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.

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.”

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