence, skills transformation, well-being at work, and attracting talent: these are key topics that directly impact HR strategies… and HRDs who must combine innovation, ethics, and performance to accompany these changes!
To enlighten you about the Future challenges for human resources professionals, Here is our summary of a December 2024 webinar conducted by Tomorrow Theory, specialist in HR innovation, and’2025 edition of HR Trends Book From Parlons RH.
From this analysis, we have selected 8 major trends, These should be examined against our own convictions and should form the basis for the HR departments’ plans for 2025.
HR webinar
5 priority challenges in 2025 (ManpowerGroup testimony)
1. Future of Work: enhanced flexibility and hybrid working
- In this post-Covid era, flexibility is becoming the norm, with hybrid models varying depending on the companies. hybrid work can take several forms:
– face-to-face / remote;
– freelancing /employee;
– reduction in working time: the 4-day week can also be considered hybrid due to its rhythm that is out of sync with other companies.
- Between pressure to increase work intensity and the desire for flexibility, The organization of work is redefining itself.
- The inclusion of Environmental issues becomes indispensable for companies and It directly impacts work methods.
- The places and working spaces are evolving to respond to new uses (hybridization, digitalization).
3 key figures:
% 90 French leaders* anticipate an acceleration of the changes affecting companies.
62 % of the companies** they adopted a hybrid model, but 30 are % struggling to maintain a strong culture.
35 % of the teleworkers*** They believe that they work more than they do in person.* Pulse of Change Index – Accenture, January 2024; ** Tomorrow Theory – Dec. 2024; *** Telework Observatory, December 2023
Issues for Human Resources:
For HR departments, here are some important issues for 2025:
- Reinventing the organization of work by balancing flexibility and performance.
- Defining a clear framework to preserve the cohesion of hybrid teams
- Supporting the evolution of skills in the face of technological and environmental changes.
- Accompanying and training managers to strengthen engagement, collaboration and agile culture in a hybrid work environment.
2. Mental health: a major issue for companies
Loss of meaning, fatigue, stress… mental health is becoming an essential HR priority, not only for employees but also for Human Resources professionals themselves.
- The mental health of employees is a reflection of the overall health of the company. An organization in which employees suffer from stress, exhaustion, or other psychological disorders often encounters underlying organizational dysfunction (toxic management, excessive workload, economic uncertainties)…
- Since the health crisis, mental health at work has deteriorated. Teleworking, eco-anxiety, inflation, geopolitical tensions and hyper-connectivity are all exacerbating the phenomenon. Mental health is becoming an emerging demand from younger generations and is beginning to be better integrated into HR policies.
- The prevention of psychosocial risks (RPS) is now a factor of attractiveness and talent retention. A comprehensive and proactive approach becomes necessary: awareness-raising, training of managers, access to psychological support solutions.
- Management plays a key role in creating a healthy environment, ensuring a balance between workload and personal life.
3 key figures:
72 % of the HR managers* They believe that mental health impacts employee performance
% 42 employees** They are in psychological distress, 15 of whom are % in very high distress
1 in 2 employees*** says he is professionally exhausted* Tomorrow Theory – Dec. 2024; ** Human Impact Barometer – OpinionWay T13, Sept. 2024. ; *** Jean-Jaurès Foundation, «Mental health at work», Nov. 2023
Issues for HR:
- It becomes It is essential to integrate mental health into HR strategy. Prevention must be as rigorous as for physical health (risk assessment, awareness-raising actions, support mechanisms).
- Managers must be accompanied and trained in detecting weak signals and in good management practices to avoid toxic work environments
- Ensuring the balance between work and personal life, monitoring well-being indicators (absenteeism, turnover, internal surveys) and limiting over-connectivity, a factor that aggravates psychological disorders, are vital issues for HR.
Finally, in order to take care of those of their employees, HR departments must take care of their own mental health and put in place support and coaching programs.
3. Employee experience: towards hyper-personalization
Employees’ expectations are evolving: flexibility, well-being, and the development of skills… The employee experience is also becoming more individualized thanks to digitalization.
- The employee experience is now a structured HR process, It is not just a trendy concept anymore. It is a strategic lever to attract, retain and engage talent.
- Employee trust is a key pillar of the employee’s experience. It is based on active listening, recognition, and transparency.
- The employee becomes an internal client of HR, This implies greater customization of the courses and services offered.
Artificial intelligence plays an increasingly important role, Among other things, to streamline interactions, predict employees’ expectations, and automate certain administrative tasks.
3 key figures:
81 % of the companies* Having established a collaborative experience approach, employees entrust this responsibility to the HR department.
% Only 7 of the French employees** They say they are committed to 2024, compared % to 23 worldwide.
