Reflections on 2025

In this final episode, Lucy and Julia reflect on the insights shared across our “In Conversation” and “Peer-to-Peer” podcast series. Together, they draw out the key themes that defined 2025 and consider what employers should be prioritising to build resilience and momentum in the years ahead. Across the conversations, a consistent message has emerged: people strategy is business strategy. The real risk is not uncertainty itself but failing to invest in capabilities that build resilience and the ability to respond to change. 

Transcript

Lucy:

Hello and welcome to our 2025 reflections episode. I'm Lucy, host of the Future of Work Hub’s In Conversation podcast. And this year I'm delighted to be joined by Julia, Lewis-Silkin’s Chief People Officer, who hosts our Peer-to-Peer series.

Julia: 

I'm very happy to be here, Lucy. Whether you've been with us throughout the year or you're joining us for the first time today, we're so glad to have you with us. In this episode, we'll revisit the standout perspectives and themes that shaped 2025 across both series and look ahead to what's on the horizon.

Lucy: 

There's been such a lot of content, hasn't there? If I asked you, if you had to capture 2025's conversations in a single word, what would you say?

Julia:

I think it would have to be “amplified”. All of the issues we've tracked over the last few years - AI, skills, demographic shifts, geopolitics - they've all been turned up a notch and we've seen more rapid change than ever before. That's exciting, but it's also more intense and complex for leaders to navigate.

Lucy: 

Yes, I totally agree and I'm sure we'll talk a bit about that leadership issue. I think mine would be “acceleration”. I feel that 2025 was the year that we saw AI move from pilots to real workflows. We've seen geopolitics really start to climb up board agendas, and the question - something we've talked about quite a lot on my podcast – of “good work” has started to shift from something that's aspirational to a more operational requirement. 

Across my conversations, there's one thing that's kept surfacing: inclusion, and I mean that in its broader sense - voice, fairness, trust and capable, competent leadership. Those things aren't just “nice to haves” anymore, they really are the things that determine whether your strategy is going to succeed, whether you can deliver meaningful impact.

Julia:

Yes and that was echoed across Peer-to-Peer. The leaders I spoke to were optimistic, but realistic. Capability, culture, clarity were all seen as essential things, and there was a real shared pragmatism about what it takes to help people thrive amid fast-evolving tech and shifting expectations. And I know that that shift is something we're expecting to see come up in our new Future of Work report, which launches early next year - especially around overcoming workforce resistance to change and the need for reskilling and training.

Lucy: 

Before we dive in and we get stuck into some of those themes, I think it's probably fair to say that there has been one overarching theme that has really stood out this year and it won't surprise anybody to know that that's the transformational impact of AI and what impact that's having on the world of work. For me, it's been something that's tied everything I've talked about together - it's really obviously reshaping how we think about jobs, skills, how we think about the future of work. As AI starts to take on some of those more routine skills, my feeling from the conversations I’ve had were that human skills - things like curiosity, creativity, empathy - they're becoming so much more important.

Julia 

I call those the power skills, Lucy, because I think they are and that's going to become even more important -we've seen AI driving some truly remarkable change this year. In this episode we're going to unpack that further and also explore some of the other key themes that are coming up in our conversations throughout the year. We're going to look at trust, skills, demographics, diversity, equity and inclusion and the evolving role of leadership and management. We'll also take a look ahead at what might be coming next.

LEADERSHIP, GOOD WORK AND THE MANAGER MULTIPLIER

Lucy:

I started the year speaking to the brilliant Peter Cheese, who lots of you know is the Chief Executive of the CIPD. He shared his perspectives on good work, leadership and effective management and really reminded us that people aren't the constraint - they are the strategic driver. In his words, “AI is like the gift that keeps on giving,” but only if we design for good work and for him, that means autonomy, voice, meaning and really importantly, line managers who know how to lead people not just manage processes.

I also spoke to Professor Alan Felstead, who is an Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University. He highlighted the value of regularly surveying staff to see how they feel about job quality, how that's evolving and what can be done to improve job quality. He was one of the leads on the Skills and Employment Survey 2024, and one of the things that I thought was really striking were their findings about task discretion: so the ability to decide what you do, how you do it, and how hard you work. That task discretion had dropped from 62% in 1992 to just 34% in 2024. 

I know lots of employers have introduced participation mechanisms, but it made me think that it wasn't really translating into actual control on the ground. One of the things Alan said was, it's easy to hold a consultation meeting, it's obviously easy to install a suggestion box, but it is actually much harder to take ideas seriously, to actually be seen to act on them. We talked a bit about that and we agreed that one of the ways to break that impasse, is to start to manage this idea of task discretion - integrate that data into managerial performance metrics and make it something that you can be tangibly accountable for. I thought that was a great idea.

