Here’s what our industry experts and researchers are watching closely, and what that means for your workplace.
What workplace trends will shape the employee experience in 2025?
Events of the past year have challenged leaders and forecasters, as the presidential election, the rise of AI, global conflict and more transformed the workplace. In the space of just a couple of years, a war for talent has given way to a drastically different labor market.
In 2024, the trends to watch focused on leadership, developing trust, and supporting mental health. Those trends carry over to 2025 with some added urgency, thanks to the change artificial intelligence is already creating within companies.
Only 51% of employees globally are excited to use AI to improve their work and only 45% believe their company will use AI in a way that benefits them, according to a market survey of nearly 43,000 employees from Great Place To Work®.
This represents an opportunity for high-trust workplaces to leap ahead of the competition, building trust and fostering AI adoption.
“When a workplace is a great place to work for all, all stakeholders will benefit from AI abundance,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. “The secret ingredient is trust. Companies that have it are going to build much faster and go much farther than their competitors.”
Learn more strategies from our workplace culture experts at our For All Summit™, April 8-10, 2025, in Las Vegas, NV.
Here are the trends and considerations that will make or break your workplace culture in 2025:
1. Low engagement, plus global talent shortage drive ‘quit and stay’ risk
The heady days of the “Great Resignation” have given way to a more stable period for employers. Job openings as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics have declined from the record highs of 2021, and many industries are experiencing layoffs.
However, there is a labor shortage in the U.S. when looking at specific industries and roles. There are 7.7 million open jobs in the U.S. but only 7.1 million unemployed workers, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. If every unemployed person in the country found a job, there would still be open jobs.
One explanation for this apparent contradiction? Fewer employees are leaving their jobs, a byproduct of rising uncertainty and fear.
“When the world is more uncertain, employees are less likely to leave a stable job,” says Sarah Lewis-Kulin, vice president of global research and recognition at Great Place To Work. That doesn’t mean employers can relax, but rather increases the risk of “quit and stay” — when employees stop fully contributing at work, but don’t look for another job.
With only 18% of employees saying they are “extremely satisfied” with their role, per Gallup, your most engaged employees will be more valuable than ever.
“Your top talent always has options,” Lewis-Kulin says. “They can easily find another workplace where they can contribute, while disengaged employees stick around.”
Companies that take a long-term view on talent development and recruitment will come out ahead, even as a hot labor market cools.
Becoming Great Place To Work Certified™ could help retain your top talent and improve recruitment efforts with jobseekers being 15 times more likely to accept a new role at a Certified company.
2. Upskilling an AI-ready workforce becomes more urgent for leaders
Research from the World Economic Forum found that 1 billion people worldwide need to be reskilled by 2030, and traditional training models are falling behind. While AI skills were a top concern for 31% of companies, only 17% are investing in developing workers’ skills, per Deloitte.
The AI skills gap won’t be easily solved by hiring external talent. Even if there were large numbers of credentialed employees looking to join your organization, hiring leaders would still struggle to predict which candidates would succeed after joining the organization.
“The best companies will find ways to retrain top talent and invest in their success,” Bush says. “Rather than looking for degrees or accreditation, leaders can look for key indicators of future performance in their current workforce: grit, curiosity, resilience, and a competitive spirit.”
3. AI redefines career paths and expectations for leaders
HR leaders are focused on the leadership pipeline. Seven in 10 said that their current companies are not equipped to adequately develop middle managers, per Gartner.
Complicating the career path for leaders is the rise of AI, and how the C-suite is looking for efficiency and a return on their investment of nearly $1 trillion.
Companies will be looking to use AI to do more with less. Teams will get leaner, and some companies will try to flatten the organization, removing middle management layers completely.
This will upend traditional career paths in many companies — and the answer will require a skills-based approach to talent management. Companies can use tech platforms to connect employees with open projects and new opportunities within the organization.
What it means to be a leader in the organization will also change, accelerating trends already happening in the workforce.
“Being a middle manager is one of the hardest jobs in any organization,” says Tony Bond, chief impact officer at Great Place To Work. In recent years, middle managers have increasingly experienced burnout, with increased demands from top executives and new expectations from those they manage. “The role needs to be reimagined in order for companies to be successful,” Bond says.
Great middle managers will be a player-coach, operating as a force multiplier that empowers their team to do their best work. The ability to mentor and educate will become more valuable, and at the best companies, middle managers will be assessed on their ability to connect their people to innovation and growth opportunities.
