CEOs' focus on workforce is waning - what can HR leaders do?

Fewer chief executive officers and senior business leaders are focusing on their workforce amid greater priority put on growth and artificial intelligence, Gartner HR Research has found.

In its survey among 416 CEOs and other senior business leaders, Gartner found that 57% of CEOs plan to hike investment in people and culture, down from 69% a year ago.

Less than half of the respondents (46%) are also planning to increase investments in hiring, a decline from the 54% recorded in 2022.

According to Gartner, the workforce is the third most important business priority in 2024 to 2025 for CEOs, just behind growth and technology.

"CEOs' emphasis on growth strategy, and the role of technology – particularly AI – in supporting that growth, is causing workforce-related attention to wane," said Alexander Kirss, Senior Principal in the Gartner HR practice, in a statement.

Kirss said 86% of the respondents reported that they plan to use AI to help maintain or grow company revenue, while 56% believe that company productivity will increase by at least 11% thanks to generative AI over the next two years.

What can HR leaders do?

In the wake of waning focus on workforce investment, Gartner said CHROs should partner with their CEOs on talent priorities.

"CEOs often have sweeping views on talent but struggle to distil those views into an actionable set of talent priorities," Kirss said. "CHROs who successfully transform these visions into operational realities become indispensable architects of the company's strategic talent blueprint and cement their role as a trusted CEO partner."

According to Gartner, CHROs should help their CEOs examine how they think about talent and refine their perspectives on current talent priorities.

"By sharing the challenges, cost, time frame, and impact that the CEOs beliefs could have on employees and the organisation, CHROs can uncover areas of misalignment and help the CEO understand how and why they have come to their specific goals," Gartner said in a media release.

CHROs should also "prompt" CEOs to reinforce talent priorities in case they get disengaged, according to Gartner.

To avoid disengagement, Gartner said CHRs should counsel their CEOs to communicate across the organisation by:

• Embedding opportunities to discuss talent priorities as an executive leadership team.
• Discussing talent priorities in regular organisational and operational updates, i.e., companywide town halls, internal communications and performance management practices.

Lastly, CHROs should also monitor emerging talent trends to help priorities evolve, Gartner said, adding that those who anticipate future talent priorities can help give organisations competitive advantage.

"CHROs should schedule dedicated time to review emerging talent trends and determine the specific impact they are likely to have on the organisation’s talent priorities," Gartner said. "CHROs must also assess their organisation's readiness to adapt to future talent priorities while proactively identifying and addressing potential barriers that could hinder them."