Survey says: Recruiting, providing a great employee experience, controlling labor costs, developing leaders, and supporting change round out the Top 5 HR priorities for the year as identified in the 2024 HR Trends Report.
Why it matters: The trends report highlights progress made in these areas and insights for CHROs that will help HR teams focus their attention on issues that will make a difference during times of rapid change.
Some key themes covered:
A changing era: HR’s involvement as a partner in planning and executing organization strategy increased from 36% in 2021 to 50% in 2024.
- Sounds good, so what’s the problem? Capacity issues, stress levels, perceptions of HR’s effectiveness and trust can pose roadblocks to ensuring HR’s alignment with the business and the ability to deliver value.
- HR Opportunities. Ongoing focus on automation and technological advances, building team resilience, enhancing HR’s comfortability with data, and measuring organizational alignment are helpful approaches to continue progress as a strategic business partner.
Rethinking the approach to skills: Critical skill gaps exist for both office and non-office workers. However, only 25% of respondents reported that their HR function is highly effective at building workforce talent.
- A narrow focus. For non-office workers, task and functional skills are prioritized disproportionately over any other skills including core competencies such as the ability to navigate change, work collaboratively and understand the business impact of their work.
- Re-direct efforts. Among office workers, leadership skills are a high priority but lowest scoring in proficiency.
- HR Opportunities. Expand the scope of employee development to include more diverse skillsets. Boost the competencies of HR and L&D teams to facilitate organizational re-skilling and upskilling efforts. Utilize workforce planning and succession planning to anticipate future skill demands.
Delivering on the employee experience. Organizations that are highly effective at designing a positive employee experience are 2.5 times more likely to quickly capitalize on new opportunities and 2.3 times more likely to foster innovation by generating and implementing new ideas.
- Missing the mark. The two employee experience variables that were most highly connected with organizational change and innovation results were tasks and culture, yet were also among the lowest rated by business leaders.
- HR Opportunities. Listen and learn about the day-to-day experiences of employees to define what matters most. Don’t ignore “the little things” that can add up to major frustration. Flexibility will continue to influence the employee experience so creativity around work hours and time off policies will matter.
AI’s Impact for HR. When generative AI is used, 79% of respondents say they are more productive and efficient.
- HR is “tiptoeing.” Only 28% of HR functions are taking steps to implement Generative AI, reporting a lack of time to assess possibilities and risk concerns.
- HR Opportunities. Empower employees to leverage the technology, assist the company in weighing the advantages and risks and inspire employees to develop their use cases that will enhance their own work.
