Over the past few years, HR has steadily evolved into one of the most critical functions for any organization. HR not only has a seat at the table, but the ability to become a driving force behind organizational change and growth. Most customers I speak with recognize this opportunity, but many have the same question: how can HR make the most impact?

Each year, the SAP SuccessFactors Growth & Insights team conducts in-depth research on the latest trends and predictions impacting the HR function. Our PhD-level organizational psychologists and market intelligence experts aggregate and analyze a mountain of HR trends and predictions data to deliver a list of actionable “meta-trends.” For 2024, a list of 611 individual trends were broken down into nine key themes.

Above all, there is no question that 2024 is the year of artificial intelligence (AI). No longer just hype or speculation, AI is officially here. Exciting possibilities have become realities and organizations must embrace AI or risk being left behind. And while our number one HR trend is AI, you can also see its effects across every trend.

Below is a snapshot of the 2024 HR meta-trends, with examples of how SAP SuccessFactors solutions can help organizations stay ahead of the curve.

1. AI Upends the World of Work as We Know It

I don’t go a day – or maybe 10 minutes – without a customer asking for all the latest and greatest on AI innovation. That makes sense, as AI has dominated the 2024 trends discourse and it’s increasingly become seen as a way to augment human work.

Trends indicate that using all forms of AI to improve day-to-day productivity will be top of mind for organizations in 2024. In particular, self-serve AI tools like copilots are poised to increase employee productivity on various day-to-day tasks. As employee sentiment about using AI tools at work has improved, so has the ability of these tools to make employees more efficient and effective.

HR use cases abound, particularly within talent acquisition, but concerns continue about data privacy, ethics, and regulatory compliance. There’s a lot of noise and movement in the space, and regulators and enforcement agencies are acting quickly to keep up.

With the tech landscape and market realities in mind, the HR leaders who head AI implementation programs, maintain a strong policy posture, and avoid overhyped or underbaked propositions to take advantage of the most valuable capabilities will steer their organizations down the right AI path.

Embedding an AI copilot in HR solutions, like Joule in SAP SuccessFactors solutions, can help employees and managers work faster and smarter by making it easier to find information and complete common HR tasks, such as updating personal data, giving feedback, and initiating a promotion.

2. Skills Become the Center of HR Practices

As AI needs rise within organizations, many organizations will need to immediately respond to determine what AI skills are needed, who possesses those skills, and how to fill skill gaps – whether build, borrow, buy, or bot. On the other hand, AI capabilities will also drive the ability for organizations to more effectively engage in strategic workforce planning.

Furthermore, in today’s increasingly complex business environment, traditional top-down human resources approaches fail to address employees’ increasing expectations for flexible and personalized career development. In 2024, HR will need to meet employees’ growing expectations for bespoke career paths while also solving the broader organization’s growing skills gaps and talent shortages, which present a major concern for leaders.

Looking forward, it will be interesting to see whether the average organization fully engages in long-term, strategic, skills-based workforce planning, which has long been a strategic objective for many but often remains out of reach as they react to immediate priorities. AI skills could work as a forcing function here – and contribute to other trend areas like learning and employee potential.

SAP SuccessFactors solutions for talent management can drive better employee experiences and business outcomes by using a common skills framework across recruiting, learning, performance management, internal mobility, and development.

3. Hybrid Work Returns to the Office

Looking back at our yearly analyses of HR meta-trends, we saw the hybrid work topic shift from a focus on remote work as a reactive tactic to protect employees’ health and safety in 2020, to a focus on flexibility in 2021, to maintaining productivity and collaboration while working flexibly in 2022, and finally to an emphasis on underlying flexibility and the need for and benefit of malleable guidelines and principles in 2023. With the recent increase in partial and full return-to-office (RTO) policies, 2024 trends data suggests that the pendulum has swung back to hybrid, referring specifically to work location versus a broader perspective centered on flexibility.

Companies in 2024 will continue to experiment with motivating employees to return to the office in ways that promote productivity, collaboration, and cost savings but don’t alienate their top talent. But some organizations are focusing more on redesigning the nature of work rather than just mandating where or when work gets done.

SAP SuccessFactors solutions for core HR, time, and payroll help employees adopt a hybrid working model by providing options for common HR tasks regardless of when and where they are working, such as clocking in and out via desktop, mobile, or Microsoft Teams.

