People Strategy in Action
Navigating Workforce Priorities Across APAC
2025 Mid-Year Report
Executive Summary
Our latest survey of HR leaders across APAC reveals the current state of workforce priorities in mid-2025. Team effectiveness, collaboration, and employee wellbeing have emerged as critical focus areas, while organisations continue to navigate significant budget constraints that impact their ability to implement comprehensive people strategies.
Current People Strategy Priorities
HR leaders identified their top two strategic priorities, revealing a strong emphasis on organisational effectiveness and employee experience.
Key Insight
Three priorities share equal importance at 22% each: strengthening leadership capability, leading transformation, and supporting employee wellbeing. This reflects the multifaceted challenges HR leaders face in today's workplace.
Investment Status & Budget Allocation
Current investment levels reveal a significant gap between strategic priorities and available resources.
Annual Budget Distribution
Among organisations with allocated budgets, spending levels vary significantly:
Investment Reality
Nearly half of organisations operate with minimal budgets (under $10k) for their critical people priorities. This constraint shapes how HR leaders must approach their strategic objectives, often requiring innovative and cost-effective solutions to address complex organisational challenges.
The State of People Strategy in APAC - Mid-2025
A Focus on Foundations
The emphasis on team effectiveness, communication, and leadership capability suggests organisations are prioritising foundational elements that enable broader transformation. These areas form the backbone of organisational performance and employee experience.
The Resource Challenge
With 44% of organisations lacking dedicated budgets and another 47% operating with minimal funding, HR leaders face the challenge of delivering significant impact with limited resources. This reality is shaping a more strategic, targeted approach to people initiatives.
Wellbeing as a Business Priority
The equal emphasis on mental wellbeing alongside traditional business priorities like leadership and transformation signals a shift in how organisations view employee wellness—not as a nice-to-have, but as essential to sustainable performance.
The Collaboration Imperative
Over half of all priorities relate directly to how people work together— team effectiveness, communication, and cross-functional collaboration. This reflects the ongoing evolution of work structures and the critical need for organisations to optimise human connections in hybrid environments.
About This Report
This report presents findings from a comprehensive survey of HR leaders across the Asia-Pacific region conducted in May-June 2025. The survey captured fresh insights from 32 organisations spanning multiple industries and company sizes, providing a current snapshot of people strategy priorities.
Geographic Distribution
- New Zealand 69%
- Australia 19%
- Other APAC 12%
Organisation Size
- Small (1-50 employees) 44%
- Medium (51-200 employees) 9%
- Large (201-1000 employees) 13%
- Enterprise (1000+ employees) 22%
Note: Respondents were asked to select up to two top priorities, therefore percentages reflect the proportion of organisations selecting each priority and will sum to more than 100%.