The experts have spoken. These are the resource management trends you need to be on top of in 2025.
What better way to round up 12 months of resource management webinars than gathering a dream team of specialists to discuss their top trends set to shape resource management in 2025?
We asked experts Nikki Cherpak, Andrea Davis, and Cindy (Cyd) Mills for their top takes on the state of resource management in 2025 – including the ever-present promise of AI, creating leaner organizations to weather the economic storm, and managing the new blended workforce.
Here’s what they think resource managers need to know in the coming year.
Last year, we highlighted how resource management is evolving from a tactical to a strategic function in many organizations. That trend continues for 2025, as more businesses realize the role of resource management in driving strategy and growth.
Resource managers are no longer seen simply as gatekeepers of schedules and staffing. They’re taking their place as drivers of efficiency, growth, and business transformation – all through the power of people.
This year, I am super excited about the transformation that's happening within resource management. Specifically not just around aligning people to the right roles and the right projects, but the real impact that resource management can have across the whole organization," says Andrea Davis, RMCP, Founder and CEO of Linked Workforce LLC. "You often hear about the operations team or the finance team – all of these other very critical components of an organization – but Resource Management touches all of those teams and drives their agendas and strategies through aligning people appropriately."
Cindy (Cyd) Mills, Operations Manager at Mission Cloud, agrees, saying:
Resource Management is a huge strategy center for organizations. It helps drive budget and revenue growth, and I'm really excited for resource managers to be showcased in that light and come forward as a more of a strategic center for businesses this year."
Key factors driving this shift from operational to strategic function are the ability to provide data-driven insights, support forecasting, and inform better workforce planning. However, to do this, resource managers need to be aligned with the goals of the C-suite.
Change is inevitable," says Cyd, "So resource managers need to really open up the lines of communication with the C-suite executives to get full clarity on the vision and the goal of the organization, because these may be changing throughout the year. Just making sure resource management is aligned to that vision and goals, so they can position themselves in the best way."
To communicate effectively with the C-suite, Andrea highlights the importance of developing data literacy and storytelling skills, to communicate strategies with senior leaders.
Another piece of the resource management puzzle of how to be a great storyteller, to build business cases and help the C-suite or leaders understand the impact of resource management to the organization."
Nikki Cherpak, Manager of Resource Planning Analysis at Acentra Health, agrees with this perspective, highlighting the importance of building a narrative for the value of resource management:
A lot of what we do is storytelling. Explaining why this would work. How this would work. What the future could potentially look like versus the pitfalls of what they thought they needed in the first place…"
By taking a data-driven approach – and communicating this to leaders in terms they’ll understand – resource managers can elevate RM to a strategic function and further the goals of the organization.
With challenging political and economic headwinds, resource management is emerging as a strategy for organizations to survive and thrive, by becoming leaner and more efficient.
In particular, resource management supports higher utilization, which improves the productivity and ROI of the workforce. But it can also help organizations escape the costly cycle of hiring and firing through more informed workforce planning.
I think one big thing to note with the economy this year is that a lot of organizations are trying to be more lean. So – with forecast planning and demand planning – resource management will be more of that puzzle piece," says Nikki Cherpak.
This was reinforced by Cyd Mills, who says a data-driven approach is key:
Forecasting and capacity planning are two topics that will really be important for this year. As businesses plan out the budget for the year, having data analysis and dashboarding report creation around that will be important."
One benefit of better forecasting is addressing the revolving door of hiring and laying off staff that some organizations get trapped in, costing money and causing disruption, as Andrea Davis explains:
Organizations can avoid this vicious cycle of hire and fire by really thinking about their workforce plan, to make sure they have the right people in the right roles. Resource management is a critical point of that."
Our experts all agreed that building strong relationships with the sales team – or business development, or growth operations, whatever name this function takes in your context – is crucial for effective resource management.
Something that has worked really well for me is the partnership with sales and growth operations within your organization. One of the missing connections is between resource management and the sales team – to understand what is really happening in the market, what might be in a system – and then preparing for that, adjusting plans and forecasts based on what’s coming in."
It seems so obvious but it’s a ‘big disconnect’ in many businesses, says Andrea. It’s certainly something that has come up again and again in our webinar series with resource management experts.
Nikki concurs, explaining how a relationship with your business development team helps resource managers be more proactive.
We all wish we had that crystal ball. Having a relationship with business development helps you recognize the nuances of each client. Does this client have budget constraints? Are they an account where contract start dates may or may not be pushed out? Does this client require niche skill sets? It’s about being able to strategize ahead of that pipeline."
Equipped with this information, resource managers can proactively plan for upcoming demand, avoiding the unnecessary cost and risk associated with last-minute hires. For example, upskilling existing staff to step into new responsibilities, rather than going out to the external market.
