Building the Next-Generation HR Workforce

I hope you're doing well. I’m pleased to share Draup’s latest study, "Building the Next-Generation HR Workforce: Skills, Transformation, and Trends" (September 2025).

The report shows how HR is rapidly evolving—balancing the resilience of core skills with the acceleration of technology-driven capabilities. Here are the highlights:

• Dual Transformation: HR must safeguard essentials like compliance, employee relations, and policy implementation, while accelerating adoption of AI-driven workforce analytics, automation, and digital tool integration
• Shifting Sub-Functions:
  
  • HR Operations → From payroll/compliance to predictive analytics and AI-driven insights.
  • L&D → From static programs to adaptive, ROI-focused learning powered by AI.
  • Rewards & Benefits → From one-size-fits-all plans to personalized, AI-enabled pay benchmarking.
  • Workforce Planning → From spreadsheets to digital twin simulations and predictive analytics.
  • HR Tech → From basic system management to cloud-native, mobile-first, AI-enabled platforms
• Sunrise vs. Sunset Skills: Traditional manual tasks (e.g., static reporting, manual onboarding, spreadsheet-based planning) are declining, while emerging skills such as generative JD crafting, digital audit trails, DEI gamification, and AI-based capacity planning are surging.
• Tools Ecosystem: A new generation of digital and AI-enabled HR platforms is reshaping the function—driving integration, personalization, and data-driven decision-making across all sub-functions.

Overall, the HR function is transitioning from a transactional support role to a strategic, data-driven enabler of workforce and business resilience.