SHRM CEO: It’s HR’s Time, Duty to Rise Above the Storm

At SHRM’s Annual Conference last year, SHRM President and Chief Executive Officer Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, warned HR professionals that a massive storm was coming for the profession and the workplace at large: a storm of talent and education shortages, reskilling demands, a dramatic rise of artificial intelligence, and an increase of incivility in the workplace.

He told HR professionals that they needed to embrace the storm by acting like buffalo, the animals that famously run through storms, rather than hide or avoid what’s to come.

Now, a year later, the storm for HR is officially here, Taylor said June 30 at SHRM25 in San Diego.

“AI is ripping through the labor market, wiping out entire job categories. Layoffs are rising, up 80% from this time last year,” Taylor said. “Uncertainty is scrambling our financial markets and corporate projections. DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] has become a four-letter word. And workplaces are the new battleground.”

With the storm “far from over” and continually changing, Taylor said that to overcome it, HR leaders cannot lose sight of the vision and the importance of their role, stressing the need for HR leaders to “develop new skills, new tools, and a new perspective.”

“I’m asking you to look up from the storm — to shift your perspective from what is practical to what is possible,” he said.

The good news, Taylor said, is that HR professionals — along with the SHRM community at large — are stepping up to embrace the changes and face the challenges. For instance, he said, when the Trump administration’s executive orders started to drop, more than 33,000 SHRM members joined a SHRM webinar to learn how to navigate the changes.

“Together with SHRM, you’ve carried people through grief, through chaos, through unimaginable change,” Taylor said. “You’ve held organizations together in a labor market that keeps shifting right under your feet.”

Fly Like an Eagle

Over the past year, HR professionals have proven that they are “strong, worthy buffalo,” he said. But as changes and challenges continue to proliferate in the workplace, now’s the time to embrace a new animal: the eagle.

“The eagle can sense a storm coming from far away. From a high vantage point, she will wait for the wind to come. And then she sets her wings and lets the current sweep her far above the chaos below,” Taylor said. “That’s what we have to do. The eagle isn’t escaping the storm — she’s using it to lift herself higher. From up there, the future is more clear, it’s less noisy, and a lot less turbulent.”

There are three major areas that HR needs to focus on to rise above expectations and make a major difference for workers, Taylor said: protecting equal opportunity in a difficult climate, meeting the coming crisis of human displacement, and preserving workplaces as civil sanctuaries for people.

And in each of these areas, he said, HR professionals need to do a better job of communicating to their employees about what the changes mean for them.

Promoting Inclusion

Taylor explained that SHRM knew a change to traditional DEI programs was coming because the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 indicated strongly that’s where it was headed when it found affirmative action in higher education was unconstitutional.

“Anyone who objectively read that opinion, and not just the media outrage about it, knew equity was at risk,” Taylor said, explaining that there was also anger and controversy when SHRM officially introduced the concept of inclusion and diversity last summer. “U.S. employment laws focus on equality, not equity. HR professionals must know the difference and the legal limitations of our work.”

HR is caught in the middle, he said, “trying to explain exactly how DEI is defined and demonstrated in our organizations.”

Although the concept of DEI is under siege and evolving, he said, the mission of the HR profession for ensuring inclusion and diversity has not wavered. And it shouldn’t. 

“You, the people who advocate tirelessly for our workers, have not stopped caring,” he said. “And the critical work of providing equal opportunity for all is still desperately needed. It isn’t about politics — it’s about people and performance.”

SHRM, for its part, will officially re-launch CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion — a coalition SHRM assumed last year from consulting firm PwC that provides CEOs with a better understanding of how to build a culture of inclusion — later this year. “We’ll continue to champion strong, inclusive, legal workplaces that work for all,” Taylor said.

‘Crisis Mode’ — and an Opportunity

Meanwhile, the rise of AI and technology is dramatically changing the working landscape. It’s not just impacting workers, he said; it’s displacing and replacing them.

“Last year, we warned you how fast technology would change work and that people urgently needed to reskill themselves to keep up,” he said. “Fast forward to today, we’re in crisis mode. Technology is replacing humans, and it’s happening faster than we expected.”

In fact, Bill Gates predicted earlier this year that in the next decade, humans will no longer be needed for most professions in the world, even doctors and teachers, Taylor said.

It’s a sobering prediction, and it’s one that could very well come true. But it’s HR’s responsibility to navigate massive reinvention in the workplace across multiple professions.

“It’s time for us to roll up our sleeves. HR must be the architects of how AI is introduced, explained, and embraced,” he said, citing SHRM’s The AI+HI Project, which was launched in 2024. “HI means human intelligence — and that will forever, forever, be the most critical element. It means aligning tech with values, anticipating impact, and leading with empathy — something computers can’t do.”

He also said reskilling is urgently needed, adding that fewer young people are working and young people are less prepared for work. Meanwhile, older people — even those ages 75 and above —  are among the fastest growing segments of the workforce, Taylor said, adding that HR leaders should give them the opportunities, education, and flexibility they desire to succeed.

“If we don’t help people shift, we’re not just losing jobs — we’re losing livelihoods,” he said. “And that’s a failure we can’t afford.”

Civility and the Path Forward

While DEI and AI are massive concerns for company leaders, perhaps the biggest threat to the workplace is simpler than either of those: It’s us.

“People are at each other’s throats. Workplaces are turning into battlegrounds for ideological fights that started somewhere else but end at the watercooler, in Slack threads, and on Zoom calls,” he said.

Focusing on practicing civility and making sure that truth is the basis of the workplace — not rumors and propaganda — is vital, he said. “If we can model civility at work, it spreads beyond work. Together, you and SHRM are building cultures rooted in mutual respect — not uniformity, but respect,” Taylor said.

Doing all of this, he said, will enable HR leaders to rise above the storm rather than get caught in it.

“The ascendence of every great company begins with its people,” he said. “And as HR leaders, we are the lifting winds.”