10 HR Trends You Need to Look Out For in 2024

Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence continues to gain momentum, including in the HR practices of companies looking to modernize their processes and stay on top of the latest trends. Indeed, 76% of HR professionals consider that their organization will fall behind if it doesn’t adopt AI in the next 2 years.

Concretely, artificial intelligence can improve the efficiency of your recruitment processes, particularly in terms of profile sorting and impartiality in candidate selection. It can also help you rapidly analyze your HR performance indicators and make strategic decisions that are relevant to your organization’s reality. Of course, this integration of artificial intelligence into your processes can not replace effective human resources management practices and a solid, competent HR department!

Generation Z is already entering the job market, and it’s essential to understand its professional expectations. More than ever, your employer brand and corporate culture will be key to remaining attractive, as will your ability to diversify the profiles working for your organization.

Professional development opportunities, digitization of processes, prioritization of mental and physical health and flexibility are also crucial factors you need to work on in 2024 to prepare for the arrival of this new generation of workers.

Your job offers should highlight all these aspects, and offer a rich and stimulating career path and benefits that set you apart from other employers.

Flexibility is increasingly appreciated – and expected – by employees in all sectors. Depending on the industry, it may be harder to implement, but remember that it can take many forms, and isn’t just about remote work possibilities. For example, you can offer your employees:

• Flexible working hours;
• Hybrid and remote working;
• Digital nomad opportunities;
• Work-life balance measures;
• Compressed working hours (working 10 hours one day and 4 hours the next);
• Extra time off to promote work-life balance.

In addition to contributing to your employer brand, flexibility will increase the attractiveness and retention of talent in your organization.

Quality over quantity: that’s the watchword for good recruitment processes in 2024. Indeed, 2023 was marked by mass layoffs following the creation of too many new positions in recent years. To avoid these complex and costly situations in your company, you should study your organizational internal needs in depth before embarking on your search for the ideal candidate.

Your recruitment processes also need to be more selective and efficient than ever. Calling on recruiters and headhunters who have the time and skills to find the best talents can be a safe bet for your company. Focus on candidates who fit in with your corporate culture: they will learn faster and stay with you longer.

Investing in software for recruitment agencies and independent recruiters can streamline your hiring processes further, allowing for better tracking of candidates and more effective communication between hiring managers and recruiters. This technology can help identify top talent more efficiently, saving both time and resources in the search for the ideal candidate.

Slowing down recruitment doesn’t mean failing to meet your company’s internal needs. Your existing employees have a wide range of skills to offer: why not develop them to later on promote them to key positions in your organization?

Here are a few concrete actions you can take to promote the development of existing skills within your company:

• Survey your employees on the skills they wish to improve;
• Give your employees access to online training platforms;
• Organize training workshops on essential soft skills (interpersonal skills, teamwork, etc.);
• Train your teams on new software and technological solutions.

In addition to upgrading in-house skills, ongoing training is a coveted benefit for candidates and employees alike. Furthermore, all these development initiatives also improve your employer brand and employee retention rates!

Speaking of retention, have you ever heard of stay interviews? The purpose of these meetings is to measure your employees’ motivation and find ways of improving their work environment to make them stay longer in your company.

Employees appreciate taking an active part in improving the employee experience by sharing their feelings and feedback. Don’t hesitate to survey them regularly to measure their job satisfaction and improve their engagement over the long term.

Did you know that 50% of employees are surprised by the results of their performance appraisal? For 87% of them, it’s an unpleasant surprise that leads to a considerable drop in motivation.

In 2024, it’s essential to discuss with your employees to ensure that your performance management is aligned not only with your strategic objectives, but also with their individual goals. If one of your colleagues wants to take on a project or improve in a particular area, turn this into a performance objective to motivate them to give their best!

Still on the subject of performance management, it’s more important than ever to build a healthy feedback culture. Ongoing feedback, regular meetings to discuss any difficulties and appreciate daily contributions, and messages of recognition are all ways of sharing constructive feedback, whether positive or negative.

Transparency must now be an integral part of all your exchanges with your employees, and you need to share frequent feedback to avoid misunderstandings, productivity issues and feelings of under-appreciation. Encourage your teams to share their feelings about your management practices and their day-to-day work for a fair and constructive approach to corporate feedback.

Here are examples of constructive feedback you can share with your employees:

• “You did a great job on this project, keep up the good work and feel free to tell me if you need support!”
• “Let’s work together to improve the way we prioritize tasks so that we can ensure timely completion of your projects.”
• “I have come up with a list of ideas to help you grow in your positions and I want to hear your thoughts on it.”
• “You consistently support your coworkers and it helps create a great team dynamic. Keep up the good work!”

A hot topic in recent years, DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) in the workplace has become a major issue for HR departments. New generations of workers want to join inclusive workplaces.

Statistics show the growing importance of recruiting diverse profiles to benefit from varied knowledge and points of view. In fact, inclusive teams are 35% more productive and make better decisions 87% of the time.

As you can see, in 2024, it’s high time to put in place a solid DEI policy to attract the best talent – and make sure they want to stay with you in the long run. You can organize training workshops on DEI issues, encourage the recruitment of candidates from various backgrounds within your company, and create teams made up of different employee profiles.

51% of companies say that using HR technology tools improves their recruitment processes and retention rates. These tools include all-in-one HR software, recognition platforms, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and many others.

Adopting one or more of these systems has become crucial if you want to gain time, efficiency and attractiveness. They can be integrated with each other to create a complete digital ecosystem, avoiding multiple data entry and information loss. Digital transformation is more essential than ever to keep your human resources management on track: in 2024, modernize your HR processes with flexible tools that integrate seamlessly with your organizational reality!

2024 promises to be a major turning point for many organizations with numerous and complex challenges ranging from digitization to the modernization of management practices. HR technology tools and effective employee management will be your best allies in overcoming these challenges and maintaining your business strategy throughout the year.

Watch our webinar on 2024 HR trends to learn more!