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Top 5 HR Trends and Priorities for 2025
HR trends to expect in 2025
What are the top priorities for HR in 2025? Gartner surveyed more than 1,400 HR leaders across 60+ countries and all major industries to identify and assess the top HR trends, priorities and expected challenges for 2025. Leader and manager development tops the list, with organisational culture, strategic workforce planning, change management and HR technology following close behind.
Download this Gartner Top Priorities report to dive deeper into the 2025 HR trends and benchmark your function against your peers. You’ll discover:
Details on the five HR initiatives that leaders are prioritising in 2025
What’s driving these priorities and why action is so imperative for HR leaders
Recommended next steps for each priority
Webinar: The Top Priorities for HR Leaders in 2025 (APAC)
Explore the top HR trends and priorities on the horizon for 2025 based on the results of Gartner's annual Top Priorities survey. Find out what your APAC peers cited as their top priorities and the strategies they plan to deploy to address them.
Download your role-specific priorities
What is the Gartner HR trends and priorities report?
This annual report is derived from the Gartner HR Priorities Survey, which polls chief human resources officers (CHROs) and HR leaders on common challenges and asks them to rank their top priorities for the year ahead. This report is designed to offer HR leadership teams a better understanding of emerging HR trends and insight into what their peers are focusing on in the upcoming year to help drive strategy for the HR function.
This year, Gartner received responses from more than 1,400 HR leaders across 60+ countries and all major industries. Fourty-nine percent of participants were CHROs or heads of HR.
Top HR trends and priorities FAQs
What does the future of HR look like?
With the prevailing economic uncertainties, emerging HR technologies, shifting business needs and critical talent challenges, the focus of HR professionals in the future will mostly center around:
Rethinking the method of leadership development to help fill critical talent gaps
Re-establishing the importance of culture within all levels of the organisation for successful activation
Redefining the organisation’s approach to workforce planning to make progress and drive impact
Reviewing HR technology strategies to unlock new ways of leveraging tech to maximise value and productivity
How has human resources changed over the years?
Key changes in human resources over the years include:
Growth challenges due to HR’s strategic planning process not being fully integrated with business planning processes in addition to the need for continuous HR transformation
AI challenges fueled by workforce uncertainty and impacts to productivity and efficiency
Talent challenges due to declining availability of critical talent
What are the top 5 HR trends for 2025?
The top 5 HR trends for 2025 are:
Leader and manager development
Organisational culture
Strategic workforce planning
Change management
HR technology
What is the importance of HR trends and priorities?
HR leaders can use the latest HR trends and HR priorities to craft their strategic plans for the upcoming year to align with future business needs. They can also proactively prioritise activities to ensure HR can drive business impact.