Leading the Future of Work: SHRM's Insights on Workforce Evolution
As the leading authority on all things work, workers, and the workplace, SHRM offers a nuanced, balanced, and actionable perspective integrating employer viewpoints with employee experiences.
SHRM doesn’t just observe trends—we drive the conversation. As workforce expectations shift, demographic changes accelerate, and economic forces reshape industries, the ability to anticipate and respond to these trends is critical for business success and societal well-being.
Through thought leadership, research, and data-driven insights, we empower organizations to make informed decisions that strengthen the workforce and, ultimately, the infrastructure of our economy. In an era where the stakes for businesses and workers have never been higher, SHRM continues to lead the way in shaping the future of work.
SHRM is your one-stop-shop for critical workplace insights. Our research not only highlights major trends and challenges but uncovers the dynamic connections—and disconnections—between employers and employees. Through these efforts, SHRM is ready to drive meaningful conversations and actionable change in the ever-evolving world of work. That’s why we say, if it’s a work thing, it’s a SHRM thing.
Let’s look at some of the key areas where SHRM is providing HR and business leaders with invaluable research, insight, and guidance right now.
The New Administration Shapes the World of Work Through Regulatory Shifts
As workplaces evolve, SHRM continues to identify the most pressing policy issues impacting HR professionals, business leaders, employees, and organizations in 2025. These critical challenges will shape the future of work and demand attention from business leaders and policymakers alike.
Under the Trump Administration—as long anticipated by SHRM—significant regulatory changes are underway across key federal agencies. Employers are facing uncertainty regarding the fate of Biden-era workplace regulations, including rollbacks, rescissions, and enforcement pauses. The evolving regulatory landscape will require organizations to stay informed and adaptable as new rules are introduced, existing policies are revisited, and legal challenges unfold. Visit SHRM’s First 100 Days Hub to stay informed on the latest.
Inclusion, Diversity, and Compliance Take On a New Meaning
Ensuring equitable workplaces while navigating complex legal requirements remains a top issue for business leaders and HR professionals. Employers must address the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce, including individuals with disabilities, military spouses, veterans, justice-involved individuals, and disconnected youth. At the same time, businesses face challenges in maintaining compliance with overlapping or conflicting workplace regulations from multiple agencies.
President Trump’s recent executive orders on DE&I—what they mean, their potential implications, and how HR professionals and business leaders will rise to this moment— have sparked a lot of emotion and pivotal conversations about how organizations approach DE&I. Last year, SHRM advised its members that these changes were coming based on our research and insights from leading organizations, and also advised the move to prioritize inclusion and diversity. It’s clear our collective work on inclusion for all is more important now than ever. This is a defining moment for workplaces across the nation, and HR plays a vital role in it.
We advise all organizations to evaluate their inclusion and diversity initiatives to ensure they provide access to opportunities, skills development, and do not give special advantages to one person or group over another, avoiding any perception of identity-based favoritism, ensuring they are legally compliant and are evolving their policies with an eye on effectiveness.
At SHRM, we are your partners in navigating these changes. Our mission is to provide you with the tools, resources, and expertise to lead with purpose and create vibrant, diverse, inclusive workplaces where everyone can contribute their best. Diversity is our strength.
As we move this work forward, now is the time not to abandon, but to evaluate and evolve. It is about legal, equal opportunity for all. We must continue the work around inclusion and diversity to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to access opportunities and contribute their best.
The BEAM Framework
As mentioned, SHRM has long been synthesizing research and trends to help us better understand the current DE&I environment—examining trends dating back decades to deeply understand the evolution of inclusion throughout our history. We know how important this topic is to HR professionals, CEOs, and business leaders, and we make sure we at SHRM are doing our best to provide informed guidance for the era that lies ahead.
To that end, SHRM has partnered with employment lawyers and experts within the organization to create a framework with five initial questions that business leaders should be asking. These are not the only questions, of course, but they are what we recommend to begin addressing these major changes.
