What Are CHROs' Top 10 Priorities for the Rest of 2025?

Steve Odland: Welcome to C-Suite Perspectives, a signature series by The Conference Board. I'm Steve Odland from The Conference Board and the host of this podcast series. And in today's conversation, we're going to talk about the top priorities for the rest of 2025 for CHROs. What should CHROs be focused on for the rest of the year. 

Joining me today is Diana Scott, the center leader of the Human Capital Center here at The Conference Board, and multiple times CHRO herself. Diana, welcome. 

Diana Scott: Thank you, Steve. Happy to be here.  

Priority Number 10: Employee Well-Being 

Steve Odland: So Diana, we're going to go through our top 10 list, but we are going to do this from the bottom up. We're going to start with number 10. What is number 10 on your list of CHRO priorities for 2025?  

Diana Scott: Number 10, and actually I debated whether this was number 10 or number one, is well-being, holistic well-being and the employee experience. And the reason that is so important, and also why it is a tossup, whether it's number one or number 10, is because well-being has really evolved into a core part of how CHROs think about making their business strategy actually very effective and helping employees deliver against the business strategy. 

So well-being is actually becoming embedded in everything across the organization. Thinking about things like mental, physical, emotional well-being, but also even financial well-being, because what is so important is that employees feel like they can bring their authentic selves to work, that they feel like they're being heard, that the organization values them. and that they can bring the best parts of themselves to really focus on the business. So if you want to deliver good business results, you have to have healthy people there to deliver those results. 

So, well-being kind of permeates everything. And it's a big topic with CHROs right now, CHROs who are members. 

Steve Odland: And even if you've got the perfect work environment, perfect engagement scores, no room for improvement in the workplace, you still have all these people who are bringing this stress and this angst from the macro environment, from their home environment, from their personal lives, into the workplace. 

Diana Scott: That is absolutely the key, cause in many cases it's not necessarily the workplace that is creating the stress, it's the stress from everything else. And if you think about what life has been like in 2025, it has been very stressful. There is a lot going on. There's a lot of change externally, in addition to change that we find necessary in the workplace. 

Soemployees are really having to navigate a lot. Leaders are having to navigate a lot, and that'sactually a key point because the leaders need to be considered as well. Leaders, frontline managers. They're feeling the stress. They need to feel like they're supported and that the work environment is actually a place where they can clear their minds, where they can actually stay focused, and that the organization is a safe space. If you look at the Trust Barometer right now across the world, the Trust Barometer says that the corporations and the organizations where people work are some of the most trusted parts of a person's life. They trust it much more than potentially government or media. 

Sothere's a real responsibility that the organization has to really build on that and think about the whole person, what's coming at them from the outside, but also how we help remove the stress and keep them focused while they're at work to do their best work. 

Priority Number 9: Data-Driven Workforce Decisions 

Steve Odland: Number nine on your list of CHRO priorities for the balance of 2025.  

Diana Scott: Number nine is helping CHROs focus on making data-driven workforce decisions. And that's really important because if you don't know, if you can't measure it, you don't really know what's happening. And how can you then refocus the organization and understand how effective or ineffective your programming is, or how effective the work that you're doing is, in the organization? 

Steve Odland: So what kind of data are you talking about, Diana?  

Diana Scott: Everything from looking at things like turnover, we look at data that we actually have: turnover and how retention is working, how quickly you're able to find the talent that you need, how effective your brand is externally. 

So we look at those things, but being able to tie it then to why, and understand, why is this happening? And when you make tweaks to certain programming, whether that actually improves some of those key metrics that are absolutely really important to maintaining, finding, retaining and engaging your employees most effectively. 

Steve Odland: And you've written a lot about the use of AI in collecting and analyzing these data.  

Diana Scott: Absolutely. And there are a lot of ways where AI can actually help you do this more effectively. And it's not even necessarily AI, it's even large language machine learning capabilities and things like that help you analyze data, macro bytes of data and say, "So what insights can we take out of this? And what is it telling us?" 

I think the key, though, is data-driven insights. It's not just about understanding the data, it's understanding what is the underlying cost and what can we do to tweak it, and how do we actually measure whether the action that we took is having impact? 

