Happy New Year Lancaster SHRM! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and are feeling ready to tackle the New Year!
At the beginning of each year, I like to read what HR experts have identified as the trends we can expect to encounter in the upcoming year. As we step into 2024, several evolving trends will continue to impact and shape the workplace. I thought I would share some highlights of predictions and insights, drawn from SHRM, Gallup, McKinsey, and Lattice.
According to SHRM and HR leaders from around the globe, a significant focus in 2024 is skills-based hiring, which emphasizes the skills of candidates rather than their educational background or previous job titles. This approach aims to reduce bias in talent acquisition and emphasizes internal talent mobility, ensuring that internal candidates are given fair consideration for new opportunities within the organization.
The experts agree that while educational background can create implicit or unconscious bias in talent acquisition, the need for employees to grow and develop within their organization is high. To effectively address skill gap concerns, HR departments must identify employee needs and provide opportunities accordingly. This includes preparing managers for the future and helping them to develop internal succession plans.
Regardless of the work environment (hybrid, remote, in-person), the pace of technology is not slowing down, to best support leaders and managers, HR professionals will need to incorporate educational opportunities into team projects, interactions, and activities. SHRM recommends taking advantage of common team and project interactions to enhance employee skills such as teamwork, negotiation, communication, and problem-solving.
Gallup has identified that most employees still lack trust in their leaders and do not feel connected to the company’s mission, or purpose. These survey results highlight the importance of transparency, clear and consistent communication, support for change, and confidence-inspiring actions from leaders. Unfortunately, however, too often communication responsibilities are given to managers, without training in how to share messages effectively. Managers are left with increased responsibilities, budget constraints, and the need to personally adapt while leading their teams through the change process. Inevitably, communication falters, and organizational alignment and employee engagement wanes.
So how can HR professionals rise to the challenges facing leaders and managers? The team at McKinsey notes with the assistance of technology, the HR function is becoming a more agile, strategic partner within many organizations. Through process efficiency and the use of technology to make data-driven decisions, HR teams can increase their agility and improve the employee communication experience.
In the 2024 State of People Strategy report developed by Lattice researchers found that while HR leaders understand the value of their work, many struggle to explain the influence of HR on business outcomes to executive leaders. To effectively demonstrate the significance of the HR function, HR leaders need to expand their business acumen to link the impact HR has on results beyond productivity and employee engagement. Aspects such as safety, quality, revenue, customer satisfaction, and cost reduction are all
key business metrics and represent opportunities for HR leaders to draw a direct correlation for executive leaders between HR functions and business outcomes.
Even from these few highlights, it is clear the landscape of human resources in 2024 will continue to evolve. As you and your team members work to adapt to these trends or tackle existing challenges, remember that LSHRM will be here to provide support, guidance, and education.
We kick off 2024 at the Lancaster Chamber (note the change of location) with a terrific program designed to address some of these trends and overcome potential challenges. On January 9th, Harold Ford from Net at Work will explain how we can align HR technology to employee experience and business results. It will be an engaging event with takeaways you can begin to implement immediately. I hope to see you there!
As you reflect on these trends or the opportunities within your organization, I wish you continued energy and inspiration moving into 2024. LSHRM is here to support you. We are of service to you, and we work hard to provide valuable content so you can be as successful as possible. Feel free to reach out to me or any of our board members to address any needs you may have.
Thank you for your membership and continued dedication to elevating and advancing human resources in Lancaster County. I look forward to seeing you soon!
Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Jen