HR Challenges in Industry 5.0 and Smart Workplaces: A Review of Emerging Issues and Future Directions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64137/31079423/IJEBMR-V2I3P101Keywords:
Industry 5.0, HRM 5.0, Smart Workplaces, Human-Centric Organizations, Human–Robot Collaboration, Ethical Artificial Intelligence, Employee Well-being, Sustainable Human Resource ManagementAbstract
Industry 5.0 represents a transformative paradigm that emphasizes human-centricity, resilience, and sustainability through the synergistic integration of advanced technologies and human capabilities. The emergence of smart workplaces has fundamentally reshaped the role of human resource management (HRM), creating new challenges related to workforce transformation, employee well-being, human–robot collaboration, ethical artificial intelligence, hybrid work arrangements, leadership development, and diversity management. Despite the growing body of literature on Industry 5.0, research addressing these issues from an integrated human resource perspective remains fragmented. Thus, this paper better utilizes a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach to develop an overarching view of academic literature articles from the period 2021 up to 2025 in several major databases: Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and MDPI. The paper uses thematic analysis to identify six main HRM challenges and contrasts how these could affect the organizational resilience and long-term performance. The research shows that building Industry 5.0 takes regular reskilling and upskilling, an employee-first well-being agenda, ethically responsible AI governance, adaptive leadership, and an inclusion culture in organizations. It also makes clear that smart workplaces with sustainable competitive advantage will be the ones that can leverage human values and corresponding organizational capabilities simultaneously vis-à-vis technological innovation. Theoretically, the review contributes to the emerging HRM 5.0 literature through a comprehensive framework for understanding people–technology interactions in intelligent workplaces that integrates Socio-Technical Systems Theory with Resource-Based View and Human-Centered Theory. On a practical level, the results offer strategic insights for HR managers and organizational leaders involved in digital transformation management, while policy implications underscore responsible AI governance, sustainable workforce formation, and augmentation as well as expansion of digital skills. The overarching aim of the study is a comprehensive understanding of HR issues in Industry 5.0 and to guide the future research towards establishing resilient, inclusive, and sustainable smart workplaces.
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