As the year draws to a close, here at Factorial, we are focusing on what lies ahead for the world of work and for HR professionals specifically. We’ve identified five key trends shaping how we all work in 2025.
Table of Contents
Building Connections
Many companies now realise that the ‘Great Return’ to the office is not going according to plan. As more and more employees vote with their feet by choosing to work for businesses that embrace remote or hybrid working, organisations are increasingly accepting that their workforce will work in different places at different times. The challenge for 2025 will be to ensure that the connections between employees and between employees and leadership that are vital for employee engagement, productivity, and meeting business goals are supported and developed.
On a practical level, digital tools such as virtual and augmented reality can reinforce these connections by creating immersive environments for training, team-building, and meetings. On a psychological level, encouraging authenticity in the workplace is increasingly seen as an essential tool for helping create and maintain meaningful relationships, which can lead to collaboration, innovation, and motivation within a workforce.
Creating Inclusive Environments
The need to create inclusive workplaces that welcome a diverse workforce is a familiar idea by now, but it is one that many organisations are still working on. Research from Birkbeck University of London in 2023 found that 65% of neurodivergent employees were worried about discrimination from their manager, and the impact of racism in the workplace continues to be well documented with studies such as Too Hot To Handle?, a Middlesex University study into racism in the NHS. Inclusivity is increasingly recognised as critical to business success in the long term, and the current trend is to understand that it requires a thoughtful approach tailored to individual needs.
For example, building a neuro-inclusive culture requires rethinking the recruitment process to get the best out of applicants with autism, ADHD or dyslexia, being flexible and providing resources that support how they work best, and specific training on working with neurodiverse employees for managers and team members. On the other hand, creating a culture that embraces and celebrates minority groups may require a different strategic approach covering elements such as a blind recruitment process, the creation of specific career development plans for individuals, forums to encourage feedback and even smaller steps such as the company-wide acknowledgement and celebration of different cultural and religious holidays.
Harnessing AI-Human Collaboration
Understanding how we can work with AI and maximising the efficiencies we can gain from it has been high on the agenda for business leaders for several years so including AI on this list might feel behind the times. However, how AI is viewed and used is currently undergoing a shift. It has gone from being on the periphery, or a bit like a new toy that people want to play with, to being an integral part of how companies function. And the next stage is the embedding of Agentic AI, or AI that is able to work autonomously or with it’s own ‘agency’. With AI able to take on even more administrative or common tasks within the workplace than currently, the workplace is able to evolve into a more adaptive environment where human employees focus on the tasks that require critical thinking and a strategic overview and AI picks up the lower level basic tasks.
Combining human intelligence with AI capability will be particularly useful for HR professional development in 2025, allowing administrative tasks that include decision-making to be done automatically and freeing up time for projects that change workplace culture and impact employee wellbeing and performance.
Embracing a Four-Day Working Week
The concept of a four-day working week has been gaining ground in the business world since the publication of a study into its benefits in the summer of 2023, and making flexible working arrangements default for employees from day one is a key element of the current government’s Make Work Pay plan. Many see introducing a four-day working week as a framework to support employee wellbeing. An extra day in the week can help people maintain a better work-life balance and avoid burnout, ultimately leading to employees who are more productive and contribute to the company’s success for longer.
While legislation on a four day week may be a while off yet, more and more progressive workplaces are moving to flexible working arrangements as a standard and understand how important it is for talent acquisition. It’s likely that this is one of the current workplace trends that will continue into 2025.
Understanding a Hybrid Work Model is About More than Location
We’re all comfortable with the idea of a hybrid locational model where there is a mix of working remotely and in the office. However, one trend in the workplace for 2025 involves a hybrid work model where employees have more than one role, most prominently where they have a ‘side hustle’ which contributes a significant proportion of their income and also sense of purpose and overall satisfaction with their life. The idea of a ‘job for life’ no longer exists and employees are increasingly driven by the desire for flexible, challenging work, in some cases especially if they are also working in other roles that may be less fulfilling or interesting but have skills shortages that mean they can get employment.
The combination of rising living costs, industry shifts and economic uncertainty is driving more employees to look for extra sources of income and the the ability to work remotely has opened up possibilities that did not exist previously. It is easier than ever to make money from content creation, freelancing, hobbies and even roles such as online tutoring.