There are plenty more strategic takeaways in the full report – the entire paper is a must-read for HR leaders to learn more from our research team on the latest trends in:

• Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B)
• Employee mental health
• Leadership trust
• HR skills and agility
• Compensation
• Sustainability

For additional insights, read the full report.

Dan Beck is president and chief product officer for SAP SuccessFactors.

Recently, SAP partnered with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team to upshift its IT infrastructure and become future-proof. Together with SAP, the team will tap into cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services that will enable them to thrive on and off the track.

Formula One is a technologically innovative form of motorsport, where each car features over 300 sensors onboard that generates 1.5 terabytes of data in a single race weekend – data that needs to be analyzed to detect potential performance enhancements and reliability and safety concerns.

But until the late 1960s, Formula One cars were designed on traditional drawing boards by engineers using retractable pencils and a set of French curves. This is not dissimilar to the tech industry, where for decades the value cases for investing in technology were architected for customers by busloads of engineers armed with Excel spreadsheets.

Cloud computing changed not only what technology to buy, but also how businesses engage with their vendors when making investment decisions. Enabled by new technologies like mobility and artificial intelligence (AI), customers now expect immediate responses, exponentially faster time-to-value, immersive experiences, and flexible and intuitive engagements powered by robust low-touch and self-service capabilities. Not surprisingly, industry research shows that four out of five B2B customers will want to be engaged digitally by 2025.

SAP executes digital customer engagement via digital hubs located on six continents. The hubs are home to highly collaborative teams of diverse, digitally skilled talent that can deliver comprehensive, virtual customer engagement services. Like an F1 team, digital hubs use cutting-edge technologies to help drive accelerated business outcomes for customers with great customer experience, incredible innovation speed, and optimal levels of productivity achieved through data-driven, surgically precise execution.

Speed of Execution: Embracing Flexibility and Adaptability

Formula One teams operate in a relentless pursuit of speed, continuously refining their strategies to gain a competitive edge. Similarly, the ability to deploy teams to serve SAP customers virtually with the latest digital innovations allows us to reach more businesses faster at precisely the time they need us, no matter where in the world they might be and which stage of their digital transformation journey they are at.

Digital customer engagement can allow us to close the feedback loop across thousands of customers around the globe at velocity, helping to shorten their time to value from years to months and from months to weeks. In 2023, SAP digital hubs supported more than 22,000 digital customer engagements across the globe, setting these customers up for successful digital transformation journeys at unprecedented speed.

Speed matters and the race is on. The ability to recognize what a customer needs to grow and to work with partners that can quickly address these needs has foundationally elevated the need for digital customer engagements.

Precision in Execution: Leveraging Data and Technology for Optimal Performance

In Formula One, every aspect – from car design to the race strategy – hinges on harnessing and analyzing terabytes of data, often in real time. Similarly, in an increasingly competitive business environment, embracing precision through technological innovation allows organizations to balance accelerating their digital transformation decisions and optimizing profitability. The balance can be struck only through an almost unreasonable obsession with measuring and executing on fact-based insights.

At SAP digital hubs, we can track key value metrics across the entire customer journey, be it for demand campaigns, customer value propositions, personalized digital asset performance, the adoption of new productivity-driving tools, and so on. We do this not only to understand what’s most relevant to our customers but also to track the effectiveness of what we do and how we do it in the context of what our customers need.

Customer Experience: Focusing on Value, Personalization, and Great Experiences

In Formula One, success is not solely measured by speed. The sport thrives on delivering a captivating experience tailored to engage multifaceted fans from a multitude of angles, making sure everyone gets value from the event. The same is true in the digital business world.

SAP’s digital hubs virtualize and leverage SAP’s rich heritage of industry best practices and benchmarks to help personalize the customer journey, bringing customer stakeholders in alignment with one another and delivering on SAP’s value promises across geographies, cultures, and industries through immersive and memorable experiences. SAP digital hubs can accomplish this across the entire customer journey with SAP – from the time we create awareness, to customer onboarding, to supporting customers with valuable solution and industry expertise, until we help customers realize the full value of the SAP solutions they adopt.

AI-Powered, Human-Led Approach: Focusing on Digitally Native and Digitally Skilled Talent

In Formula One, decisions pivot on data. But it’s the team that uses their experiences to apply that data and simulate different scenarios to discover new ways to drive superior outcomes. Similarly, while data and AI technologies fuel decisions and actions in SAP digital hubs, it’s human ingenuity that leverages the tech and data and elevates customer outcomes.

