The most surprising workplace trends of 2025 (so far)

Fast Company

3 days ago

The workplace in 2025 is evolving faster than ever, thanks to bold shifts in culture, technology, and employee expectations. From asynchronous work models that prioritize output over presence to the rise of artificial intelligence agents and freelance leadership, companies are rethinking traditional norms in real time. Below, discover 10 of the most surprising trends reshaping how we work, along with expert advice on how to manage them. The insights paint a clear picture: adaptability, trust, and human-centered innovation are the new cornerstones of business success.
Asynchronous Work Prioritizes Outcomes Over Presence
In 2025, the most future-ready companies aren't asking, 'Where are you working from?' They're asking, 'What did you move forward today?' We're prioritizing outcomes over outputs, and replacing outdated office culture with systems that reward clarity, creativity, efficiency, and speed.
We're an asynchronous-first organization. That means fewer meetings and more momentum. We don't gather on Zoom to prove we're working; we create Loom videos, build shared documentation, and give people the time and space to create in a manner that works best for them. The result is sharper thinking and stronger ownership.
We're also an AI-native company, so AI is a partner in our work, not a threat. Our teams use it to write, synthesize, and research, freeing up time and brainpower for strategy and storytelling. AI takes care of the repetition while we keep the strategy and relationships.
And while some leaders are doubling down on rigid return-to-office (RTO) mandates, we've doubled down on trust. We don't monitor keystrokes. We don't care if someone is building a pitch deck in a café in London or reviewing press targets from their lake house in Wisconsin. What matters is the work product and how it's driving outcomes for our clients.
The companies clinging to control are losing talent and time. If your team still measures productivity by hours online or office attendance, you're not just behind, you're building a business for a workforce that no longer exists.
Sarah Schmidt, President of PR and Strategic Communications, Interdependence
Meritocracy Resurges in Workplace Compensation Strategies
So far this year, as we've seen divestment in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs driven by shifts in federal expectations, another trend has emerged in the workplace: a renewed focus on meritocracy. This has been especially visible at companies like Amazon and Google, which both recently adjusted their compensation and performance strategies to provide outsized rewards to top performers.
Generally, I'm aligned with this trend when it's implemented carefully. High performers often drive significant value for the business, and their contributions should be reflected meaningfully in their rewards. However, our more average performers still support the company in many valuable and exceptional ways. As we think through similar changes, we need to be mindful of how they impact this group, ensuring that they feel motivated and inspired to do better, and not disregarded or underappreciated.
With respect to paying high performers, I often advocate for creating additional budgets rather than reallocating funds, which can feel penalizing to average performers. Both groups are necessary for business success and should be recognized accordingly. I also advise revisiting the use of restrictive performance distributions. When too few people can be rated highly, it creates environments where peers may feel forced to compete rather than collaborate. Instead, expanding room for more high ratings, while still maintaining guardrails and very clear definitions, enables leaders to recognize talent more equitably without fostering scarcity or resentment.
Finally, as we evolve our approach to rewarding top performers, we need to consider how these changes impact our broader pay policies across base salary, bonus, and equity. We may need to rethink and adjust our programs and frameworks to ensure they are equitable, sustainable, and aligned with our long-term business goals and overall strategy.
Overall, I support the shift toward rewarding impact. However, I also believe we must balance that with care for our steady, solid performers. My advice is to make expectations clear and attainable, offer support and growth opportunities, and ensure people feel valued even if they're not always at the top.
One trend I've observed in 2025 is that many organizations appear to be shifting away from being people- and employee-centric to being more leader- and technology-centric.
For the better part of the decade, 'employee experience' was a central idea. Defining your Employee Value Proposition and creating a culture where employees truly thrive was top of mind.
The 'culture wars,' which hit a tipping point in 2020 (and again in 2024 with the election), coupled with the dehumanizing rhetoric from the current administration, created a situation where many companies either shifted or deprioritized certain 'People & Culture' initiatives.
Add in the emergence and increased utilization of AI, and many companies are seemingly making AI central to their positioning and overarching value proposition. This has led to some uncertainty for employees, as well as some fear-mongering about AI taking jobs, all resulting in the increased deprioritization of the employee experience.
While it is necessary to consider how you're leveraging and utilizing emerging technology, simply put, you can't forget about your people. As long as any organization has employees, their experience should remain a priority. People want to work in organizations that align with their values, and feeling like you're a 'cog in the technology wheel' will ultimately lead to adverse consequences (e.g., retention issues, disengagement, etc.).
