2025 is another year of profound change for HR as difficult economic conditions and global uncertainty prevail. Organisations are navigating a fundamental shift in how talent is managed. For HR professionals, this means rethinking career pathways, workforce capabilities and how employees are empowered to thrive.

Gartner views 2025 as a year of review and resetting: rethinking leadership development, re-establishing culture, redefining approaches to workforce planning and reviewing HR tech strategies. HR must continue the shift from transactional compliance to strategic direction, becoming consultants and strategists, not just administrators and executors of strategy.

Psychosocial risk has become a leading concern for many organisations, following updated Work Health & Safety regulations. Claims have skyrocketed since COVID, putting pressure on insurance premiums.

Harnessing and exploiting data is another challenge, with confusion over tools, concerns over ever-shifting privacy regulations and limited funds for new technology investment.

Australia’s labour market remains tight with a severe scarcity of many skills. In response to talent shortages and the rise of AI, skills-based hiring continues to rise, with skills increasingly given greater weight than educational background or work history.

RTO – return to office – mandates are also hugely unpopular but many Australian organisations are persisting with them, despite the risk to retention and challenges with talent attraction.

For this 2025 report, we spoke with a range of HR experts and people leaders about the top challenges faced by HR in 2025, and how they and their organisations are addressing them.

We’ll be diving deeper into these critical trends at our flagship HR Symposium and HR Retreat.