CHRO Culture Strategy 2025: How AI and Return-to-Office Mandates Impact Employee Engagement
Welcome to the Culture Edit, NICH Culture's insights for CHROs and HR leadership teams. Our next few newsletters will focus on what's in and out for workplace culture strategy in the upcoming year.
AI and the Strategic Evolution of RTO: What CHROs Need to Know
AI tools have transformed workplace productivity, with employees completing tasks faster through personal AI tools and some employer-sanctioned solutions. Yet this efficiency doesn't automatically translate to innovation or expanded contributions, particularly in hybrid work environments. Effectively, employees are using these tools to get the job done but not going any further. And HR leaders are noticing.
As a result, watch for more organizations to implement full-time 5-day-a-week return to office mandates with an intended dual strategy:
Motivate employees to provide discretionary effort
Reduce the workforce through natural attrition because many employees will not want to return full-time
The intention of this approach will be to maintain market confidence while demonstrating a commitment to efficiency and innovation. But without a robust culture transformation strategy to maintain and promote employee engagement, it could fall flat.
Employee Engagement Strategy: Beyond Location Mandates
The winners in 2025 won't be organizations focused on location mandates alone. Forward-thinking companies with strong CHRO culture strategies will leverage their workplace culture as the primary driver of engagement and innovation.
Successful CHROs will prioritize:
Authentic leadership communication strategies
Clear purpose alignment across all employee touchpoints
Meaningful development opportunities—regardless of where work happens
Culture performance metrics that measure actual engagement, not just presence
Workforce Engagement Strategy: The AI-Culture Connection
Prediction: Companies that successfully blend AI productivity gains with a strong employee experience strategy will outperform those using office presence as their primary engagement approach.
The secret sauce for CHROs? Leaders who prioritize authentic communication and connection to purpose while leveraging technology to enhance—not replace—human connection.
Key considerations for HR leaders:
How will your employee retention strategy adapt to AI-enhanced productivity?
What workforce engagement metrics will you track to measure true innovation vs. task completion?
How can your culture consulting approach help bridge the gap between efficiency and engagement?
Our Prediction:
Companies that successfully blend AI productivity gains with a strong culture will outperform those using office presence as their primary engagement strategy. The secret sauce? Leaders who prioritize authentic communication and connection to purpose.
What’s Happening in the World
The American Worker Is Becoming More Productive
“Productivity—the total output of the economy divided by hours worked—rose 2% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, according to the Labor Department.” Most of this is attributed to the utilization of AI tools.
What Happens When a Whole Generation Never Grows Up?
“As American 30-somethings increasingly bypass the traditional milestones of adulthood, economists are warning that what seemed like a lag may in fact be a permanent state of arrested development.”
Surgeon General calls for cancer risk warning on beverages with alcohol
Dry January is trending.
America's Drunkest and Driest Counties
Wisconsin needs to chill.
'Hey Siri, are you recording?': Apple agrees to pay $95M to settle privacy lawsuit
The things we got wrong in 2024
U.S. Industries With the Most CEO Turnover
Healthcare leads the private sector.
The 80’s are back in the gym.
Culture Edit Podcast
Ep. 072 – Culture Takes, Trend Reports, and What’s Ahead in 2025
This week’s one-on-one on New Year’s Eve finds Nikki and Chad still in Miami where they provide their “culture takes” like how Christmas is non-existent, lots of eye contact, social relationship priority, the latest on shrimp cocktail, whether coquito is just eggnog, and how Sunny’s Steakhouse could be the best restaurant in America. Since it’s year-end, they also tackle the big trend reports, including Airmail’s over/under hyped and the Strava “Year In Sport.” They also provide their own 2025 workplace culture predictions: the death of perks, AI’s impact on return to office, the shift to performance-based pay, and getting creative with leadership communications.
Ready to develop a culture transformation strategy that goes beyond location mandates? NICH Culture helps CHROs and HR leaders build employee engagement strategies that drive innovation and retention. Contact our culture team to discuss your 2025 workforce engagement strategy.
