First published on Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Last updated on Tuesday, May 6, 2025
It’s official—HR in Ireland is looking at a forecast of cloudy with a chance of burnout. The latest HR Barometer report from Adare has landed, and it’s spilling the beans on the health, habits, and hopes of the Irish workforce in 2025.
Let’s get straight into it.
Sick days are on the rise
You’re not imagining it. Employees are calling in sick more often, and it’s not just the annual sniffles. The report points to workplace related stress and poor mental health as major culprits, alongside more run-of-the-mill minor illnesses.
Now, 79% of companies say have they wellbeing initiatives in place—which sounds impressive, until you hear that just 8% are measuring whether these initiatives actually work. This is a bit like throwing a stress ball to your staff and assuming world peace will follow. (It won’t).
You need to take wellbeing seriously and be able to tell if it’s actually working. So, it’s important to adopt a proactive approach. Start with policies that are compliant, transparent, and fair regarding sickness and absence. Then, layer it up with wellbeing tools, like our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to help reduce burnout and absenteeism with fast-tracked support. Finally, we’d advise investing in absence management tools that helps you track who’s off and generate detailed reports to help you see if your efforts are paying off.
Retention is the name of the game
The big word for 2025? Retention. With the talent market still tighter than your average supermarket parking space, 72% of organisations are planning to increase pay to stop their employees from abandoning ship.
Money talks, sure. But let’s not forget, so does recognition, flexibility, and upskilling.
Upskill your workforce with e-learning tools, enable flexible working with clocking-in tools like Blip, and recognise top performers with PRAISE, our employee recognition platform. Combine all these together and you’ll be well on your way to levelling retention in your business.
Hybrid working: it’s settled in—and brought its own challenges
Employees are now working an average of 2.6 days in the office each week. So yes, the hybrid model has become the norm. On the one hand, it’s a great way to stay competitive in an increasingly challenging market. On the other, breaking out the bean bags and calling it a day isn’t the solution either. Bear in mind that half of employers are finding it hard to maintain engagement in a hybrid set-up.
Hybrid working comes with it’s own unique advantages and disadvantages. And unsurprisingly, it looks different for every business. Some businesses might see better productivity in the office, others often see better productivity at home. Whichever is the case, having a clocking-in solution which prioritises fairness and ease-of-use is a brilliant way to get started.
Empower your HR strategy with BrightHR
Irish businesses are clearly trying. Wellbeing is on the agenda, hybrid working is here to stay, and employers know that keeping good people is more important than ever. But there’s still a gap between intent and impact—and that’s where the right tools make all the difference.
So if your HR barometer is swinging between “slightly underwhelmed” and “totally underwater”, let us help you keep your business under sunnier skies. Book a free demo with our friendly experts to see all the ways we can help or call us on 1800 279 841 for more info.