And I think that's the focus, and that is a lot of the discussion that we're having now with our CHRO members. It's how can we take the data that we have and make it more actionable? And actually help align other senior leaders in the organization to recognize that, or help our boards understand what are the key drivers and leading indicators of what's happening in our workforce, and how is that going to then help us make better decisions so that we can actually increase productivity, find the right people, make sure we're reskilling and upskilling for the right kinds of things in our organization that are going to drive better business results. 

Priority Number 8: Succession Planning 

Steve Odland: Number eight in CHRO priorities.  

Diana Scott: Succession planning. It's really important, and it's really important for CHROs right now to think about, do they have the leadership pipeline for today, but also more importantly, for the future?Soit's a little bit like four-dimensional chess. It's an ongoing living, breathing process. It's not like the thing that you do once a year anymore. You can't just have a static list. It's constantly thinking about and updating what the talent pipeline looks like. You have to really think about running scenario planning, the "what ifs": If this happens, then what? 

And with the amount of change that's happening in most organizations, whether it's the external factors of how is the economy going to impact us? Right now, big discussion is tariffs. How is that going to impact us, the global workforce, the supply chain, our sales? How do we pivot quickly? 

Then you think about, do we have the right talent in place to address all these different scenarios? And which one is the most likely? There's a lot of planning that goes into this.  

Steve Odland: Yeah. And it needs to be at all levels, as you said, because increasingly, we're running into skill set deficits in key areas that, you just thought, oh, "We'll just go to market and recruit." But they're not out there like they used to be.  

Diana Scott: They absolutely aren't. And I think when you think about deep into the organization, it does get into, how do we make sure that the workforce of the future—and this will get to some of the other factors that I'm going to talk about—how do you make sure that you're doing your workforce planning strategically to think about, how do I maintain and make my goals this year? But I'm also thinking next year, three years, five years out. And with the rapid rate of change, especially from an automation and technology perspective, how is this fundamentally going to change how we operate? And those operational changes are going to change jobs, so do we have the right talent? 

The succession planning can't just happen at the top of the house. You have to think about the pipeline of leadership for the future and make sure that you'reactually developingthat, as well.  

Steve Odland: Number seven on the CHRO priority list.  

Priority Number 7: Reimagining Hybrid and Flexible Work 

Diana Scott: I would be remiss if I didn't include the whole concept of reimagining hybrid and flexible work. There is so much conversation about this. Every meeting I have with CHROs one-on-one, in groups, this becomes a topic of discussion. And I really do think that,I've said before, hybrid is here to stay. I think structured flexibility is the winning formula. 

What does that mean? That means that you are giving decision power to leaders in the organization to decide how best to manage their workforce. In some organizations, if you're talking about professional workers, a lot of the talk is how many days in the office, how many days not in the office, why? What do you do inthose days in the office? How do you make sure that you are providing those anchor days and making sure that the activities that happen in the office are really meeting the needs of your workforce? 

I just saw some research that said Gen Zs actually like to be in the office because of feeling like they're being mentored, thecamaraderie, it helps them from loneliness, they feel like they can be more innovative. But, and there is a but, they don't want to be in the office full time. They want to be in the office a certain number of days, and they want those days to be really productive. 

So I think understanding the generational workforce, what their needs are to keep them engaged and happy. And then really thinking about and being very intentional about, what does hybrid or flexibility mean in my organization? Because think about it. Office workers, absolutely, it becomes a discussion about how many days in the office is optimal? And how do we restructure the work that we do as a team to make that most valuable and allow people some flexibility to work from home or work elsewhere to get certain types of work done? 

But if you think about more of the frontline labor workforce or retail or in healthcare, you have to be on-site in many cases. You have to treat your patients.You have to be on-site to manufacture the product.You have to be in a retail location to serve your customers.So what does flexibility mean there? 

And I think those are the discussions that we're seeing happening in the C-suite. And CHROs are really driving that discussion cause there are benefits, there are pros and cons on both sides, and you really have to thread the needle. There's not one solution that fits all. And empowering your leaders and helping them understand how to get the most out of your workforce, whether it's hybrid or to provide that flexibility and create that really strong culture, is probably the way to go. And it's going to vary across the board. 