The companies that figure out how to prioritize the human/employee experience at work, while also keeping up with emerging technology, are the ones who will win.
Daniel Oppong, Founder & Lead Consultant, The Courage Collective
Women Leaders Embrace Freelance Opportunities
The rise in the freelance workforce was already accelerating, but the incredible pace of women pursuing independent work is a trend we should all pay close attention to. As women leaders continue to lose ground in corporate environments, they are finding agency and economic opportunity as solopreneurs. This trend poses an economic and reputation risk for brands that need the empathy and lived experiences of their customers and community represented across the business.
For leaders building strong, agile workforces, it's time to get creative to keep these critical voices in the workforce. One strategy to attract and retain these leaders is to think beyond the traditional employment model, instead building flexible, blended teams of employees and independents working in close collaboration. Shifting from a default full-time employee model to one where we distribute work to project-based teams—spun up more quickly and without the long-term commitment—allows workers the ability to contribute while maintaining schedule autonomy.
My advice for anyone considering building a blended team or entering into the independent workforce is to get very clear about scope. What is the job to be done? And what skills are needed to do it? Remove the old expectations of how to get there, because the innovation coming from AI and the independent workforce means women can meaningfully participate in our economy in new and exciting ways without the burnout of our post-pandemic era.
Engaging Gen Z Through Personalized Career Growth
A recent trend we've noticed is younger employees who feel disconnected from work. Amid rising inflation and a weaker job market, the new generation wants to feel growth and stability. When these employees don't, it affects their work and productivity.
Here's how we prioritize job satisfaction to keep our younger employees happy and engaged:
1. We make Gen Zers part of their own growth plan development. Our job is providing a transparent career path and setting clear expectations. Their job is to proactively seize opportunities to grow on that path. We let them decide what their career growth looks like.
2. We don't let the new workforce feel stuck. Our team leaders actively look for high-performing employees. We keep pace with their performance by giving new training, seminars, and collaborative projects.
3. Our mentorship program allows Gen Zers to work with senior individual contributors (ICs) and upskill or reskill with greater flexibility.
Working with Gen Z trends has not only made our employees happier, but it has also increased engagement by 46% and boosted our employee retention rates by 62%!
Himanshu Agarwal, Cofounder, Zenius.co
Embracing Employees' Digital Footprints as Assets
Companies with a future-forward culture are openly embracing their dynamic team members' 'career portfolios' and digital footprints. Businesses that see the proliferation of technology and deployment of AI as the future view their team's talent outside of work as a value-add rather than a brand liability.
This new wave of companies highlighting and reposting their staff's achievements is reframing visibility as a shared asset, where individual thought leadership, podcast features, or side ventures become a signal of trust, not a threat. It is a shift from controlling the narrative to coauthoring it.
I see this trend of career portfolio diversification as a necessary response to digital platforms cementing online presence. This acceptance allows top performers to expand their reach while also remaining in their roles, ultimately preventing attrition at their current companies. I advise employees to create an online executive presence and to build a brand that puts their core values at the center of their messaging.
Olivia Dufour, Founder, Olivia Dufour Consulting
Intergenerational Mentoring Circles Bridge Skill Gaps
The uptick in intergenerational mentoring circles is one of my favorite emerging workplace trends for 2025. Several companies are revolutionizing mentoring by creating structured programs in which Gen Z employees teach digital skills to senior colleagues, while simultaneously learning institutional knowledge and strategic thinking from those same professionals.
It's an important trend because it addresses two critical workplace challenges simultaneously: the digital skills gap among senior leaders and the institutional knowledge gap among younger employees. Intergenerational mentoring fosters more cohesive and adaptable teams while enhancing retention across all age groups. Major corporations like P&G, Citibank, General Electric, Fidelity, Cisco, and Target have all found success running reverse mentoring programs across different business areas as a competitive advantage tool, as well as to solve business challenges.
To bring this trend effectively to your organization, design programs that will emphasize mutual benefit rather than one-way knowledge transfer. Focus on creating psychological safety so that senior employees feel comfortable being 'students,' and set clear learning objectives for both parties to ensure measurable outcomes. Establish success metrics, including skill assessments, engagement surveys, and project collaboration outcomes.
Virtual Coworking Boosts Productivity in Remote Era
In the age of hybrid work and digital overload, a quiet trend is gaining momentum: cowork video companionship. Also known as virtual coworking, this practice pairs individuals via video calls to work silently alongside each other, often with brief check-ins and checkouts. Platforms like Focusmate have logged over 5 million sessions, with 93% of users reporting an improvement in productivity. As isolation, screen fatigue, and attention fragmentation continue to challenge remote teams, this low-pressure, high-focus format offers a surprisingly effective alternative to traditional collaboration.
