Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top nine workplace predictions that HR leaders will need to address in 2024 and beyond to successfully position their organisations to attract and retain top talent and drive business outcomes.

We have seen several shifts affecting the workplace, including the emergence of generative AI (GenAI), pilots around establishing a four-day workweek, and changes to traditional careers,” said Emily Rose McRae, senior director analyst in the Gartner HR practice.

“This year’s predictions highlight the aspects of work that HR leaders must prioritize over the next 12 months.”

While the predictions are specific to HR leaders, they reflect general workplace trends, providing an overall picture for what the future of work could look like in 2024.

Cost-of-Work Crisis Reaches Breaking Point

Employees who have been working remotely or in a hybrid environment have experiences what it is to work without bearing the costs – financial, time, and energy – associated with going into an office daily.

As many employers implement a mandate for remote employees to return to the office after long periods of remote work – even Zoom is asking employees to come back to the office –  employees now have a sharper awareness of what they “spend” to go to work.

In 2024, organisations looking to attract and retain talent will not just try to find the ideal hybrid strategy, but they may have to tackle the cost of work head on.

Gartner has identified two strategies companies may adopt: by sharing the tanglible and intangible costs of returning to the office or by finding ways to reduce the total costs.

Practically, this may include things such as caregiving benefits, housing subsidies, financial well-being programmes, or the ability for associates to bring their pets to work.

Gripes about travelling into the office may remain if companies do not offer direct compensation for transportation costs, but equally, many may turn to a warm cosy office amid the cost-of-living crisis to avoid the higher energy bills from being in the home throughout the day.

AI: Creator or Diminisher of Workforce Opportunity

Despite anxiety and significant discussion around how GenAI will impact jobs, in the short- to medium-term, generative AI will fully replace few jobs.

GenAI will lower the level of technical skills needed for many roles, widely increasing the roles for which candidates can qualify.

Gartner predicts that many jobs heavily impacted by GenAI will be redesigned and will have new responsibilities that include interacting with GenAI tools.

This year, leaders should partner with HR to assess how GenAI investments should change their teams’ roles and workflows, and how to identify potential internal candidates for newly redesigned roles.

HR must also evaluate the impact on hiring strategies, identifying which technical requirements and assessments are now unnecessary for open and upcoming roles and determining how to assess talent against any new skill needs.

Four-Day Workweeks: Radical or Routine? 

A four-day workweek has become a centrepiece of large-scale studies in performance, union negotiations, and the preferences of many workers.

Embracing a shorter week will require organisations to rethink the cadence of the work week and re-examine what is necessary to get work done.

Organisations in 2024 will use four-day workweeks to improve talent outcomes – including employee engagement, performance, and well-being – and business outcomes, including eliminating inefficiencies, increasing talent attraction, and retention and driving competitive advantage.

Employee Conflict Resolution Is a Must Have Skill for Managers

Gartner claims that conflicts between employees are poised to be at an all-time high in 2024 due to geopolitical crises, labour strikes, climate change, pushback on DEI efforts, and upcoming elections for half the globe.

Conflict resolution requires actively working through challenging moments, pulling employees back from ostracizing colleagues with opposing viewpoints to focus on areas or mutual respect, or at least neutrality.

“Managers who can effectively navigate and manage interpersonal conflict among employees will have an outsize positive impact on their organizations; the question is how many really feel trained and prepared to do so,” said Peter Aykens, chief of research in the Gartner HR practice.

Organisations should therefore consider bringing in dedicated conflict management trainings, creating shadowing and coaching opportunities for new managers to see how experienced leaders resolve intense conflicts between employees, and finding ways to recognise and reward effective conflict resolution at all levels of the organisation.

Generative AI: Hard Lessons and Painful Costs

Enthusiasm, hype, and a strong fear of missing out or being left behind are driving executives to push for the implementation of GenAI within their teams and organizations.

Companies will need to actively manage the risks of GenAI, including more rigorous access and file classification policies internally, and solid quality control and judgment when utilizing the outputs of GenAI tools.

While these risks may not outweigh the potential benefits of GenAI, they will lead organisations to train employees to develop judgement around not just information validity, but also how and when to use GenAI.

Smashing the Paper Ceiling: Skills Over Degrees

College degrees are the top requirement of yesterday’s job descriptions. Organisations today are increasingly shredding the paper ceiling – the barrier workers without degrees face – and embracing skills-based hiring, even for some corporate jobs long considered degree-dependent.

Removing degree requirements from job posting will enable organisations to attract qualified talent by hiring form a much broader talent pool that includes both internally developed talent and workers via Skills Through Alternative Routes (STARs).

Leading organisations are increasingly touting their in-house universities and business schools – and expanding apprenticeship programmes – as tailored credential programmes that prepare talent with the specific skills they’ll need to advance.

Climate Change Protection Becomes the New In-Demand Employee Benefit 

Severe climate change-related events are shifting from localised and episodic to widespread and persistent, and organisations are responding by making climate change disaster response a more visible component of benefits packages.

In 2024 and beyond, organisations will begin to highlight and promote direct climate change protections as a key part of their benefit offerings.

These will include explicit commitments to physical safety (such as plans to offer shelter or energy provisions when natural disasters arrive), compensation to impacted employees, and mental health support.

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DEI Becomes the Way We Work

There has been a growing sense of disillusionment with DEI over the past few years, in the US, there’s even a sense of direct pushback. However, the critical need for diverse, equitable and inclusive workforces remains, leaving organisations uncertain about what to do next.

“In 2024, companies will begin to pivot from DEI existing solely in a silo to having it embedded throughout the organization,” said McRae.

“In this new model, DEI will shift to a shared way of working as organizations fully integrate DEI values into business objectives, daily operations and culture.” ​

Career Stereotypes Collapse in the Face of Workforce Change

The traditional career path where employees rise up the ranks and retire at the peak of their career is going away. Many employees don’t retire at all or do so after a career shift or break.

Workers are also facing involuntary disruption to careers due to economic cycles, displacement during conflict and natural disasters, and shifting responsibilities as technology and business models evolve.

As typical career paths become mainstream, the well-entrenched talent stereotypes that underpin most talent management strategies will prove a growing barrier to talent acquisition and retention.

For example, employees may break with the stereotype of career continuity by offering job sharing, gig work, or reduced hours to provide greater flexibility.

To take advantage of expertise where it exists, regardless of tenure, organisations will break the mould of a step-by-step progressive career trajectory.