72 % of the European employees** are in a situation of « quiet quitting«That is to say, they only do the bare minimum expected of them.’.*Let’s talk about HR, Employee Experience Barometer, 7th edition, 2024; **Gallup, State of the Global Workplace, 2024
Challenges for HR
For HR departments, the key objective is to offer a smooth and engaging experience, with appropriate digital tools.
- Developing HR strategies adapted to the diverse expectations of employees, Among other things, in terms of flexibility, work-life balance and recognition.
- Integrating digital and AI into the employee experience, Among other things, to automate certain tasks and provide real-time feedback tools.
- Transforming management practices towards greater autonomy and participation collaborators in decision-making and work organization.
4. Management culture: the rise of transformational leadership
The role of the manager is evolving towards that of a leader-coach, capable of accompanying transformations. The challenge is to develop a culture of trust and autonomy within the teams.
- The manager plays a central role as an expert in motivating and engaging teams. However, he himself must be listened to, supported, and trained to fulfill his role effectively.
- Management culture is evolving under the influence of several major trends:
> A growing expectation Transparency in terms of management and remuneration.
> One diversification of profiles managers (end of the dominance of male leadership; new models based on cooperation).
> One hybrid management Post-Covid, requiring new skills in remote animation.
> A leadership more focused on the autonomy of the employees and the accompaniment rather than on control.
3 key figures:
1/3 of managers* They have never been trained in team management
2 out of 3 companies** They do not systematically train their managers within the framework of defined processes.
14 % of the employees*** believe that their managers have changed their methods over the past three years to meet the new challenges of work.
* Cab.Robert Walters survey 2023; ** Actinuum, Managerial Competencies Barometer, 2024; *** HP, Work Relationship Index, January 2024.
Issues for HR:
Management culture is a strategic lever which conditions both the commitment of teams, collective performance, and a company’s ability to adapt to the ongoing transformations.
Accompanying and training managers is therefore more than ever a strategic issue. To meet these challenges, several levers can be activated (among others) in order to evolve management practices and strengthen their impact:
- Creating more inclusive and agile management Integrating diverse skills: no longer selecting managers solely based on their professional expertise but also on their ability to manage uncertainty and to unite teams.
- Strengthen Continuing education, Multimodal and adapted to the realities of the field.
- Establishing two-way feedback mechanisms to enable managers to express their needs and to be heard.
5. Digitalization and AI: towards HR automation
Since the beginning of the 2000s, we have witnessed a continuous evolution: from dematerialization at the Digitalization and from digitalization to’automation.
- AI revolutionizes HR functions She intervenes in all areas of HR – recruitment, training, talent management, performance, compliance – by exploiting the mass of available data.
- The IA Agents They are becoming the major trend of 2025. They allow us to learn from our behavior and automate complex tasks (e.g., LinkedIn: searching for profiles on the internet based on an ad or search criteria).
- A decision-making aid tool AI promises to reduce cognitive biases, analyze HR trends, and improve skills management, but it must remain under human control.
- An urgent need for skills development HR departments must master the issues related to AI and data for their own benefit and to support business departments, in order to avoid unsuitable solutions and optimize their impact.
- An ethical and regulatory challenge Confidentiality, data traceability, risks of discrimination, and the explainability of AI decisions are major issues. Tokenization – the process of converting physical or digital assets into tokens on a blockchain in order to better secure data – is also a major trend to come.
3 key figures
75% of the companies* Using AI, they found a positive effect on the development of skills.
65% of the HRDs** believe that generative AI improves HR function.
80% of the HR tasks*** They could be automated in the next few years (95 % of the HR assistant’s tasks could be automated by the end of 2025).* France Travail, Employers face Artificial Intelligence, 2023; **PwC, Augmented HR: Priorities and HR Transformation in 2024, May 2024; ***Tomorrow Theory – December 2024.
Challenges for HR
The main challenge for HR today is to integrate AI in an ethical and strategic way.
- Transformation of professions AI is pushing HR to evolve towards a more strategic function and to integrate data analysis tools to improve decision-making.
- Social acceptance and increased skills The digital transformation of HR must involve all stakeholders – employees, managers, and social partners – to ensure successful adoption.
- Ethics and transparency Ensure the explainability of the decisions made by AI and ensure the protection of personal data.
- Productivity and profitability AI must demonstrate productivity gains and a clear return on investment in order to be adopted in a sustainable way.
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6. Attractiveness and recruitment: the era of HR marketing
- Employer attractiveness remains a crucial issue due to the war for talent. The employer brand must be strengthened, notably through the use of HR marketing and data to improve recruitment.
- Attracting talent is not limited to offering competitive benefits, but also requires a effective communication to make these advantages known.
- Special attention must be paid to the candidate experience. A bad candidate experience can negatively impact the company’s image and its ability to recruit in the long term.
