11 HR Trends for 2024: Elevating Work

In 2024, we are at a crossroads. We face historically low levels of unemployment, an aging workforce, and a systemic lack of technical skills. At the same time, the remote work debate continues, with companies like Zoom asking employees to return amidst productivity concerns.

This isn’t just a corporate challenge; countries also face this dilemma. Australia’s productivity only grew by 1.1% between 2010 and 2020. Early data shows that the pandemic has further impeded growth, with productivity decreasing by a whopping 2.3% in the last quarter of 2022, sparking a national ‘Advancing Productivity’ initiative. Similar trends have been observed in other parts of the world as well, including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies and Britain.

Workers in the US are about 18% more productive than EU-15 workers. This is mostly caused by differences in investments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that drive productivity, emphasizing the role that HR can play in driving productivity through technology.

To maintain prosperity – and the benefits that come with it, HR should put a renewed emphasis on productivity. After all, robust organizational performance, fueled by productivity, paves the way for stable employment and competitive wages, which positively impact employee wellbeing.

Echoing this sentiment, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, stated that pay rises should be focused on rewarding productivity, and that “as we improve our productivity, pay can rise greater”.

We believe that by focusing on enhancing productivity, HR can lay foundations for lasting employee wellbeing.

HR should take a more holistic view of productivity, focusing on removing bottlenecks, formulating strategies to improve performance, and rewarding behaviors that drive productivity.

Data analysis will play a key role here. Take the triple peak day, where Microsoft identified that productivity went up during 6 and 8 p.m., leading to more support for work after hours for employees who chose to do so. Another example is Shopify’s Meeting Cost Calculator which aims to reduce the number of meetings by showing the financial cost of a meeting.

HR should also become better at measuring actual productivity, through smarter goal-setting, monitoring output, and promotion of proven tools that increase productivity.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) can also play a critical role. The use of ChatGPT in business writing tasks increased productivity by 37% and quality by 20%. Another study found that the use of GAI amongst 5,179 customer support agents at a Fortune 500 software company saw GAI reduce onboarding time from 10 months to only 2 months (a 500% decrease!) while increasing their work quality by about 30%. These productivity gains are unheard of and can revolutionize the way we work.

Finally, there is a role for more intentional workforce planning. Some of the biggest bottlenecks in productivity are due to a lack of available and ready talent, which could result in significant financial losses. Skills shortages could cost employers $8.5 trillion by 2030. Proactive workforce planning and accessing new talent pools can help to create pipelines that can be utilized immediately. We will cover this in detail in our next trend.

In today’s labor market, tapping into the forgotten workforce is the right thing to do for two reasons.

First, it makes business sense, given the chronic shortage of labor in the West. 77% of employers report difficulty in filling roles – a 17-year high – while by 2030, one in six people in the world will be 60 years old or over.

Second, it is the right thing to do and a great example of how business utility and inclusion policies can be merged. There is a first-mover advantage here, as only 33% of organizations are looking at new talent pools. 

Some of the biggest barriers the forgotten workforce faces are in talent acquisition. 38% of candidates in this group don’t hear back from an employer for a vacancy they applied for, and over 70% of companies don’t provide feedback to hourly workers. Improving these practices will help both the workforce and the company’s employer brand.

HR can remove some of these barriers to work. Example interventions include:

• Inclusive job ads
• Skill-based hiring
• Equal access to training and reskilling programs
• Recognizing transferable skills over prior experience and qualifications

There’s also a key role for technology. From targeting the hidden workforce through different recruitment channels to personalized onboarding, learning, real-time feedback, and on-demand pay platforms, HR tech has the potential to cater to these employees’ unique needs and empower them to be productive.

Employment practices can further accommodate this part of the workforce. This would include a less stringent retirement age, more inclusive benefits, offering flexible working arrangements, increasing office accessibility, and promoting a culture that values diversity.

The shift towards recognizing and integrating the forgotten workforce is not just a trend but a necessary evolution in the world of work.

Organizations that harness the potential of this vast talent pool will be better able to address critical staffing needs that are holding them back. They will also pave the way for a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable corporate landscape for the future. This is a great example of systemic DEIB, which we’ll discuss in our next HR trend.

