The Most Pressing HR Issues of 2024

Non-profit research organization The Integrated Benefit Institute recently conducted an in-depth study in order to better understand some of today’s most pressing issues in workforce management.

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The research involved more than 300 human resources professionals and collected survey data in addition to less quantitative information and insights, largely focusing on the following topics:

• Prioritization of Benefits
• Data & Key Performance Indicators
• Pandemic Takeaways
• Strategic Investment Targets
• Conflict Between Business Interests and Employee Interests
• Challenges Implementing Effective Employee Well-Being Initiatives

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Employers’  Top Organizational Goals

One of the most interesting insights that the research data revealed is that more than half (51%) of respondents claimed that improving employee job satisfaction was their organization’s top goal heading into the new year, which underscores the continuing resilience of the labor market and a power balance that remains relatively favorable to labor. 

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Mitigating expenses and boosting revenue was the top priority for the vast majority of the remainder of study participants, accounting for 41% of survey responses. 

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Employers’ Top Benefit Priorities

According to the survey results, participants ranked the following employee benefits as top priorities for their organizations:

• Mental Health & Well-being
• Financial Security
• Physical Health & Wellness
• Job Flexibility and Life Balance
• Caregiving Support

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There were of course generational discrepancies in benefit prioritization, for example employees age 46 and older were most interested in preventative health screenings and retirement related financial concerns, whereas employees under 30 placed the highest priority on work-life balance and fitness/wellness initiatives. 

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Organizational Data Habits

The study also revealed that while the adoption of better data collection and management practices is becoming fairly widespread across industry in general, there are still significant opportunities to improve internal processes and gain competitive advantages through better/broader data capture and analysis.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly given the employee-job-satisfaction focus that many organizational leaders are emphasizing in the new year, the highest rate of adoption among data categories in the survey responses was the collection of employee job satisfaction data, which nearly 3 out of 4 (72%) survey respondents reported collecting.

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Only a little more than half of responding organizations gather data on employee retention or productivity (57% and 52%, respectively), which may reflect the continuing prevalence of outdated presumptions about diminishing returns in the quality of these kinds of measures that have not kept up with recent advancements in data analytics.

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Interestingly, when it comes to health care, 64% of survey participants conduct a formal review of their health programs every year, but only 44% of respondents gather the necessary health data from their employee population to optimize the effectiveness and utilization of those health programs. 

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Strategic Benefit Design Recommendations For Employers 

Based on their analysis, the authors make the following recommendations as to how employers can best adapt to the changing market conditions outlined above:

• Evaluate current policies in light of the company mission and the evolving tactics being employed by the company in the furtherance of that mission;
• Consider creating work arrangements and work flexibility policies that take into account the needs of each role/team on a smaller, more granular scale as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach;
• Develop employees internally to fill skill gaps and build a stable talent pool; 
• Prioritize quality benefit outcomes over employee benefit engagement rates; and
• Provide additional, specialized training for managers and company leaders;

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You can read more about this study and the resulting analysis here.