WHITEPAPER

2024 HR Trends
How to Adapt to AI,
Uncertainty & More
Where is HR headed in 2024?
For talent leaders and their teams, navigating the road ahead has become
increasingly complex. It’s natural to wonder where we’re headed in 2024.

To support your strategies and success, Harver’s experts have identified

4 top trends in HR that you need to know. Read on to prepare for:

2023’s uncertainty evolving at 2024’s volatile pace,

Talent shortages and skills gaps hindering effective placement,

Identifying and developing talent with a skills-based approach, and

AI in HR and the need to keep a “human in the loop”

MEET OUR HR TRENDS EXPERTS

Dr. Ben Porr Arnold Sowole Ali Good

Chief Customer Officer SVP, Product VP, Product Marketing
and I-O psychologist & Engineering

2024 HR Trends: How to Adapt to AI, Uncertainty & More | 2

2024 HR TREND #1

Uncertainty & Volatility

We’ve heard a lot from customers and others about the unpredictable nature of
macro trends like the economy and labor supply. Our own Chief Sales Officer, Chris
Pateman, noted how preparing for uncertainty and volatility were the big theme at
Gartner ReimagineHR. Learn more with his recap on Gartner’s “Everyday Bold” theme.

Others see and feel it, too. Sage, the market leader in integrated accounting, payroll,
and payment systems, surveyed 1,000+ HR leaders and C-suite executives. Their
Changing Face of HR in 2024 infographic revealed the following:

91% 66% 93%

of HR leaders say HR’s role of HR leaders say of C-suite executives
has changed dramatically they’re worried about are worried about
over the past 5 years the future of HR economic turbulence

“Volatility is a test of how closely we listen to

users. For our customers, volatility equals
problems, and in Harver’s product world, Arnold Sowole

problems are also opportunities for solutions.” SVP, Product

& Engineering
at Harver

3 tips for preparing for 2024’s uncertainty & volatility

1 2 3
Reframe the situation Listen and learn Enable new ways to work
While challenges can be What are your job seekers, The scope and challenges
paralyzing, opportunities are recruiters and employees, of HR’s work continues to
invigorating. Start by being and industry saying evolve. Data drives clarity,
solutions-focused. they need? and clarity enables agility.

How UPS prepares for — and develops — the future

Developing better leaders supports organizational stability. See how Watch Now
UPS simplified self-serve leadership development for 90,000+ leaders.

2024 HR Trends: How to Adapt to AI, Uncertainty & More | 3

2024 HR TREND #2

Recruiter-level Challenges

77+23+M
Even larger employers are struggling
DIFFICULTY FILLING ROLES BY ORGANIZATION SIZE

77%
250+ employees: 79%

50-249 employees: 78%

10-49 employees: 77%

of global employers struggle
< 10 employees: 75%
to find qualified workers1

In our 2024 HR Trends webinar, one key theme was recruiter challenges. For instance,
the never-ending transactional HR treadmill that’s led 98% of HR professionals to feel
burnt out. Attendees were also quick to ask: What can we do when there simply aren’t
enough qualified candidates?

Your team likely feels stuck too, with ManpowerGroup noting global talent shortages
have reached a 17-year high. Tempted to skip assessments to hire faster? Our Chief
Customer Officer and I-O psychologist, Dr. Ben Porr, warns otherwise. Reverting to a
manual selection introduces unconscious and untrackable bias, which further narrows
already slim talent pools.

“When candidate pools are narrow, resist

the urge to remove assessments. Lowering
the barrier to entry just leads to unwanted
attrition, because then these hires don’t Dr. Ben Porr
Chief Customer Officer
1
ManpowerGroup – Q2 2023 Employment Outlook Survey
have the skills needed for the job.” at Harver

1
ManpowerGroup – Q2 2023 Employment Outlook Survey

2024 HR Trends: How to Adapt to AI, Uncertainty & More | 4

 Why assessments?
Everyone into Build when you
the pool can’t buy
Objective selection You can identify
broadens candidate pools candidates who have
to include talent missed the transferrable skills
by “recruiter intuition” for day-one success and
and unconscious bias. start developing their
weaknesses straight away.
Read Blog: Debunking 4 Assessment Myths
2024 HR Trends: How to Adapt to AI, Uncertainty & More | 5
Outsource your
science
Need to build talent
but lack the internal
resources? Harver has
a robust and rigorous
People Science team
available to help.
 2024 HR TREND #3

Skills-based Hiring

90% 81% 66%

of executives are actively of executives say work is of workers are more likely to
experimenting with skills- increasingly performed choose/stay with skills-based
based approaches2 across functional boundaries3 vs job-based employers2

Struggling to hire and mobilize talent effectively? Consider skills-based hiring. This talent
acquisition strategy supports better, faster decisions across the talent lifecycle. Plus,
skills-based hiring can enable other goals, including making the most of 2024’s HR trends.