As we see above, the business case of diversity is complex. Organizations that pay diversity lip service have been criticized in the public domain for being inauthentic.

Take Nike that was called out after publicly showcasing support for Black Lives Matter while less than 10% of their Senior VP layer were Black. Heathrow Airport celebrated stories from “Women at Heathrow,” yet women’s median hourly pay is 14% lower than men’s. Target suffered a 5% drop in sales due to a controversial Pride collection.

The alternative would be to ignore the topic entirely, which may work for some companies but increases the risk of other companies being “canceled” by consumers and condemned in the public domain.

Beyond the social impact, employees want to work for companies that take a stance on DEIB issues. 80% of workers expect their CEO to take a public stand on discrimination. Not addressing the proverbial elephant in the room will lead to difficulties in attracting, engaging, and retaining talent.

We expect that in 2024, organizations will make changes to how they approach DEIB.

We propose systemic DEIB as a viable way forward in 2024.

Systemic DEIB moves away from high-visibility, ad-hoc DEIB initiatives, which can lead to controversy and perceived inauthenticity, to building DEIB into an effective and authentic foundation of the organization. Systemic DEIB has three core elements:

• 1. Equitable practices: Forming the groundwork for DEIB. Organizations leverage the principles of equality to build systemic practices that promote true inclusion. Examples include equal access to education, reskilling, and pay equity but also the use of data to determine which prerequisites are valid to screen for during talent acquisition. The intent here is to democratize opportunities and access to learning for the entire workforce.
  2. HR voice: Organizations develop a clear stance on specific issues and create proof points that hold up to scrutiny from employees, customers, and the public domain. These proof points need to become a part of the company’s identity. This will also mean working closer with marketing to create an authentic way to speak about DEIB inside and outside the organization.
  3. Targeted action: Once these proof points are clear, systemic DEIB will take targeted action on these issues. Although highly dependent on the proof points set by the organization, it could include moving beyond using job-irrelevant criteria such as degrees and demographics to acquire talent and instead use skill-based approaches that give more people access to opportunities, but also exploring alternative talent pools to drive authentic diversity, forming cross-organizational bodies to foster inclusion and create opportunities for all, and breaking down traditional barriers.

Here again, data can help to analyze where talent is sourced from and evaluate whether these talent pools are unbiased towards certain socioeconomic backgrounds, industry experiences, or schools. Businesses should also leverage data to validate that the targeted action they’ve taken impacts the goals the organization set out to achieve.

We believe that DEIB will remain an essential driver for business growth. However, businesses need to consolidate their efforts and ensure DEIB aligns with the company’s

For HR to make a tangible difference in the organization, it will need to shift its focus from more traditional climate mitigation strategies to climate adaptation. This means that HR will play a key role in managing talent, utilities, and offices. It’ll work to prepare the company for future (climate) disruptions and extreme weather events.

We see the Chief Sustainability position increasingly integrated into the CHRO role (sometimes called Chief People and Sustainability Officer, or CPSO). Moreover, organizations are starting to incorporate ESG metrics into the HR scorecard. These metrics include carbon footprint reduction, percentage of employees using green commuting, gender pay equity, whistleblower protection requests, and so on

Strategically, this trend requires a shift in mindset on how businesses see their role in societal issues, understand how they can adapt their own practices, and incorporate this mindset into business decision-making and culture.

As a first step, HR should conduct a climate risk audit and, based on that, define a roadmap on how the company can better adapt to climate change. Actions may include:

• Creating a council on business continuity
• Putting disaster recovery plans in place, which could cover relocating employees if a natural disaster hits and setting up work locations to accommodate these workers
• Developing and implementing a clear communication strategy that informs stakeholders, including employees and customers, about the company’s climate adaptation measures and progress.

Another example is the implementation of labor practices that accommodate extreme weather. Reports of heat deaths in Europe and the US in the summer of 2023 show that a lack of adaptation is hurting workers and costing lives – a trend that hits migrant workers harder based on reports from the US.

