As organizations embark on 2024, they face a landscape of economic uncertainty, prompting the need for strategic foresight. In response to this challenge, ASE partner, McLean & Company, a renowned HR research and advisory firm, has released its annual HR Trends Report 2024.
Will Howard, Director of HR Research & Advisory Services at McLean & Company, emphasizes the pivotal nature of 2024 for HR professionals. He notes, “Organizations are faced with the stark reality that we can’t plan for everything coming down the pipeline.”
The report identifies the top five priorities for organizations in 2024, based on the responses gathered:
- Recruiting: Maintaining its status as the top priority, recruitment remains a focal point for HR in 2024.
- Providing a great employee experience: Holding steady in the second spot, ensuring a positive employee experience remains crucial for organizational success.
- Controlling labor costs: Climbing up one spot from 2023, controlling labor costs emerges as an intensified focus for HR in 2024.
- Developing leaders: Slipping from third place in 2023, developing leaders now holds the fourth spot in HR priorities for 2024.
- Supporting change: Rising two places from the seventh spot last year, supporting change breaks into the top five priorities for HR in 2024.
Other key highlights include:
- HR in 2024: An Era of Change – The report highlights the increasing strategic partnership role HR plays in organizational strategy, rising from 36% in 2021 to 50% in 2024.
- Rethinking the Approach to Skills – The examination of key skills and competencies reveals a risk for organizations, with only 24% to 36% of non-office workers highly proficient in core and leadership skills.
- Delivering on the Employee Experience – Evaluating five dimensions contributing to employees’ experiences, the report underscores the impact of effective employee experience design on turnover rates, organizational performance, and workforce productivity.
- Flexibility Beyond Remote Work – The report investigates flexible work offerings beyond remote work, revealing that 81% of organizations are not planning significant changes in flexibility regarding location, 88% in working hours, and 89% in time off.
- 2024 Trends Spotlights – The final section emphasizes overlooked topics, including generative AI and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
As organizations grapple with disruptions across various facets, the report underscores the crucial role of HR in strategic leadership. However, HR professionals’ increasing stress levels, rising from 34% in 2023 to 47% in 2024, highlight the need for a balanced approach to HR’s capacity in supporting both organizations and employees.
By Linda Olejniczak, courtesy of SBAM-approved partner, ASE.
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