Collage HR Trends for Q4 2025:

1. Planning for 2026 - what are our priorities?

2025 feels like a long sprint. From tariffs to layoffs to AI and beyond, it has been an exhausting year for many HR (and other) professionals. None of those pressing items have come to a resolution yet. Canada is still negotiating tariffs with the US, with Trump recently looking to increase tariffs on Canada by 10% because he was offended by an ad. The Canadian federal budget outlined 40,000 in layoffs. AI investments are increasing, with the federal government committing to a $1B investment in AI infrastructure.

Reacting to urgent items is often all-consuming and can limit positive impact on the business elsewhere. As 2025 comes to an end, most organizations are deciding on 2026 priorities. Priorities are reviewed at a corporate level, along with budget, as well as at a department level. Some organizations have more structure than others and a lot depends on size. HR is a department that has visibility into other departments and has dependencies on others, including with hiring.

Our Recommendation: Help drive the company process and make sure you are aligned with the CEO on HR priorities. If structure is lacking, introduce a standard like OKRs. Establish top priorities at a company level. Establish top priorities at a department level. There should be alignment between those priorities. 10 priorities at a department level is too many. Be very selective and focused. Use this opportunity to be a strategic partner to the CEO and department leaders who may struggle with this. Communicate the priorities to the company to help drive alignment.

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2. Middle management - are we setting them up for success?

When there is chaos, middle management is often stuck between leaders who provide unclear or limited guidance and staff who are asking for more clarity. Middle management is often blamed for execution and they definitely don’t have it easy. Amazon’s recent layoffs targeted a lot of middle managers and this is not an anomaly. Senior management is often story-telling. When telling a story, nobody wants to make themselves look bad.

I was definitely overwhelmed as a first-time manager. How do I balance results, guidance from the top, and feedback from the team? Even worse, what if there is no guidance or clarity from the top? This is a situation which many middle managers find themselves in. Senior leadership is busy putting out fires, deciding on long-term priorities, and telling a story. Middle management is doing their best with limited information and resources.

Our Recommendation: As an HR department and leader, create clarity for what your middle managers are responsible for (and not). This should not be a micromanagement tool but an outline of what is important. Create accountability. Four people being accountable for a decision means nobody is truly accountable. Middle managers often drive culture and can be incredible champions of the vision and mission. They need to know the vision and mission first.

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3. Total compensation - didn’t we just have a salary review cycle?

End of year represents salary reviews for many organizations. High level guidance is often provided by the business or finance on the total increases that the business can manage. 

Data shows that salary increases are expected to drop for the third year in a row in 2026, to 3.3%. This data excludes 5% of employers who have salary freezes. Most employers are planning similar to or lower increases than in 2025. This is driven by financial uncertainty facing many organizations today. With pay transparency law in place in British Columbia and implemented in Ontario in January 2026, this adds more data for employers and employees.

‍Our Recommendation: Review all elements of total compensation, if you can. Look to be transparent about the process and limitations with staff. Be fair to employees and look to reward your team, especially those who may be under market. Do more, where you can. Train your managers on communication. Speak to total compensation, beyond base salary.