We are officially halfway through the ‘20s. Feels strange to read that, doesn’t it? So far, this decade has been an unceasing onslaught of “unprecedented times”, with hardly a minute to breathe. This is especially felt by the world’s HR teams, who have had to weather more than their fair share of storms in the workplace. From the pandemic right off the bat to the emergence of generative AI only a couple of years later, the office looks very different from the way it used to.

But, enough about the past. This article is about the present and, of course, the future. Things will continue to shift and change this year – for better or worse – and you and your team need to be ready for whatever 2025 flings at you. We’re here to throw you some hand signs from the dugout so you can plan your swing (we’re pretty sure this is technically against the rules of baseball. Try not to think about it).

AI isn’t Going Anywhere

When ChatGPT turned up, a large portion of the population quickly decided that it was going to be just a flash in the pan. Once people had gotten it to write a few limericks about their favourite Spice Girl or Pokémon, they’d go right back to their day-to-day like nothing ever happened. It seems, however, that this assumption could not have been more wrong.

AI is here to stay. From our smartphones to our mortgage providers, there aren’t many corners of the world that haven’t been enhanced, streamlined or made easier by the integration of AI. The same goes for your business. Even if you have no formal policies surrounding the use of AI in your company, you can bet this year’s revenue that at least one of your employees is asking ChatGPT to write their emails or summarise the ones you send them. So, if you haven’t got a policy, now would be the time to look into it.

This shouldn’t just be a case of outlining to employees if and when they can use AI. How are you, as a business, going to leverage this immensely powerful tool to your benefit? What software can you implement across the organisation to make your team’s lives easier (not to mention your own)? Have you really considered AI on a macro scale? If not, this should be one of your primary focuses of 2025. At least, this is the sentiment held by Brad Bell, director of the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University. In an interview with HR Executive, he said that some CHROs “are picking up the technology piece because HR is often an early adopter of some of these AI tools and technologies. They are the testing ground for technologies before rolling it out more broadly to other parts of the organization.” Otherwise, you’ll risk being left behind by your competitors when they decided to take advantage of the potential.

Of course, it’s not just your current employees that are using AI…

The New Landscape of Talent Acquisition

The CV is dead. That is, if you believe what some people are saying. How could this be, though? The good old Curriculum Vitae has been in use for so long, it’s in Latin for goodness sake! But, time changes all, even the most long-held traditions. With generative AI available to everyone regardless of resources, you no longer have to be a good writer to have a well-written CV – or a decent cover letter, for that matter. Now, you can plug in a company website, a job description and a few details about yourself into ChatGPT and watch it spit out an A+ job application. The problem, of course, is that everyone else can, too.

You shouldn’t rely on AI content detectors to filter out these applications. They’re never going to be 100% accurate, so you might lose some genuine high-quality applicants. Even if they were foolproof, a person taking the initiative to leverage an available tool to streamline their job search should not inherently disqualify them from the process. Instead, your process has to adapt.

If CV-based hiring is becoming obsolete, what should replace it? The answer is skills-based hiring. Using this model, businesses can do away with asking for qualifications and previous job postings, skipping right to what those things represent: the ability to do the job. Asking situational questions and giving relevant tasks not only makes it harder for people to breeze through with AI, it also lifts barriers. If you’re recruiting for an mid-level IT position, for example, and you have an applicant who has taught themselves all about IT over the past few years, a traditional application process would exclude them for lack of formal qualifications or job experience. This way, they get to demonstrate what they’ve learned and prove that they’re up to the task! It’s a far more equitable and inclusive way to hire, and the data shows that it works. According to HR Exchange Network, research has shown that 90% of businesses who have adopted skills-based hiring have reported a reduction in mis-hires. That’s not a number to be ignored lightly!

That solves how you hire. But what about who you’re hiring? This year, Gen Z will account for 27% of the workforce, and that number is only going to increase. So, you need to consider what’s important to them. Flexibility is one thing, with this generation experiencing the tail end of their education and their earliest professional years working from home. Another is social consciousness; a large proportion of Gen Z want to know that whatever business they work for is progressive, standing by their people when it comes to matters of gender, race, the LGBTQIA+ community, and other similar topics. Ironically, these are two issues that modern businesses seem to be backing away from. More and more companies are instituting return-to-office policies, and many are beginning to backpedal and dismantle their DEI initiatives for fear of social backlash. Amongst these trends, you have the chance to be the employer who offers Gen Z what they want, achieving a real advantage over competitors.

Putting People in Pole Position

While the proliferation of AI is in many ways a fantastic thing, it’s not without its downsides. Chief among them is people’s concern for their jobs. If AI can do so much, who’s to say it can’t replace them? It’s your job to assuage these worries. Assure your team that AI is here to assist them, not usurp them. A great way to help drive this home is with a focus on human-centric initiatives this year. This could be through community building, person-to-person training and mentoring, or individual spotlighting in your newsletters. Emphasise to your employees that no matter what technology is implemented in your business, your people remain at its heart.

Of course, you do need to back this claim up! With economic difficulties continuing (and in some cases worsening), wellbeing must be at the front of your mind. Many employers are considering it a wise move to invest their resources into what’s being called Burnout-Blocking. This practice looks to use initiatives such as mental health days and wellbeing-related benefits to prevent the emergence of burnout – rather than addressing it as and when it happens – as a talent retention measure. The logic is sound, because it’s far easier to maintain a culture of wellness than to put out spontaneous fires.

Conclusion

Change is never easy, yet the saying goes that it’s the only constant. That means you need to have systems in place to deal sufficiently with all changes, big and small, that might emerge. You don’t have to do this alone, of course. Within the world of HR technology, there are solutions and platforms out there specifically designed to handle whatever new changes get thrown your way. From impact assessment and analysis to company-wide communication, these tools help you stay on top of the waves of change like the most radical of California’s surfers.

Finding these solutions is as simple as grabbing a ticket to HR Technologies UK. On the 23rd & 24th of April, plenty of tech solutions will be gathered at ExCeL London to help walk you through the year’s various developments. All you have to do is be there! Click here to register your interest, and we’ll see you soon.