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For HR leaders whose role often revolves around a calendar — annual performance reviews, open enrollment, annual planning and budgeting, quarterly engagement surveys — the new year is an important time to start or sunset initiatives or plans that will affect the business going forward.
After years of making bold predictions about the year to come, this time I'm relying on HR leaders to tell me what will and what won't be a priority in 2024.
Top 5 Priorities for HR Leaders in 2024
Gartner surveyed more than 500 human resources leaders across dozens of countries and industries about their priorities for the coming year. The top five are, in order:
- Leader and manager development
- Organizational culture
- HR technology
- Change management
- Career management and internal mobility
I'm not going to lie, the list surprised me. Where’s the excitement? Where are the new, innovative initiatives? And perhaps most critically, where is AI in all of this?
Gartner supplied some answers to these questions. For example, it cited the unsettled employee-employer relationship as a driver behind many of these responses. According to its research, only a little over 25% of organizations reported that their employees were fully compliant with on-site attendance policies. The research also revealed that only 50% of employees trusted their organization.
Skills are also a huge area of focus for top organizational leaders. Gartner found that 26% of CEOs rank talent shortages as the top damaging factor to their overall business outlook. Yet, employees feel less empowered today due to the constant demands of change and uncertainty. Employees are 42% less intent to stay at their jobs, give 22% less discretionary effort and are 27% less responsive.
Related Article: How AI Can Help You Map Your Talent
What 2024 Holds for the Workplace
Based on how HR leaders are planning for 2024, the research suggests some specific trends coming our way.
HR Executive called 2024 the year of efficiency and the trends definitely reflect this. Leader and manager development has been underinvested in for decades — and now it's in the number one spot for HR leaders.
The problem isn’t just investment, though. In fact, I would argue that leaders have more access to information that helps them build their skills. You can’t step into an airport bookstore without seeing practical leadership books next to bestselling biographies. Platforms like LinkedIn and Coursera have democratized access to leadership skills for as little as a subscription to Netflix.
As Gartner rightly points out, the way that manager and leadership roles in organizations have been designed is simply not working. Its study cites that the average manager has 51% more responsibilities than they can manage and one in five would prefer to not be people managers to begin with. A redesign of the role is long overdue and it should complement some of the broader changes in the world of work.
While Generative AI has been all the rage, the survey shows HR leaders taking a much more pragmatic look at their HR technology stacks. That might be because only 22% of HR leaders are highly engaged in enterprise-level discussions on the use of AI. That might be for the better as work technology today is outdated for modern needs according to more than half of the HR leaders surveyed.
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Related Podcast: Breaking the Middle Management Boom-Bust Cycle
Adaptation and Transformation Are the Constants
Ultimately, work leaders have to shift their priorities to meet employee needs — and those ever-evolving needs can be exhausting to keep up with.
Adaptation coupled with digital transformation will continue to trend in 2024 and beyond. HR — and the broader organizational leadership — must have realistic plans for the future while keeping agile and flexible as new, capable technologies enter the workplace. It's a tricky and difficult to manage balance that will only grow more complex as organizations update legacy systems and guide the change management needed to succeed.
