EAPM was represented at Bulgarian Association for People Management HR Days 25: Know How, held on 29 October 2025 in Sofia. As part of the programme, EAPM Board Member Elli Matsuoka delivered a keynote address focused on the evolving know-how of the HR profession in times of profound transformation. The article below builds on the key ideas and reflections she shared during her keynote, offering a deeper exploration of how HR can reconnect with its human essence while shaping the future of work.
A Profession at an Inflection Point
The World Economic Forum’s 2025 “Future of Jobs” report suggests that nearly four in ten key skills across jobs will be transformed or replaced by 2030, and the HR profession is not exempt from this shift.
In parallel, a recent Harvard Business Review Analytic Services report has described HR’s evolution from administration to strategic leadership, while also highlighting that progress is slowed by skills gaps within HR departments and operational inefficiencies.
Another HBR analysis on the future of work and AI integration talks about a turning point where HR professionals must blend digital fluency, ethical awareness, and deep human insight to lead transformation.
HR leaders are called to build new capabilities in strategic thinking, talent retention, strategic partnership orientation, and a mindset of growth and innovation.
It’s apparent that the knowhow of the HR profession is undergoing a critical and systemic shift. The skills that once defined “good HR” are no longer enough.
This moment is less a crisis to survive and more an invitation to redefine what HR knowhow means now and to intentionally design the impact the profession aims to have in the next decade.
How HR Lost (and Can Regain) Its “Centre of Gravity”
To understand where HR is heading, it helps to remember where it began.
In its earliest days, from the 1940s through the 1980s, HR—then called personnel management—focused primarily on advocating for workers. Initially, this was a way to keep unions out of companies and later it aimed to develop employees, in an era when most talent was grown from within.
Over time, recessions, cost-cutting, and pressure for efficiency shifted HR’s focus and activities toward compliance, control, and cost management. Pay and benefits were squeezed, training budgets faced cuts, and a healthy organizational culture was often not a priority, especially when slack labour markets made it difficult for people to quit.
Ambition also played a role in changing the HR function. HR worked hard to be seen as a strategic partner instead of as an administrative support. HR professionals had to master budgets and metrics and learn the language of business to earn credibility in the boardroom.
That ambition largely succeeded, but the price was that part of HR’s original identity became weaker. HR began to lose its “centre of gravity”.
The New HR KnowHow Framework
Today, the issue is no longer whether HR has “a seat at the table”. The question is: what is done with that seat in a world shaped by AI, hybrid work, systemic burnout, and a profound crisis of trust?
How can HR reimagine its role in this new era?
Can it rediscover its original purpose while mastering the complex realities of the 21st century?
Answering this requires a new kind of HR knowhow— one that connects technology with empathy, data with integrity, and human potential with purpose. The HR know-how framework is under change and will be redefined over the next years.
While HR is redefining its knowhow framework and reclaiming its center of gravity, the following four principles can help navigate this transition, while shaping the future.
Four Principles for Reframing HR and Shaping the Future
Principle 1: Community and Collaboration
The future HR role cannot be designed in isolation. It should be built through cocreation and shared learning, and communities can play an important role in enabling this shift.
At the European Association for People Management (EAPM), community and collaboration are two of the four foundational pillars, reflected in a network of 36 HR associations across Europe that exchange challenges, insights, and solutions.
The establishment and growth of the International HR Day (IHRD) is a powerful example of the power of community and collaboration. It began in 2018 as a small pilot with just a few member-associations and is now celebrated globally—from HR communities in Europe to those as far as Australia and Africa.
This evolution demonstrates what becomes possible when community replaces competition: ideas spread faster, courage is reinforced, and HR evolves as a collective force rather than a set of isolated departments.
Principle 2: Rethinking Power Through “Humipower” (=Humility + Power)
Over recent decades, HR has gained real power: access to data, influence in strategic decisions, and a regular presence in boardrooms.
But with power comes responsibility—to listen, not dictate; to enable, not control.
History has repeatedly shown that power alone can be harmful, and business is no exception.
A better version of power is needed more than ever; one that uses authority without ego and leading with strength, listening, and ethics rather than control.
HR professionals can and should be role models in using their power with humility. In this transformative era, HR may need to question its own structures and systems and be prepared to let go of approaches or frameworks it previously created.
HR has indeed gained influence, but its credibility, as we are moving forward, depends on how it uses that influence and on its willingness to question and rebuild its own structures when needed.
Principle 3: Ethics, Trust, and Transparency
The latest Edelman Trust Barometer describes a profound global trust crisis “rooted in grievance,” with 61% of people believing that business and government make their lives harder and primarily serve the wealthy.
When trust erodes, culture, engagement, productivity, and innovation all begin to collapse.
In this environment, HR has a vital role to play in reversing the trend. HR’s knowhow must increasingly include the ability to protect trust through open dialogue and transparent communication.
HR can act as a guardian of trust inside organizations, driving actions that enable ethical leadership, inclusion, and visible fairness.
Principle 4: Acting With a Legacy Perspective
Legacy is not just what appears in an end-of-career tribute or an annual report; it is formed daily through decisions and the opportunities created or denied for others.
This year has provided a powerful example of legacy in practice. When Giorgio Armani died, the world celebrated not only his creations but also the clarity and care with which he prepared his company’s future. He designed a succession plan to keep the company independent and aligned with its founding values.
This is legacy not left to chance, but crafted with care, vision, and responsibility for the next generation.
For HR, legacy means shaping the future before leaving it.
It means asking what systems, cultures, and leaders are being created for the next generation. Every hiring decision, every promotion, every policy review, and every act of integrity contributes to that legacy.
HR’s influence extends beyond today’s engagement scores; it shapes the future conditions in which people will work, grow, and lead.
HR’s Greatest KnowHow: Building Hope for the Future
The Edelman Trust Barometer also points to a worrying loss of optimism.
Only about a third of people globally believe life will be better for the next generation, and in many developed economies that figure falls to around 20%. This is deeply concerning at different levels.
Perhaps, one of the most essential capabilities of HR for the future, is the ability to build hope; to lead with courage, to design with a sense of legacy, and to help create workplaces—and ultimately societies—that are better than today.
HR is uniquely placed to influence whether work becomes a source of dignity, fairness, and potential. That may prove to be its greatest knowhow of all.