Have your say: what are the people profession’s top challenges for 2025?

The CIPD has partnered with YouGov to gather views and insights from HR, L&D and OD professionals on what it’s like to work in the people profession in 2025*. This is your chance to tell us about your current challenges and opportunities – and help shape how we support the profession moving forward. 

A career in the people profession is rewarding, but not without its challenges. Your dual responsibility for supporting employees and delivering business impact is what makes your expertise and professionalism so crucial to organisational success.  But it’s also what makes your role so complex – and why it’s so important that you can rely on us, your professional body, to support your day-to-day work and your continuing professional development.

In 2025, we know that people professionals are facing a distinct set of challenges – from the ongoing review of hybrid working policies to the increasing need for HR teams to have a strong people analytics capability. Forging and navigating a career within the people profession can be complex, so we’d like to better understand your experiences so that we can support you to deliver evidence-based people practices that deliver a great employee experience and strong organisational performance. 

Why your evidence and insights matter 

By building a richer picture of the unique challenges and opportunities you face, we can target our support for you where it will have the greatest impact. Your survey responses will help us to:  

• create evidence-based guidance and resources that address your most pressing needs, enabling you to deliver instant impact and lasting value in your role;    

• strengthen our advocacy work with business leaders and policy makers, ensuring the voice of the profession is heard and respected in crucial debates about the future of work. 

 
*For this particular survey, we’re looking for insights from our largest membership group: those currently working in the people profession. Whether you’re employed by an organisation or working as an independent consultant, we want to hear from you.  We’ve recently completed a separate project to gather insights from our student membership and future projects will consider the views of other groups, such as those who are retired or currently unemployed.