The Top Trends for CHROs in Australia for 2023

At the beginning of each year here at Evanta, a Gartner company, we start to understand more about the priorities, goals and challenges of our executive communities. Through surveys and in-depth interviews, it is possible to create an accurate picture of what is important to our executives to help build world-class agendas for the coming year. These surveys and interviews, like all Evanta’s programs, are built on our “by CHROs, for CHROs” model – shaping our agendas through our communities’ guidance and participation. 

So far, over 500 members from our CHRO communities across the globe completed our annual Leadership Perspective Survey, outlining clear trends for HR leaders for 2023.These trends provide our communities with strategic direction and insights into what may be coming next and much-needed validation from peers. 

Through these surveys, we can observe subtle differences between regions. In this blog, we are going to draw our attention to the CHRO communities in Australia.

When taking a closer look at enterprise priorities, CHROs have indicated:

1. Driving Growth remains a top priority for the Australian region, but has fallen from the #1 spot in 2022 to #3 this year. Meanwhile, Increasing Operational Efficiencies and Productivity has jumped from the #6 spot in 2022 to the #1 enterprise priority this year.
   
2. Digital Business Acceleration has dropped out of the top 3, ranking #8 for 2023. It is reasonable to suggest that this is a result of heightened attention being paid to other new priorities, rather than a result of diminishing interest in digital business across the board.
   
3. Sustainability and/or ESG is a new addition for this year and has jumped straight to the #4 spot. It is no surprise that Sustainability and/or ESG is featured high in its first year. With the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 growing closer, many Australian businesses understand the responsibility and impact their businesses have on their nation meeting these goals and how they can empower employees to do the same.

These are the top three trends we observed for Australian CHROs’ functional priorities:

1. 2022’s #1 priority Employee Experience and Organizational Culture was split into two separate priorities for this year’s survey. Interestingly, Organizational Culture takes the #3 spot for 2023, while Employee Experience & EVP has dropped to the #4 spot for CHROs in Australia this year.
2. Leadership Development & Succession Planning has moved into the #1 spot this year, up from #4 in 2022.The top goal here is developing talent and skills, as reported by 75% of respondents. Furthermore, 47% of respondents listed competing priorities and siloed operating models as the top associated challenge.
3. Workforce Strategy & Design has dropped to the #6 spot for 2023, compared to #2 for 2022. Instead, Talent Retention takes the #2 spot for 2023.

With continual shifts across our social, economic and cultural paradigms in this year alone, it is interesting to see how Australian CHROs’ budgets and spending have evolved. Here are the top two trends we are seeing for Australian CHROs’ investments in 2023:

1. Almost 50% of CHROs in Australia reported no change in their operating budgets compared to last year. Meanwhile, only 29% report an increase and 21% report a decrease in operating budgets compared to last year.
2. Workforce Data & Talent Analytics remains the #1 investment priority for CHROs in the Australian region. It has consistently featured in the top 5 since the community launched in 2019.
    

Overall, CHROs in Australia are increasingly responsible for improving the operational efficiencies and productivity of their workforce. It is clear that, in the midst of broader social and economic developments, Australian CHROs are giving greater attention to fostering a healthy organisational culture, all whilst maintaining a heavy emphasis on developing their leadership teams to facilitate this. Australian CHROs continue to invest in new data and analytics technologies that can provide greater insights into their current workforce and enhance the acquisition of new talent. 

View the complete results from Evanta’s annual Leadership Perspective Survey, and join your local CHRO community to connect with like-minded peers on these mission-critical priorities - apply to join today.