3 key figures:
75 % of the professionals* HR believes that recruiting based on skills is a strategic priority and allows for the expansion of talent pools.
57.4 % of the recruitments** are considered difficult in 2024 (slightly down from the record of 61 % in 2023)
1st criterion of attractiveness*** Salary and benefits, in the light of the working environment and the balance between professional and personal life
*LinkedIn - The future of recruitment 2024; **France Travail, «Labour needs» survey 2023; ***Randstad Employer Brand Research 2024.
Issues for HR:
- To strengthen the consistency of the employer brand, it is crucial to’to be transparent and align external communication with internal reality to avoid post-recruitment «disillusionment».
- Investing in fluid tools and processes to ensure fast and efficient recruitment in order to improve the candidate experience.
- Training managers in recruitment because their involvement is essential to attract and evaluate talent.
- Exploit AI with discernment AI can improve the matching candidates, but human evaluation remains essential to avoid biases and ensure a good «fit».
7. Inclusion and diversity: moving from rhetoric to action
The company reflects society and must foster a fair and inclusive work environment. Inclusion is not simply about juxtaposing differences but about making them work together.
And at the beginning of 2025, the sudden turnaround by some companies on this issue, spurred by the new US government in power, deserves more than ever to be accompanied by conviction and a truly determined policy.
- Despite the abundance of communications about diversity, progress remains slow. It is time to Re-thinking HR processes to eliminate biases and promote inclusion real.
- Inclusive management is important to take advantage of differences and avoid a simple homogenization of profiles.
- Inclusion has become a legal, ethical and economic necessity. It is a lever for transforming HR policies and management. Pluralism promotes creativity and better decision-making.
3 key figures:
% Only 15 of the companies* have revised their recruitment practices to promote inclusion
% 54 employers** They say they are ready to hire a disabled employee in 2023 (that is -8 points compared to 2022)
1/3 of French employees*** believe that their company is lagging behind in terms of diversity
*Tomorrow Theory – Dec. 2024; **Agefiph – Ifop, 6th barometer on the perception of the employment of people with disabilities, January 2024 ***AFL Diversity and BVA People Consulting, Diversity and inclusion in the workplace, March 2024.
Issues for HR:
- Human resources departments must rethink processes and move from a coercive approach to a more Proactive diversity strategy. For example, for recruitment, use several filters and select the 3 best CVs per filter.
- Raising awareness and training the teams establishing these practices in the corporate culture in a lasting way is also a major challenge for HR.
- Turning management into a lever for inclusion Training managers in diversity and inclusion is another HR issue to ensure a healthy and fair working environment.
- Diversity and inclusion must be integrated into a comprehensive HR policy, supported by Concrete and measurable actions, With particular attention paid to equal opportunities and the impact of new technologies on inclusion.
8. Sustainable Development: The Emergence of the «Human Resilience» Function»
Sustainable development is now a strategic issue for companies and a necessity to ensure their sustainability. The integration of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) criteria is therefore becoming essential.
- HRs have a role to play in the ecological transition by acculturating the employees and rethinking internal policies.
- International regulations impose changes. The CSRD directive (Corporate Sustainability Reporting DirectiveThis will undoubtedly force more companies to publish detailed reports on their environmental and social impact.
- Companies must incorporate energy-saving goals, reduction of waste and eco-design in their economic models.
- The issue is not limited to the company’s internal actions: Transformation is a collective challenge and systemic and also concerns the supply chain, the suppliers and partners.
3 key figures
58 % of the employees believe that their company has a positive impact on society
46 % of the companies consider HR as a driving force of the CSR
10 % of the French Only know the UN Sustainable Development Goals
*Medef, 5th barometer of perception of the economy CSR, 2023; **Friday, Kantar, Barometer of the economy, CSR 2024; ***Focus 2030 survey, 2023.
Issues for HR:
The HR function plays a key role in establishing responsible governance and aligning sustainable development goals with the company’s overall strategy. Therefore, the involvement of leaders is a prerequisite.
- Human resources departments have a key role to play in supporting this transition. The implementation of tailored training, the integration of ESG criteria into HR practices, and the transparency of commitments are essential levers for ensuring a successful and credible transformation.
- Recruitment and training must anticipate these developments. to avoid talent shortages in professions related to the ecological transition.
- Upgrading skills in issues related to sustainable development is essential To onboard all the teams. Offering innovative training programs, such as the Fresque du Climat, helps to structure this awareness-raising.
The year 2025 will be decisive for the HR function, which will have to navigate between Hybridization, digitalization, inclusion, mental health and ecological transition. Human resources departments have a unique opportunity to become true strategic players by anticipating these trends and supporting the company in these numerous changes.