This is SHRM’s BEAM framework:
BEAM stands for Belonging Enhanced by Access through Merit, and it outlines the key questions to begin analyzing an organization’s existing DE&I programs:
DEI Executive Order Impact Zone: A Guide for HR Leaders
Anti-Exclusion
Are the program’s opportunities open to all, without regard to an individual’s sex, race, or any other protected status?
Access for All
Does the program generate opportunities to participate based on an individual’s requisite merit; including specifically their existing skills and proficiencies?
Merit-Driven
Does the program select individuals to participate based upon relevant qualifications, while accommodating protected medical conditions and religious practices?
Unbiased & Available Information
Is the availability of the program effectively communicated to all individuals so that participation is truly open to all?
Skills-First Optimization
Does the program provide opportunities to develop relevant skills, qualifications, and experience for all individuals eligible to participate?
Once organizations start to answer these questions, they will be poised to act upon much-anticipated further clarification of the inclusion policy landscape by federal agencies and the Courts. Use SHRM-related resources and the BEAM framework as your starting point.
SHRM will be publishing additional resources on this framework, as well as guidance on how to create new inclusion programs focused on our recommended definition of “merit-based,” an approach designed to maximize human potential by recognizing individual performance and rewarding outcomes, while creating access and opportunity for all people, regardless of background, identity, or circumstance.
Gender and Inclusion
As the world of work shifts rapidly, workforce participation and demographics are changing. Women now make up nearly half of the workforce and represent the most educated group in the labor market. Yet, when it comes to leadership, we see a worrisome disparity: Women are not matriculating into leadership roles at the same rate as men. What’s even more concerning is that data suggests this gap has stagnated or even widened in some sectors.
The post-Trump EO landscape requires organizations to rethink how they approach gender integration in the workplace. The goal is not to create exclusionary programs but to evolve to solve—ensuring that every employee has access to the resources, training, and opportunities they need to thrive. By aligning inclusion for all efforts with business outcomes, applying the BEAM framework as explained above, and fostering an inclusive, as opposed to exclusive, approach, organizations can build workplaces that truly optimize talent—men and women—for long-term success.
SHRM has explored why current gender equity initiatives are missing the mark and how organizations can evolve strategies to optimize talent, ensure fairness, and align with compliance mandates—all while driving meaningful business results—to give HR and business leaders actionable insights and a deeper understanding of how equity can serve as a foundation for workforce success.
Gender equity is not just an ethical imperative, it’s a business imperative. Organizations that successfully tap into the full spectrum of their talent pool are better positioned to innovate, compete, and perform financially. But gender equity is not about favoritism. It’s about fairness: Ensuring all employees, regardless of gender, have equal access to opportunities. Inclusivity doesn’t exclude anyone; instead, it provides the right tools and opportunities to employees while addressing the unique challenges specific groups may face.
When we ensure that women’s advancement is prioritized in parallel with broader workforce optimization goals, we create environments where diversity drives results. This broader linkage between equity and business success underscores the need to evolve today’s gender initiatives.
Breaking Down Barriers
Historically, diversity initiatives have focused on representation: ensuring that workplaces reflect gender and racial diversity. While vital, such strategies have not addressed systemic barriers preventing women from thriving in leadership roles.
At SHRM, we outline diversity’s progression beyond representation into three core areas:
- Workforce Optimization: Better aligning talent management with real-world business challenges.
- Collective Success: Driving outcomes that benefit not just individuals but the organization as a whole.
- Sustainability: Ensuring I&D initiatives are impactful over the long term.
This evolution ensures gender integration efforts not only improve representation but also tie directly to business imperatives such as operational efficiency, innovation, and employee engagement.
While equity and fairness are critical to business strategy, organizations must also operate within evolving legal frameworks. The Trump administration’s executive orders on DEI raised concerns about compliance and fairness, leaving many organizations unsure of how to proceed.