“Middle management is where the majority of people leadership happens in the organization,” Bond says. “The experience of your middle managers can determine whether trust is built or broken, or whether innovation is accelerated or stifled.”
Great organizations are investing more resources into developing these leaders, and building systems that enable a different kind of leadership. “They’re normally the last people to learn about a new initiative,” Bond says of middle managers at a typical workplace. “They're asked to implement things without giving input about what’s working on the ground.” If you want to change your workplace culture, start with this influential set of employees.
4. Increased external volatility allows great workplaces to leapfrog their competitors
Many of the trends of the post-pandemic era are being reversed in the general market.
Nicholas Bloom, Stanford professor and leading researcher on the topic of remote work predicts 2025 will see new fights over remote work policies. A new report from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School using Great Place To Work data found that employee well-being has fallen to pre-pandemic levels.
However, remote work isn’t the secret ingredient that guarantees a great workplace experience. Remote work can increase the risk of loneliness, and both in-person and remote work create different challenges across industries and geographies.
The ability to build connection and belonging across your workforce could become a key differentiator in 2025.
“We lost some important cultural practices during the pandemic,” says Julian Lute, senior strategic advisor and Great Place To Work. “While some employees were OK with the company picnic going away, people still need the connections that hold a culture together.”
Great Place To Work research found that companies that celebrate important milestones and accomplishments build a community within their organization that increases trust. As these connections become rarer in the workplace, the companies that build bridges between employees will have a competitive advantage in the year ahead.
5. Financial wellness becomes more important amid tariffs and inflation
Whether or not the new Trump administration follows through on its plans for tariffs on global imports, the uncertain market in 2025 will require companies to take another look at financial well-being.
The most recent presidential election showed just how concerned many people in the U.S. are about their finances and the affordability of important items like houses and cars. Great companies find creative ways to help employees navigate these challenges, from increasing pay to creative solutions like short-term loans to help avoid bad financial decisions.
“Young people in your company are concerned about whether they will be able to retire, if they’ll have access to social security, if they can afford to buy a home, and more,” Lute says. “How can your company offer resources and guidance to help them navigate these fears?”
Financial well-being covers a wide range of programs, Lewis-Kulin adds. For employees who face challenges in other areas of their life, such as LGBTQ employees or parents of transgender kids, financial resources could be a crucial lifeline.
“LGBTQ employees might be asking, ‘Can I afford to relocate?’” Lewis-Kulin says. “Many parents are incurring unexpected legal expenses to adopt their kids and get protective paperwork in order — all of that is expensive.”
Organizations may offer benefits that defray those costs or offer legal benefits as part of an employee assistance program. There are many tools available, and the best companies will invest in resources that meet the specific needs of their people.
Don’t know what those needs are? An employee survey is the best place to start.
6. Great companies will refine and simplify their purpose
With new legal challenges to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) initiatives, companies must have a laser-focused purpose statement that informs their entire culture.
Many companies will continue to pursue their DEIB initiatives, though the words may change. If a company walks away from DEIB programming, employees will question how the company values their contributions.
For leaders, the answer is to recommit to purpose and to have a specific definition of that purpose for all employees to rally behind. “How can we keep the team focused on our core goals and ensure everyone is actively pursuing them?” Lute asks.
Great Place To Work research shows that purpose leads to higher profits, but only for companies that send a clear message to their workforce about their purpose and immediate goals.
The business case for diversity hasn’t changed. However, leaders will have to revisit their strategies to ensure people with a diverse set of beliefs and backgrounds can join their organization and thrive.
7. Successful employee resource groups build wider bridges across the business
As DEIB priorities and resources shift within organizations, the employee resource groups (ERGs) that survive will build “wide bridges” with multiple connection points across the organization.
Some companies will reorganize groups around shared interests rather than identity or background. The best companies will task these groups with initiatives that have a tangible impact on the business.
One strategy that will be successful is pooling resources between the entire ERG network to create programming that brings more people together. Cultural events will have more than one ERG sponsor, and ERG leaders will work toward shared goals.
The report “Untapped Energy: The Potential of ERGs” outlines strategies to build stronger connections for your ERGs and how to embed them as business-critical arms of the enterprise.
You can learn more about the latest strategies at the ERG Experience at our For All Summit™ on April 8 in Las Vegas. Get tickets to this event here.
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