HR Analytics Summit: Key Takeaways

This September 2025 Evidenced attended the HR Analytics Summit, where leaders in HR came together to explore how analytics and AI are reshaping workforce strategies. The sessions and panels covered everything from strategic workforce planning to the ethical implications of AI, and gave leaders valuable opportunities to share their insights on these topics.

Our Key Takeaways

1. Workforce Planning Needs to Be Proactive

A consistent message throughout the day was the need to embed workforce planning into every business strategy. Workforce agility, external talent integration, and re-skilling employees are now key priorities.

One speaker summed it up powerfully: “There is never a business plan without a people plan.”

Key findings included that:

• The extended workforce has become a defining feature of modern organisations, with estimates suggesting it contributes over $3 trillion globally. Yet many businesses lack visibility over how many contingent workers they employ each year, leading to rising costs and skill gaps.

• Re-skilling employees improves workforce resilience, as well as making financial sense. As one case study showed, re-skilling a single employee saved more than $50,000 compared to hiring new talent.

• The advice was clear: “Panic early” - because waiting too long to act on workforce needs often means it’s already too late to hire or adapt.

2. AI and Analytics Are Here to Stay

AI is already embedded in recruitment, workforce management, and performance measurement. The focus has shifted from if we need it, to how it'll work.

• One panellist highlighted that AI use is a given - it’s now about directing it to give us value. But with value comes risk: large language models have been shown to give lower salary recommendations for women, refugees, and ethnic minorities, a stark reminder that AI reflects the data it is trained on.

• A key theme was the need for HR leaders to become fluent in data. It was agreed that the CHRO needs to be as data literate as the CFO, and stressed that analytics is not just about dashboards, but about telling the story behind the numbers.

• Iteration and experimentation were also encouraged. The panel agreed that HR teams need to iterate, make mistakes, and learn, because feedback is part of the journey.

3. Trust and Transparency Are Non-Negotiable

For people analytics to work, employees must feel confident in how their data is being used. Transparency was described repeatedly as the foundation for building this confidence.

• One leader framed transparency as the new currency of trust, as employees now expect clarity about how their information is collected, analysed, and acted upon.

• Examples showed how perceptions often don’t match reality. For instance, self-reported collaboration networks rarely reflect the true picture - only data-driven analysis reveals where influence and connections actually exist.

• The takeaway was clear: trust is both technical and emotional, and HR leaders must account for the human experience as much as the data models.

The Bottom Line: Analytics With Accountability

The HR Analytics Conference highlighted that the future of HR is not simply about gathering more data. It’s about using data to build fairer, smarter, and more sustainable workforce strategies.

By aligning workforce planning with business needs, adopting AI responsibly, and embedding transparency into every process, organisations can ensure that their use of analytics drives both performance and trust.

Thank You

A huge thank you to the conference organisers and the incredible speakers and panellists who shared their insights. We particularly valued contributions from leaders at Merck Group, Automattic, Specsavers, HSBC, Ipsos, Lloyds, Diageo, Bolt, and Standard Chartered, as well as those who led thought-provoking discussions on AI ethics, transparency, and the future of people analytics.