The good news is that gender-focused programs remain viable—but they must be designed inclusively and tailored to address disparities. We call this a “same but different” approach. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Parental Leave: Both men and women may be eligible for paid parental leave, but women often require additional time for childbirth-related health concerns. This differentiation is based on unique needs, not favoritism.
- FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act): Eligibility is equal, but the reasons for utilization differ based on circumstances. Policies must allow flexibility to support employees with diverse needs.
- Leadership Development Programs: Open programs can be effective, but targeted opportunities—such as initiatives designed specifically for women or military veterans—address industry-specific disparities in ways that broader programs cannot.
The key takeaway here is fairness, not favoritism. Opportunities must remain accessible to all employees while appropriately addressing gaps caused by systemic barriers.
Pay equity is also a critical component of creating a fair and inclusive workplace. Implementing a “pay for the job” approach ensures that compensation is determined based on the role’s responsibilities and market value, rather than subjective factors tied to the individual performing the job. This method relies on thorough market analysis and research to establish a clear and equitable pay structure for each position. By setting compensation benchmarks upfront, companies can objectively evaluate and appropriately compensate candidates when they are hired, fostering transparency and fairness. While there may be rare, unique circumstances that justify deviations from this model, such exceptions should remain precisely that—rare and well-justified. This approach not only mitigates potential biases but also strengthens trust and consistency in pay practices across the organization.
By following SHRM’s BEAM framework, organizations avoid the pitfalls of exclusionary programs and focus on building structures that drive equitable success. A successful approach to gender equity is inclusive, not exclusive. This means customizing without compromising collective integration. For example, at our Leadership Institute, we follow a model where everyone participates in shared experiences but has access to tailored solutions. A one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t apply to workforce inequities. But by providing the right balance of collective interaction and specific interventions, organizations can set everyone up for success.
We are entering a pivotal moment for organizations navigating gender equity in the post-Trump EO landscape. Doing better requires action—that’s why we encourage you to remember these three principles:
- Align DEI efforts with measurable business outcomes.
- Apply frameworks like BEAM to ensure your programs are inclusive and legally sound.
- Foster a culture that is inclusive yet flexible enough to provide tailored support.
This is your opportunity to evolve to solve. By integrating equity into your core strategy, you’ll not only comply with legal mandates, you’ll also build resilient, future-ready workplaces.
Evolving Displacement Due to AI and Considering Replacement
AI adoption has reshaped the business environment, driving concerns about cyberattacks (41%, according to HR leaders), increased pressure for innovation (30%), and a growing need for upskilling and reskilling (28%). Among SHRM’s significant research findings:
- U.S. workers’ concerns about AI displacing jobs increase over the next 1 to 5 years.
- 18% of U.S. workers are very or extremely concerned that AI will displace their current job in the next year, 25% of U.S. workers are very or extremely concerned that AI will displace their current job in the next three years, 35% of U.S. workers are very or extremely concerned that AI will displace their current job in the next five years.
- Despite concerns about displacement, HR professionals see AI as a tool to transform, not displace, jobs.
- Nearly 1 in 4 (24%) HR professionals are concerned that AI will lead to job displacement at their organization. Yet, in practice, HR professionals who work at organizations that use AI are 16 times more likely to say that AI is transforming existing jobs (32%) rather than displacing jobs (2%) at their company.
- Organizational growth and evolving technology are driving the demand for new skills.
- Among organizations that hired for full-time regular positions that have required new skills in the past year, growth of the organization (55%) and changing technology (51%) are credited as the top two reasons for these new skill requirements.
- HR leaders are largely overlooking the need to assess AI's impact on skill requirements, even though employee reskilling and upskilling are being discussed at the C-suite level
- Only 17% of HR leaders say they have been tasked with assessing AI’s impact on skill requirements. In fact, 77% say they have not been tasked with assessing AI’s impact.
- Among C-suite HR leaders who discuss AI with other members of the C-suite, 4% cite employee reskilling and upskilling as a primary topic area.
