3 Trends in HR Technology for 2024 and How to Prepare
Part of a series | 2024 HR Trends Series
In 2024, HR and business leaders can expect to see three key trends in HR technology: the continued rise of AI, innovations in pay transparency tools and technology that supports the employee experience.
2024 is here, and HR and business leaders are looking ahead to position their organizations for the new year. Several key trends in HR technology — including artificial intelligence (AI) and increased focus on pay transparency and the employee experience — are shaping the future of work as we know it, and you can expect continued growth, change and innovation.
We asked Linda Mougalian, senior division vice president, go-to-market strategy, ADP, about which HR technology trends business leaders might encounter in the new year and how to prepare for them.
Trend 1: Changing how people work with generative AI
Generative AI enables rapid content creation, including text, images, audio or video, when prompted by a user. Mougalian says it's the fastest-growing technology adoption in human history. Its widespread accessibility has fueled its meteoric growth.
However, as adoption and expectations grow at a blistering speed, Mougalian adds, "We are all learning together." It's crucial to remember that AI in business is still developing.
As we move into 2024, I predict that generative AI will shift from spoken about as individual capabilities to being ubiquitously integrated into everything we do."
Once you feel the difference possible with generative AI, you can't unsee it. It will foundationally change expectations for how things are done, she adds.
What you can do: Accept that technology can create opportunities
"There is a race for leaders to bring value to the table," Mougalian says, "but there is also a need to establish the infrastructure, organizational partnerships and governance to ensure that it is being developed and adopted responsibly.
AI and other technology trends will increasingly require HR leaders to take a comprehensive approach to work.
"This means unifying tools across the entire business ecosystem — HR, recruitment, productivity, accounting, procurement and more," Mougalian says. "Tool decisions should focus on the need to connect systems as much as the capabilities they each bring."
Streamlining technology can offer many benefits for organizations and employees. Often, embracing solutions with responsibly developed technology — especially AI — can result in lower costs and increased business value. Connected solutions mean that employees have fewer disparate systems to learn and navigate, saving them time and reducing frustration. When systems are connected, data is easier to use and may provide faster and higher-quality insights.
Generative AI can help to optimize HR operations by helping practitioners draft job descriptions and policy handbooks, answering basic employee questions about benefits and pay and streamlining processes at scale, such as onboarding and open enrollment. More use cases that directly benefit HR teams are emerging daily.
Successfully and intentionally adopting new and emerging technology requires careful consideration, however.
"HR and business leaders should be sure that they are working with trusted partners that are well positioned to deliver the latest technology responsibly," Mougalian says. "They should consider all technology decisions in the context of how it fits into their broader ecosystem."
Trend 2: Leveraging tools to support pay transparency
Developments in HR technology have made it easier for organizations to comply with pay transparency regulations and to root out pay inequity.
While pay transparency laws don't apply to every organization in every location, there's a growing trend toward normalizing pay transparency practices, from salary ranges in job postings to internal pay range information. Increasingly, job seekers are expecting pay transparency from potential employers, so staying on the cutting edge of technology that helps manage pay equity may help organizations attract and engage top talent.
On the retention side, pay transparency helps employers keep employees longer by ensuring they're earning competitive salaries.
What you can do: Use more data-driven insights in compensation decisions
Pay transparency technology goes beyond compliance. Leaders can leverage tools such as pay equity explorers and compensation benchmarks to discover and close pay gaps, build and adjust pay ranges in concert with job description updates, align policies with reality and benchmark their compensation structures against similar companies.
How far above and beyond compliance your organization goes depends on your leadership, culture and goals. While some organizations are embracing full-scale transparency around pay, these organizations are still rare. However, several major employers have committed to posting salary ranges for all positions nationwide, not just in the states where it's legally required.
Regardless of the extent of your pay transparency practices or your organization's starting point in its journey, technology can lend speed, accuracy and valuable insights to the process.
Trend 3: Continuing the push for an optimal employee experience
Heading into 2024, Mougalian says employers and employees expect technologies and policies that support optimal work-life experiences.
People want a smooth and hassle-free experience whether they are interacting with technology in their personal or professional life."The expectations for a seamless consumer-grade experience are becoming the same in both our personal and professional lives," Mougalian says. "We now expect integrated, personalized and intuitive engagement with all tools that we use."
The increased desire for tools that unite and delight employees is one of the factors driving innovation in employee recognition and rewards technology, which is among the top four areas for HR technology spending in 2024. The simultaneous rise in wellness technology offers organizations even more opportunities to create valued and meaningful interactions with their entire workforce, regardless of work schedule or location.
What you can do: Use technology and data to support the employee experience
As HR and business leaders faced challenges in recent years, some valuable lessons have emerged. At the forefront, Mougalian says, organizations have been forced into breakthrough thinking that has "fundamentally changed our expectations of ourselves and the tools we use in the workplace."
This experience has resulted in unprecedented agility and significant technological advancements borne of necessity. Leaders who discover what works can gain more confidence and become more agile and flexible, even when faced with challenging times, according to Mougalian.
With low unemployment rates and continued competition for top talent, savvy leaders will need to focus on skill-building to address talent shortages, improve productivity, boost employee satisfaction and reduce work-related stress.
Part of this focus is ensuring that employees who work with new technology, such as AI, are trained properly. This will highlight the benefits and instill confidence.
"HR leaders are more focused than ever on matching people's interests and strengths with the work to be done. This alignment increases job satisfaction and develops the skills to thrive in a fulfilling career." Mougalian says, "HR and business professionals need powerful, integrated tools to achieve their goals, according to Mougalian. Leaders need tools that are easy to use and can provide insights with minimal effort rather than forcing them to search for answers. By implementing the right HR technology, managers can streamline their work and devote more attention to their people, Mougalian explains.
Technology and data will shape the future of work
Many thought leaders have described the evolution of the workplace over the past few years as a much-needed revolution. Current trends don't demand that leaders throw out everything old in favor of something new. But this is a historical moment of opportunity for HR and business leaders to reevaluate how work gets done, who does it and why the experience matters as much as the results.
To do this, organizations will need more data than ever.
"Data and expertise are at the center of everything we do at ADP, and we use these strengths to help organizations navigate the changing world of work," Mougalian says.
These are just some of the trends HR leaders will see in the coming year. Read our guidebook, HR Trends for 2024, to learn more — including how technology is driving the globalization of HR solutions as well as trends in other areas.