Steve Odland: Number six on CHRO priorities.  

Priority Number 6: Talent Mobility and Internal Opportunities 

Diana Scott: Talent mobility and creating internal opportunities. So this is really about, the buzzword these days is talent marketplaces. What does that really mean? That's using technology and creating leveraging technology to allow you to identify what the skill sets are in your current workforce. They get to identify some of it themselves. You have validation so that you can really make sure that those assessments are correct, giving managers opportunities to tap into those skill sets and those individuals in the workforce, and giving people opportunities to move around. 

Soit's not the old-fashioned model of a manager taps somebody that they happen to know in the organization cause they know that they have the skill set to do a specific job or a project. Today, it's much more fluid. It's allowing people to tap into enterprise, having an enterprise view of what your talent is, what your skill sets are. And then creating the ability for individuals and managers to really match the skill sets and provide opportunities for people to learn and grow and make them feel like they'reactually a little more in charge of their own careers. 

Now, they have toperform, they have to deliver. And managers need to be comfortable with that. But by leveraging some technology and creating internal talent marketplaces, you're really thinking about talent mobility and creating opportunity for growth and development in a very different way—and leveraging technology to do that. 

And then you can also do it the old-fashioned way, where you just really need to focus on, how do I really focus on showing opportunity to my employees in the organization, become a culture that really values growth and development, and we're willing to invest? Cause that is seen as, frankly, part of well-being, part of the value that an employee believes that they represent to an organization, and they value that in return. 

It's not just about compensation these days. Part of what employees are looking for is, yes, compensation, but also, am I valued? Do I have opportunities to learn and grow and develop in this organization? And if I do, I could stay forever because the sky's the limit. It'slimitless opportunity for me.  

Steve Odland: We're talking about CHRO priorities for the balance of 2025. We're going to take a short break and be right back. 

Welcome back to C-Suite Perspectives. I'm your host, Steve Odland, from The Conference Board, and I'm joined today by Diana Scott, the leader of the Human Capital Center here at The Conference Board. 

Priority Number 5: Reskilling and Upskilling at Scale 

Steve Odland: OK, Diana, we're halfway through. Number five. 

Diana Scott: This is related to number six, but it's really about reskilling and upskilling and doing it at scale. And the driver of this is really the fact that there's so much rapid change happening. Yes, technology. CHROs are very aware that the needs of the organization and how work gets done is changing dramatically every day. That's not going to stop. So that's number one. 

But also, markets are changing. If you are a growth-oriented company, how you grow might change. So really understanding what are the needs today, and what are the needs of the future. And then having real commitment to and programming in place that allows you to reskill and upskill your workers at scale has become a central focus for CHROs in 2025. 

Steve Odland:  Yeah, and we're living in a knowledge-based economy for the most part, and in that kind of construct, you've got non-discrete functions. It used to be everybody was in a silo, and everybody's work was discrete, but now it's all team-oriented, matrixed because of the collaboration. And so the skills required for this environment isway different than, "Let's teach functional skills on manufacturing or on finance." Different world.  

Diana Scott: Absolutely. And I was with a member yesterday, and we were talking about, what does it really take to create the workforce that's going to be able to deliver today, but also predicting what we're going to need in the future? And their point was, this is constant. The change is constant, and the need to learn is constant. Soit's not like you go to a course and then you check the box. It really is all about, it's about learning on the job. It's about micro learning. 

But this member said something really interesting because they said, what is really needed from our workers, and we need to help instill that and look for that and support that, is curiosity, because you're never really done. And so when you think about it, it's not just a program, it's creating tools and platforms and partnerships that are going to make it much more effective for you to give that constant learning. 

There's a lot of mentoring, peer mentoring, experimentation that goes into this kind of skilling, reskilling, and upskilling that has to be embedded in the very culture of the organization. But you do need real programs, too, because they're real skills that need to be developed over time, and everybody learns differently. 

Priority Number 4: Driving Organizational Change and Building Culture 

Steve Odland: Speaking of change, number four on their list of priorities.  