Workers’ Needs for Continued AI Development
Many U.S. workers are still in the early stages of their AI journey. AI can be used as a powerful tool to help develop these skills through its support of learning and development activities. However, few organizations are fully leveraging AI to upskill, reskill, or address skills gaps, underscoring an opportunity to better integrate AI into workforce development strategies. A closer look at SHRM’s research:
- Most workers are still at the beginner or intermediate stage of their AI journey, highlighting a need for further development.
- 80% of U.S. workers classify their understanding of AI as either beginner or intermediate, while 20% say they are at an advanced or expert level.
- Nearly a quarter of U.S. workers (22%) lack experience with AI, while 63% classify their AI proficiency as beginner or intermediate. Only 15% of workers have advanced or expert-level experience with AI.
- Both HR leaders and U.S. workers recognize that collaborating with AI will be a vital skill moving forward.
- 80% of HR leaders and 83% of U.S. workers agree or strongly agree that the ability to collaborate with AI will be a valuable skill in the foreseeable future.
- 83% of HR leaders believe upskilling will be essential for workers to remain in a job market shaped by AI.
- U.S. workers identify many essential skills for effective AI collaboration, including a blend of technical, cognitive, and decision-making skills.
- U.S. workers consider the following skills crucial for successful collaboration with AI:
- Technical skills to navigate interfaces and tools (72%)
- Digital literacy (68%)
- Critical thinking skills (68%)
- Problem-solving skills (62%)
- Learning agility—ability to learn new things quickly (61%)
- Cognitive flexibility—ability to consider multiple perspectives (59%)
- Openness—willing to consider new perspectives (57%)
- Decision-making skills (56%)
- Strategic thinking skills (56%)
- Ethical awareness (52%)
- U.S. workers consider the following skills crucial for successful collaboration with AI:
- AI can be used as a tool to develop AI skills, and some use it to support learning and development activities. However, few organizations are leveraging AI to upskill, reskill, or identify skills gaps in their workforce.
- Among the 1 in 4 (26%) organizations that use AI to support HR-related activities, 43% use AI to support learning and development and 51% say it makes their learning and development programs more effective.
- Among organizations that use AI to support HR-related activities:
- Nearly 1in 5 (19%) leverage AI to upskill or reskill their workforce.
- Over 1 in 10 (12%) leverage AI to identify skills gaps within their organization.
SHRM Hub: The First 100 Days of the New Administration
Workplace Immigration and the Ongoing Labor Shortage
The labor market remains tight, with more job openings than people without a job who are actively seeking employment. This labor shortage has been significantly driven by population aging, which has constrained growth of the prime working age population in recent decades. A closer look at SHRM’s research:
The ratio of unemployed people to job openings is a common measure of labor scarcity, as it compares the population of people who do not have a job and are actively looking for work (i.e., unemployed people) to the set of job openings at a given point in time. Setting aside the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, this ratio has been below one since early 2018. In other words, during this period there have consistently been more job openings than there are unemployed people. This implies a labor shortage, because when these conditions hold, the population of unemployed people is not large enough to fill the set of job openings. Before early 2018, the ratio of unemployed people to job openings had never been below one (in data going back to December 2000).
The current labor shortage is often framed as a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it is certainly true that the pandemic made the labor shortage much worse, its existence (as measured by the ratio of unemployed people to job openings) predates the pandemic by nearly two years. Although many factors play a role, one major issue is that population aging has significantly curtailed growth of the prime working age (i.e., 25-54) population in recent decades. Census projections suggest that future growth in this population will depend heavily on the rate of foreign immigration.
Outside of immigration, one way to mitigate the effects of population aging is to increase labor force participation. A couple of age groups stand out in this regard. First, labor force participation among people 65 and older had been increasing for decades prior to the pandemic; for example, the figure below shows that 12-month average labor force participation among people ages 65 and older in November 2024 stood at 163.4% of its December 1998 level. Although COVID-19 stalled this trend, labor force participation remains very high in the group relative to historical norms, and recent evidence suggests that the pre-pandemic trend of rising participation is coming back. Because the 65-plus population is growing over time, increased labor force participation in this group would be especially impactful.