Ensuring the tracking and reporting of corporate sustainability data to comply with the regulation that will take effect in 2024 should also be on HR’s to-do list.

Failure to do so opens the company up to business continuity risk due to a lack of adaptation to a changing external environment, disruptions due to extreme weather, and potential reputational damage due to a failure to positively impact the climate.

Design-thinking and customer-first principles have been a key influence in people practices for a number of years. As HR adopts these principles, separated functional CoEs are broken down into solution areas focused on delivering a specific outcome for HR’s customers.

There are numerous possibilities for new configurations, but we predict four areas as a starting point for 2024:

These solution-focused teams will collaborate closely with HR units within specific business areas. Their role will be to actively participate in and drive the implementation of these solutions alongside the business HR teams.

With HR becoming increasingly value-driven and business-centric, every HR professional must understand how and where they can add value to the business. Business partnering will become relevant to everyone in HR rather than be reserved for a select few who bear the title.

The same will be true for data literacy. The ability to develop hypotheses, set KPIs, read and interpret data, and communicate data stories will become critical well beyond the people analytics functions. HR practitioners will need to harness data literacy as a fundamental skill to drive impactful decisions and strategic contributions.

By adopting these capabilities across all HR roles, organizations take a first step toward a new, multi-skilled HR professional as they break the traditional barriers between generalists and specialists.

These two shifts are the first steps toward new HR operating models built on contemporary organizational design principles that encourage agility, fluidity, and adaptability.

We also expect to see more experimentation within these changes in 2024. HR teams will start to drive more project-based ways of delivery that intentionally put different skills together to find answers to today’s business challenges.

Before HR can lean in, it needs to be clear on three things: First, its purpose, or why it exists as a function. Second, its identity, or who HR is and what it wants to be known for. And third, its contribution, or how it will contribute to collective success.

With a clear strategic vision, HR can set priorities and clear boundaries on responsibilities and identify the skills and behaviors needed to deliver on these priorities. At the same time, HR professionals are empowered to build purposeful HR careers.

It’s time for HR to stop being a support function and claim its identity as a respectful profession with standards backed by data and robust science, and recognized impact.

By having a well-defined strategy that provides value to the business, HR will be able to lean in and put itself forward. This implies making its voice heard in business discussions, as most strategic issues are people issues.

Leaning in also means that HR shouldn’t be apologetic about taking time to focus on its own priorities and develop the profession with the same rigor and investment as we devote to other departments.

We often see HR attending to career paths, learning interventions, and wellbeing of its business stakeholders but failing to stand up for itself. That results in an epidemic of HR burnout, a lack of skills to contribute to the business, and limited HR talent succession pipelines.

This is a mistake that the HR department will rectify in 2024. HR professionals will recognize that they need the same level of enablement and empowerment to continuously develop HR skills, build talent pipelines, invest in knowledge and tools, and reposition HR as a desirable profession to work in.

This transition starts with HR practitioners not viewing themselves as second-class organizational citizens but as equal citizens, core business, and integral to organizational success.

Anecdotally, in his time as CHRO at a large multinational, one of the authors has never been on an HR off-site team event where someone didn’t have to join a call or be on their laptop to squeeze in some work. Most HR professionals prioritize being there for the business over investing in HR and themselves. This is noble but short-sighted.

And lastly, leaning in requires us to change the language we speak in HR and about HR. Language is a strong indicator of how seriously the business is taking a department – and HR should have a clear reason to operate in an organization beyond helping others. In 2024, we’ll stop saying, “I’m in HR because I want to help people”. HR is there to drive business results – and by driving these results, it has the opportunity to help employees.

Understanding how the outside world perceives internal policies, practices, and decisions will become ever more important for HR professionals. Where it used to be the PR and marketing departments that battled in the court of public opinion, it is increasingly becoming the purview of HR.

Being prepared is about actively monitoring employer brand perceptions online and having preemptive responses for potential PR issues. This shift also creates an opportunity to strengthen the employer brand through authentic employee testimonials, glimpses of company culture, and highlighting innovative HR initiatives.