Just like the F1 teams, our hubs attract and employ only the best of the best, offering a high-energy working environment that thrives on intricate collaboration. The individuals who join us can gain immediate cross-role and cross-geography exposure, enabling them to become productive members of the team in record time. Continuous learning and pointed diversity, with gender parity in half of our digital hubs today, form the backbone of our digital culture, where everyone is treated with respect, skills are constantly honed, and different roles are seamlessly orchestrated to present a unified customer experience.

The rules change, and we have to as well. Every pit stop and each customer touchpoint is a chance to pivot in real time, refine, and go faster, helping SAP customers and shareholders gain more value at exponential velocity and great volumes. This is the “3V” promise of SAP digital hubs and this is how we win the race!

Sam Masri is global head of Digital Hub, Customer Success at SAP SE.

SAP SE, a global leader in enterprise software, has announced the extension of Dr. Juergen Mueller’s contract as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) until the end of 2027. This strategic move reflects the company’s commitment to accelerating its cloud growth and driving innovation for customers worldwide. As SAP CTO, Mueller plays a pivotal role in shaping […]

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WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced that Churchill Downs Incorporated (NSQ: CHDN, “CDI”) has selected the GROW with SAP solution to support the company’s financial technology transformation as CDI continues to grow within the racing, online wagering and gaming entertainment industries.

CDI has chosen cloud solutions from SAP to serve as its technology foundation for the financial systems across its portfolio of 27 properties in 14 states, including Churchill Downs Racetrack (“Churchill Downs”), the home of the Kentucky Derby. CDI’s significant technology transformation builds on the company’s partnership with SAP as a signature partner and the first official technology partner serving Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks.

By adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, CDI can benefit from the ready-to-run cloud ERP that delivers the latest industry best practices and continuous innovation. Additionally, choosing SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP SuccessFactors solutions allows CDI to leverage the cloud to streamline its data sources while using business data to make informed strategic decisions underpinning business transformation. From creating engaging employee experiences with SAP SuccessFactors solutions to running business analytics to understand and predict data, CDI plans to be able to integrate business data from various acquisitions, allowing it to have one, unified view of its business operations.

“Cloud solutions from SAP will enable us to streamline our financial processes and support the significant long-term growth of our company,” said Marcia Dall, CDI Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “We are excited to work with SAP to innovate and evolve our financial technology platform with cloud solutions from SAP.”

“Churchill Downs Incorporated has a long history of entertaining and delighting people,” SAP North America President Lloyd Adams said. “By choosing SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and several other cloud-based solutions, CDI now can integrate data across its portfolio and make data-driven decisions that help the company reach its goals. This is an incredible example of how companies invest in SAP solutions to help them grow.”

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Hera Group, a prominent multi-utility company in the Italian market, has chosen the RISE with SAP offering to streamline its business processes and drive sustainability. As the first among the big players in the industry to adopt this solution, Hera Group aims to leverage cutting-edge technology to enhance operational efficiency, simplify data management, and accelerate […]

The post RISE with SAP Offering Propels Hera Group’s Transformation appeared first on InsideSAP.

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), a leading aluminum producer, has recently announced its decision to upgrade its core enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to SAP’s latest S/4HANA software. This move is part of EGA’s broader digital transformation initiative, launched in 2021, which aims to enhance operations, improve customer and employee experiences, and create new revenue streams. […]

The post EGA Embarks on SAP S/4HANA Upgrade for Digital Transformation appeared first on InsideSAP.

Do you ever feel like the list of procurement challenges we wake up to grows a little bit longer every day? Just as we come to terms with one, another pops up. Whether it is the economy, global turmoil, the latest tech disruption, or any number of other things, we are always being tested.

On top of that, we still need to foster relationships with suppliers, manage costs, address sustainability mandates, and build resilient supply chains — all while transforming procurement into a more strategic business function. Not surprisingly, procurement leaders are looking to the next wave of technology to help them position their organizations to adapt quickly to changing conditions.

For many, moving key business processes to the cloud represents that “next wave” and for that, RISE with SAP is the perfect option.