The second age group that stands out is people ages 16-24, whose participation rate has fallen in recent decades. As shown in the figure above, the 12-month average labor force participation rate of people ages 16-24 in November 2024 stood at 84.8% of its level in December 1998. This is partly due to increased participation in higher education; however, labor force participation among non-students ages 16-24 has also fallen. This trend is almost entirely due to males aged 16-24.
Falling labor force participation among the 16-24 group is partly due to increased participation in higher education; however, labor force participation among non-students ages 16-24 has also fallen. This trend is almost entirely due to males aged 16-24, as shown in the figure below. As of November 2024, 12-month average labor force participation among male non-students ages 16-24 was 91.9% of its December 1998 value.
Workforce Participation Gaps and the Value of Untapped Talent
While labor shortages continue to challenge employers across industries, significant opportunities exist to bridge these gaps by leveraging untapped talent pools. Groups such as veterans, military spouses, opportunity youth, and coal-impacted workers bring unique skills and potential to the workforce. However, outdated policies, insufficient flexibility, and a lack of tailored strategies hinder their participation.
Harnessing the potential of these untapped talent pools requires a targeted approach that addresses these barriers and recognizes the value these workers can contribute:
- Nearly all HR professionals believe veterans can thrive in a variety of work settings, but many struggle to translate veterans’ military skills to civilian job requirements.
- HR professionals agree (to any extent) that veterans can thrive in both team-based and individual settings (98%), can thrive in both entry-level and managerial roles (96%), and are uniquely trained to work through chaotic times (95%).
- Nearly a quarter (23%) of HR professionals said aligning veterans’ military skills to civilian job requirements is a significant hiring challenge for their organization. Despite the availability of military skills translation tools, only 2% of organizations use them, although nearly half of users (46%) report such tools have helped them successfully hiring veterans they would have previously deemed unqualified.
- Despite recognizing the value of military spouse talent, organizations struggle to translate interest in hiring military spouses into actionable hiring efforts.
- Nearly 4 in 5 HR professionals agree (to any extent) that their organization finds hiring military spouses appealing, yet only 13% agree or strongly agree that their organization is effective at hiring from this talent pool.
- Strategies that recognize the unique needs of military spouses are key to retention, yet many organizations have yet to embrace this approach.
- Organizations that employ tailored retention strategies—such as child care support, flexible schedules, and military spouse employee resource groups—are twice as likely to retain military spouse talent effectively.
- When given the chance, opportunity youth workers perform just as well as or better than other workers.
- Of those who have currently or previously worked with this talent pool, 77% of HR professionals report that opportunity youth perform as well as or better than other employees.
- Employers that embrace community partnerships are finding success in unlocking the potential of opportunity youth.
- Among organizations that partner with advocacy or community-based organizations to recruit and employ opportunity youth, 96% reported positive results.
- To harness untapped talent locally, employers must first build their awareness of the unique needs of workers in their communities.
- Despite their proximity to coal-impacted workers, 54% of HR professionals in economically distressed counties report a low level of familiarity with the needs of coal-impacted workers. For HR professionals in and around the Appalachian Region, 19% are unsure how often coal-impacted workers apply to their organization and 25% are unsure sure how often their employer hires coal-impacted workers.
SHRM Resources
- Completing the Mission: Best Practices for Recruiting and Hiring Veterans, SHRM, SHRM Foundation, & USAA, 2024
- Insight to Action: Leveraging the Potential of Military Spouse Talent, SHRM, SHRM Foundation, & USAA, 2024
- From Social Good to Strategic Talent Advantage: The Business Case for Hiring Opportunity Youth, SHRM, SHRM Foundation, & Walmart, 2024
- Supporting Communities in Transition: The Role of Employers in Coal-Impacted Communities in Appalachia, SHRM, SHRM Foundation, & Appalachian Regional Commission, SHRM, 2024
Civility
To understand the current state of civility and its impact across the U.S., SHRM launched the Civility Index at the beginning of 2024. This ongoing exploratory research initiative aims to track trends in civility within U.S. society and workplaces. The 2024 findings reveal a continued rise in incivility throughout the year, and these results underscore the pressing need for sustained efforts to address and reduce incivility in workplaces and communities nationwide. More on this important research:
- In Q4 2024, the Civility Index marked its highest levels of the year, highlighting the persistent and widespread challenge of incivility across society and workplaces.