Julia:

That people focus was a constant on Peer-to-Peer too. Cathy Temple, Head of HR, EMEA at Salesforce, made the point really powerfully - in her view, the technological transition we're experiencing right now is a people conversation as much as a technology one. She feels that it's important for HR to be the cultural architect of this transition, equipping managers to lead with empathy, set outcome-based expectations and foster psychological safety so teams feel safe to try, learn and iterate. And I really agree with that.

Lucy: 

Yes, I also agree. It's interesting because a key insight that we'll have the opportunity to explore further in our 2026 report is that the ability of managers and leaders to lead through constant change is becoming so critical, so strategic - it's really one of the most important things. And I think there's a real concern about this - Peter told me that, in his view, we just haven't done a good enough job in training managers at all levels in terms of being good people managers. Alan agreed with that as well, he explained that if we're going to create meaningful work, leaders need to invest in training line managers to strengthen their skills in giving timely advice to staff, being able to give constructive feedback but also things like showing empathy, particularly amongst younger workers and new recruits.

Julia:

That really resonates with the conversations I had too. When I spoke to Cathy, she told me this was a front of mind issue for Salesforce and they're really focusing on coaching their managers around empathy and human-centric leadership.

Lucy: 

Yes, it's really interesting, isn't it, the themes that are coming out from both our conversations. The way I see it, the challenge isn't change itself, it's whether we've got leaders that have the skills to navigate that change and then do that with clarity, pace but also care. I think organisations that prioritise and invest in manager fundamentals like communication, coaching, outcome-based performance, change literacy - those ones are going to have such a big advantage.

Julia:

And building on that, I recently spoke with Jenny Shiers, Chief People Officer at Unily, who stressed that we need to start thinking of management more as a discipline in its own right. Line managers are critical to employee engagement - we know that people don't tend to leave companies, they leave bad managers. She emphasised how important it is to invest in upskilling first-line managers, and to make sure they're genuinely part of the engagement journey. That means involving them in shaping messages and content but also making sure that they're involved in how engagement actually plays out within their teams day to day.

HYBRID, AGILE AND FLEXIBLE WORKING MODELS

Lucy: 

Also high up on the agenda that people are talking about this year has been flexible working. It's become evident from the conversations I've had this year that hybrid working has started to evolve into something that's a bit more considered. The centre of gravity has shifted from asking whether hybrid is possible and started to move towards, how do you do it well? How do you do it equitably? How do you do it sustainably? I think the best approaches are ones that have moved away from rigid, one-size-fits-all mandates and you get into an idea of fairness. As Peter pointed out to me, we can't focus on knowledge roles only and forget everybody else. 

If flexibility is defined narrowly as “I work from home on Tuesdays”, what we do is risk creating a two-tier workforce. That means true flexible working is about offering a portfolio of options - things like compressed weeks, flexibility of shift patterns, flexi-time, part-time roles - something in which everybody has an opportunity to participate. I think that when you look at it like that, organisations are going to have to do more than demonstrate legal compliance. They really need policy coherence, policies that align with their operating model but that also make sense for everyone in their organisation.

Julia:

Yes, I think that too, and I'm really interested in how that plays out in 2026. The idea of tailoring flexibility to individual roles also came out strongly in my conversation with Jenny. She emphasised that a truly great employee experience, which is what we all aspire to provide, really hinges on an employer's ability to accommodate individual needs - not just in working patterns, but in things like how information is delivered to employees. What we see is relevance and personalisation becoming key to driving engagement more than ever before. 

I also talked about the “where” versus the “what” of work with Cathy. We agreed that there needs to be a shift to managing for outcomes, supported by clarity on when co-location truly adds value. That comes with smarter scheduling and more deliberate “together time” plus a clear narrative and one that employees can trust. Rob Worrall, former Head of People at BDO UK, brought this to life by discussing BDO's “Workable” model, which layers client needs, team collaboration and individual needs together, week by week, allowing for agility and helping people understand the ‘why’ behind this pattern and these rhythms.

