The Future of HR: The Cultural Shifts Transforming the Role

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Year back in 2022 was “gaslighting,” but it could have easily been “vibe shift.” It’s what happens when what was cool yesterday is just not cool anymore and what we believed yesterday just doesn’t hold true anymore. A vibe shift might manifest in something as innocuous as everybody suddenly wearing looser jeans or as serious as a major shift in where we find value in life. We emerged from the pandemic in 2022 to find that the vibe had shifted. Moving into 2025, we are still in the midst of that transformation, and we can see it in our changing relationship to work. Human resources will be at the center of managing these demographic, technological, and cultural shifts in the workplace. As employees change, the way we do HR will change with them.
Facing the Labor Shortage
Many industries are facing a labor shortage, and as millions of Baby Boomers age out of the workforce, businesses will have to work even harder to attract top talent in the coming years. The concepts outlined in these posts on better hiring and interviewing strategies will be as effective tomorrow as they are today. When you begin with sound business strategy, competency-based interviewing techniques and situational judgment theory are the best tools for understanding who a candidate is, how they work, and whether they will be a good fit for your business and your goals.
Losing the experience and institutional knowledge that older employees bring will create challenges, but there will also be an opportunity there for your business to reevaluate its strategy and either hire candidates whose talents and goals are aligned with yours and, at the same time, upskill existing employees. Well-designed training modules developed with your business’s needs in mind will ensure that these employees get the skills they need and the support they need to master them.
Working With a New Generation of Employees
In 2024, Millennials made up 35% of the American workforce, the largest share of any generation. As Gen Z joins them at work, we are seeing an added emphasis on inclusion and mental health in the workplace. HR can attend to the emotional needs of employees by encouraging open dialogue and providing the right resources, along with the other tips outlined in this post on mental health in the workplace.
These young workers can be valuable and engaged members of your team if you can understand and meet their needs. They have a desire to understand why their work is important and where their work fits in with the overall goals of the organization. The job market is fairly static right now, with little in the way of hiring, firing, or quitting, but that could change in the future. In a job market where employees have the option of quitting and easily finding work elsewhere, young workers are more likely to quit a job if they feel undervalued or aren’t given the opportunity to improve their skills.
We often think of young people as “digital natives,” but just because they grew up with smartphones and social media doesn’t mean they come to work fluent in Excel formulas or knowing the ins and outs of your CRM. Helping new employees build these skills will be an important part of the future of HR.
Organizational and Cultural Shifts
Remote and hybrid work remains a point of tension between executives and workers. During the pandemic, workers with families and other obligations saw their quality of life transformed by remote or hybrid schedules, which allowed many to work without the distractions of the office, save money on their commute, and care for children and family members. Other workers, however, prefer the sociality and collaboration that the office provides.
Small and medium-sized businesses will have a hiring advantage if they can attend to the needs of each individual employee, coming up with a schedule that gives each one the work-life balance they need while also fulfilling the needs of the business. HR will play a role in making sure both groups are happy and productive.
The business of the future will be more horizontal. That doesn’t mean employees won’t be rewarded for their hard work. High-performing employees might not find themselves in positions where they manage people, but all sorts of employees with the desire and aptitude might find themselves managing projects and working in cross-functional teams that share expertise to improve productivity and processes. HR will coordinate these teams and help employees integrate into new roles. This new structure will require new ways of evaluating employee performance. Rather than annual evaluations, HR will help create a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
Supporting Resilient Organizations With the Right Technology
The 2020s will likely be remembered as a time of instability, unpredictability, and change. Social, economic, and technological changes have altered the way we live and work, and they will continue to alter us in ways we can’t imagine. As the way we work changes, the work of HR will change, as well. Growing a business through such an era requires an HR strategy that is adaptable, resilient, and open to the needs of employees. It will take the right technology to manage all these moving parts and keep them working together smoothly.
You don’t have to face an uncertain future alone. There is a wealth of technology available today to make onboarding, training, and assessing employees easy. MentorWerx can help you determine what kind of tech will help you meet your goals, source the vendor that will give you the best deal, and implement and integrate the technology into your tech stack.
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