According to the Deloitte 2024 Global Human Capital Trends study, increasing stress in the workplace is the top concern of more than half of workers worldwide (54%), followed by technological advances, with a quarter of workers surveyed expressing concern about the significant changes that technological transformations such as the need to acquire new skills and create new jobs. Other employee concerns include the new ability for employers to digitally monitor their work without their consent (22%) and the lack of connection and sense of belonging caused by remote or hybrid working (20%).

• Finding new ways for people and technology to work together is a challenge for most organizations
• HR departments must move from an operational role to a cross-departmental approach

The study introduces the concept of human resilience, which addresses employers’ efforts to create a sustainable human capital environment that can support the development of the entire workforce and that focuses on health, well-being and a sense of belonging. While the majority of respondents agree that human resilience is important (76%), less than half of them (46%) take concrete action on it, and only 10% successfully address the topic. The study also found a difference in the perception of the topic of sustainable human development at different levels of the hierarchy in organizations: nine in ten members of the management team (89%) said that their organization is moving in this direction, compared to only four in ten non-executive leaders. managers (41%) say the same.

“For an organization to move from the passive phase, where they know how to do something, to the active phase, where they actually take concrete action, they need a comprehensive plan, integrated into a strategy, focused on improving human performance by combining objectives related to from employees to those associated with the business. In order for employees to increase their productivity, leaders must break down the silos in which they still sometimes operate and adapt traditional structures to today’s demands. In order for employment relationships to be based on trust, employers must continue to emphasize and truly value human qualities, as well as make optimal use of technology and new data sources,” he said. Raluka Bontas, partner of Deloitte Romania.

Technological progress creates the potential for new ways of working that can increase human productivity, but for organizations to experience these new ways without compromising business results, they need to implement so-called “digital playgrounds” (digital playgrounds), approachwhich involves the choice of technologies and the democratization of the possibilities of their use, the study claims. Most organizations recognize the importance of this mindset (65%), but only 41% are doing something about it, and few are doing enough to make significant progress (10%).

As AI advances, it can be difficult for organizations to find new ways of cooperation between people and technology, research shows. Although 73% of respondents believe it is important that the use of technological innovation closely complements the imagination of people, only one in ten companies (9%) is making significant progress in this direction. Organizations that address the imagination deficit are nearly twice as likely to achieve desired business outcomes (1.8x) and human capital (1.9x).

How the field of human capital is considered without borders (no limits), because work is no longer defined by jobs, many employees are no longer “traditional,” and the workplace is no longer a specific location, HR can no longer be solely responsible for all the needs that arise from that context, according to training. So, units that manage the personnel program must move from an operational function to a cross-departmental approach. Today, 20% of senior executives believe HR improves employee performance, while only 10% of non-executives believe it meets their unique needs and preferences. However, HR teams are making progress in the transformation process, with more than a third (35%) of respondents saying they have expanded the reach of their organizations in the past three years, and nearly a third (27%) of senior management team members strongly believe they have better integrated with other departments.

The Deloitte 2024 Global Human Capital Trends report was conducted among 14,000 business and HR leaders from various industries and sectors in 95 countries, including Romania. In addition to the global report, Deloitte conducted a survey of employees and members of executive management teams to capture their perspective and highlight the discrepancies between the perceptions of executives and employees.

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