Speaking of upskilling, our experts highlighted that skills management is becoming increasingly important for maximizing the value and ROI of resource management.
It's no new revelation that well managed skills matrices are essential for effectively matching people to projects - but our panel also discussed how this approach to skills can support staff development and engagement.
Having a database that stores credentials, educational credentials, skill sets, projects people have completed – and being able to keep that up to date as they transition through different projects – is big," explains Nikki.
However, she also emphasizes the importance of including employees' interests and aspirations in your database, so you can match people to opportunities that engage and develop them.
One thing I've always loved doing is hearing somebody's wants and needs, and maybe they haven't worked on that type of project yet, but they have the drive to do so."
This approach not only helps in skill development but also improves employee satisfaction and retention.
Happy employees make good employees. They do good work. They're excited. They're eager to please."
To help support more junior staff to upskill, Nikki suggests implementing job shadowing:
I really support buddy systems. If there's an opportunity to have somebody job shadow – blending a lower level resource with higher level support or a team lead to drive that learning – it’s a win-win."
The concept of a blended workforce – incorporating both internal employees and external contractors – is becoming increasingly important in resource management.
Combining permanent staff with contingent workers gives organizations increased workforce flexibility and access to specialized skills. And resource managers need to consider how they fit into the picture.
Some companies have partner managers. Others don't." Says Cyd. "If contractor management lies with resource management, it’s important to make sure you have a skills matrix built out for the partner organizations that you're working with, inclusive of time zones. Recording what skills are needed – including soft skills – who has those, and expand that out to contractors and partners."
She also highlights the importance of clarity with clients - for example, ensuring clarity around agreements with clients regarding whether they will allow offshore contractor work as well.
With all this in hand, resource managers will be able to plot in the right people to the right project, regardless of their employment or contract type.
It was clear from the discussion that our experts are excited about the future and potential of resource management going into 2025.
They spoke about likely growth in resource management careers, despite the challenging labor market at present. They shared their advice for anyone looking to develop their career this year, starting with what to search for:
I think the term “Resource Management” is becoming an antiquated term in the industry and people are moving away from that terminology. So look for RM jobs buried under different terms. For example, I saw the title “Chief Utilization Officer” the other day. It may also come under Resource Planning. So be creative.”
Cyd agrees, saying she’s recently come across the job title ‘Capacity Analyst’ and recommending people search for Workforce Planning as well.
In a difficult hiring landscape, our panel recommended doubling down on data skills – particularly data analysis and data storytelling – saying this doesn’t have to be through formal channels.
Several speakers said YouTube can be a great source of informal learning, while Nikki highlighted the benefit of work shadowing colleagues. She also highlighted the importance of networking – and not just with fellow resource managers.
For me, it's all about building connections. That's what we do as a role – so do it for yourself too. On LinkedIn, don't be scared to connect with recruiters. Look at the organizations you're interested in and see who works there. Use networking events too. Resource management often falls in the STEM industry. So going to STEM networking events. Just Google “STEM networking events near me” and really connect with people."
Finally, we couldn’t have a 2025 resource management trends article without mentioning Artificial Intelligence. Andrea spoke about the importance of familiarizing yourself with AI and automation.
We can't fall behind in times of automation. AI is here and it's not going to fade away. It's something that is going to continue to evolve and be part of our daily lives.’ However, she cautions that AI alone is not enough to guarantee improvements in resource management."
There’s resource management technology out there now that’s building the first phase of AI into their systems. But if your processes don’t work, AI isn’t going to be useful. You need to think about the pre-work to be able to lead up to using AI.
This is particularly true when it comes to data hygiene:
Before you jump into AI, you have to have a clean data governance process. If you put in data that does not have a governance process, it’s a case of 'garbage in, garbage out'. You want to make sure that your processes and your data governance are prepared in order to leverage AI."
While the panelists were still cautious about the use of AI just at the moment, they did champion using AI tools to cut the manual work associated with other resource management functions.
One of my favorite uses for AI is policies," says Nikki. "Helping me write policies or tweak them as they're needed. With Resource Management being relatively new, I had to create a lot of them. It’s helpful to filter them through the AI system to ask: How can I make this better? Does this make sense? Is there anything I missed?"
2025 has dawned with plenty of promise for resource management professionals – promising higher recognition, more strategic alignment, and streamlining through automation.
However, there’s still work to be done – boosting data literacy, honing communication skills, and optimizing processes and data for AI. Equipped with the right tools and tech skills, resource managers are on the cusp of transforming their organization’s success.
It’s an exciting time in the industry. If you’re looking to stay ahead of trends in resource management, keep on the cutting edge with our:
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