Leader and manager development remains the number one priority in 2025 for HR leaders for the third consecutive year, according to a new survey by Gartner. The continued focus on manager development comes as managers report feeling overwhelmed by their responsibilities.
The Gartner survey of 1 403 HR leaders in July 2024 found the top five organisational priorities for HR leaders next year range from leader and manager development to HR technology.
“HR leaders are defining their priorities in the context of three factors that CEOs are focused on and are impacting the world of work: growth; the power of AI; and labour market shifts that are putting pressure on talent strategies,” says Mark Whittle, vice-president: advisory in the Gartner HR practice.
HR leaders must address the below imperatives to maximise talent and business outcomes in 2025:
Leader and manager development
Three-quarters of 805 HR leaders Gartner surveyed in July 2024 reported their managers are overwhelmed by the expansion of their responsibilities – and nearly as many (69%) agreed leaders and managers are not equipped to lead change.
“For organisations to deliver on their goals, managers must be prepared to successfully lead both today and tomorrow,” says Whittle. “Though 75% of organisations have made significant updates to their leadership development programmes – and more than half are increasing spending on leader development – they are not seeing results.”
Recent Gartner research revealed that traditional leadership development such as seminars and lectures have a negative effect on development. HR leaders must shift to place more emphasis on intentionally and strategically enabling repeated peer connections for leadership development via networking and team building.
Organisational culture
The Gartner survey found that among 625 HR leaders, less than one in three reported they don’t have a clear vision for the culture they want. Fifty-seven percent of respondents agree that managers fail to enforce the culture organisations want on their teams – and over half report that leaders don’t feel accountable for demonstrating the desired culture.
Organisations are struggling to embed culture in day-to-day work and foster connection, a key component to making culture stick. HR leaders can facilitate this by equipping teams to translate culture values into their unique context and by providing actionable, scenario-based guidance so managers understand what behaviours they should be demonstrating to live the culture they want.
Strategic workforce planning
Sixty-six percent of nearly 475 respondents said their workforce planning is limited to headcount planning and that they struggle to demonstrate ROI for strategic workforce planning efforts.
Rather than approach strategic workforce planning as an organisation-wide initiative, HR leaders should break it down into achievable phases – specifically by starting with small pilots, prioritising projects by evaluating their relevance and HR’s capability to execute on them, and by establishing share ownership.
Change management
Among 473 HR leaders surveyed by Gartner in July 2024, 73% reported that their employees are fatigued from change, and 74% said their managers are not equipped to lead change.
HR leaders can improve change effectiveness and reduce change by focusing on three things:
- Determining where transformative change is taking place in the organisation.
- Collaborating with business leaders and change sponsors to evaluate change impact, readiness, and value at the onset of planning to ensure early buy-in (and determine when to say no).
- Identifying and amplifying designated change influencers who are embedded in the process to boost change adoption.
HR technology
More than half (55%) of HR leaders think their current technology solutions do not cover current and future business needs. Forty-six percent believe current HR technology solutions hinder rather than improve the employee experience.
To show business value via HR technology, HR leaders should define the outcomes they are seeking first – both business and talent. HR leaders should go beyond using technology for automation and efficiencies, and seek technologies that enable HR’s strategic business value – including identifying the potential value from GenAI as its capabilities evolve.