Crafting a PR approach in HR means aligning messaging with core company values, ensuring it resonates with employees, and fosters a sense of belonging across internal and external communication channels.

Internal policies also have a role. 86% of Canadian employers would fire an employee based on an inappropriate post, but only 21% have a professional social media etiquette policy. Including the social media policy in employee onboarding helps align expectations upfront.

Transparent and fair HR policies will become a strategic asset in this new landscape. Companies will have to go beyond aligning with regulatory requirements and actively manage (public) expectations, communicate clearly, and deliver on their employee promise. Building a culture where disagreements can be expressed and swiftly resolved inside the organization rather than outside is also an essential part of this.

Besides raising the bar for transparency and expectations, HR professionals will need to draft internal communications, including sensitive ones like layoff notices, with the understanding that these could be made public. In addition, investing in training HR teams in PR tactics is more important than ever. Such structured guidance will equip them not only to handle potential PR crises but also to manage the company’s image more proactively.

HR professionals who are unable to bridge the gap between internal culture and public perception will become the news for all the wrong reasons.

We already highlighted that GAI increases efficiency and quality of work tasks and can significantly reduce onboarding time. The same study also showed a different effect: the difference between high-performing and low-performing workers decreased, which was caused by low-performing workers converging towards high-performing workers (rather than the opposite).

This speaks to a trend we will see in 2024 and beyond. As GAIs become more advanced, it equates to every employee having a highly intelligent AI peer helping them with their work. This will not benefit the high-performing workers as much as it will low-performing employees. They can now rely on artificial intelligence to make many of their work decisions – and be at least as good as the AI they work with.

There will be little difference between high and low performers in the future – the difference will be between those who use Generative AI and those who don’t.

Organizations are increasingly adopting custom versions of ChatGPT-like tools to guarantee data protection. They’re communicating policies on how employees can safely and ethically use the tool.

HR departments need to go beyond generative AI policy creation and assume a critical role in building technology self-efficacy among employees. This means changing the perception and mindset around GAI, encouraging experimentation with these technologies, removing barriers to using these tools in the organization and day-to-day work, and putting safeguards in place that are needed for emerging technologies.

One such safeguard is to limit the application of artificial intelligence in the selection of candidates or worker management, which is deemed a high-risk AI system under the EU AI Act (and is also regulated under title vii of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). Misuse of these AIs on any EU citizens can lead to fines of up to 40 million Euros or 7% of turnover, whichever is more, regardless of where the organization is headquartered.

Enabling the organization and ensuring adequate safeguards requires technical expertise that HR desperately needs. This is why we expect a continued push for digital agility for HR professionals as part of the broader technological transformation companies have engaged in over the last years.

In this era of rapid digital evolution, HR departments are at the forefront of ensuring not just compliance but also shaping an AI-empowered workforce. HR’s mandate in 2024 will be two-fold: embrace technological advancements to enable an AI-empowered workforce while upholding ethical standards and regulations. It is up to the HR department to guide the organization through this new territory and to strike a balance between innovation and integrity.

When done well, AI will add impact and meaning to work by increasing work efficiency and quality, automating mundane and repetitive tasks, and, as a result, empowering employees to focus on the creative, strategic, and interpersonal aspects of their roles.

One of the biggest challenges that organizations are facing is that different people want different things from work. These expectations are also imposed on organizations.

In 2024, we will see the shift from work-life balance to work-life fit as both employees and organizations re-evaluate their changing preferences and relationships with work. This means we will move beyond the constant balancing act between work and life to an integration of work and life that leads to mutual benefit and success in both.

Success looks different for different people, and so will the trade-offs people will be willing to make.

For example, if upward career progression and pay increases are important to you, you are likely to prioritize work in the context of your broader life decisions and would be willing to accept this trade-off.

Similarly, if you want to pursue interests outside of work, you might be willing to give up pay progression and a 40-hour work week for flexibility that allows you to dedicate time to these interests. Each approach is fine as long as we’re transparent about the inevitable trade-offs that come with it.

