- Our latest talent survey of 500 HR leaders and 1,200 employees revealed the top challenges HR professionals faced were staffing struggles, rapidly changing HR needs, and difficulties gaining buy-in for new tech.
- Upskilling and reskilling employees curbs attrition, improves performance, and reduces the need for recruiting external candidates.
- To overcome internal resistance or skepticism around new HR technology, methodically introduce the use cases and benefits to leadership and end users alike.
Whatever your most pressing HR challenge, chances are high that your organization and team are not the only ones dealing with it.
Our latest annual talent survey revealed that a significant majority of HR leaders cited the same issues among their top three pain points:
- 71% struggle with internal and external staffing.
- 69% experience rapid changes in their organization’s and employee’s HR needs.
- 63% struggle with gaining buy-in for HR technology.
With no widespread strategy to combat these ubiquitous obstacles, you might assume no solution exists. Fortunately, that’s not the case.
Take a closer look at these issues, the causes, and, most importantly, how to overcome them.
Related content: According to our Annual Talent Survey, 8 out of 10 employees have looked for new jobs in the last year, making recruiter roles even more challenging.
Challenge No. 1: Struggles with internal and external staffing
Not only did nearly three-quarters of HR professionals admit to difficulty retaining and recruiting employees, but 82% of the employees we surveyed were actively looking for new jobs, compounding recruiters’ already demanding role.
Behind the stat
The lack of explicit, transparent strategies for talent development, succession planning, and internal promotions and opportunities are a major cause of staff turnover at many organizations.
More than half (53%) of the dissatisfied employees we surveyed felt that leadership failed to effectively execute internal mobility (including promotions and new opportunities via reskilling or upskilling), and 47% believed their company didn’t promote internal mobility — at all.
Organizations, of course, want to develop and retain talent. However, instead of consistent and intentional employee development and succession plans, too often we see overworked department managers bogged down in day-to-day tasks, too busy to invest in individual teammates. Worse, managers may be incentivized to hold onto their best employees — rather than promote them — so that their team looks better, leading to talent hoarding.
All of this reveals a severe lack of forward-organizational thinking.
The absence of a transparent development strategy and the presence of what employees consider opaque promotion practices inevitably lead to attrition and talent gaps. HR teams then respond by prioritizing external recruitment to rapidly fill the empty positions, taking more resources away from internal development efforts — thereby making the challenge even more entrenched.
Rising to the challenge of retention and employee advocacy
An often-overlooked method of curbing talent attrition is to rethink who holds responsibility for employee career management. Often, managers determine which staff should be trained and selected for promotion or leadership. The rationale is that the managers best know talents’ strengths, weaknesses, and potential.
Managers are not exempt from bias, however, or from wanting to hold onto their best employees for as long as possible. Having HR rather than department managers oversee career management could be more equitable across the organization.
To successfully implement this shift, consider the following tips:
- Present the change to managers as a benefit for them. A recent Harris Poll reported that 63% of managers felt burnt out. Let managers know that removing the responsibility for employee development could enable them to better focus on other core elements of their job and department.
- Don’t eliminate managers entirely from the career management process. Their firsthand knowledge of employees remains invaluable. Communicate that and incorporate their feedback into your new strategy. What’s more, reinforce their importance as mentors developing talent to create a stronger, more effective team — one that will reflect well on them.
- Integrate employee mobility into managers’ goals. Harmonize mobility goals with managers’ functional goals and cascade these into their overall objectives.
Related content: Talent misalignment might be costing your business, says Eightfold Co-CEO Chano Fernandez. Read more of his insights on this issue and how to start overcoming it.
Challenge No. 2: Rapid changes in organizational and HR needs
Change may be the only constant in life, but it seems that employees and employers are being hit with more of it than ever before. That leaves HR teams to alleviate the external and internal pressures of rapid workplace change, balancing the organization’s needs with those of its workforce.
Behind the stat
In our survey, 69% of HR leaders said rapid changes in organizational and employee HR needs were one of their most persistent challenges. We’re seeing the effects of an ever-changing workplace play out in five key areas:
- Technological advances. Organizations are integrating AI, automation, and other new technologies to stay competitive. To optimize these technologies, businesses must rapidly restructure and upskill their workforces. At the same time, employees now expect access to efficient, up-to-date, user-friendly technology that enables them to perform their jobs to maximum potential.
- Remote and hybrid work models. Many organizations are mandating a return to the office. This change threatens to alienate employees who place a premium on the ability to work remotely — at least some of the time — and runs the risk of increasing turnover. At businesses with hybrid or remote work models, HR teams face an increased demand for digital collaboration, cybersecurity improvements, and a rethinking of office space needs.