- In Q4 2024, the society-level score rose to 49.7 (up 3.6 points from Q3), while the workplace-level score hit 40.9 (up 3.7 points). Despite these increases, both scores remained in Zone 3, indicating incivility is common.
- Many workers encounter incivility in their everyday lives, with the workplace being a common setting for incivility.
- U.S. workers collectively witnessed or experienced more than 222 million acts of incivility per day in everyday life. This was the highest daily rate recorded to date.
- In Q4, 76% of U.S. workers reported personally experiencing or witnessing acts of incivility over the past month.
- Of U.S. workers who said they personally experienced or witnessed incivility in their everyday lives, more than half (56%) said at least one of the uncivil acts occurred in the workplace. This trend remains consistent with the Q3 results.
- Politics emerged as a top contributor to incivility in both everyday life and the workplace as Election Day approached and in the weeks that followed.
- In Q4, the acts of incivility experienced or witnessed by U.S. workers in their daily lives during Q4 were most often fueled by political viewpoint differences (60%) and the 2024 U.S. general election results (53%). Compared to the Q3 results, 22.4% more workers cited political viewpoint differences as a contributing factor. Since Q2, the number of workers who cited this reason as contributing to incivility increased by 50%.
- In Q4, the acts of incivility experienced or witnessed by U.S. workers at work were most often the result of political viewpoint differences (56%) and the 2024 U.S. general election results (51%). The number of workers who reported political viewpoint differences increased 19.1% since Q3 and 51.4% since Q2.
- Incivility is costing organizations billions daily and driving many workers to consider leaving their jobs.
- In total, U.S. organizations collectively lose approximately $2,709,093,454 per day in reduced productivity and absenteeism due to incivility. This represents an average daily increase of nearly $600 million compared to Q3, with the surge in political viewpoint differences likely driving a significant portion of this rise.
- In addition to the daily costs of lowered productivity and absenteeism, incivility may also be driving workers to leave their jobs. When U.S. workers were asked how likely they are to leave their job in 2025 due to personally experiencing or witnessing incivility, more than one-quarter (26%) said it is likely they will leave their job for this reason.
- Experiencing uncivil behavior increases the likelihood of committing it, highlighting the urgency of breaking the cycle.
- The theory of the incivility cycle posits that experiencing or witnessing uncivil behavior increases the likelihood of individuals committing such behaviors themselves. In Q2, we tested this theory and found that workers who personally experienced incivility in their everyday lives committed more than twice as many uncivil acts in their everyday lives than workers who did not experience or witness incivility.
- A similar relationship was found for those who experienced or witnessed incivility in their workplace. Workers who personally experienced incivility in the workplace committed nearly three times as many uncivil acts in their workplace than workers who did not experience or witness incivility at work.
The future of work demands informed, proactive leadership. SHRM is committed to being the trusted authority guiding organizations through this transformation—bridging gaps, fostering alignment, and ensuring that the workplace of tomorrow is one that works for everyone.
SHRM stands at the forefront of this conversation, providing the insights, expertise, and analysis needed to navigate today’s workplace complexities. By leveraging our extensive data, thought leadership, and deep industry knowledge, we equip business leaders, HR professionals, and policymakers with the tools to drive meaningful change.
Now is the time to act. By engaging with SHRM’s research, insights, and resources, organizations can make smarter, more strategic decisions that will shape a stronger, more resilient workforce for years to come.