HR can facilitate a better relationship with work by redefining the employee value proposition and accommodating what different people want from work. Whether it is a four-day workweek, working remotely, or in a hybrid setting, work-life fit allows employees to choose what works for them – within the boundaries of what the organization is willing to accept.

Organizations need to be much more transparent about what it really takes to succeed, and employees need to become clear on what they want from work. HR should align with leaders on what the company’s true people expectations are and equip managers to lead employees in these new work arrangements.

There are also legal ramifications in terms of contracts, policies, and processes that HR needs to consider. For example, how does a “right to disconnect over the weekend” policy impact colleagues who choose to work over weekends on extra projects to gain faster progression early in their careers?

If managed well, work-life fit can create a renewed relationship with work. One that sees work as a valuable contributor towards human flourishing, as opposed to something that has to be done to survive.

If we don’t manage this well, we risk a workforce that becomes even more discontented with employers. Workers will continue seeking a “perfect-fit” employer, and organizations will struggle to manage their day-to-day people practices.

Feeling that one does meaningless work has a dire impact on employee wellbeing, with bad leadership, unnecessary hierarchy, absence of teamwork, and a lack of meaning in work being key drivers.

Adding meaning not only reduces the turnover, as we’ve seen in the post-pandemic Great Resignation but also adds to job satisfaction, productivity, and engagement. Research indicates that when employees find their work meaningful, they perform 33% better. They’re also 75% more committed to their organization and 49% less likely to leave.

With changing employee expectations, flatter organizational structures, and fewer middle managers with larger spans of control, BS jobs are back on the agenda. HR is uniquely positioned and has access to all the tools needed to get rid of BS jobs while still ensuring gainful and meaningful employment.

First, HR needs to acknowledge that we’re guilty of designing jobs that are not always meaningful. Traditional job design primarily considers the clustering of tasks, activities, and skills required to deliver specific outputs into a job but gives limited attention to whether the clustering of activities will be meaningful for the individual performing the role. This should change.

Second, the circumstances under which work happens also impact how employees perceive their jobs. For example, a company in the broadcasting industry renegotiated the summer sports schedule to allow truck drivers to have more time to drive between venues. This reduced their overnight hauls. Similarly, a retailer implemented flexible rostering for their cashiers in their stores, allowing them more flexibility to decide when they can be scheduled for work within the confines of their contracts.

And third, we need to customize the job to the person. The reality is that for some employees, a job is just a way to make money while they achieve their personal ambitions outside of work.

Not everyone wants to have extra training or be exposed to new opportunities and advancement. Some employees may even see that as something that detracts from their ability to engage with matters in their personal life. That is fine, too, and stresses the importance of high-quality (middle) management practices and work-life fit.

Talent strategies will change in 2024. Where organizations have long used talent pools to manage external talent, they will increasingly build internal talent pools, proactively identifying and developing transferable skills.

The emergence of non-traditional talent pools will also involve a re-evaluation of traditional career pathing. This means that organizations have to re-evaluate their career structures and promote self-directed and democratized career management, where employees can manage their own careers based on the skills they’ve built in the past and the skills they are looking to develop in the future.

It’s also about moving away from traditional career ladders and promoting horizontal and diagonal career moves through a career lattice approach.

There’s an opportunity for organizations to help employees proactively manage their careers inside the organization. A focus on internal career development will require a shift in mindset and culture to support and promote internal mobility, which should go beyond merely moving employees internally, instead aiming to create access to skills that the organization needs.

When done well, internal mobility will become a key talent strategy, helping organizations plan for and manage their talent supply. Using data and technology, organizations can link mobility practices to workforce planning, proactively pool and access talent, and deploy skills where they add the most value. By refocusing internal mobility to drive business outcomes, we will also see less shuttling of low performers from one department to another, which has historically spread inefficiency and demotivation.

Technology will also play a key role in supporting access to internal talent. From identifying transferable skills to creating internal talent marketplaces; digital platforms can now match candidates to roles based on skill sets, aspirations, and potential, thereby democratizing access to opportunities.

This emerging way of managing talent is less about acquiring the talent to fill gaps and more about identifying, unlocking, and nurturing the potential from within.