Diana Scott: How do you drive organizational change and build culture in today's world?  

Steve Odland: And do it deliberately rather than just flip a switch.  

Diana Scott: Exactly. And CHROs, I think, sit at the heart of this. The mistake that some organizations make, of course, is thinking HR is going to take care of that. No. Culture, we all know this. Every CEO knows this. You know this, Steve, you were a CEO three times over. The culture of an organization derives from everybody, and the leadership across the board really helps to drive that. And what the CHROs can do is really reinforce that by reinforcing how leaders lead and really reinforcing a focus on creating trust, transparency and authenticity, and inclusion. 

And I think those are really the big ones in terms of what helps set the foundation of driving organizational change and culture.  

Steve Odland: Yeah. But there needs to be a big plan. You can't just throw a switch or put out an email and make an announcement and wash your hands of it. You've got to continually meet with people. You've got to listen,you've got to train. There needs to be, people need to hear it 10 times, they say, before they understand it. It takes a lot of energy and effort.  

Diana Scott: Exactly. It really comes down to communication, and having leaders who are willing to share in very transparent and authentic ways why this is a change that's necessary, but it's not a static thing. It'snot you do it and then you're done. It's constant. Why are we doing what we're doing today? What is our overall strategy? What role do you play? 

Leaders deep into the organization really need to learn to articulate these messages and build that trust so that people are willing to follow you through the change and understand how it's going to benefit them. And in the end, they need to understand why they're part of it. And if it's a change that's a tough change and a tough message, transparency and authenticity and how you deliver the message and talk about how are we going to care for everybody through this change is just as important. Cause it's not always good news. Change is not always good, but you can talk about where it's going to get us and why we need to do this change right now. 

Priority Number 3: Strategic Workforce Planning 

Steve Odland: We're coming down to the home stretch here, the final three. Number three on CHRO priorities.  

Diana Scott: Strategic workforce planning.  

Steve Odland: What does that mean?  

Diana Scott: It's how do you balance your short-term talent needs and any gaps there with the need to really future-proof your organization. It's a balancing act. It's blending your just-in-time hiring alongside, what are your long-term bets going to be about? What are the emerging skills and talents that you need in the organization to succeed? 

So again, what I talked about in the beginning around scenario planning, you have to stress-test your organization. Those are becoming the standard practices to prepare for the different types of futures that could arise. But you have to do that scenario planning, and you have to think about in the context of where we are today and the skill sets we have today, and where we potentially are going in the future, and what that means. 

Steve Odland: And so basically, what you're saying is, yeah, you got to hire to fill the whatever skill set gaps you have, you've got to reskill, which you talked about earlier. But this is, where's the puck going? And therefore, how do you develop those skills within the organization for the long term? And it may take a while to do that. And so there needs to be some deliberateness about this, and that needs to coordinate with the long-term strategic business plan.  

Diana Scott: Exactly. And I think in order to do this, you need to do all of that. But at the same time, there are some things that you need to consider. Like, you really need to think about skill sets separate from a job description or a job category. It's really, what are the skills we need? And to do that, you have to create a skills taxonomy and make it so that you know you can move people around. 

We tend to put people in boxes. Oh, you're a finance person. And so therefore you're going to go into a finance job. But a finance person may have skills that are really going to be valuable in non-finance jobs going forward in the organization. So being able to define people by skills is really important. 

And then, I think, making sure that you understand labor market data becomes a really important input into that, as well.So what does the labor market look like? Where are we likely to see shortages going forward? What are the stress points going to be? Where are there opportunities to actually grab talent now that we know or think we're going to need in the future? 

And then it plays into the whole upskilling and reskilling aspect of, if people have certain skills, does that make them good candidates to then develop skills that we're going to need in the future because the skills they have today are somewhat foundational to where we think they need to go? And those become good candidates to then develop within the organization, which creates growth opportunities for them and access to a good labor force for the organization. Soit's all interconnected.  

Steve Odland: Yeah. And you need, you need attitudinally, an organization that likes to change and has curiosity about new stuff and doesn't want to just get pigeonholed and static. And that's part of the culture that you talked about.  

