HR leaders share their top challenges in 2024 and strategies to overcome them

Bringing people back to the office, solving problems together, maintaining organisational culture, adopting cutting-edge technologies, improving diversity in leadership—do these sound familiar? All these were some of the unique challenges for HR leaders in 2024.
People Matters spoke to HR leaders to understand how they tackled these hurdles, staying ahead of the competition while retaining top talent. Watch the video here:
The need for in-person collaboration
Reflecting on challenges faced by HR in 2024, Arun Rao, Chief People Officer, Birlasoft, highlighted two major challenges bringing people back to work and keeping pace with technology. “Encouraging employees to return—whether in a hybrid or fully in-office model and keeping pace with technological advancement were substantial hurdles,’ says Arun.
After operating in remote mode for an extended period post-COVID, organisations in service-oriented industries realised that the lack of in-person collaboration is impacting the quality of innovation and solutions. Additionally, with a surge in new hires, maintaining and strengthening organizational culture emerged as a critical priority.
According to Arun, these challenges are not solely HR issues but business-wide problems where HR has taken a leading role.
Technology adoption
Arun also pointed out the importance of embracing emerging technologies like Generative AI, which are no longer just trends but essential tools for staying competitive. “Employees must understand and integrate these technologies into their workflows to remain ahead,” he emphasised.
Driving gender diversity in leadership
For Shilpa Kankariya, Head HR, Business Partner, Hexagon India R&D, enhancing gender diversity in leadership roles was another key challenge for HR leaders this year. “To address this, we launched a targeted initiative called "Begin Again", a program designed to support women re-entering the workforce at the mid-management level,” Shilpa shares.
“The success of this program is exemplified by its tangible outcomes—within just three months of its launch, one of the participants has progressed to leading a global team driving innovation. This is precisely the kind of meaningful impact we aimed to achieve through this initiative,’ adds Shilpa.
The program’s impact was quickly evident, Shilpa shares. “Within just three months of its launch, one of the participants has progressed to leading a global team driving innovation. This is precisely the kind of meaningful impact we aimed to achieve,” she added.