From back office to boardroom: The state of HR in 2025

Empower your HR team to move beyond manual administration by leveraging insights from this 2025 report to address the inefficiencies of fragmented technology and elevate your role to a strategic boardroom priority.

Abstract illustration of a group of people arranged in an org chart structure

From back office to boardroom

Despite the critical functions they carry out day in and day out, HR teams are stuck in a cycle of manual admin work worsened by the very technologies meant to make their jobs easier.

#1
priority for 2025 is recruiting and retention
90%
spend more than a quarter of their day on admin tasks
58%
are held back by technology

“HR should be a highly strategic function; nothing is more important to the success of a company than hiring and nurturing top talent. The companies — and HR leaders! — that win in the years ahead will be those that leverage automation and AI to reduce administrative tasks. As we're seeing at Zapier, this frees up HR professionals to tackle higher-impact work and focus on the things that humans do best.

Bonnie Dilber

Recruiting Manager at Zapier

More HR resources

Stylised rocket or spacecraft with three glowing yellow engines against a dark purple background.
Report

Kickstarting AI for your HR

A practical guide helping HR leaders build an AI adoption strategy—covering workforce segmentation, training programs, governance guardrails, and measuring ROI across your organisation.

Orange box containing a houseplant, blue book, tablet, and document against a purple background.
Report

The European Offboarding Guide

A practical guide helping HR and People Ops teams offboard employees compliantly across Europe—covering access revocation, country-specific legal requirements, and employer brand.

Stylized illustration of a smartphone in an open orange box with a roll of white tape beside it on a purple background.
Report

The Exit You Didn't See Coming: A Practical Guide on Retention

A practical guide helping HR leaders identify retention risks before they become resignations, using data signals to act before someone hands in their notice.

Graphic illustration of a globe showing North and South America with pinpricks of light representing cities or office locations
Report

Beyond Borders: A Practical Guide to Expanding Across EMEA

A practical guide for companies scaling internationally across EMEA, covering compliance risks, hiring strategies, payroll complexity, and how a unified HR infrastructure simplifies global expansion.

See Rippling in action

See how Rippling can help you manage all your employee data and operations in one place, no matter your business’s size.

See RipplingWatch tour video