Liz Hall reports
Navigating and embracing AI more fully, addressing mental health and wellbeing, and adapting coaching and leadership for challenges presented by the poly crisis: these are some of the trends facing organisations in 2025.
The most significant risks for organisations over the next 12 months relate to conflict, geopolitical tensions, mental health and social or political unrest, some of the risks organisations say they’re least prepared for, finds a report from medical and security services company, International SOS. Its Risk Outlook 2025 report finds that 75% of primary decision-makers see social and political unrest as a top risk, 69% of senior risk professionals think it’s likely that geopolitical tensions will have a significant impact on their business and / or employees in 2025, and 65% of respondents perceived that risks have increased over the past year.
The increasingly volatile geopolitical landscape is taking a profound toll on mental health with 65% of respondents predicting that political stress and anxiety will have a significant impact on their business and/or people in 2025. These pressures are compounded by broader wellness risks likely to have a significant impact on businesses and workers over the next 12 months: stress and burnout (78%), the impact of the cost of living crisis (75%), mental health conditions (70%), quiet quitting (52%) and climate change anxiety (45%).
Payroll and HR innovation firm ADP agrees staff wellbeing will continue to be a business priority, according to its report, Exploring the Future of HR: 10 trends and priorities for 2025, in which it cites research from the US-based National Alliance on Mental Illness’ 2024 Workplace Mental Health Poll, which found that more than half (52%) of employees say they’re burned out.
A separate global survey by learning platform, Skillsoft, found that workers’ top work-related challenges during 2024 were exhaustion (39%), decreased motivation or engagement (35%) and overwhelming workload and responsibilities (35%).
In addition to wellbeing, employers will be focusing this year on developing soft skills and leadership, and practical applications of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), according to online skills marketplace and learning platform Udemy’s 2025 Global Learning & Skills Trends Report, which analysed data from nearly 17,000 companies. The research finds that GenAI for productivity learning is growing by 859% year on year.
McKinsey’s 2024 report, The Human Side of Generative AI: Creating a path to productivity found that 57% of employers aim to close GenAI skills gaps through targeted upskilling, while ADP finds that 63% of large businesses have adopted or are piloting GenAI, attempting to benefit from its potential (ADP Market Insights, Market Pulse Study: Small, Midsized and Large Companies, 2024).
Some 85% of workers believe AI will impact their jobs in the next two to three years, which for employers could dramatically reduce screening time, according to ADP’s 2024 Today at Work: Remote work hits home report.
Employer priorities for 2025 identified by Skillsoft include improving operational efficiency (48%), increasing revenue and profitability (46%) and enhancing the customer experience (39%). Despite their core challenges being talent attraction and retention, and effective leadership, employer’ lowest priorities were strengthening data privacy and security practices (17%); closing skills gaps (19%) and improving leadership and management (19%), finds the survey.
More than 8 out of 10 employees say they feel unprepared for work challenges in 2025, according to Skillsoft’s research. Just under half (48%) of the 2,100 full-time employees polled said they had been informed of their employer’s strategic priorities for next year. And of those who had been informed, only 40% said they felt “extremely clear” about their role in achieving those goals.
Only 25% of employees were satisfied with current roles, according to Skillsoft.