2024 employee benefits & workplace predictions: Leadership
Industry leaders share their thoughts, comments, and concerns about how leadership will look like in 2024.
Good leaders are very important to have in this industry, especially at a time when employees are jumping shift quite often. A good manager can change the way an employee sees the company and the work that is being done.
Industry leaders share their thoughts, comments, and concerns about how leadership will look like in 2024.
The future of work is here — it is time for the leader of the future to stand up
Employees expect more from leadership than ever before — more transparency, more commitment to work/life balance and more willingness to incorporate their sentiments and preferences into the workplace. The mindset has shifted from “my paycheck to my purpose”; “my boss to my coach”; “my annual performance review to ongoing development conversations”. It is not an employer’s market anymore; it’s an employee’s market and workers aren’t afraid to search elsewhere to find a workplace, or leader, that fits their needs. In response, there will continue to be not only a transformation of leadership styles, but in the overall organization of leadership strategy. Successful leaders will need to prioritize qualities and strategies that promote a flexible and open-minded workforce where credibility, reliability and trust are paramount.
Richa Gupta, CHRO, G-P
Leaders must take action in a disordered world
Job demands, traumatic events, and workplace incivility will continue to negatively impact the workforce in 2024. Psychosocial risk assessments will become essential for business leaders as they take on the hard job of helping the workforce face current brutal truths in a disordered world, and at the same time remain optimistic about the future. Leaders will use the tangible and effective tools that they have to assess and address psychosocial risks and build employee resilience. By making a full commitment to the potential of their organization, employees will be better able to handle difficult change and come out stronger for it.
Jan Bruce, CEO, and co-founder, meQuilibrium
Empowering managers
Support employee development through more and better manager enablement. With poor manager-report relations being a leading cause of employee turnover, HR leaders must equip managers with the tools and skills they need to foster stronger connections and better understand and support their teams. Only through empowering their managers, fostering open dialogue, and ensuring a supportive work environment can HR ensure that employee concerns are addressed promptly — and avoid impacting satisfaction, productivity, and retention.
Jenny von Podewils, co-CEO, Leapsome
Implement practices to empower managers
The squeeze on managers over the past several years is real, and 2024 is the opportunity to reverse this and fully realize the valuable contributions front-line and middle managers make to a company’s ecosystem and performance. Managers are asked from above to implement tighter budgets and focus on the bottom line, while also engaging and motivating employees with ever-increasing expectations. This means managers are often put in the middle to rationalize what feels like opposing forces. Implementing practices to empower and support the success of front-line and middle managers with sufficient levers for them to work smarter and navigate complex problems effectively will pay off with engaged employees who connect into and feel accountable for the company strategy.
Megan Smith, Head of HR, SAP North America