Diana Scott: Exactly. Curiosity is such a good word. Yeah, it's necessary across the board. 

Steve Odland: Killed the cat, though. Number two on the hit parade. 

Priority Number 2: Leadership Resilience and Agility 

Diana Scott: That one has got to be a focus on building leadership resilience and agility. And let me explain a little bit about that. Given again, all the change that's happening, adaptability and empathy are very important. Both at the top, because leaders have to be able to pivot quickly. They have to keep teams motivated. There is a focus on this curiosity, the ability to be agile in how you learn and adapt. 

And then I think the third point, around what is leadership resilience and agility, really comes also from having the ability to be a good listener. Having the ability to think about, how do I include different types of people? Because that creates the diversity and richness that fuels innovation and fuels future success of teams and fuels creative curious interaction, as well.  

Steve Odland: All right. Here it is. Number one on the hit parade. What is the top priority for CHROs for the balance of 2025? 

Priority Number 1: Leading AI and Technology Transformation 

Diana Scott: Leading AI and technology transformation.  

Steve Odland: Oh, I'm so sick of hearing about AI. It probably will be for life. Yeah, this is it, isn't it?  

Diana Scott: It is. It's going to continue forever. And I think CHROs are finding that they are sitting at the center of this revolution across their organizations. And as AI technology, the technologies accelerate in terms of their capabilities, it requires that the organization really have the ability to navigate, that leaders can navigate that, that we're really thinking creatively about all the different areas in which artificial intelligence is going to impact the organization. 

And the big issue around AI is number one, adoption. There's some early adopters who are out there screaming for more. They're excited. But to really recognize the promise of artificial intelligence in an organization really requires that you democratize it and you get everybody engaged. So the more you can fuel adoption, the more you're going to be able to recognize the benefits of AI. 

And there's a lot of fear out there, even at the top of the house. Fear because people don't want to look stupid. They're not necessarily adopting use of AI. And they're worried about looking dumb. They don't necessarily understand the potential and the value going forward. So if you can get everybody, starting at the top of the house, engaged in this and thinking about the applications across the organization, CHROs can actually help drive that. And they need to start by thinking about how to use it within their own organizations so that they can begin to model some of those behaviors with the rest of the organization. 

Steve Odland: There's also a fear. First of all, people don't like change, or they love it as long as it's affecting somebody else. But they fear these kinds of technological evolution, revolution, whatever you want to talk about, because it can impact their lives, either indirectly or directly. 

And soit's fear of the unknown. So CHROs has really play the role here in helping to bring the unknown to something more concrete and embraceable.  

Diana Scott: Right. And I do believe that the fear can be conquered just by experimentation by fostering an environment where the curiosity and the experimentation in a safe environment, the sandbox concept, is a great one. To get more people in the organization experimenting and trying, cause the more they use it, the more they're going to realize how it can impact their individual jobs. But they need the training, they need the reskilling, they need the comfort. 

The other fear is people worry that their jobs are going to be taken over by the machines. And so if you can help them understand that actually the promise of AI is that it's going to make your job more interesting and perhaps remove some of the mundane. We're never going to replace human beings entirely. But you've got to get people over that hump, as well. 

And then the final thing is you really need to think about how to roll this out in a way that mitigates some of the risks to organizations for using these technologies, whether it's intellectual property risk, misuse of the product. But if you can balance that governance with adoption, that can create a really great flywheel effect, cause the more people feel comfortable using the technologies responsibly and feel like "I'm actually going to get rewarded for this, not get in trouble for this," and the more you can set clear guidelines and help people feel comfortable experimenting, the more you're more adoption you're going to get. And the more adoptionyou're going to get, the better you're going to be using these products responsibly within the organization.  

Steve Odland: All right, Diana Scott, that's a lot of focus for CHROs, a lot of food for thought for the balance of the year. Thank you for being with us and sharing that.  

Diana Scott: It was my pleasure.  

Steve Odland: Thanks to all of you for listening to C-Suite Perspectives. I'm Steve Odland, and the series has been brought to you by The Conference Board.