Jarred Consulting

What’s the best gift you can give your managers this year? It’s rest. Here’s why. As we near the end of the year, our focus naturally turns to the challenges and opportunities of 2025. The business press is awash with predictions for what our managers and leaders will be up against and the skills they’ll need beyond January. But let’s not skip too far ahead of ourselves: your prep for next year starts now. In this quick read, we look at the greatest stressors next year will present and the one thing you can do now to lay the best groundwork for success. 2025 is slated to be another tough one but the winners will be the companies who can handle the critical choices coming their way. Here are three significant points you’ll be contending with:

Employee experience vs budgets

The uncertainty of the economic climate is likely to impact already squeezed recruitment budgets. So it makes sense to recommit to upping your employee engagement game.  A Forrester report makes one major caveat to this: don’t make it conditional. Saying you’ll improve employee experience (or EX) after you see results is short-sighted. Quick fixes paint a glittering surface over cracks that will widen over time.

The Employment Rights Bill

The UK Government’s new Employment Rights Bill has been described as ‘the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation’. This will have an impact on anyone with any form of responsibility for others and they will need to know what the changes are and how to put them into practice. But it goes further than this. The language of the legislation brings with it a note of urgency – employers will be expected to be proactive in the process of closing the know/do gap. This will have practical implications in terms of training and development to avoid the human and business costs of non-compliance.

Workplace evolution

The impact of AI and workforce expectations continues to keep leaders up at night. For example, Forrester comments ‘the return-to-office war will escalate for a small, embattled group of CEOs’ but warns that it’s a recipe for rebellion and that hybrid is here to stay. The issues are complex as companies navigate client service, fee structures, operational efficiencies and innovation in the shifting sands of gen AI tech. For People Matters, CPO’s are considering the impact on leadership, skills, training, development, workflows and career pathways given the above often geographically dispersed teams. Nothing is set in stone anymore which is likely to cause more anxiety next year.

Let’s meet it head on

So what can we do? Employee engagement and upskilling are going to be more important than ever. With increased NI costs putting pressure on recruitment, there is a greater need to invest in your people and address organisational concerns. Nurture loyalty, commitment and innovation by modelling it first. External forces like legislation and tech trends may present an unnerving picture but by embedding a culture of safety, belonging and recognition, we’ll find the innovative answers we’re looking for.

The most important gift you’ll give your managers this year: rest

Leaving the human cost aside, we know that burnout drains British business to the tune of between £700m to £28bn a year. Middle managers often bear the brunt of rapid change and unpopular decisions, being crushed by forces from above and below. With the festive break coming up, this is the time to restock energy before we take on the challenges of 2025. It’s vital that we actively ringfence time for managers and leaders who are on their knees after a difficult year to recharge and come back fighting.

We’ve got you covered

Our popular Breakfast Bites continue next year with a series on what you need to know to keep ahead of the Employment Rights Bill; how embedding a coaching culture leads to performance; and how to build accountability. Each led by our experts, get practical know-how to achieve real-life results. If you haven’t yet, sign up for our Breakfast Bites newsletter. It’s designed to give you easily digestible insight and implementable ideas that are easy to read over morning coffee. Here’s to a great 2025.