- Sustainability and social responsibility. Organizations face pressure to reduce carbon footprints, diversify supply chains, and meet other ESG goals. Simultaneously, workers have rising expectations of their employers in supporting their emotional and mental needs by offering flexibility for an improved work-life balance, providing EAPs (employee assistance programs), and discussing employee development options.
- Changing consumer expectations. Consumers now expect quicker response times, more personalized offerings, and more satisfying customer experiences. Organizations that don’t meet these high standards risk losing market share to those that do.
- Talent shortages. To attract and keep talent, organizations must not only rethink their recruitment and retention strategies but also focus on removing workplace toxicity and reconsider policies like flexible working options.
Rising to the challenge
A diligent and concerted effort around upskilling and reskilling can help organizations effectively adopt and wield new technology and, in doing so, meet consumers’ increased demands for faster, better products and services.
Offering training programs or providing resources for career growth not only benefits the company in the short- and long-run, but it also signals to employees that their employer is committed to their success — even during tough times.
For example, upskilling your workforce to use AI means that they will be more valuable not only to your organization but also to others in the future. This reduces attrition and makes your organization more attractive to prospective talent. More than any other approach, employee development programs address many areas affected by internal and external change.
Challenge No. 3: Getting buy-in for HR technology investments
The majority, 63%, of HR leaders reported struggling with gaining buy-in for new technology. But why?
Many organizations understand the importance of adopting AI and other new tech to help them stay competitive on the supply chain, marketing, sales, and other fronts. However, leadership might see the need for improved, AI-powered HR technology.
Yet a failure to invest in AI-powered talent intelligence and other new HR software can dull an organization’s competitive edge as much as failing to keep up with tech advances in customer service, distribution, and other departments.
For instance an HR department without an up-to-date recruitment platform cannot effectively compete for employees with those that do have one. Likewise, the lack of an AI-powered talent intelligence platform or talent marketplace will make implementing employee development programs and other retention efforts much more laborious and inefficient. And in the time it takes for such programs to be manually put into place, attrition will continue.
Behind the stat
Organizations may be hesitant about investing in HR technology for several reasons:
- Fear of change or disruption. Organizations don’t want to risk losing productivity by changing established practices. Employees might fear being unable to adapt to the new tech or that it will ultimately replace them. These fears often result from not understanding how the technology works, its benefits, or its use cases. Then, too, some organizations have a cultural resistance to new technology or change in general.
- Cost concerns. The price of the technology, installation costs, and training expenses can be a significant barrier to buy-in, particularly in small and midsize organizations.
- Security and privacy concerns. Organizations might hesitate to adopt new technology for fear of putting customer data, proprietary information, or intellectual property at risk. This is a particular concern in industries where adopting new technology involves navigating complicated regulatory protocols, like in financial services.
- Uncertain ROI. Without proof of tangible benefits — improved productivity, reduced costs, better talent retention — many organizations are wary of investing.
- Short-term thinking. Even if ROI can be proven, organizations might hesitate to spend the money because the return won’t be seen in the near term. C-suites that prioritize immediate returns over long-term growth could be reluctant to spend on new technology that might not pay off for several years.
- Technological fatigue. The plethora of options and the speed with which new tools are introduced can overwhelm organizations. They may struggle to determine which technologies are worth investing in, leading to decision paralysis.
- Negative past experiences. If functionality issues, poor user adoption, or unmet expectations plagued previous technology rollouts, businesses will be more skeptical about future investments.
Rising to the challenge of tech buy-in
Take a methodical approach to introducing new technology to your stakeholders. Begin by clearly communicating its use cases and benefits to everyone involved, from the C-suite to the end users. At the same time, address concerns that have been raised in the past, such as security or integration issues.
Leadership is ultimately responsible for agreeing to invest financially. They also need to champion the technology to motivate employees to embrace it. Demonstrating the value of the tech to the workforce and addressing their concerns early will also encourage employee and leadership buy-in.
For individuals, the key often lies in making technology accessible and demonstrating how it directly improves their lives or work efficiency. Clear communication about the benefits, coupled with a simple, user-friendly design, can make a significant difference in increasing adoption.
To further assuage the concerns of the risk-averse leader, try piloting the new tech within smaller teams and on lower-stakes projects. Along with providing necessary training, empower employees and leadership alike to ask questions, experiment, and suggest additional use cases or efficiencies.
Having an accessible, holistic view of your organization’s talent needs, resources, and potential is essential to meeting — and overcoming — your most pressing challenges.
For more findings, download our full report.
Teresa Wykes is Senior Director of Talent-centered Transformation at Eightfold.