Working remote.
HR leaders are facing a variety of new challenges in their efforts to enhance the employee experience, including remote and hybrid work models, the growing diversity of the workforce and managing the ‘complex’ digital-native Gen Z cohort. Such challenges add to more traditional challenges including budget and resource constraints.
These are the findings of a survey of 650 senior HR leaders conducted by HR document management systems company aconso.
Nearly 70% of respondents to the survey identify employee wellbeing, mental health and stress as top priorities over the next three to five years, but nearly half said they feel unable to fully alleviate the toll of burnout and stress on employees. Budget and resource constraints as well as organizational change, were among the biggest challenges respondents said they face in combating low morale. That malaise extends to HR professionals themselves, with 41% indicating they struggle to manage their own work-life balance and 47% saying they feel trapped in a constant cycle of performance management, settling conflict issues and firing.
Half of those surveyed said remote and hybrid work models are increasing the complexity of today’s workforce, and 51% said the growing diversity of the workforce with a more intricate set of demands is making managing HR tasks more difficult. Fifty-five percent of the HR professionals surveyed said managing multigenerational teams has significantly increased the complexity of their workloads. This includes the entrance of Gen Z into the workplace, bringing new expectations and working styles, according to the report.
One way HR professionals are trying to tackle these challenges is through technology, particularly to alleviate manual and monotonous tasks, said aconso. Nearly three-quarters of senior HR professionals plan to increase their technology use to free up time to invest in employee experience initiatives, the report found. With 69% of respondents reporting that they frequently divert resources from employee-focused programs to address urgent change-related tasks, this shift could be meaningful.
Nearly all respondents said they are already integrating AI and automation into their operations, and 60% of senior HR leaders see automation as a game changer in reducing administrative burdens. However, new technology also presents new challenges to HR professionals. The most commonly cited concerns in aconso’s study were fragmented data and workflows making it difficult to integrate new tools with existing HR systems, trouble ensuring data security and compliance, and the cost and complexity of implementing and maintaining new technology.
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