HR in 2024: A Practitioner’s View
This is the season when HR trends, predictions, and forecasts are published weekly, and everyone has an opinion on what is in store for the People business in 2024. I often find it interesting that while all trends posted by organizations are based on market research and surveys, they don’t always include the first-hand accounts of those who work on the frontlines of HR.
As I have accumulated a small but mighty following on the Oops Did I Think That Out Loud series, and since this is my last post of the year, I’d like to try something different and invite all of my fellow HR, Talent, and People and Culture practitioners to join me and share what makes us nervous and excites us as we enter into the new year.
I’ll start first. This is what keeps me up at night thinking about HR in 2024:
State of the Economy
Regardless of which 2024 economy predictions you stand behind, it’s indisputable that the cost of borrowing has increased significantly, and organizations are shifting focus to cash reserves and being more fiscally conservative. In the HR world, we are likely in for multiple rounds of “Are you sure you need this?” and “Do more with less” in 2024. This alone doesn’t make me nervous—or even bother me—as that’s the reality of running a business. What makes me nervous is the thought that there will be HR teams in 2024 making decisions to reduce without consulting the data and thinking about the longer-term effects of their choices.
HR’s Investment Choices
In 2023 (and many years before), we have all heard the rallying cries of how HR should drive the business and how CHROs should lead from the outside in (i.e., lead with the business lens). While this sounds great in theory, the lack of practice around this concept makes me nervous. For example, buy low sell high is the general rule taught in every investment or finance class. Yet, in the world of HR and Talent, we have mastered the art of buying high (i.e., hiring when the labor market is hot) and selling low (i.e., laying off when asked to do more with less). We must learn that the talent we let go of during downturns inevitably needs to be brought back when the business is on an upswing again. So, instead of riding alongside the economic roller coaster, I hope we (as an industry) all do a better job planning and anticipating in 2024 to make educated decisions and investments related to people’s livelihoods.
Analytics, Trends, and Benchmarks for Convenience
A comment from Jelvie Grech on a post from Talha Khan recently asking for statements that irk data professionals struck me. “Can we work towards THIS number?” As People Analytics practitioners, I would guess that most of us probably have heard of that question, or something like it, at least once in our professional careers. While 2023 has been a phenomenal year for People Analytics, it also exposed some dark sides, especially with leaders cherry-picking insights and bending data to their convenience. I have always said that it takes courage to be a great People Analytics practitioner, and I think that courage will be pushed and tested in 2024 for People Analytics.
The Illusion of Trust
If you are reading this and work in HR, please recall the last time you hesitated to provide your information or data to your organization. Notice that I’m not asking if that has happened, but when it happened last. The unfortunate reality we work in today is the lack of trust in an organization. Many trend reports talk about the Rise of the Individual as a generational-driven item; my perspective is that correlation does not mean causation. I dare to present another perspective: While the rise of individualism could be related to generations in the workforce, it may also have been caused by decades of trust breaches and broken psychological contracts in the workplace. Without someone else having your back and watching out for you, you must watch out for yourself—that is human nature; it is encoded in our survival instincts. The question HR should be asking in 2024 is not “Why don’t people trust us anymore?” but rather “How do we start to rebuild the trust? What will it cost us? And are we willing to commit to this?”.
The Privileged Lens of HR
Statements like “I’ve stayed here for x years, I would never want to leave our company,” or “This policy works for me, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for everyone else,” or “I show up to work every day, why isn’t everyone else doing the same to keep our absenteeism numbers low?” said by HR professionals scare me beyond anything else on this list. This industry exists on the premise of empathy. The moment we start assuming that what is important to us is important to everyone else, imposing our values and decision frameworks on our workforce, and creating programs and policies based on those assumptions, we have failed our workforce, our business, and possibly our fellow practitioners before we even started. This privilege is not demographic-specific because I have heard these sentences come from HR practitioners and leaders across various demographic groups, industries, and company sizes. The only thing I can say to this is that I sincerely hope we do better and be more empathetic in 2024 because we will need that to help us solve all the above challenges.
Ok, now I'm changing gears to a more positive note. These are the things that give me hope for HR in 2024:
The Relentless Pursuit of Human Potential
It makes me incredibly happy and hopeful to hear stories about how HR professionals in 2023 have helped their companies and workforce have better talent conversations, roll out wellness programs, create career paths that would not have existed previously, etc. I know these programs alone are not enough to solve the world’s problems, and the HR people who executed these programs are probably hearing more about how it could have gone better than how amazing it all was. But the fact that these HR professionals put in their time, energy, and effort to do more for the business and continue to do so for the betterment of their workforce and, in turn, their organizations gives me incredible courage and hope that we will overcome whatever 2024 has in store for us.
The Move Away from One Size Fits All
While empathy can be a lifelong learning goal, the HR technology market in 2023 is making me very hopeful that through the assistance of technology, HR will be able to create and deploy customized workforce experience solutions more quickly. Here’s why:
People Analytics is becoming mainstream, and the numbers are finally proving to us what we knew all along about different user experiences and preferred paths at work.
The rapid growth of the HR tech market has ensured that a workforce type/population is rarely left behind. Technology solutions created for the desk-based worker by one provider can be replicated for the deskless worker with another provider (though I wish for the day when solutions account for all workforce populations).
“Consumer-grade” expectations are finally being picked up by the HR Tech market and HR Tech practitioners so that we are no longer designing and deploying solutions for HR but rather the workforce and our internal customers.
The product management approach to HR is picking up steam going into 2024.
The Openness of the HR Community
2023, for me, was a year of growth. As I navigated uncharted waters professionally and had to look for answers outside of my usual roster of available resources, the openness to ideate and willingness to support from the HR community far exceeded my expectations. People often ask me why I give my personal time to doing virtual coffee chats. I give credit to those who have helped me along the way. It was because someone else was willing to give me time out of their busy day that inspired me to give time out of mine. HR practitioners I have never met in person have proven to me that it is possible to get help from strangers when you ask, and strangers can become friends VERY quickly. So, to those who have been a part of my journey in 2023, here is my sincerest thank you. You haven’t just helped me in those 30-minute calls; you also inspired me to do better for the HR industry.
AI in the Front Row
I will not dwell on this one too much since we’ve all been drowning in this for the past few months. Two quick thoughts: It’s probably going to be as impactful as the commercialization of the Internet. It will finally force HR to look at our tech and data architecture end-to-end so we can use it in our daily activities. I am excited to see what mainstream applications AI will bring for HR in 2024 and, in accompaniment, what additional AI regulations will be tabled and voted on.
People Analytics Going Mainstream
I smile whenever I see a People Analytics role open and posted for hire—especially in current economic conditions. This, to me, signals that organizations and HR teams across industries are finally looking to tap into the potential of their workforce data. I will leave you to peruse my other posts on my thoughts in People Analytics. Given the growth and adoption in 2023, I am very excited to see what 2024 will bring to the People Analytics function.