HR Trends for 2024

As we begin a new year, predictions for what is to come are everywhere and HR is no different! While we don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future, we work with hundreds of organizations and support thousands of employees in a wide range of sectors, and that provides us with the unique ability to identify prevalent HR trends for this year.

With that, here are our Top 5 HR Trends for 2024:

1. Increased need for employee mental health and well-being supports. While this was a hot topic in 2023, it is only going to increase in 2024. Employees at all levels of the organization have been reporting higher rates of burnout and dis-engagement than ever before. As we begin the new year, as many as 500,000 Canadians are off work for mental health related reasons. There isn’t a one size fits all solution as employees are looking to their employer for support, accommodations, and gradual return to work planning.
2. The cost of living continues to put pressure on employers to increase salaries. The ongoing challenges for employees to make ends meet when faced with rising house prices and inflation rates is resulting in demands on employers to raise compensation to match. This is not sustainable in the long term and the looming recession is impacting the employer’s ability to meet employee expectations. While a slight softening in the labour market may alleviate this, the skills shortage is still very real in many sectors and and has no solution in sight.
3. Pay transparency on job postings is just the beginning. As pay transparency legislation changes the external discussion about pay, it also brings to the forefront compensation conversations inside the organization, highlighting the need for equity reviews, salary grids, and performance discussions. The outcome of this transparency has the potential to be very enlightening and progressive for organizations and also has the potential to see retention challenges arise.
4. Digital literacy is becoming an imperative skill set as Artificial intelligence becomes more and more commonplace in organizations. Said another way, the lack of digital literacy in the workforce is impacting on employer’s ability to embrace AI in a legal, ethical and practical way. Finding ways to both build and maintain this skill set in their workforce is going to be critical for employers to remain competitive in the marketplace.
5. Organization culture is changing, like it or not. The elements that make up organizational culture are changing as organizations adapt to flexible schedules, hybrid and remote work set-ups and “work from anywhere” mentalities. The need to focus on emotional proximity over physical proximity and to intentionally create culture as opposed to relying on culture by osmosis is going to be a strong focus in the coming year.

Change is constant and so of course these trends cannot be talked about without also mentioning that each and every one one of these trends are bringing about an unprecedented amount of change into the workplace. This calls for a change management strategy like never before and our leaders and managers are not all equipped for this. Finding ways to increase the collective comfort with change in the organization is imperative, providing leaders and managers with training on how to have pay conversations.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when we look to what is happening in workplaces today. All of us at Engaged HR are eager for the year to unfold as we see the potential in all of these trends to have a positive impact on the organization, when well-managed, thought through, and given the focus they need.