From massive compliance overhauls to reassessing the very meaning of the workplace, 2025 was certainly a year of change. With much progress, though, there are also certain elements from 2025 that HR across companies really might want to leave behind in 2025.
Certain habits, expectations, and chaos that made 2025 what it was are also what HR would be more glad to see the back of. Some of these may seem obvious to many. After all, their impact on the workplace atmosphere was hard to ignore for workers across the globe.
#1: Firefighting Mode
With rapid policy changes across the globe, combined with the emergence of a revolutionary technology like artificial intelligence, constant “urgent” issues continuously shifted focus away from long-term people strategy.
The impact of this was most assuredly felt in companies like TCS and Microsoft, where employees were hit with mass layoffs. With both companies and employees in constant flux, HR professionals in 2025 certainly struggled to maintain long-term growth plans that were suddenly missing key players or elements.
#2: Performative Wellbeing
The constant changes in workplace environments everywhere have had a severe impact on the mental health of people. Though many companies professed a deep desire to help their employees with mental health issues, HR can hardly escape the label of such actions being “performative” when actions don’t reflect what is being promised.
Two Ola Krutrim employees, one in May 2025 and one in October 2025, pointed toward workplace stress as the reason behind their decision to take their lives. Similarly, a Bank of Baroda Officer dies by suicide in his workplace, citing “work pressure” as the reason in his last note.
Incidents like these highlight how much workplaces need to work on supporting their employees through mental health struggles. Terms like balanced workload, role clarity, and manager accountability need to become more than buzzwords and have to be implemented truly across organisations.
#3: Last-Minute Decisions Framed as “Business Needs”
No business can truly ever escape he curse of last-minute changes. However, implementing short-notice actions needs to become an exception rather than the norm. By 2025, many policies, layoffs, or changes were announced after they were already final, creating mass confusion and frustration.
For HR, who often has to work hard to implement any new policies, last-minute changes pose stressful deviations from already decided plans. It also disrupts established processes and paves the path for employee dissatisfaction since it falls on HR to provide answers to the actions of those in the upper levels of management.
#4: HR as the Default Fix-It Team
Speaking of being answerable, HR professionals will certainly not be averse to shedding the title of ultimate problem solvers. While it is indeed an HR’s job to help with people functions in the company, the idea that HR should be able to fix any and all problems becomes far too frustrating.
With tensions increasing across workplaces, both employees and employers have increased their expectations of HR. Many employers expect HR to deliver any bad news, and employees expect HR to resolve the issues that may arise from the same.
From broken processes to interpersonal conflicts that need leadership ownership, HR is expected to handle it all, and it has certainly become cumbersome. So, if this could be left behind in 2025, it would certainly be a blessing in plain sight.
#5: One-Size-Fits-All Policies
Consistency may be key to serenity, but the very nature of human life demands adaptability. As such, one-size-fits-all policies have quickly become a hill no HR is willing to die on. Rather than asking employees to conform to established rules strictly, HR has started to wish for more and more adaptability for the diverse set of employees.
From leave policies to workplace accommodations, HR grows more and more hopeful for implementing policies that leave space for adjustments as per the unique requirements of each employee.
Ignoring workforce diversity, life stages, and changing employee expectations is certainly an attitude that HR wishes to leave behind in 2026. From health initiatives to increased transparency, here is to a 2026 that accommodates employees from all walks of life.
What to Carry Into 2026
Trust, clarity, shared accountability, and fewer surprises, perhaps that is all that HR truly wants to carry forward to 2026. With open communication, HR can easily bridge the gap between employees and leadership, ultimately making their own lives smoother.
While 2025 was certainly not a bad year, one may certainly want to leave certain things behind in the past. Whether or not that will come true remains to be seen, but acknowledging such issues is the first step to finding true solutions to the issues that persist in workplaces across the globe.
