AI-generated illustration: Three roadway warning signs symbolizing the red flags that may indicate your talent strategy is at risk, as highlighted in the 2025 Workday Global Workforce Report and examined through a People Analytics lens.
Workforce research often reveals early signals of how employees grow, stay, leave, and adapt, long before traditional metrics fully reflect these shifts. The 2025 Workday Global Workforce Report offers a deeper view beneath a seemingly strong labor market and identifies several emerging risks affecting workforce stability.
I aim to translate Workday’s findings through the lens of People Analytics and extract some insights that could equip HR teams, leaders, and analysts to interpret these trends and respond effectively.
To interpret Workday’s findings, I will group the results into three signals that may influence workforce stability:
- Attrition Signals
- Growth Signals
- Trust and Communication Signals
These signals draw from organizational psychology, internal mobility research, and behavioral patterns commonly observed across large workforce datasets. They help HR and analytics teams translate Workday’s findings into indicators that are monitored continuously rather than assessed retrospectively.
Red Flag 1: High Performers Are Leaving Faster
Signal Type: Attrition Signal
Workday reports a significant increase in high-performer turnover across industries:
- Retail: +64 percent YoY
- Healthcare: +28 percent YoY
- Professional services: +14 percent YoY
High performers often contribute heavily to knowledge retention and operational stability. When they begin leaving at a faster rate, it may reflect deeper issues related to development, clarity of progression, and internal opportunity structures.
People Analytics Lens: What to Monitor
Early signals may appear long before resignation events. Key indicators include:
Workload and Recognition
- High performers whose workload grows faster than their peers
- Declines in recognition frequency for historically strong contributors
- Output rising while enablement, capacity, or resourcing scores remain flat
Mobility and Progression
- Declining internal applications
- Prolonged promotion timelines
- Lower rates of cross-team movement
Sentiment and Feedback Patterns
- Rising frustration in sentiment data
- Exit feedback themes consistently referencing growth or workload
- Discrepancies between performance contribution and career progression
Red Flag 2: A Promotion Slowdown Is Reshaping Career Expectations
Signal Type: Growth Signal
Workday notes that 10 of 11 industries experienced a decline in internal promotions, signaling a slowdown in internal advancement even within companies that continue to hire externally.
This shift may be reshaping expectations of career growth and internal mobility.
People Analytics Lens: What to Monitor
Growth signals may extend far beyond formal promotions. Important indicators include:
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Performance Evaluation Dynamics
- Consistent gaps between employee self-ratings and manager ratings
- Teams where rating discrepancies cluster or deviate from organizational norms
- Mismatches between written performance comments and numerical ratings
- Patterns of rating inflation, compression, or irregular calibration
Career Movement and Readiness
- Increasing time in a particular grade
- Widening gaps between performance input and progression outcomes
- Lower frequency of career and development conversations
- Fewer lateral moves or internal marketplace activities
- Reduced engagement with learning pathways or certifications
Evaluation Gaps as Signals
Evaluation misalignment may point to:
- Unclear expectations
- Inconsistent feedback rhythms
- Managers applying rating scales differently
- Employees seeking clarity on next steps
- Teams where performance conversations need strengthening
Red Flag 3: Employees Are Unclear About AI Strategy
Signal Type: Trust and Communication Signal
Workday reports that 44 percent of employee comments about AI carry negative sentiment. Many employees expect AI to impact their role; however, they are uncertain about how or when those changes will occur.
For many employees, the core challenge is not AI adoption itself, but clarity.
People Analytics Lens: What to Monitor
Trust and communication challenges could show up in:
Adoption and Understanding
- Teams describing AI use cases inconsistently
- Differences in readiness scores among employees in similar roles
- AI training completion gaps
Patterns in Communication
- Higher frequency of AI-related questions during town halls
- Uneven understanding of responsible AI guidelines
- Sentiment patterns showing anxiety, fear, or uncertainty
- Teams where AI adoption lags despite access to tools
How People Analytics Teams Can Use These Signals
These insights are most powerful when embedded in ongoing analytics rather than reserved for annual reporting. HR and People Analytics teams can apply Workday’s findings through the following actions:
- Build early warning dashboards for attrition
Combine workload trends, mobility signals, and sentiment to identify rising risk. - Measure career movement health quarterly
Track promotion velocity, time-in-level, lateral movement, and evaluation alignment. - Treat trust and communication as measurable
Use sentiment analysis, question clustering, and readiness scoring to gauge employee clarity and confidence. - Develop AI capability maps
Assess role-based understanding, usage patterns, and confidence levels to identify enablement gaps. - Monitor internal mobility alongside external hiring
A slowdown in internal movement can precede frustration, disengagement, and eventual resignation.
Conclusion
Across these signals, the central pattern is the same: employee expectations appear to be shifting faster than many internal systems are adapting. The 2025 Workday Global Workforce Report is more than a set of statistics. It surfaces the shifting dynamics underlying how employees think about growth, trust, and long-term commitment. Rising high-performer turnover, slower promotions, and uncertainty around AI signal a workforce in transition.
People Analytics is evolving from reporting past outcomes to interpreting real-time behavior. When organizations read workforce signals clearly, they can move beyond reacting to change and anticipate it.
If you appreciate research-driven reviews that translate workforce findings into practical People Analytics insights, I welcome you to follow for future analyses and frameworks.
Source: 2025 Workday Global Workforce Report (Workday, 2025).
Author’s Note
Osariemen Afolabi is a People Analytics professional who helps organizations understand workforce behavior through clear, data-informed insights. She focuses on analyzing employee trends, building automated reporting, and translating complex HR data into meaningful guidance that supports strategic decision-making.
Connect with me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oojoafolabi