DEI

Lucy: 

That’s really interesting. I mentioned inclusion earlier and flexible working opportunities are obviously really closely tied into diversity, equity and inclusion - I feel that's a conversation that's really started to gather pace this year. When I spoke to Grace Lordan, who's the Founding Director of the Inclusion Initiative, and she made the point, and I really agree with this, that diversity on its own isn't enough - you've got to have genuine inclusion. We explored that slightly thorny idea of “bringing your whole self to work” or “bringing your best professional self to work” and the need to set boundaries. We need to help teams navigate differences, but in a way that's respectful, especially at the moment when you look at all the wider social tensions that we start to see spilling over into the workplace. Peter and I talked a little bit about that as well - he told me that leaders have a really important role to play in setting clear expectations around what's appropriate when it comes to self-expression at work and he emphasised the real importance of linking inclusion to very tangible business outcomes.

Julia:

I do agree with him there. I know that conflict in the workplace is an issue lots of organisations have been grappling with this year. 

Picking up on Peter's point about business outcomes, in my experience, it can be quite tricky to measure the real impact of DEI initiatives on businesses. I think that Grace had something interesting to say on that when you spoke to her, didn't she?

Lucy: 

She really did because we talked about just that - how you measure the impact of it. She had done some research which showed that there is a business case for diversity and her findings revealed that where you have a more diverse workforce, it doesn't harm business performance - in fact, it's likely to generate more positive outcomes in the medium to long term. I really connected with a perspective that she had, which is that we need to broaden the conversation beyond just protected characteristics. For example, socio-economic status at the moment is a major factor in who gets airtime, who progresses but it's not a protected characteristic.

TRUST, SKILLS AND TECHNOLOGY

Julia:

It was clear from my conversations too that organisations need to prioritise inclusion and trust as well. Cathy made a powerful connection between trust and technology, with a phrase that's really stayed with me: “trust is the new currency in technology”. If people don't trust how AI is used in recruitment, performance or mobility, trust in leadership itself is going to erode. That's why transparency about AI in people processes, what data is used, how it informs decisions and the human oversight that remains is actually non-negotiable. 

She brought a really practical lens to this. Her advice was very clear - we've got to first build AI literacy for everyone, from core concepts to ethical considerations and day-to-day use cases. Then, anchor change in clear and transparent communication about the why, the benefits and the expectations. And finally, design for psychological safety so people feel comfortable piloting new tools and talking about what's working, but also really importantly, what's not! I think that's really great advice.

Lucy: 

Yes, I totally agree, I think it's fantastic advice. That theme of trust also came through when I spoke to Till Leopold, Head of Work Wages and Job Creation at the World Economic Forum. He also emphasised that building trust in skills transitions is just as important as training, it demands holistic communication, time but also genuine agency.

Skills are obviously front and centre in 2025. They're going to be something that we go on talking about and Till quantified the pace of change by saying that on average, 40% of skills in any given job are expected to shift by 2030. I mean, that's quite extraordinary, isn't it?

Julia:

Staggering, actually.

Lucy: 

And he had this very thought-provoking question which is, where will organisations find their next generation of leaders when many of the traditional learning experiences and tasks that build expertise are now being handled by AI? You and I have talked about this a lot in relation to Lewis Silkin, I just don't think there's an easy answer to that but it is something that we're all going to have to navigate very carefully as we move forward.

Julia:

I'm predicting that's going to be a key theme next year. I personally have got a lot of faith in our younger generations really helping us to make this work. I do think the expectations on leaders and managers are evolving rapidly and that came out in every single conversation I've had. I loved Cathy's observation that we're the last generation of managers purely managing humans. From here, managers will orchestrate teams of both humans and AI agents.

What really stayed with me was Cathy's redefinition of “hybrid” work - not as a mix of remote and office-based working, but as a dynamic where managers lead both human and AI collaborators. That's such a powerful shift in perspective, which demands a new kind of leadership - human-centric, focused on outcomes, grounded in strong communication and where we're all open to learning. As I discussed with Rob, technology isn't our competitor, but a professional using technology well is. To stay ahead, we'll need to cultivate curiosity, creativity, and collaboration - the human edge and more of those power skills. 

And then further linking this to organisational dynamics, Jenny introduced me to a powerful concept: organisational velocity. As she explained, during times of uncertainty or volatility, large and complex multinationals often struggle to transform quickly enough. Things like digital friction, silos and weak collaboration slow down decision-making and make it much harder to pivot. Jenny's point is that organisational velocity is about removing that friction, breaking down silos and helping the workforce not just understand the strategy, but be able to act on it quickly. It's not just a technology issue. It's a leadership challenge, a communication challenge and a work design challenge too.

