HR in 2024 - evolution or AI-led transformation?

It was early in 2023 that a new chapter in technology was opened. The excitement and euphoria about the potential of generative AI gathered steam and it certainly was a year of foundation.  It’s still early days, but it opens up so many possible futures for work and the workforce.

Nicole Knott and I, ambitious for HR and its role in business success, have been contemplating  what 2024 holds for the function. Economic headwinds are increasing the pressure on budgets and investment, but that will not hold up the rapid evolution of the technology landscape. And alongside that, productivity, skills scarcity and change readiness up there among the themes. So Nicole and I got together to put some bets on what will change in 2024: Nicole through a tech-lens and Alastair from a talent and skills perspective.  

Nicole’s Top 5

1. Continued tightening of tech spend and disruption of pricing landscape. We will see new players continue to emerge and established tech providers will continue to expand products. Market Leaders will be able to understand and act upon the duplication(s) within the ecosystem.
2. Increased pressure to optimise the existing ecosystem, eliminating duplication and enhancing the end to end employee experience. In short while there will be different tech offerings, these will start to connect up better, driving increased productivity.
3. HR-led employee experience and service delivery across the enterprise. Forging new partnerships across corporate functions for centralisation of ownership, driving consistency of experience, service and technology leveraged across the organisation. Employees do not see the swim lanes of what is HR or Finance or IT; they just see an issue they need to be solved. Making it simple and consistent is the opportunity to save headaches and time - getting people back to productivity as quickly as possible.
4. Major focus on streamlining data, data architecture and policies to prepare for the use of GenAI. Data capabilities are key to success with AI, and few companies are truly set up for this. The less chaos AI needs to cut through, the more accurate the GenAI results will be. 
5. Acceleration of skills baselining through the use of AI to map jobs into skills, a core foundational element to unlock anything and everything about people within the organisation today. Then, HR can understand skills gaps against those required for the future, and develop targeted learning programmes to fill them, powered by incredibly advanced tech available on the market today. 

Alastair’s Top 5

1. The hybrid debate enters a new phase - there is a truce between employers and employees, but it does not feel that it’s settled. There will be a new focus on flexibility in all its guises - but the central thesis of the office for collaboration and culture creation will remain. The four day week perspective will be replaced by demands for more tailored flexible working patterns. 
2. Talent Marketplace becomes part of the value proposition. With cost pressures and skills scarcity, organisations will get better at managing their internal labour market. We will see a focus on enhancing the articulation of career pathways. It cannot be easier for people to find new opportunities outside of their organisation than within it - especially with the tech available today.
3. Strategic Workforce Planning as a business tool - Few love (and many don't believe in) SWP.  Maybe it is due a rebrand, but its time has come - at least in terms of gathering the baseline skills data and running hypotheses about the futures.  Given the uncertainty of AI, it will be foolish to place precise bets on the workforce, but the big bet is that the labour market will change.  So baselining the current capabilities and using the tech ecosystem to model scenarios must be part of the to do list.
4. The costs debate moves to productivity - there will be a real focus on removing barriers and friction points that prohibit people and teams from delivering at speed. The tools now available can identify many of the blockages - it will be up to the people function to resolve them.  
5. Adoption mindset - This is a perennial theme that comes up with clients increasingly in the context of AI. I would frame it more about change readiness and creating a can-do culture that allows people at all levels to contribute and create value. New ways of working, new partnerships, experimentation. This isn’t just a should do, but a must do in preparing for the AI wave in front of us.

HR functions have shown up over several years of disruption for their people, their organisations and their communities. In 2024, as we all ask "What different will AI make?" HR will need to balance care and delivery with the ability to navigate unchartered territories with action propelling future growth. It’s an exciting time of change. As such, in 2024, employees and c-suite peers should look to CHROs and the wider HR function to set the pace and drive the change necessary for unlocking the workforce of tomorrow, today.