For instance, turning uncertainty into opportunity by building a skills inventory of your
existing workforce. Step 1 to overcoming uncertainty is to take stock of what’s possible
right now based on the hard skills and interpersonal skills currently in your organization.

Next, you can use that skills data to adapt for any talent or skill shortage that arises. You’ll
know the skills you need to hire for, the weaknesses new hires need to start developing
from day one, and the hidden skills you can leverage when mobilizing existing talent.

Competitive benefits for skills-based organizations3

External and internal hiring – 107% more likely to place talent effectively
Retention – 98% more likely to retain high performers
Known employer of choice – 98% more likely to have reputation as great place to work and grow

Learn More: Transferrable Skills

“Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. If you

can identify them pre-hire, then you can hire
1
for day-one performance and use that skills
ManpowerGroup – Q2 2023 Employment Outlook Survey
Dr. Ben Porr
data to close critical skills gaps as needs arise.” Chief Customer Officer
at Harver

2
Deloitte – Skills-Based Organization Survey, May-June 2022
3
Deloitte – Navigating The End Of Jobs

2024 HR Trends: How to Adapt to AI, Uncertainty & More | 6

 2024 HR TREND #4

Impact of AI on Hiring

76% Only 3% 88%

of CHROs believe of HR executives think of HR professionals
their organization will their organization is well don’t trust AI decisions
fall behind without prepared for lack of without understanding the
AI solutions4 AI transparency5 algorithm’s rationale5

There’s a lot of confusion about the underlying technology behind many HR tools.
Here’s a quick primer for you:

Intelligent automation is rules-based automation of mundane tasks, like interview scheduling.

AI is a machine simulating human cognition, like analyzing large amounts of workforce skills data.

Generative AI goes beyond cognition to creation, like a conversational recruiting chatbot.

These innovations have rich potential to boost efficiency and close gaps for the lowest-
skilled workers. However, there are concerns about the risk of AI legislation, potential for
bias, and other considerations. Ali Good, Harver’s VP of Product Marketing, recommends
always keeping a human in the loop. What does that mean? No “black box” AI that makes
decisions without human oversight.

Transparency enables visibility, and that enables both improvability and accountability. For
instance, Harver only uses AI to reduce — never introduce — bias in hiring decisions. We
always keep a human in the loop, like when analyzing large amounts of assessment data to
detect potential effects of bias.

“You need to think carefully about how you

apply AI. Is there a human in the loop to
1
monitor things and make decisions? If you’re
ManpowerGroup – Q2 2023 Employment Outlook Survey

buying HR tech, is that solutions provider Ali Good

VP, Product Marketing
using AI to identify and address bias?” at Harver

4
Gartner – Artificial Intelligence In HR
5
SHRM – HR Professionals Seek the Responsible Use of People Analytics and AI

2024 HR Trends: How to Adapt to AI, Uncertainty & More | 7

HR’s challenges in 2024 are
unprecedented and uncertain.
But they don’t need to go unsolved.
We’re here to help. Reach out to us if you have questions about:

Planning for and adapting to uncertainty,

Overcoming talent shortages,

Implementing a skills-based approach to talent, and

Leveraging AI for efficiency

Request A Demo

Harver is the industry-leading hiring solution helping organizations optimize their talent decisions. Rooted in over
35 years of rich data insights backed by I-O psychology and cognitive science, Harver delivers a suite of automated
solutions that enable organizations to engage, hire, and develop the right talent in a fast and fundamentally less
biased way. Having processed over 100 million candidates, Harver provides trusted, data-driven, and adaptable
offerings, including assessments, video interviews, scheduling, and reference checking. Harver has helped more than
1,300 customers take the smart path to the right talent.
2024 HR Trends: How to Adapt to AI, Uncertainty & More | 8