From Insights to Actions: What Were the Key Messages from SHRM Talent 2025?

SHRM’s Annual Conferences are always rich with forward-thinking ideas designed to make the world of work better. This year, the standout conversation? How we all need to rethink talent management in the face of shifting employee expectations and growing business complexities.

After speaking with attendees and hosting my own talk, I’ve compiled this set of insights. Here’s what you need to know about talent as you build out your HR strategy for the rest of the year and beyond.

Why a Talented Workforce Matters

People are the backbone of your organization. They drive innovation, shape culture, and keep your organization competitive in the market. Here are three ways great talent deliver value:

·       Drive productivity

Skilled employees work more efficiently, leveraging technology and know-how to maximize output and reduce operational costs.​

·       Accelerate growth

A talented workforce enables innovation, boosts customer satisfaction, and supports business growth through new products, services, and revenue streams.​

·       Improve workplace adaptability

In a rapidly evolving market, skilled employees help organizations pivot, adopt modern technologies, and stay resilient.

But high labor costs, growing competition, and security concerns make talent management more complex than ever before! Lets look at how the landscape is changing.

The Talent Landscape: Evolving and Increasingly Complex

When speaking with HR leaders at the SHRM Talent conference their top priority was clear: build a talented workforce and close the growing skills gap. this is easier said than done – and looks different for every organization – but it’s critical to stay ahead of competitors in the market.

It’s no longer about just filling seats. Its about attracting and developing the right people and keeping them engaged long term – a challenge in a world of job-hopping and shifting employee wants.

To build a future ready workforce, you need to focus on three essential pillars:

1.      Recruitment

55% of employers face significant competition from other companies when trying to attract talent, intensifying recruitment challenges. Likewise, 46% of employers have experienced candidate ghosting.

That is not to say there aren’t a lot of talented people in the market. For example, the latest DOGE layoffs are expected to flood the market with over 500,000 people. But an increase in numbers does not make for more effective recruitment. Poor experiences make the process take a long time, causing delays and increasing costs.

A strong recruitment strategy will account for this and use the latest technology to filter through many candidates, helping you focus on the best people. It will also help smooth the entire process, respecting the time of your candidates, and making them significantly less likely to ghost you.

A lot of companies are considering AI as a solution – and strong AI tools really can make all the difference. Chipotle’s AI chatbot reduced their average hiring time from 12 days to 4, a must-have in a busy retail sector! Still, it’s not a perfect fix. 66% of American adults say they’d be hesitant to apply for a position where AI has a significant influence. AIs can also be prone to bias or errors. People First addresses this through a more a balanced approach, where AI supports recruitment teams, instead of replacing them.

2.      Retention

42% of employee turnover is preventable, often resulting from unaddressed organizational issues or problems with staffing, workload, or scheduling.​ The average voluntary turnover rate in the U.S. is 13.5%. That means a lot of employees are choosing to leave their positions. Meanwhile, 95% of HR leaders acknowledge burnout is sabotaging workforce retention.

The good news? Predictive analytics and AI-powered engagement tools can help you identify burnout risks and intervene early. But it’s not just about data. It’s about action.

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘people don’t quit bad jobs, they quit bad managers.’ Leadership development plays a massive role here, which leads us to the third pillar.

3.      Development

Only 5% of organizations have a formal leadership development program. Meanwhile, just 26% of employees have been encouraged to learn a new skill in the past six months.

Employees want more than just a paycheck. They want to grow. They want to feel challenged. When you invest in development, your recruitment and retention efforts improve organically. You’ll spend less time chasing perfect candidates—because you’re building them from within.

Personalized learning is the future. People First drives this for our clients, bringing together appraisals, skills mapping and e-learning into one single HR platform. People First help identify skill gaps, recommend relevant training, and create career paths that align with both business needs and personal goals.

The Need for Agility

One key takeaway from SHRM Talent? Agility is everything.

Employee expectations evolve fast. What worked last year might already be outdated. To stay ahead, your talent strategy must be flexible—ready to adapt, pivot, and iterate.

Strong foundations in learning and technology give you that flexibility. But success depends on your willingness to continually evolve.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

So, what can you do now?

Start with discovery. Work with internal stakeholders—and HR technology experts—to evaluate your existing tools and strategies. Focus on platforms that deliver visibility, automation, and measurable return on investment .

Solutions like People First empower you with the data, insights, and dashboards needed to:

• Understand employee performance and engagement

• Streamline manual processes

• Make data-driven decisions

• Drive equitable development opportunities

The result? Better retention, higher productivity, and long-term business growth.

Want to learn more?

👉 Explore our full post-SHRM Talent insights here