HR Professionals Ready to Embrace AI in the Face of Burnout
02 April 2024 - 9:00PM
A new global report from Sage reveals that HR professionals welcome
AI to ease the burden of admin jobs, take away time-consuming
tasks, and, ultimately, ease burnout.
The annual report, titled 'The Changing Face of HR', surveyed
over 1,000 HR leaders across a range of sectors and countries,
finding that 77% believe AI has the potential to revolutionize ways
of working within their company. With 95% of respondents reporting
an increase in their workload over the past year and 91% seeing an
increase in more responsibilities in their role.
The research also revealed that:
- Amount of work (80%), low morale
and burnout of employees (79%) and limited budgets (79%) are the
top challenges keeping HR professionals up at night
- 80% of HR professionals believe the
role of HR will change considerably due to AI
- 71% of HR professionals believe
implementing AI in HR tasks will create more jobs
- 45% of HR leaders are currently
using HR metrics, 44% are utilizing automation, and 43% employing
cloud HR solutions, showing a significant shift towards automation
and analytics
The report also highlighted some areas of focus, with more than
half (56%) of HR leaders reporting that they need more technology
to operate effectively. By utilizing technology, HR leaders will be
able to collect, analyze, and report meaningful data-driven
insights to better inform their decisions. Training was identified
as key to taking advantage of the benefits of technology with 79%
agreeing that education was needed to fully capitalize on AI’s
capabilities.
Future outlook
Looking forward to the future, the top three areas HR
professionals want to spend more time on are strategic planning
(61%), using data to drive decision-making (59%) and employee
engagement (59%). This demonstrates a fundamental shift from
paperwork to people strategies, meaning that there is a need to
automate labor-intensive HR admin tasks. Although 68% say over half
of the HR processes in their organization are automated, 79% say
more could be automated to improve efficiency.
Interestingly, the research also revealed a gap between small
businesses (57%) and medium businesses (80%) in terms of automation
levels, indicating that smaller companies may benefit from
investing in HR technology to keep up with larger competitors.
The report concludes that HR professionals are well-positioned
to navigate these changes and continue to play a crucial role in
shaping the future of work.
Amanda Cusdin, CPO at Sage, comments, “Our
findings show that HR professionals are facing increasing pressure
to deliver results while managing an ever-growing list of
responsibilities. However, the industry and its people are
resilient and those that embrace technology and AI will gain more
time back, which we know is so invaluable when you’re trying to
avoid burnout. As a result, HR professionals will be able to shift
their focus’ to areas of their jobs that they find more valuable,
such as people strategies, which in turn can increase job
satisfaction.”
Ben Brooks, Founder and CEO at Pilot says “The
importance of HR analytics in strategic HR cannot be
underestimated. Finance, Sales, Operations, Technology, Marketing,
and more all come to the table with numbers that illustrate
progress, challenges, and performance against goals, and HR must do
the same. Leveraging technology to collect, analyze, and report
meaningful data driven insights becomes a superpower for HR.”
Notes to EditorsTo download the full report,
visit
https://www.sage.com/en-gb/human-resources/resources/hr-trends
Methodology
Over 1,000 HR leaders across a range of sectors were surveyed
across the following countries: US, UK, Germany, South Africa,
Canada, Spain, France. 50% of respondents were from small
businesses (50-249 employees) and 50% of respondents were from
medium businesses (250-2,500 employees).
Media contactJordan
KerchevalSagejordan.kercheval@sage.com
AxiComSAGEUSTEAM@axicom.com
About Sage
Sage exists to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive,
starting with the millions of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses served
by us, our partners and accountants. Customers trust our finance,
HR and payroll software to make work and money flow. By digitizing
business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers,
employees, banks and governments, our digital network connects
SMBs, removing friction and delivering insights. Knocking down
barriers also means we use our time, technology and experience to
tackle digital inequality, economic inequality and the climate
crisis.
Sage (LSE:SGE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Sage (LSE:SGE)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024