by Laine Jubinville, VP, Strategic HR Consulting
With 2024 upon us, we wanted to share our predictions for the six most impactful HR trends to watch for this year.
1. Artificial Intelligence
Generative AI (such as ChatGPT) continues to transform organizational and HR processes. From recruitment automation to predictive analytics for employee retention, AI is empowering organizations to streamline operations and decision-making. At the same time, organizations will need strike a balance between leveraging the efficiency of AI and valuing human qualities that are still essential in business.
2. Generational Diversity
In 2024, we will see an increase of younger professionals entering the workforce while more and more employees begin to reach retirement age. With the increasing popularity of transition to retirement plans that support mature professionals remaining in the workplace for longer, meeting the needs of a generationally diverse workforce will be more important – and more interesting – to balance. For example, the culture and working life expectations of younger professionals often includes a desire for improved work-life balance and greater emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.
3. Market Competitive Salaries
The future of pay requires a shift from outdated compensation programs that may no longer align with employees’ unique skills. To confidently ensure salary offerings are market-competitive, annual assessment of base pay salary trends in your organization’s targeted labour market is encouraged. This may not mean reviewing every single job every single year, however, determining a list of your organizations ‘benchmark jobs’ (i.e. jobs with titles and job functions which are commonly found across sector and industry and therefore are easily measured) with a representative sample of jobs across job family/function and job worth/pay grades are good rules of thumb to follow. Ensuring your organization is offering competitive base pay rates is crucial to ensure that you are able to attract and retain top talent, especially as conversations around cost-of-living and inflation are top of mind for employees.
4. Culture of Continuous Learning
Organizations will need to have a firm grasp on the skills that will be essential in 2024, and ensure they are providing learning and development opportunities to elevate their teams. For example, training that allows leaders to adapt to changing environments, lead remote teams effectively, and foster innovation and resilience within their teams. Or, as AI continues to become more capable and its usage more widespread, ensuring employees understand not only how to use these transformative technologies, but that complementary – and exclusively human – skills such as strategic thinking, complex problem solving, creativity, emotional intelligence, etc. are well-developed. Learning experiences also enable employees to connect and share with one another in both formal and informal ways.
5. Talent Retention & Engagement
Learning and development efforts support in creating a culture of continuous learning, which in turn supports employee engagement. However, successfully reskilling and upskilling employees can make them particularly desirable to competitors. To ensure these highly valuable team members remain engaged, organizations must put improved focus on wholistic retention and talent management strategies in 2024. Additionally, hosting surveys (engagement or pulse) are key for collecting data and surfacing insights necessary to make strategic decisions on factors that impact engagement levels and workplace cultures.
6. Comprehensive DEI Initiatives
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) will remain a focus for organizations. It will be critical for organizations to clearly define the outcomes they expect from diversity and inclusion learning initiatives. Making diversity and inclusion an integral part of an organization’s roadmap is essential, however a financial commitment is not enough. Developing DEI leaders is crucial to drive positive cultural change and ensuring equal opportunities for all employees and creating a workplace that attracts, retains, and empowers top talent in 2024 and beyond.
See your organization thrive with HR projects and initiatives that elevate your employee experience, support talent retention and enhance workplace culture. Connect with us today to discuss how our people and culture solutions could be the game changers your organization is seeking in 2024.