Top 10 Trends for CHROs in Australia

Every year, Evanta’s C-level community members are asked to participate in our Leadership Perspective Survey to help identify the business climate for the upcoming year. Their responses illustrate the top priorities, investments and challenges for enterprises as a whole, as well as indicate the unique needs of specific business functions and communities around the world.

With this information, we are able to tailor our programs for each Evanta community to help executives address mission critical areas of importance and connect with like-minded peers.

This year, over 600 CHROs completed the survey to establish the top global trends for 2022. And here, we are able to examine the Australia CHRO community responses in more detail.

These are the top five trends for Australia CHROs:

1. Employee experience & organisational culture jumped from #3 in 2021 to the #1 most important priority for 2022, swapping places with current and future leadership.
   
2. Workforce strategy and design rose from #7 in 2021 to #2 this year.
   
3. Recruitment, onboarding and retention strategies saw a significant boost on the list, and moved from #10 in 2021 to #4 this year.
4. Health & well-being solutions is consistent as the #5 priority in both 2021 and 2022.
   
5. DEI and Organizational Design and Change both dropped off of the top priority list with DEI moving from #4 to #7, and Organizational Design and Change having a major decline from #2 to #9.

Here are the top five investment trends for Australia CHROs:

1. In 2021, a surprising 34% of CHROs said their operating budgets decreased from the year before. On an optimistic note, this year only 14% of CHROs mentioned their operating budgets decreased from the previous year. Employee satisfaction and engagement is a top priority across the enterprise in 2022, and this emphasis on HR operating budgets implies support for that goal.
2. Data and analytics is a steady investment area for CHROs. This year, it is tied with workforce planning for the #1 and #2 planned spending areas, and last year, it similarly held the #2 spot. Of the 31% of respondents who selected data and analytics, 73% plan to spend within the next twelve months.
3. Workforce planning spend jumped significantly from #10 in 2021 to tie data and analytics this year at 31%. Of those respondents, 70% plan to spend within the year.
4. Recruiting dropped from the #1 to the #5 planned spending area this year. Only 24% of respondents listed it as an investment area.
5. HCM Technology dropped from #4 to #8 for planned spending. However, the percentage of respondents stayed consistently around 20% for both years.
    

What’s Next?

These findings transcend the Leadership Perspective Survey, and we are hearing about them in conversation with HR executives, as well. 

On the topic of employee experience, one CHRO told us, “When it comes to employee experience, why do people stay with an organisation? Is it a nice office, remuneration, etc.? It’s important to connect employees to the purpose.”

Another shared how data and analytics is being used for their purposes, “Performance calibration is the focus — getting insights into what high performers look like and mapping out the employee experience. We have a few people working with other departments to do this.”

At Evanta, we understand the nuances each regional business community faces, and we bring together C-level executives to share, learn and connect on the mission critical topics that matter most to them. Join the Australia community at our annual CHRO Executive Summit in June, or find your local community in Melbourne or Sydney to see when our next program will be held.