What made 2024 special? Leading HR analysts weigh in

2024 was a unique year – that’s the view of Kathi Enderes, global industry analyst and SVP of Research at The Josh Bersin Company.

This sentiment was echoed by others in the HR analyst community who UNLEASH spoke to exclusively for an article reflecting on 2024 and looking ahead to what 2025 might hold.

This begs the question, what was it that made 2024 standout?

For Enderes, there have been a couple workforce trends that have coalesced to make 2024 special.

Employee expectations have accelerated; this has meant “2024 was a year for HR teams to focus on HR reinvention”.

Enderes continues that HR made progress in “building a dynamic organization and operating model, getting pragmatic about skills, rethinking performance and pay practices, substantially reinventing talent acquisition, focusing on people analytics and doubling down on developing and elevating HR capabilities”.

Another core HR trend in 2024, for Enderes, was “a secular labor shortage that impacted not just technical roles but any job and skill”.

Other analysts also noted how the skills conversation has evolved and matured in 2024.

Josh Bersin, global industry analyst, CEO of The Josh Bersin Company and UNLEASH World keynote, tells UNLEASH that this year has been all about “skills, talent intelligence, internal mobility”.

“I’m thrilled to see so many companies embracing internal mobility, capability academies, and a much more holistic ‘irresistible’ focus on talent,” adds Bersin.

“I’m also really excited that talent intelligence, a phrase I coined year ago, has gone mainstream” – talent intelligence continues to evolve, and there are many vendors entering the space.

Talent Tech Labs’ Senior Data Analyst Dustin Schrader agrees.

Skills are top of mind for all types of organizations” – there has been a shift towards “recognizing the importance of skills as perhaps the most critical driver in determining successful hiring”.

This fact is even being recognized by government, with the Department of Labor in the US launching its own skills-based hiring guide in partnership with Indeed and LinkedIn – for Talent Tech Labs’ Global Head of Research David Francis this was a “surprisingly pragmatic” move.

AI was no longer just a buzzword in 2024

For the HR analyst community, another huge differentiator for 2024 (compared to previous years) was attitudes towards AI.

The Josh Bersin Company’s Enderes shared that she was surprised by “the rapid change in sentiment towards AI”.

In 2024, AI has transformed “every aspect of HR”; “instead of just tinkering around with generative AI…forward thinking organizations leaned into programs to systematically create an AI in HR strategy”.

David Perring, Chief Insights Officer at Fosway Group, continues this thread – “the rising specter of AI in HR is shaping the HR operation as HR seek to deliver more scalable employee experiences with the prospect of reducing costs…and doing more, faster and for less”.

Gartner’s Senior Director Analyst Emily Rose McRae agrees that “2024 was the year that hype began to collide with reality with regards to generative AI”.

Lighthouse Research & Advisory’s Chief Research Officer Ben Eubanks shares: “We’re finally getting past the fear of bias and getting to the real potential value that that AI can bring”.

“We need caution, but we also need to be progressing all the time, or we’ll fall behind.”

Talent Tech Labs’ Schrader adds that “there’s a good deal more oversight of AI to ensure that it is not biased” – “it’s not all there yet, but organizations are in a much better place in terms of trust in AI tools than a few years ago”, he adds.

What HR needs to leave behind in 2024

While 2024 has seen a lot of strides forward for the HR function, UNLEASH was keen to get our analysts perspectives on what trends need to stay in 2024. How much should HR leaders change their thinking into 2025?

Schrader from Talent Tech Labs shares that there has been a shift in the relevance of “internal social network platforms” – notably, Workplace from Meta shuttered operations earlier this year, suggesting that “the future for these platforms doesn’t seem as promising as it once was”.

Instead, “organizations gravitate toward more tailored and purpose-driven solutions” – personalization is key to employee experience in 2025, as WTW experts shared in a recent UNLEASH OpEd.

While skills came to the fore in 2024, there was a desire to think carefully about how to do this transition right.

Bersin, Eubanks from Lighthouse and Fosway’s Perring all note the failings of skills-first organizations in 2024.

For Perring, “the faltering implementation of skills-based organizations surprised me – it’s a hot topic [and] there were some amazing implementations, but skills is a really complex beast, and it takes a lot to tame it”.

Eubanks adds that there’s “still a lot of noise and not a ton of value and practical application”.

Bersin went so far to say he wants to throw away the skills-first organization concept in 2025; it’s time to “admit that skills analysis and skills technology is a means to an end, not a goal in itself”.

“Far too many companies have tried to boil the ocean with skills initiatives – the most effective solutions are pragmatic and problem-centric,” continues Bersin.

Bersin and his colleague Enderes also talked leaving behind traditional approaches to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB).

Rather than talking about “oppression and history”, it is time to “focus on inclusion, fairness, pay equity and psychological safety”, shares Bersin.

This is far from the end of DEIB, adds Enderes.

There’s a growing emphasis on framing DEIB as a business agenda, rather than a social one. This involves aligning DEIB efforts with business goals, such as expanding leadership pipelines and reaching new customer segments, to ensure they contribute to the company’s success,” she explains.

Enderes continues that companies like Microsoft, SAP, Siemens, TetraPak, Unilever, Chevron and Providence are really showing that value of rethinking DEIB – there’s lots for other HR leaders to learn here.

Along a different vein, Perring shares that he would like people to stop saying “HR being a strategic business partner” in 2025. Instead, they need to be seen as value enablers.

“Enabling exceptional people value, providing radical cost efficiency, creating uber people experiences, powering great relationships, being agile and powering organizational agility and being people and business intelligence led,” he adds.

These are “all the things that make HR fit for the future” and move the function far from being just a strategic business partner.

There’s so much food for thought from our analyst community on 2024 and the trends HR has experienced (and led) this year – the question that remains is: What will 2025 bring? Stay tuned for 2025 predictions from some leading HR analysts in early January.