HR Trends 2025 - What The Research Says

I figure we are mostly looking for the truth. And while 'truth' is hard to find, some things bring us closer. Like research.

Also it's 2025. What HR debates are we still working through in our hunt for truth?

This was the focus of my discussion with Dr. Catherine Connelly. Catherine is a leading HR researcher with a passion for research. When I asked Chat GPT for a 'future of HR' expert, her name was one of the top three. She is a Professor and Business Research Chair in Organizational Behaviour, in the Human Resources and Management department of the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University plus many other qualifications.

We talked about:

- Hybrid & remote work. I was hoping to settle the debate once and for all, but it's much more nuanced. Are you surprised?

- AI - it continues to be biased because it trains on our data. Which has bias baked in. We'll have to audit but even if we could get totally unbiased AI, we still have biased people in our organizations (see the video below).

- Employee Experience - We need to focus on the basics.

- A theme running through our discussion was the much maligned middle manager. They are critical to success in a lot of this.

I hope to try another of these episodes because I believe the pursuit of truth is a fundamental. It's like happiness: we'll work at it, but never quite get there. Still, it's a worthwhile and critical journey.

We had an insightful conversation... check it out!

Also, find Catherine here

https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-connelly-57b70762/

https://connellyresearch.com/

https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/connell

As always, find me at https://www.thehrhub.ca