Curious about what 2025 holds for HR? While a year can bring significant change, Ciphr’s experts and HR professionals from around the UK have shared their insights on what may shape the HR landscape in 2025.
In this article:
- Which trends are affecting UK organisations and their HR teams the most?
- Will organisations increase their investment in HR technology?
- Which areas of HR functionality will organisations invest in?
- What will be the major drivers behind HR tech investment?
- Finding the right talent and offering competitive packages
- Talent management: upskilling, skills shortages and development opportunities
- Supporting employee mental health
- Employee engagement and managing change
HR trends 2024: a recap
Want a reminder of what trends and challenges impacted the world of HR in 2024? We’ve got you! Check out our HR trends 2024 webinar for a quick refresher.
HR trends 2025: the big picture impacting HR
In October 2024, we conducted a survey about what the 2025 HR landscape might look like. More than 40 Ciphr staff members across multiple departments and 68 external HR experts participated. Of the Ciphr participants, 32% hold or are studying for a CIPD qualification and 33% are CIPD members. Among our external respondents, those numbers rose to 66% and 58% respectively.
Which trends are affecting UK organisations and their HR teams the most?
Both our internal and external participants rated these as their top three trends:
- Rising cost of living/wage expectations
- Mental and physical wellbeing concerns
- Rising cost of business
Other key factors include artificial intelligence (AI), climate change, change in UK government and skills shortages.
How will spending on HR software change?
Here are the changes we anticipate:
Do you think organisations who are looking for a new HR software provider will increase their investment in HR technology in 2025?
Ciphr respondents said:
- Yes, they will invest more but will be more strategic with their spending – 38%
- No, they will keep spending the same – 35%
- No, they will be looking to cut costs – 22%
- Yes, they will invest more – 5%
While external respondents said:
- Yes, they will invest more but will be more strategic with their spending – 48%
- No, they will be looking to cut costs – 27%
- No, they will keep spending the same – 23%
- Yes, they will invest more – 3%
Which areas of HR technology functionality would you expect organisations to invest more in in 2025?
Ciphr respondents said:
- Talent management
- Employee engagement and surveys
- Compliance
- Health and wellbeing
- Benefits management
While external respondents said:
- Recruitment
- Health and wellbeing
- Onboarding
- Employee engagement and surveys
- eLearning
What will be the major drivers behind HR technology investment in 2025?
Ciphr respondents said:
- Better analytics and reporting
- Desire for greater efficiency/reduced manual processes
- Better integration with other business applications, such as payroll
- Cost saving
- Better user experience
While external respondents said:
- Desire for greater efficiency/reduced manual processes
- Better user experience
- Better analytics and reporting
- Want to automate more HR admin tasks
- Cost saving
Do any of these challenges sound familiar? Our HR software could help. Get in touch for a chat to see if we’re the right fit or download our brochure to learn more about our solutions.
Challenges for HR in 2025
Our survey asked how significant certain challenges would be to UK organisations and their UK teams in 2025. Here are the top five challenges according to our internal experts:
- Finding talent in a difficult market
- Employee engagement and feedback
- Supporting employee mental health
- GDPR and data security
- Skills shortages
And these are the top five challenges according to the external participants:
- Offering competitive salaries/benefits packages
- Finding the right talent in a difficult market
- Offering structured career development opportunities
- Leading or managing change projects
- Upskilling employees
Finding the right talent and offering competitive packages
Specific challenges include:
- Intense competition for top talent and a limited pool for specialised roles
- High expectation from candidates for flexibility, remote work and tailored benefits
- Rising costs of meeting competitive salary demands
- Lack of transparency in pay practices and misaligned benefits, causing dissatisfaction
Solutions could be to:
- Use AI-driven recruitment tools to expand reach and attract passive candidates
- Use recruitment partners and platforms that can access more diverse candidate pools
- Develop early careers and internal talent through apprenticeships and succession planning
- Strengthen employer branding by showcasing company values, culture and flexibility through a strong employee value proposition (EVP)
- Consider flexible working practices
- Implement pay transparency, regular salary benchmarking and tailored benefits based on employee feedback
Talent management: upskilling, skills shortages and development opportunities
Specific challenges include:
- Limited time, resources and alignment for effective, real-world learning programmes
- Difficulty measuring the impact and return on investment (ROI) of upskilling initiatives
- Lack of clarity in career progression, leading to stagnation and disengagement
- Rapid technological advancements creating skills gaps and talent shortages
- Resistance to change and balancing individual and organisational priorities
Solutions could be to:
- Regularly assess employee skills and align them with organisational goals through competency mapping and early career initiatives
- Establish clear frameworks for internal mobility, promotion and personalised learning using digital learning and development (L&D) platforms
- Collaborate with internal and external experts to deliver practical and relevant training programmes
- Make use of funding opportunities, such as the apprenticeship levy. Incentivise continuous learning with structured development programmes
- Adopt an internal-first approach to talent acquisition. Prioritise internal growth and development
Supporting employee mental health
Specific challenges include:
- Stigma around seeking mental health support in the workplace
- Limited access to mental health resources for employees
- Burnout from prolonged stress and hybrid work challenges
- Mental health linked to aspects of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI)
Solutions could be to:
- Offer anonymous counselling services and self-care days. Encourage uptake and work to reduce stigma
- Partner with mental health platforms or employee assistance programmes (EAPs) to provide 24/7 access to professional help
- Train managers to identify early signs of burnout and support employee wellbeing
- Leverage the power of internal mental health first aiders
- Break down taboos around mental health. Create employee-led working groups to talk about the issues that matter to them
- Continue to actively invest in improving DEI
Employee engagement and managing change
Specific challenges include:
- Low participation and feedback fatigue from over-surveying employees
- Limited actionable insights and resistance to change from employees and management
- Poor communication causing confusion and lack of buy-in for initiatives
- Insufficient resources or expertise to implement and sustain meaningful change
Solutions could be to:
- Use pulse surveys and sentiment analysis tools to gather actionable insights and address concerns proactively
- Foster trust and engagement by visibly acting on feedback. Build a culture of recognition that’s linked to your values
- Involve employees early in the change process. Communicate initiatives clearly across multiple channels
- Empower leaders with project management training. Assign dedicated change champions to drive success
Want the full scoop on what HR should expect in 2025? Watch the webinar hosted by our HR specialists Claire Williams and Karen Lough:
Watch your HR department thrive in 2025
Despite the challenges listed above, there are a host of solutions you as an HR professional can implement to watch your department thrive and grow in 2025. Investing in HR solutions, from HR software and LMS to recruitment, can help you meet these challenges head on. Automate tasks, facilitate eLearning, monitor trends through robust reporting and more – all with the help of Ciphr.
If you want to learn more about how we can help your HR department meet their goals in 2025, download our brochure or book a demo today.