The RISE with SAP solution is a managed cloud offering that enables a smooth, secure migration of on-premises ERP, including SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA, to the cloud. Its holistic approach to business transformation empowers organizations to better adapt to changing market dynamics and innovate more quickly.

Businesses can leverage RISE with SAP to modernize their IT infrastructure, optimize and automate key processes, and unlock new levels of efficiency. They can also harness the power of data and analytics to make informed decisions, enabling them to achieve their business goals more effectively and efficiently.

The Challenge for Procurement: Extending Digital Transformation to Suppliers

For many years, “digital transformation” has been the hot trend for business functions, including procurement. Organizations are moving their internal business operations from manual processes and disparate software applications to integrated ERP systems. These systems are starting to leverage generative AI to improve the user experience, digitalize manual processes, and accelerate strategic decision making.

This is a win for the business with one caveat: “traditional” digital transformation does not go beyond the four walls of the organization. This creates a challenge for procurement because suppliers operate outside those four walls, where communication can be anything but digitalized. In fact, a 2023 IDC InfoBrief sponsored by SAP* revealed that 68% of respondents use email to transmit and receive data and documents for procurement and supply chain collaboration. Other methods include telephone (44%), supplier/customer portals (38%), and EDI (26%).

Given the technology available today, this is not only unproductive, but it also is completely unnecessary. With RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP offers a premium plus edition that includes SAP Business Network for Procurement. This enables businesses to extend the digital transformation of business processes outside their walls.

Better Collaboration, Faster Invoice Processing, and an Improved User Experience

SAP Business Network for Procurement is a cloud-based collaboration offering that gives buyers and suppliers a way to find each other and do business within a single, networked platform. The network makes it possible for organizations to:

• Exchange data and documents digitally with suppliers, eliminating the need for phone calls, faxes, emails, or snail mail
• Achieve enhanced spend visibility and compliance
• Access a marketplace of suppliers to ensure business resilience, diverse spending, and alignment with sustainability objectives

Additionally, improved transactional operations and invoice status visibility enable better working capital management for stronger trading partner relationships. Finance colleagues can enjoy a faster month-end close due to improved accounts payable efficiencies and increased procurement and payment compliance.

SAP Business Network for Procurement Extends SAP S/4HANA Cloud

When RISE with SAP is combined with SAP Business Network for Procurement, procurement teams can collaborate digitally with suppliers across procurement and invoicing processes. This dramatically improves transactional efficiency.

A natural extension of ERP, SAP Business Network provides an environment in which procurement processes initiated from SAP S/4HANA Cloud can be transmitted digitally to suppliers. As a result, suppliers can view and generate transactions like orders, order confirmations, ship notices, and invoices, and then act quickly to accelerate the procure-to-pay process.

SAP Business Network for Procurement improves process efficiency in many areas, including:

• Purchase order processing: Digital purchase orders that are created in ERP are sent automatically to suppliers. Once confirmed by the supplier, buyers have visibility into order acceptance and delivery dates.
• Invoice payment status: Invoice and payment status information is available on the SAP Business Network dashboard to update suppliers, eliminating the need for phone calls.
• Invoicing business rules: Buyers have the flexibility to configure applicable business rules that require adherence to business process and regulatory compliance.
• Change order update: Buyers and suppliers can communicate changes to open purchase orders, which creates an auditable record of changes and variations. Related documents, such as shipping notices, are also synchronized with updates.
• Payment compliance: Quick invoice processing and data accuracy minimizes wrong or duplicate payments, while improving accounting processes and overall financial visibility.
• Supplier collaboration: Digitalization enables quicker feedback from suppliers, making it possible for suppliers to “flip” purchase orders into confirmations and invoices, reducing errors and manual effort.
• Promotional opportunities: Networked suppliers have additional opportunities to grow their business by using the network to promote their offerings and connect with new customers.

The Next Wave of Digital Transformation

When you invest in RISE with SAP, you are enabling your business to migrate core business processes to the cloud. By complementing this solution with SAP Business Network, you extend your digital transformation to interactions with trading partners though a single, end-to-end technology landscape built on standardized processes and consistent data.

This is the next wave of technology that will enable you to address the ever-growing list of business challenges you wake up and face every day.

Etosha Thurman is chief marketing and solutions officer of Intelligent Spend and Business Network at SAP.

*Driving Best-in-Class Supply Chain Collaboration with a Business Network, doc #US50854723, July 2023