Same as It Ever Was: 3 Workforce Trends to Watch in 2025

By PrismHR

What does the future hold for businesses in 2025? 

Perhaps Peter Cappelli, director of the Wharton Center for Human Resources, has new-wave band Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” on his Spotify list. He recently told Knowledge at Wharton that, when asked about the future of work, he always says, “The future looks like the past.” 

In other words, “Same as it ever was.” Just don’t tell the writers of Severance

“If you go out a few years,” Cappelli told Wharton Business Daily, “it could look like a big change. If you’re in the middle of it, it doesn’t feel like quite so much.” 

Cappelli also posited that the low unemployment rate, which has been no higher than 4.2% since November 2021, has made it easier for employees to demand more from their employers in terms of salary and workplace flexibility. That’s because there are fewer people available to fill open positions. 

According to the Blue Chip Survey from Wolters Kluwer, which surveys about 50 economic forecasters, the consensus is that the unemployment rate will tick up slightly to 4.3% in 2025. By the way, the average for gross domestic product growth is predicted to be 2.5% while the Consumer Price Index inflation rate is forecasted to hit 2.8%. The third GDP estimate was at 2.8% for the third quarter of 2024 (the most recent data available) while the CPI rose 2.9% last year (seasonally adjusted). 

For Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) and HR outsourcers (HROs), what the future holds for employers—particularly of the small and medium-sized business (SMB) variety is essential. The more workers staying put and coming on board is obviously a good sign for SMB growth, but it also helps an HRO’s bottom line. More worksite employees means more revenue opportunities for HROs.  

While no one can predict the future, here are some workforce trends to keep an eye on in 2025. 

1. Turnover 

According to Wharton’s Cappelli, many employers are not keeping track of turnover numbers, which is an opportunity for you. With the reimagined PrismHR Report Center, you can offer your clients and prospects key analytics on turnover and other HR-related information in an easily digestible format thanks to Data Visualization

Turnover, whether voluntary or involuntary, is usually disruptive as other workers are often asked to pick up the slack—if they even can—but it’s also costly. In 2022, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) put the true cost to replace a worker who leaves, including lost productivity, recruiting costs, potentially paying more money to a new hire at current rates, etc., at three to four times the leaving-worker’s salary. That would mean a job paying $50,000 could cost a company between $150,000 and $200,000 to replace. 

It’s an expensive cost for any business, but especially a smaller business. 

That leads us to another area to keep an eye on: workplace culture. 

2. Workplace Culture 

Workplace culture challenges are nothing new.  

Back in 2014, a Towers Watson & Co. survey revealed that inadequate staffing was the top source for workplace stress. As Workforce magazine reported at the time, “Pressure-cooker work climates threaten long-term productivity, employee engagement, corporate reputation and talent retention.”   

Another thing to keep an eye on for 2025 is return-to-office policies. While there have been some high-profile companies like Amazon that have made in-person work mandatory for their employees, the number of people who teleworked in 2024 only dropped 2 percentage points in 2024 to 46.1% in December from 48.5% in January. Still, that’s down quite a bit from the 54.5% in October 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

This, of course, was before President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating federal workers return to their offices.

Many of the SMB clients you work with might not be able to accommodate work-from-home policies depending on their type of business—hard to prepare and serve food remotely, for example—but the ones that have been offering a fully remote or hybrid situation should weigh the pros and cons of bringing workers back into offices. 

As a Forbes article recently stated, advise your clients to think “much more holistically about the reasons why employees should go to the office” before making a decision that could affect workplace culture. 

If companies are downsizing or colleagues are leaving because of a poor workplace environment, that affects HROs as well. 

Again, if a worksite manager could drill down to see if an event, such as a return-to-in-person-work policy, could affected turnover, then that’s an easy workplace culture problem to diagnose through advanced analytics. 

3. Salaries and Benefits 

Will employees cash in in 2025?  

According to World at Work, a total-rewards association, the median salary budget increase in 2025 is projected to be 4%, which would be the same as 2024. The Conference Board is just a smidge more conservative in their prediction. They are expecting a 3.9% budget increase for salaries this year, which would be up from 3.8% the previous year.  

Of course, pay transparency will be a bigger issue in 2025 for some states. California and Illinois already require large employers to submit state-specific pay data reports with Massachusetts joining the party March 1. Being able to generate pay data makes it easier for your clients to stay in compliance.  

In terms of benefits, SHRM notes five potential trends for 2025—menopause support; paid-leave programs; student loan benefits; lifestyle and wellness spending accounts; and mental health benefits.  

As an HRO, you help SMBs get access to great benefits through the co-employment model. With the PrismHR Marketplace in full growth mode thanks to several launches planned in 2025, you and your clients will continue to get a large variety of great benefit options that work best for you, them and their worksite employees. 

The Future  

We all know that tech is and will continue to be one of the most important tools driving innovation in the workforce, especially as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to disrupt the work world. In fact, longtime industry analyst Josh Bersin predicts 2025 will be the year of the “Superworker.” Meaning? “An employee empowered and supported by AI. In a world where AI agents support every employee, a Superworker can step up their value, productivity and output by learning to optimize their use of AI systems.” 

PrismHR will continue creating the innovative tools you and your clients need to compete in today’s and tomorrow’s workforce.  

As Mark Scout (Adam Scott) says in Severance: “Every time you find yourself here, it’s because you chose to come back.”  

We’re in agreement with Scout here, but it doesn’t have to sound so heavy! With PrismHR innovation and insights, your clients will definitely want to keep coming back for more to help their business grow.  

With PrismHR technology, the future is now for you and your clients. So, yes, the future looks like the past in terms of constant HR tech advancements and capabilities. Yep, same as it ever was. 

Learn more about PrismHR’s HRO solutions.