Gartner HR Research Finds Organisations Are in the Midst of a Reset; Most Are Not Prepared

29 October 2024 — While many CEOs are rolling out new business strategies, few HR leaders feel their organisations are prepared for upcoming work changes, according to Gartner, Inc. 

"Organisations are seeking to reset their strategies to reflect emerging conditions, but most feel unprepared to execute," said Jessie Knight, Vice President in the Gartner HR practice. "Our research found three critical gaps that organisations must reconcile in order to successfully reset in pursuit of new strategic ambitions."

Organisations need to address critical gaps in collaboration, skills and technology.

Collaboration
A 2Q24 Gartner survey of nearly 18,000 employees revealed that only 29% are satisfied with their collaboration at work. This is down from 36% of employees who reported they were satisfied in 2021. Further Gartner analysis found that satisfaction with collaboration has a critical impact on performance; employees who are satisfied with collaboration are stronger performers on average. 

"Employees today have more connections but less valuable collaboration due to uncertain connection norms following the pandemic, broader social tensions and new technology that can isolate employees and depersonalise work," said Russ McCall, Director, Advisory in the Gartner HR practice.

HR can help employees increase the utility of existing connections by providing guided collaboration - actively reshaping the needs and norms of how individuals interact.

Skills
Organisations also face persistent skills gaps that cannot be addressed through traditional development approaches alone. Gartner research indicates that skill changes now are outpacing levels at the height of the pandemic; a May 2024 Gartner survey of 3,375 employees found that only half feel equipped to respond to unexpected changes in their work. 

"We also see on-the-job learning falling short. A May 2024 Gartner survey revealed that nearly 60% of all employees are not getting on-the-job coaching that supports their core job skills," said Knight. "Due to factors like new work models, turnover, the pressure to do more with less and an emerging technology, there is a growing disconnect between employees who have critical skills and those who need to learn them." 

To close this skills gap, Collective Intelligence serves as a pathway between employees who have critical skills and employees who need those skills. 

There are two facets to collective intelligence:

• Dynamic Jobs: Focus efforts and investments on the jobs that are changing the most, which account for the most acute skill risks.
• Gather Expertise from Work: Leverage technology to gather expert knowledge from the work they are doing - via a variety of organisational systems - rather than the experts directly. 

Technology
An August 2024 Gartner survey of nearly 450 users of AI and GenAI revealed that 41% of the time saved by using AI is wasted. 

"There is a lack of communication between employers and employees around the effects of technology in the workplace," said McCall. "In fact, employers often don't involve employees in technology discussions at all - as of July, only 14% of HR leaders, among more than 180 surveyed, said that employees have a voice in technology decisions at their organisation."

Fixing this technology gap requires organisations to take a human-first AI approach that puts people at the centre and technology features second. Using this lens, HR leaders can help organisations prioritise technology for productivity and consider humans first when implementing. 

When organisations take a human-first approach to AI, employees are 1.5 times more likely to be high performers and 2.3 times more likely to be highly engaged.

About the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference 
The Gartner ReimagineHR Conference is the premier event for CHROs and HR leaders to learn from the latest research and Gartner experts covering talent acquisition, diversity, equity and inclusion, learning and development, total rewards, talent analytics, and HR technology. Gartner ReimagineHR is taking place October 28-30 in Orlando and December 4-5 in Sydney. Follow news and updates from these events on X using #GartnerHR.

About the Gartner HR Practice
The Gartner HR practice brings together the best relevant content approaches across Gartner to offer individual decision makers strategic business advice on the mission-critical priorities that cut across the HR function. Additional information is available at https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/products/gartner-for-hr. Follow news and updates from the Gartner HR practice on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerHR.

About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight that drives smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organisation's mission-critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.