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You may feel like it’s still the beginning of the year, but there are less than 50 working days until the new year. HR professionals are gearing up for 2025, figuring out where to spend their energy and budgets.
Gartner analysts surveyed 1,403 global HR professionals over the summer to gauge their top priorities for 2025. Similar to 2024, they pointed to leader and manager development, in anticipation of their organizations needing to navigate a revived focus on business growth, skill shortages, and GenAI’s growing influence.
Some 75% of respondents said that managers are overwhelmed by changing responsibilities, and 70% believe leaders don’t have the necessary tools to develop leaders. Furthermore, just 36% of respondents believe current leadership development programs are effective. Gartner recommended that HR leaders build programs that provide leaders with “relationship-building events” and opportunities to use their new skills.
Companies are also prioritizing workforce planning since 66% surveyed agreed on being limited to headcount planning. Some 61% of HR leaders also noted that they only do workforce planning one year at a time. The report recommended focusing on succession planning for “critical” roles and identifying talent needs for the future.
Some 97% of CHROs said they want to make changes to their organization’s culture in 2025. Manager and employee investment will be necessary for those changes to take hold, but 57% of HR leaders said their organization’s managers don’t enforce the company culture.
As if that wasn’t enough, 73% of HR leaders said that employees are exhausted from changes, and 74% say managers often aren’t prepared to lead changes. That harkens back to HR professionals’ leading focus and management development—but with a focus on change management.
Finally, most (55%) HR leaders reported that their technology does not currently support their business efforts with 69% reporting that technology had its own barriers in the last year. While HR teams can use technology to automate a variety of tasks, the report said the use cases are still somewhat limited. It recommended that businesses look for new ways to use GenAI in HR functions over the next year so people teams can focus more on strategy.
If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry! You’ve got nearly 50 working days to figure it out.