The Top Employer Challenges In 2025 And How You Can Alleviate Them

With a second Trump administration in power, heavy tariffs being imposed, a volatile stock market, and a pending Canadian federal election looming, times are uncertain to say the least. Consequently, many businesses have adopted a wait-and-see mode and have paused nearly all hiring since February 2025.

Unfortunately, these aren’t their only problems. Chief amongst them are:

Rising expenses and the economy
Hiring challenges – employee attraction and retention
Professional growth – employee training and leadership development
Employee burnout

Large surveys conducted in and prior to 2024 by Peninsula Group and others have revealed a number of other concerns that are top of mind for employers in Canada and the USA.

Economy – A significant majority of employers (over 80%) cited rising costs and inflation as their biggest concern for 2024, impacting their business operations.

Labour – Labor shortages and difficulty in recruiting skilled workers are also major challenges, with nearly two-fifths of businesses expecting to face at least one labor-related obstacle.

Newcomers and Foreign Credentials – Newcomers are facing challenges getting jobs that make full use of their skills and experience and employers have trouble equating them with North American requirements.

“The state of the economy is going to be the biggest obstacle for businesses this year, according to Canadian executives.” Another survey “released by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and Angus Reid Group says 78 per cent of those surveyed said inflation was negatively impacting their business this year (2024), up from 71 per cent in 2023. Employee burnout was second on the list with 68 per cent of businesses saying it was hurting their operations compared with 69 per cent last year. The report also said that 72 per cent of businesses surveyed agreed that the Canadian economy is experiencing a productivity crisis and 90 per cent agreed that business productivity depended on employee productivity.”

Employers around the world are all trying to navigate the same turbulent waters. Peninsula’s survey found that the country with the highest percentage of concern was the UK at around 87%. Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and Canada’s results were approximately 85%, 85%, 83% and 82% respectively.

“Employers from all countries surveyed have revealed that pay increases are their answer to handling the ongoing labor/skills shortage [and] two ways Canadian employers have handled the ongoing labor/skills shortage is by offering flexible working hours (54.8%) and upskilling and training (50.8%).”

When money is tight and stressors are numerous it can be overwhelming and result in inertia, but doing nothing resolves nothing. These problems aren’t going away, and so employers must find ways to address them.

There’s little that one can do about the global economy, but these other issues can be alleviated to a greater or lesser degree.

Take Advantage of Assessments

One of the many ways to do so is by tapping into the vast array of workplace assessments that are designed to help employers identify the best job candidates and those who can be promoted. There are also assessments designed help organizations build and strengthen their teams, help employees suffering from burnout, reduce turnover rates, job satisfaction, and productivity. Foreign workers can also be assessed to ensure that their skills and capabilities meet with North American requirements.

Onboarding

Getting it right the first time saves a lot of time and resources and precludes having to spend the time and money twice if a bad hire is made.

Although many employers are finding it hard to find applicants, there are still good people out there. The trick is in identifying them. Even if you’re desperate to fill a role, taking on someone else’s reject will likely create more problems than it solves. There are literally thousands of inexpensive, high-quality, accurate tests to help hiring managers zero in on the exact skills, aptitudes, attitudes and competencies that the role requires. There are tests for basic skills, specific jobs, and job-required aptitudes.

Some of the available options include:

Retention

Keeping people is as important (and easier) than finding them in the first place. Ensuring that those you hire will be dependable, reliable, trustworthy, and likely to stick around beyond their probationary period are critically important traits to identify before making an offer. There are tests that will help you do that too. These are the kinds of solutions that employers could be taking advantage of:

Employee Development

As the Baby Boomers age out of the workforce and take decades of experience and institutional knowledge with them employers are faced with the question of who’s left to fill their shoes. More to the point, are the people who are left standing ready to assume more senior roles? If they aren’t ready and if you can’t afford to hire externally, then you’ll need to know where they need training, coaching, and development. There are tools designed for that too. They can help you determine who’s ready for promotion and which of your existing employees needs remedial attention to bring them up to speed as the role changes around them. Consider these options for use with those whom you wish to promote or need to help change:

Burnout/Mental Health

More than four in 10 (42 per cent) of Canadian professionals reported feeling burnt out in the findings by HR consulting firm Robert Half. Millennials (ages 27 to 42) reported burnout at work more than any other generation at 55 per cent. Generation Z (ages 18 to 26) followed closely at 51 per cent, then generation X (ages 43 to 58) at 32 per cent and baby boomers (ages 59 and above) at 24 per cent.

Few organizations are skilled in delivering or have a dedicated mental health support system available, nor should you necessarily be trying to fill that function. There are organizations who offer those kinds of services that can be tapped into easily. What employers can do, however, is help employees who are struggling to identify exactly where their stressors stem from and how they manifest themselves. Finding the solution is easy. It’s identifying the problem that’s hard. Before engaging Worker’s Compensation, allowing leaves of absence, and etc., it may be prudent to help employees help themselves by providing ways for them to pin-point what’s affecting them so negatively. There are tests for that too:

If your organization is facing the kinds of challenges that seem to be plaguing everyone at present then there’s a test for that! Help is readily available, along with the expertise to help you find the right solution for your unique needs.

Take action, be proactive, and utilize the many ways in which you can reduce your headaches while improving your vetting process, hiring success rate, retention, employee productivity, corporate culture, and leadership team. Creative Organizational Design is here to help and can provide many ways to help you get back on track.

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David Towler is President of Creative Organizational Design, a firm offering nearly 50 years of expertise specializing in employee assessments and has over 5000 different tests available. Creative Organizational Design has assessments designed to help employers screen out other people’s rejects, assess skills, aptitudes, attitudes, and ‘fit’ within an organization. For more information about the many options available and to obtain expert help in selecting the best tools for your needs please contact us because no matter what personnel challenges you’re facing – there’s a test for that! Please send comments about this article to dtowler@creativeorgdesign.com.