CHANGING ROLE OF HR

Lucy: 

And it's that word leadership again, isn't it? It's been so ever-present in the conversations that we've had. Building on that, one shift that's crystallised this year, for a while now, is that HR has been a strategic enabler, but that really feels like it is coming to the forefront, becoming ever more critical. HR is no longer just about policy and compliance, and that's why when it comes to introducing new technologies, things like agentic AI, it's so important for HR to be sitting in the room with the engineers - co-designing roles, co-designing workflows, helping with the systems that support them. Peter told me that the HR profession needs to lean into the agenda and work with those developing the technology because that's how we'll create better jobs and better job outcomes. I totally agree with him on that.

Julia:

I think this is somewhere where it's essential for HR to make a real impact. When I spoke to Cathy, we discussed how the pace of innovation in AI is outstripping the pace of adoption, and HR's job is to close that gap by shaping culture, building literacy, and creating psychological safety for experimentation. Cathy shared Salesforce's “4Rs” model as a practical blueprint to make that shift agentic by design. The first R was redesign, so redesigning how work gets done by breaking roles into tasks and deciding which are best done by AI and which require human creativity. The second R is reskill, so reskilling people for the new mix of tasks and tools. The third R is redeploying talent to higher value projects as routine work is automated. The final R is rebalancing, rebalancing the human agent split to reach a sustainable equilibrium. It's a really simple but powerful framework that prompts the right conversations at the right level and something I've really remembered.

DEMOGRAPHICS, GEOPOLITICS AND RISK

Lucy: 

Yes, it does sound interesting, particularly the rebalance at the end. Now, we're running short of time, but I didn't want to not talk about demographics because that's something that also really stood out to me in our conversations. The reality is really clear: the workforce is ageing but in our report we published earlier this year, we discovered 71% of leaders don't see the impact of an ageing workforce as significant - it wasn't a significant part of their 2024 workforce planning. When I spoke to Grace, I asked her about it, because it seemed really fascinating to me. She described that this “present bias” - a tendency to focus on immediate priorities risks overlooking those longer term shifts. She also pointed to the practical challenges: a lack of diffusion of knowledge across generations in the workplace is becoming a really big blocker to productivity, and meetings where Gen X and Boomers dominate talk time are perceived as being less productive by everyone else, even the people in those generations themselves.

Julia:

And that's a missed opportunity because this is an area where companies can really make a practical impact to help bridge generational divides. Rob's perspective – that the breadth and depth of experience is an asset when you design for it - really resonated with me. There really is a need to bring longevity strategies into mainstream business planning - things like career chapters, continuous learning and development, career development opportunities for all areas of the workforce, doubling down on flexibility and having in place job design that actively supports health and wellbeing. It's an area I'm really passionate about, as you can probably tell.

Lucy: 

I can tell, absolutely. I think it's really important and it’s an area that requires passion. 

Demographics might be creeping up on us and might be in need of that longer term planning but the one thing that has really been in the here and now is geopolitics. It feels to me that this is the year that that firmly made it onto the board agenda. We had a special episode from our Managing an International Workforce Conference and we heard about how trade wars, migration and conflict are already starting to reshape workforce planning, but also how skills and business resilience is really impacting those things. For my part, I still see geo-economic fragmentation as a secondary driver of job change when you compare it to things like technology. But for planning and risk management, it absolutely is a here and now first-order issue.

Julia:

Yes, geopolitical issues are increasingly impossible to ignore, aren't they? Our upcoming report reveals that a significant majority of organisations view political developments as a major obstacle to effective long-term workforce planning. In practice, I think this means dedicating resources to horizon scanning for trade, migration and regulatory shifts. It also means building workforce agility to adapt to sudden shocks and then also investing in upskilling and cross-training to build some resilience around this. We're even seeing some organisations formalise “Chief Political Officer” capabilities and roles. However it's structured, the key is ensuring geopolitical insight feeds directly into people plans. 

When I spoke to Rob, he really emphasised the need to move beyond reactive firefighting and build organisational agility for the medium term. And this also really tied into Jenny's advice to put strategy first. Take a step back and figure out what's right for the business - where you're heading and the operational steps to get there. Only then should you start working through the regulatory challenges and constraints that you need to navigate.

Lucy: 

How does it all come together? For me, the thing I took away is that people strategy is business strategy. If you want to get the best from AI, make hybrid working really work, and stay resilient through change, it starts with how you lead. You need managers who are going to bring out the best in people, that are going to make jobs feel meaningful, and a culture where you put inclusion at the heart of everything you want to get done.

