Top 3 Priorities for CHROs in 2025

The business landscape continues to be shaped by volatility and economic uncertainty, presenting new challenges for CHROs. This year, members of our communities have cited growing concerns around budget constraints affecting HR transformation, as well as the potential need for restructuring or headcount reductions. Employee wellbeing and engagement are also pressing issues, with one CHRO noting the importance of “keeping our people focused on the opportunities that chaos may bring” amid ongoing uncertainty.

Despite these headwinds, CHROs are doubling down on their core priorities to build organizational resilience. At the start of 2025, 500 CHRO community members participated in our annual Leadership Perspective Survey to share their top priorities and challenges. Since then, more than 1,300 CHROs have contributed their perspectives, revealing consistent themes across the HR landscape.

Here, we examine the top priorities for CHROs, both within their function and across the enterprise.
 

Top Functional Priorities for CHROs 

In 2025, Leader & Manager Development has emerged as the top priority for CHROs. While leadership development has always been critical, the focus has shifted from alignment with succession planning and top level leaders to developing leaders at every level of the organization.

Organizational culture has risen to the second highest priority, up from third for the past two years. With the employee experience at the forefront, HR leaders are investing in building strong cultures that can withstand disruption.

Strategic Workforce Planning has also gained prominence, ranking third this year after entering the top five for the first time in 2024. Although Organizational Design and Change Management have moved down the list since 2024, they remain essential focus areas for CHROs, completing the top five priorities for 2025.

Below, we dive into the top three priorities for CHROs, along with the key goals and challenges they have identified in each area.
 

Enhancing Leader & Manager Development

The business environment is evolving rapidly, driven by economic volatility and advancements in AI and technology. Despite these changes, only 28% of CHROs believe their organization’s leaders are adequately prepared to lead change, according to Gartner Insights. As a result, leader and manager development remains a critical priority for CHROs in 2025.

Managers at every level play a pivotal role in change management and shaping organizational culture, and CHROs view leadership development as essential to achieving long-term goals. Caralyn Cooley, Chief People Officer at FanDuel and Governing Body Member of the New York CHRO Community, emphasized that leader and manager development is her top priority, particularly as FanDuel’s rapid growth highlighted the need for this “foundational” element. The organization is creating a program tailored to its unique culture and growth trajectory. As Cooley explains, “Our goal isn’t to create generic management training – it’s to equip leaders to be successful at FanDuel – within our systems, culture and ways of working.”

CHROs also see leader and manager development as a key strategy for improving manager and employee wellbeing and promoting retention. One CHRO shared that employee surveys revealed a strong desire for more career growth opportunities, prompting the development of manager-level training programs to better support managers in their current and future roles.

In the survey, CHROs outlined that their primary goal is to develop talent and skills, while their main challenge is balancing competing priorities.

Following the survey, we conducted hundreds of follow-up conversations with CHROs to gain deeper insights into their priorities and challenges. Here is a sample of their perspectives on leader and manager development:

What excites me is that we are approaching leadership development from multiple angles — making sure new managers are set up for success and experienced leaders keep growing, too.

Our learning and development strategy focuses on identifying skill gaps as AI continues to be a hot item. We’re also developing lower levels of managers to get them ramped up from a managerial perspective.

Intentional leadership development has a huge organizational impact. We’re integrating leadership learning into daily work.

Driving a Resilient Organizational Culture

Organizational culture remains a top priority for CHROs, especially as economic downturns and widespread reorganizations continue to impact the workplace. Employee satisfaction has declined, and according to Gartner Insights, only one in four employees feel confident about their prospects for a successful career at their current organization.

In response, CHROs are working to ensure “consistency in culture amidst growth and evolution.” Many HR leaders are prioritizing career pathing to strengthen culture and boost morale. As one CHRO asked in the survey, “How do we make sure people feel connected to the culture? How do we bring culture forward? How do we connect others to that culture?”

Below are the specific goals and challenges CHROs face in building resilient cultures during uncertain times. Improving employee experience is the most frequently cited goal, while competing priorities is the top challenge.

Here is a sample of what CHROs shared about their culture initiatives:

We have metrics that we want to meet, but from a value position we want to create a psychologically safe, inclusive environment.

We’ve taken a big culture hit due to layoffs. As soon as you do that at scale, you can never have a world where they will fully trust you. You have to come up with very intentional moments for transparency – it could take 12-18 months.

We’re prioritizing employee well-being, understanding workforce needs, and addressing mental and physical health risks.

Improving Strategic Workforce Planning

Strategic workforce planning has become increasingly complex as ongoing business and technology disruptions are leading CHROs to rethink their approach to the future of work. For many, this evolving landscape raises more questions than answers.

A significant challenge for CHROs is the lack of adequate internal data, as 23% of CHROs cite this as their greatest obstacle in identifying the capabilities needed for the future. Even when those capabilities are identified, many CHROs are constrained by limited resources and tight budgets.

The primary objective for CHROs in strategic workforce planning is to improve business outcomes, while the most common challenge is managing competing priorities.

CHROs shared additional perspectives on strategic workforce planning:

Strategic workforce planning and a competitive organisation – go together better. What is the cost of employment? Contractors? What does everything mean? How to compile information and take all variables into consideration?

Looking at outsourcings, insourcing, measuring work productivity, utilizing AI, figuring out what optimization would be.

Workforce planning – it’s more so resource planning. How do we anticipate what we need?

CHROs’ Priorities Across the Enterprise

In addition to their functional priorities, we ask C-suite executives to identify their top enterprise priorities. CHROs, along with their C-level peers, all reported driving growth as the foremost enterprise priority. This is a shift from last year, where all C-level leaders cited increasing operational efficiencies and productivity as their top priority – which now ranks as the second highest priority for most roles, including CHROs.

For CHROs, increasing revenue is the third most important enterprise priority, closely followed by optimizing or reducing costs. Both of these areas have grown in significance since 2024, likely reflecting the ongoing economic pressures that require CHROs to contribute to both top-line growth and bottom-line management. Employee satisfaction and engagement completes the top five enterprise priorities for CHROs.

Below is a snapshot of the leading enterprise initiatives for CHROs and their C-level counterparts.

The Outlook for CHROs

As organizations navigate ongoing economic uncertainty, technological disruption, and shifting workforce expectations, CHROs are at the forefront of driving resilience and growth. As one CHRO commented, “CHROs aim to position the function as integral to business solutions, shaping the narrative to highlight HR's vital role in business success.”

With leader and manager development, organizational culture, and strategic workforce planning at the core of their agenda, CHROs are meeting complex challenges with a renewed emphasis on developing talent, strengthening culture, and aligning workforce strategies with broader business objectives. Their efforts are shaping not only HR functions but also enterprise-wide priorities – including driving growth, boosting operational efficiency and enhancing employee engagement.

Looking ahead, CHROs will need to balance competing priorities, address skill gaps and leverage data-driven insights to guide decision-making. Success will depend on their ability to foster adaptable leadership, cultivate inclusive and resilient cultures and implement strategic workforce plans that anticipate future needs. By maintaining focus on these critical areas, CHROs will play a pivotal role in steering their organizations through uncertainty and positioning them for long-term success.

Stay connected with your CHRO peers on key topics and initiatives by joining the regional Gartner CHRO community near you. If you are already a community member, explore opportunities to engage with fellow CHROs at upcoming events.

This article is an update to a previous report, which you can find here: Top Priorities for CHROs in 2024.
 

Based on 1,300 CHROs’ responses to Gartner C-level Communities' 2025 Leadership Perspective Survey.

By CHROs, For CHROs®

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