The seven winning strategies of pacesetter organizations

This research, conducted by 3Sixty Insights in collaboration with Eightfold AI, explores the misalignment between HR leaders and business strategies and the short-term and long-term issues that result from it.

We partnered with 3Sixty Insights to deploy two surveys:

• An HR Leader Survey taken by 500 HR leaders, VP level and above, at companies with 5000+ employees across six countries.
• An Employee Survey including/covering 1200 respondents who are employed full or part-time across six countries.

Our findings show a high recurrence (82%) of misalignment in businesses where HR departments are not in lockstep with the overall business. This was exemplified primarily in three areas:

• Business strategy development and execution - Only 53% of HR leaders report involvement from the outset in developing and executing their company’s overall business strategy.
• C-suite collaboration - 47% of HR leaders report that their HR department is absent from regular collaboration with the C-suite on long-term strategic initiatives.
• Talent strategy - 56% say their talent strategies do not align with the overall business objectives.

Only 18% of the leaders surveyed execute all three of the above strategy areas effectively. This has downstream effects on the efficacy of talent strategy, the HR organization, and general business needs.

With 69% of respondents to the Leader Survey concerned about their ability to keep up with their company’s rapid changes and the ever-evolving HR needs of their employees, this number will only continue to grow the longer HR remains misaligned.

This report will outline how leaders can solve these problems by aligning HR goals with business goals and prioritizing understanding skills and capabilities to overcome internal and external staffing challenges. We will examine how those who encourage internal mobility, reskilling, redeployment, retention, and employee growth have higher employee satisfaction. The report also looks at the use of AI and technology in HR practices and the positive changes harnessing AI can bolster. This report shows how companies making strategic investments in technology enhance and transform their ability to meet future needs, achieve business goals, and streamline their tech stack.