Workers and leaders alike have started to grapple with the implications for the future of work of a second Trump presidency, with likely impacts in areas including workers’ rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and healthcare access and affordability. We reached out to six experts for their predictions about the biggest changes for workplaces and workers, as well as their advice for the months ahead. Here are their responses, edited for length and clarity:
Now is the time to double down on the policies that make workforces more resilient in the long term.
Dr. Angela Jackson
Founder of Future Forward Institute and author of The Win-Win Workplace: How Thriving Employees Drive Bottom Line Success
I’d like to focus on how workplaces can leverage this time of change to build resilience and sustain long-term success. While we may face shifts in regulations and heightened scrutiny around DEI and labor standards, these challenges offer leaders a unique opportunity to deepen their commitment to supportive, purpose-driven environments.
A key insight from my research is that organizations with strong employee support and inclusive practices are 25% more likely to see above-average performance across key metrics including lower employee turnover rates, higher productivity levels, improved employee engagement scores, and reduced absenteeism rates.
Leaders who focus on measuring and tracking these key performance outcomes (KPOs) that align with business objectives can directly connect employee well-being to organizational success, ensuring that a resilient, inclusive culture translates into measurable and sustained impact. Ultimately, leaders who prioritize values that unify their teams, foster open dialogue, and focus on these key metrics will create workplaces capable of weathering uncertainty. Preparing now by strengthening this culture and connecting outcomes to business objectives will empower organizations to remain adaptive, engaged, and positioned for growth.
The Trump administration will try to undo diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts—and that’s bad for workers and business.
Fatima Goss Graves
President and CEO, National Women’s Law Center
If the past is prologue, we can expect a Trump administration to attempt to shut the door on equal opportunities at work—especially for Black women and other women of color who disproportionately face systemic barriers due to racism and sexism. The whole point of programs that advance diversity and equity is to ensure that everyone with skills and talent has a fair shot at succeeding at work, not just those who share the same background as the boss or who are well connected.
It’s ironic that these programs are under attack because the routine discrimination and harassment that workers experience actually undermine the ability of businesses to meet their goals, not to mention their bottom lines. Any administration that claims it wants to improve the economy should also aim to root out the discrimination and harassment that close doors to talented workers. Instead, the Trump administration is likely to make it harder for businesses to take the steps that allow their workers to thrive and their enterprises to succeed.
Regardless of who is president, longstanding federal civil rights laws require businesses to ensure equal access to employment opportunities. This should be the focus of any organization—and programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion continue to be a critical tool for employers in achieving that goal. I urge employers to show up for their workforce and to show up for equity. They can speak up publicly about the benefits of equity and inclusion that serve not only their employees but their bottom line. They can engage with elected officials, peers, and professional associations. And they can recommit to effective practices that raise employee trust, like adopting policies and practices that promote pay equity, including pay audits and pay transparency practices.
Stop to think strategically about policies, guidelines, and internal communications in the uncertain months ahead.
Lauren Winans
CEO and principal HR consultant of Next Level Benefits
There are moves that are going to be made with this administration that could potentially lead to labor shortages, unintentionally increase inflation, and shift the dynamics within workplaces. We could potentially see mass deportations and visa restrictions. We’re going to see labor regulations change: the hourly workforce may be classified a little bit differently, overtime pay regulations may change, and unions could potentially be impacted by new labor policies.
Employers will have more on their plate, so this is a great time to just kind of stop and reposition. How can we be strategic? How can we be transparent in our communication? How can we ensure that guidelines and policies are in place and that people know about them? Sometimes we as HR professionals often get into the bad habit of not communicating until we know something, and that absence of messaging sends people into making up their own stories around how something might play out. My recommendation would be to communicate often and also to communicate the unknown. As the year is wrapping, say something like, ‘We’re looking at a variety of different ways that we can enhance the employee experience. Changes in legislation or changes in various aspects of the economy are not going to be something that immediately impact us, but if there is an impact, we will let you know immediately. We are learning as we go, as changes are happening around us.’
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work is about to become even more complicated—but more essential than ever.
David Glasgow
Executive director, NYU Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging
The Trump presidency is likely to make an already challenging DEI landscape even more difficult. President-elect Trump will almost certainly appoint federal judges, including new justices to the Supreme Court, who continue to push the law of DEI in a conservative direction. He is also likely to renew or expand an executive order that he issued toward the end of his first term, purporting to ban federal contractors from engaging in certain forms of DEI. Such an order is likely to be challenged in the courts. Finally, I expect his administration to implement some of the Project 2025 agenda items relating to DEI, such as eliminating DEI programs within the federal government and taking enforcement action against companies that engage in forms of DEI that are disfavored by anti-DEI activists.
I would recommend that leaders help their colleagues and employees improve their legal literacy so that they can continue to advance DEI work with confidence. When faced with such a frontal assault on DEI, many people will be tempted to retreat in fear. But there is a lot of lawful DEI work that is beyond the reach of a hostile presidency, such as work that removes bias from internal policies, or work that benefits everyone, including programs grounded in concepts like allyship, psychological safety, authenticity, inclusive leadership, or cross-cultural competency.
Now is the time to equip leaders with the knowledge to differentiate between risky and safe forms of DEI, so that pro-DEI organizations can serve as a bulwark and safe haven for marginalized workers under the incoming administration.
Caregivers need employers to step up and support child care, paid leave, and other care policies.
Reshma Saujani
Founder and CEO, Moms First
The economy—and the economic pain families are feeling—was the defining issue of this election. This is no surprise to us at Moms First—child care costs more than rent in all 50 states. And the lack of accessible, affordable child care isn’t just a burden on families—US companies are losing $23 billion annually due to absenteeism, turnover, and decreased productivity, resulting in a $122 billion impact on our national economy. When working parents struggle to secure reliable child care, businesses lose valuable talent, see lower productivity, and experience higher turnover.
This issue isn’t going away. Almost 100,000 Americans are forced to stay home from work each month due to child-care problems, making child care a clear economic imperative.
Private sector leaders have a responsibility to take action now. First, in their own backyards, by investing in child-care and paid-leave benefits for their employees and communities, and second, to use their influence to ensure that child care is prioritized by the next congress and administration. Child care is a wildly bipartisan policy that benefits us all, from families, to businesses, to our economy, and we at Moms First look forward to mobilizing business leaders to help ensure that the public and private sectors work together to implement pragmatic, bold solutions to our child-care crisis.
A push to deregulate the economy means employers have a role in empowering workers and reaffirming their rights.
Michael Posner
Director, NYU Center for Business and Human Rights
The president-elect has made clear that he wants to reduce the size of the federal government and lift regulations. This will almost certainly mean diminished federal oversight of the workplace, fewer resources to oversee workplace safety and less protection for efforts by workers and unions to organize. The new administration is also likely to oppose ongoing efforts by companies to promote greater workplace diversity.
First, leaders should put systems in place to monitor violations of workers’ rights, document abuses, and develop means to widely disseminate those findings. Second, they need to double down on efforts to ensure that workers know their rights under the law and remedial avenues available to them. These remedies may include internal procedures within companies and state or federal laws that can be enforced in the courts. Third, leaders should draw on experiences in the coming months to develop an affirmative reform agenda for the future and, working with others, promote a decent work agenda as part of future political campaigns and elections.
Read “What’s next for workplaces post-election” by Charter editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney here.
Read our guide to supporting employees in the wake of the election.