Have priorities changed for human resources leaders in the past year? Sure they have. While focus areas of the HR function that were high on the list of priorities in 2024 have gone down in 2025, other areas have climbed up on the list this year.
According to Mercer’s ‘Global Talent Trends 2025 Highlights: Risks & opportunities for HR leaders in India’, on the 13th position on the list of priorities for 2024 was ‘delivering on DEI goals’. However, in 2025, this has climbed up to position 7. That means Indian HR leaders are taking their diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda rather seriously. And what is on top of the list of priorities? Improving people managers’ skills! This goal occupied the 17th position on the list last year, but this year it has climbed to the first position.
Has anything dropped to a lower position on this list? Looks like investing more in benefits to improve physical/mental health is no longer as important as it was last year! From the 5th position in 2024, it has dropped to 11th position in 2025.
Investing in more objective/robust talent assessment has gone down to 17th position in 2025 from 9th in 2024. Another area of focus that has slipped to a lower position on the list of priorities for HR leaders is, improving sustainability accountability, metrics, and reporting. This used to be priority number 15 in 2024, but has slipped to priority position 20 in 2025.
What are the top 10 priorities for HR leaders in India this year?
As per the Mercer report, the topmost priority in the list of top 10 priorities for HR leaders is improvement of people managers’ skills. This is followed by designing of talent processes around skills. The third priority is to improve workforce planning to better inform buy/build/borrow talent strategies. The fourth priority for Indian HR leaders is the enhancement of experience and employee value proposition in order to draw and retain top talent. On 5th position is the redesigning of work to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI ) and automation. On position 6 is the improvement of HR/People analytics capabilities. Positions 7, 8 and 9 are taken up by delivery on our DEI goals, including pay transparency and pay equity, rolling out of new HR technology or optimisation of existing platforms, and enhancement or modernisation of pay practices, in that order. Last on the list of top 10 priorities is the optimisation of the operating / service-delivery model of the HR function.
Indian HR leaders lead in prioritising designing talent processes around skills.
Compared to their counterparts in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Pacific, Canada and the US, Indian HR leaders are leading in terms of prioritising designing talent processes around skills. In terms of improving workforce planning too, India is way ahead. When it comes to modernising pay practices, Indian HR leaders are prioritising this the most, followed by their counterparts in Latin America, Europe and Asia, in that order.
Asian HR leaders are at the top when it comes to optimising the HR function, followed by Europe. India, Middle East and Africa; Latin America;Pacific, US and Canada are all at the same level when it comes to prioritising the optimisation of the HR function. Europe, US and Canada are the leaders in prioritising the improvement of HR/people analytics.
The Global Talent Trends report is based on inputs from 12,000+ business executives, HR leaders, and employees across 17 geographies and 16 industries.