My take? This trend isn't just a productivity hack—it's a cultural shift. Cowork video companionship taps into something deeply human: the desire to be seen without needing to perform. It's rooted in body doubling, a practice long used by people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to stay focused by working in the quiet presence of another person. The psychology is sound, and the use cases are expanding—from freelancers and founders to students and solopreneurs. It provides presence without pressure and structure without surveillance, and it's helping remote professionals find rhythm in a world of digital chaos.
For those considering this trend, my advice is simple: Start small, be consistent, and stay flexible. Try a few sessions on Focusmate or set up weekly cowork blocks with a colleague over Zoom. Observe how it impacts your focus, stress, and output. You don't need to overhaul your workflow—just integrate the companionship where it counts. In a world where 'togetherness' is increasingly virtual, body doubling might be the most human productivity tool we didn't know we needed.
AI Agents Reshape Workforce Dynamics and Roles
One of the most surprising workplace trends in 2025 (at least to me) is the emergence of agentic AI—not as a distant concept but as a real, operational shift in how work gets done. This is not about passive tools or helpful copilots anymore. These AI agents are now handling everything from scheduling meetings and onboarding to approving expense reports and drafting documents—all done autonomously.
When late last year Salesforce cofounder and CEO Marc Benioff said, 'We are really at the edge of a revolutionary transformation' when it comes to using digital labor, most of us couldn't even tell what digital labor is. And yet just last month, Salesforce's research on chief human resources officers' views on agentic AI revealed that 80 percent think that 'within five years, most workforces will have humans and AI agents or digital labor working together.'
Many companies have moved past the experimenting stage. Leaders at Microsoft, Salesforce, IBM, and other businesses are already reframing roles with this in mind. Even their messaging is clear in that direction: In the near future, every employee will manage a portfolio of AI agents, essentially becoming a team leader of digital collaborators.
This is not just a tech upgrade. It's a mindset shift. Managing people and managing agents require very different skills. We're moving fast from delegating tasks to defining logic, setting thresholds for autonomy, and teaching AI when to handle something itself and when to raise its hand and say, 'I think you'd better take this one.' It's both exciting and unsettling, especially for roles built on execution rather than strategy.
My advice for individuals and organizations is to adapt. And fast! You'd need to start small and pilot an agent in a real workflow. Learn how to supervise, audit, and co-create with these systems. Focus not only on productivity gains but also on the redesign of human roles around this new digital workforce. This also means developing new skills, such as prompt strategy, process design, digital judgment, and the ability to set boundaries that tell AI when to act and when to step aside (that is, critical thinking). Everyone is concerned about AI. What most don't realize is that the real differentiator isn't whether you use AI, but whether you know how to lead it.
Maria Papacosta, Cofounder, MSC Marketing Bureau
Power Skills Replace Soft Skills in Business
The most surprising workplace trend hitting us in 2025? Companies are finally ditching the term 'soft skills' and recognizing what I call 'power skills'—the strategic capabilities that actually drive business results.
I'm seeing job descriptions that list 'conflict resolution' and 'emotional regulation' right alongside technical requirements. Not as nice-to-haves, but as core competencies with measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) attached.
Here's why this matters: We've spent decades treating communication, empathy, and strategic thinking like personality traits instead of learnable, scalable business skills. Meanwhile, companies hemorrhaged talent and missed revenue targets because their 'high performers' couldn't collaborate, give feedback, or adapt under pressure.
The shift happened when organizations started connecting the dots between people skills and profit margins. It turns out that managers who create psychological safety aren't just 'nice'—their teams deliver 67% more breakthrough innovations. Leaders who can navigate difficult conversations don't just keep peace—they prevent the costly dysfunction that kills productivity.
My advice for leaders jumping on this trend:
1. Stop outsourcing people development to HR. If you're a director expecting someone else to teach your team how to give difficult feedback or manage up effectively, you're missing the strategic advantage. These skills directly impact your bottom line.
2. Get specific about measurement. 'Better communication' isn't a goal— 'reduce project revision cycles by 30% through clearer stakeholder alignment' is. Track the business impact, not just the feel-good metrics.
3. Invest like you mean it. Companies that drop $50K on new software but balk at $5K for conflict resolution training are making backward investments. Your people problems are costing you more than your tech problems.
The organizations winning this transition are treating power skills like any other competitive advantage—something you develop systematically, measure relentlessly, and leverage strategically.