New trends in HR for 2025

While the guaranteed detailed HR trends for 2025 usually emerge only at the end of the year, we in the expert panel of the startup Sloneek have already put them together now. We have selected trends in the field of HR that the market has managed to demonstrate this year and which are also based on global trends. And we can guarantee you that they will continue to shape the role of HR in your company for another year.

1) ESG trend. I know you’re tired of it, but it’s true

Most people managers consider the acronym ESG to be the “third bullet point” – that is, a bullet that is put in presentations just because two bullet points look stupid. They are right to some extent. The overuse of ESG as part of the argument is outrageous.

However, there are facts that cannot be avoided. Next year, companies with more than 250 employees will be required to publish data on their responsible operation. We will not meet them in audits until a year later, but the data must be collected from January of next year. And as experts point out, the move will trigger an avalanche that will also affect a number of companies that do not have to be audited by law. But as suppliers, they will be asked to document their own audits for their business partners, who are already subject to the ESG obligation.

What will this mean for HR professionals? Above all, the huge pressure to convince people of the importance of ESG and the resulting changes that companies will introduce. In most cases, this will mean changing existing processes, collecting a whole range of new data, which companies were not used to, and all of this will be rooted in the appropriate headwind, blowing directly from the employees. So prepare yourself for a significant dose of patience and advocacy for steps that probably won’t be popular for a long time. And if you’re negotiating the budget for your department, keep it in mind – see more of the current HR trends.

2) HR trend gen Z or the culmination of hysteria

While last year and this year we all read about how the arrival of generation Z will destroy the long-established legacy of Czech companies, next year will hopefully be different. Millennials and Generation Z already hold more than half of the workforce. And every HR should take into account this global trend. Plus, it doesn’t look like the apocalypse yet. Why?

Generation Z is indeed very different and burdened by events that were unprecedented. But that doesn’t mean it’s worse. And companies are starting to notice it. The job market is nowhere near as overheated as it was in past years. Therefore, “Zetkars” start work with significantly more humility, which their employers lacked so much in the past. And since the economic outlook for next year is not much more positive, this trend is likely to strengthen.

In addition, many companies admit that members of Generation Z are, among other things, victims of the old days and fulfill the role of “spider sweepers”. While previous generations were used to tolerating obvious illogicalities in corporate processes, this acts as a repellent for “snags”. And companies have to change because of them – fortunately for the better, they just don’t want to admit it.

The more the belief grows that Gen Z is simply bringing about a normal generational change, the more the edges will be eroded. I am betting that the year 2025 will be full of good practice and will finally name what the “zetka” Czech companies will be strengthening, and not sinking.

Setting a budget is not always easy.

3) HR department budgets and their way to the board

HR departments will be exposed to a major challenge in the coming year – their expected competencies will increase significantly, and with them, their strategic role. Prepared HR professionals will likely be faced with a discussion on a major budget increase and their path to the board.

Companies are beginning to realize that they will find a new source of efficiency at the moment primarily in working with their people. Whether it is the above-mentioned intergenerational exchange, better use of the abilities of current teams, or the opportunities hidden within the so-called “hidden workforce” – i.e. the working capacity of people over 55 (the number is increasing on the market) or, for example, mothers on maternity leave – and without a well-prepared and a well-fed HR department cannot do it.

The aforementioned ESG will also bring a new key agenda and with it the continued pressure to collect data. And, among other things, a completely fundamental overhaul of the approach to “esque”, which is hidden in the abbreviation. For many companies, this will mean asking the HR department for the first time to create a comprehensive and comprehensively measurable strategy.

And unprepared personnel? Let’s pour some pure wine. They miss a generational opportunity and, in the worst case, they can even become a visible brake for the company by “just doing nothing”. And this is a situation in which – at least if my memory serves me correctly – so far in the Czech Republic they have not had a chance to get into this easily.

4) Natural intelligence in choosing artificial intelligence

AI is definitely another not only HR trend. While the year 2024 was still riding the wave of uncritical hype, extolling everything with the epithet “AI”, the next one will fortunately be different. We know that AI will not save anything if natural intelligence does not stand above it.

However, in the case of HR departments, this will not necessarily mean that they are reluctant to implement AI-powered tools. However, the trend will be to implement those whose usefulness has already been proven in practice.

What will they be like? HR works with a huge amount of data of different nature. For him, AI can become a key partner for finding contexts across databases. It will continue to play its role wherever there is a need to work with text – for example, transposing information from internal communication into different formats. And it will handle repetitive activities perfectly – formatting a feedback survey or filling out a form based on an exported table.

5) A CEO who is interested in people – above all in numbers

Related to the previous point is another expected trend in HR. Figures about the people in the company will increasingly find their way into key management presentations. And certainly not in the form of the most banal metrics. Thus, perhaps for the first time, people managers will begin to find a common language with their CEO’s, CFO’s or COO’s when discussing human potential and the resulting efficiency of work in the company. They begin to see their people as an investment rather than an expense item.

What parameters will be monitored in particular? In addition to individual team returns, it will be the competency range of individuals combined with real-world pay and overall satisfaction. Losing a good employee will be expensive next year, so keeping a good eye on potential key departures will become the new board mantra.

What will this mean for people managers? Learn to definitively work with the basics of competency models and make significant progress in collecting feedback. And most importantly – to finally choose a solution that will help them with this (unlike, for example, Excel).