2025 HR Trends: Building a Resilient HR Tech Stack

As we approach the end of the year, we as HR leaders are keeping busy with planning our strategic initiatives for 2025, from setting priorities to budgeting. And for many of us, these plans are closely intertwined with technology. All it takes is a quick look at 2025’s upcoming HR trends to see that they have tech written all over them, with common trends including:

• Centering the Employee Experience: Focusing on creating a seamless and engaging employee experience through technology.
• Retaining Employees with Upskilling, Reskilling, and Ongoing Learning: Using technology to offer continuous learning opportunities that help employees develop new skills and advance their careers.
• Leveraging Virtual and Augmented Reality for Employee Training: Using VR and AR to create immersive training experiences that enhance learning and retention.
• Integrating Flexible Work Models: Implementing technology that supports remote and hybrid work arrangements, allowing employees to work from anywhere while staying connected and productive.
• Using Generative AI Responsibly: Incorporating AI tools that automate routine tasks and provide insights while ensuring ethical use and data privacy.
• Prioritizing Data-Driven Decision Making: Using people analytics to make informed HR decisions that align with business goals and improve overall performance.
• Addressing Cybersecurity Concerns: Implementing robust security measures to protect sensitive employee data and ensure compliance with regulations.
• Investing in Blockchain Technology for HR: Exploring blockchain solutions for secure and transparent record-keeping, such as verifying credentials and managing payroll.

From this list alone, it’s clear to see that technology’s role in HR is only expanding in 2025, so it’s worth exploring how we can use intelligent automation technologies like the ones listed above to drive meaningful change within our organizations.

So, whether you are looking to implement only a couple of these initiatives or many, here are four steps you can take to see these initiatives through so your HR department and broader organization can continue to stay ahead of the curve in 2025 and beyond.

4 Steps to Build a Resilient HR Tech Stack in 2025

1. Assessing Current Technologies

First, assess your existing tech stack to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Here are a few steps you can take to get started:

• Gather feedback from employees: To get a full picture of your current technologies, start by talking to the employees who use it daily. You can conduct one-on-one interviews, surveys, or focus groups to understand their experiences, concerns, challenges, and suggestions for improvement. This is also a prime opportunity to let your employees know that you are aware of the inefficiencies in the technologies that are making their work lives more difficult than they need to be and that you are determined to work with them to find a better solution for all. And you’ll be glad you did, considering how important bringing employees into the process is in change management.
• Analyze Relevant Data: Examine relevant data and analytics to see how the technology is being used. Depending on the nature of the technology, you might check metrics like login frequency user engagement, and feature usage, which could give you insights on things like which tools are more effective and which are underutilized. You should also check KPIs like System of time, error rates, and response times.
• Benchmark Against Industry Standards: Compare your current technologies with industry standards and best practices. You will be able to identify gaps in areas where your tech stack might be lagging. This is where industry reports, peer reviews, and case studies can be extremely helpful.
• Review Vendor Support and Updates: When deciding whether to keep a solution, it’s also worth examining its vendor. Do your technology vendors, who should truly be partners, offer regular updates and robust support do they have a clear road map for the future with enhancements that align with your organization’s goals?
• Conduct a Cost-Benefit Analysis: Assess the costs associated with your current technologies, including training expenses, maintenance costs, and licensing fees. Then, compare these costs with the benefits in ROI these solutions generate.

2. Setting Priorities

To make the most of your budget, it’s important to set your priorities based on the strengths and weaknesses you noted during your assessment. Which initiatives you prioritize will depend on a variety of factors unique to your situation, but this could include focusing on areas that need immediate improvement or have the potential for the highest ROI.

Regardless of your situation, it’s worth assessing the potential impact of each technology on your strategic goals, as technologies that directly support your strategic goals should be given higher priority when deciding which solutions to modernize. It’s also worth engaging with key stakeholders during this process, including team leaders and department heads to get their perspectives.

Once your priorities are in order, you can create a road map that outlines the timeline and steps for addressing each priority, paired with your long—and short-term goals and milestones, to help you track progress.

3. Incorporating Technology Spend into Budget Planning

To ensure that your initiatives come to fruition in the new year you will have to ensure that your financial planning aligns with your strategic goals. Here, it’s best to estimate the costs associated with each technology you plan to roll out. This should include both the initial purchase and its licensing fees, but also implementation costs, training expenses, and ongoing maintenance. This week, you can avoid any surprises down the line. It is also worth engaging with your finance team early on to help you make a stronger case for your investment, ensure your technology spending aligns with your organization’s broader financial goals, and ensure that your budget requests are realistic and well supported. You’ll also want to build flexibility into your budget. All this preparation will also come in handy when you are communicating the value of your proposed initiative to your key stakeholders.

4. Implementing New Solutions

Finally, we have implementation. This requires careful planning, change management, and thorough training to ensure a smooth transition. You’ve already created an estimated timeline, but now it’s time to turn that into a more detailed plan outlining the steps, Milestones, and responsibilities for each team member. This will create a clear road map that will keep your project on track and organized.

Additionally, it’s important to get employee buy-in. To get everyone on board, communicate the benefits of the new technology and explain why it’s needed and how it will improve their overall work experience. This is a great chance to get their feedback again, too, as you continue to plan and roll out this new change.

Before you implement your technologies it’s also important to set clear metrics and KPIs ahead of time to track the performance of your investments. Then, schedule a regular review to track these metrics and ensure the technology is delivering the expected benefits. A good chance that these meetings will find new ways to optimize the solutions further, and this should be the goal for any organization chasing continuous improvement.

Plan for Your Empowered Future

As HR leaders, we hold the keys to shaping the future of our organizations, and the plans we make now will pave the way for a more empowered and innovative future. We shouldn’t just embrace technology to stay current, but to drive meaningful change that enhances our employees’ daily experience, improves productivity, and supports a culture of continuous improvement. There is truly no better time than now to embrace technology in HR.

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