Julia:

Yes, and to make all of this work, you need the extra layer - a truly thoughtful approach to skills. As you've highlighted, Lucy, the pace of change is staggering: with around 40% of the skills in any given job expected to shift by 2030, it's so important to be clear about which skills matter. We've got to give people time to learn and blend human strengths with technical know-how. Skills like curiosity and creativity aren't just “nice to have”, they're a real competitive advantage. And I thought Cathy put it perfectly when she said that: “AI isn't a replacement for good leadership, it's a tool for better leadership.” For me, that really captures the spirit of 2025. 

LOOKING AHEAD: WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2026

As we near the end of this episode, I think it's worth asking - what can we take away from the conversations we've had this year? And more importantly, where should employers and HR leaders be focusing their energy?

Lucy: 

That's a good question, Julia. I think this year made one thing clear: technology and geopolitics may be the things that shape the canvas, but it's people that paint the picture. The real risk for me is not the uncertainty itself, but it's businesses that don't invest in the capabilities that will turn strategy into lasting behaviour change.

Julia:

I couldn't agree more, Lucy. What really stands out for me is how central people are to driving meaningful change. There's so much going on, but it's the human element that ultimately determines where transformation is successful. 

Thank you to everyone who's joined us this year, and to all of you who've listened and shared what you're trying to do in your organisations. We'll unpack lots of these themes in much more detail in our 2026 report when it launches early next year.

Lucy: 

Yes, I've had a sneak preview and it really is an absolutely fascinating read.

Sadly, we've run out of time for today, but as our regular listeners know, at the end of each podcast this year, we've asked all our guests to let us know what emerging trend they think employers should be paying more attention to and why, and we had some really interesting, insightful answers. So to wrap up, we're going to leave you with some of those reflections. From both of us, have a safe and restful break and we'll look forward to seeing you in the new year. Until next time, goodbye.

LEVERAGING EMERGING TRENDS TO UNLOCK GORWTH AND INNOVATION

Grace Lordan:
“So, I think unless we have inclusion, all of these trends that are coming with artificial intelligence are just going to create more inequalities in our society. That’s not a statement that I make lightly, all of the research is pointing in that direction and in the last industrial revolution inequalities actually widened. I think we need to think about one, how we create more inclusion in our organisations, whether I'm an individual, a manager or in charge of the organisation, but also if organisations need to think about how they create more inclusion in broader society for the customers that they're actually serving at this time.”

Alan Felstead:

“For me, business leaders need to nurture, develop and respect their employees, as they are their greatest asset. I know that sounds a hackneyed phrase, but it really is true. I saw last week, actually, on the side of a rolling mill in Port Talbot, a slogan which said “people make the difference” and I certainly agree with that. But it must be more than a slogan, so employers need to listen more to their employees and take action to make jobs and businesses better.”

Cathy Temple:

“The fear of AI replacing jobs is real. You know, as people leaders, we have a responsibility to show our employees how AI can augment their roles, not just automate them. That means we need to invest in training that builds new skills for an AI augmented world. For me, when I think about the future, it's about being a human-centric world, it's trust - that new currency in technology - and I would say AI is not a replacement for good leadership, it's actually a tool for better leadership.”

Rob Worrall:

“I think it's human skills. How do we build that curiosity? How do we build that creativity? How do we build that empathy? How do we build those skills that are going to add real depth and breadth to the relationship internally within the firm but also with our clients and audit entities, it's really making sure that we continue to build those skills. And I think it's a fantastic opportunity for people teams, HR teams, to really get hold of this and continue to work.”

Till Leopold:

“At the same time, if essentially a lot of this learning and traditional building up of expertise in the organisation is now just being done by the AI, where will organisations actually get the next generation of leaders from in terms of the succession? What does that then mean overall for corporate hierarchies, succession planning, etc? I don't have any answers on that, I guess just being aware of that and starting to think about that question is a recommendation that I would have for our listeners.”

Jenny Shiers:

“I think as the world is changing rapidly, we've spoken about the need for organisations to pivot quickly and make fast decisions, but I think we all have to keep challenging ourselves as leaders to think about what innovation might look like for our own departments. So, I think if there's a way for us to keep that top of mind as well as getting through the day to day, that's a good tip from me.”

Peter Cheese:
“It is this central idea of agility, and the very heart of organisational agility is this ability to upskill and re-skill where we need to so that we can respond to the changes that are happening around us. How do we properly train managers and leaders to be more adaptive, to empower and to listen to others so that we get this diversity of experience from which we can all then learn and benefit and create a more agile organisation.”