As global and regional economic shifts and technological advancements become more frequent, companies across Asia Pacific and the Middle East need to rapidly adapt. For HR, this means being agile and aligning talent strategy more closely to the business vision. However, this is only one side of the coin. To ensure their businesses are able to prepare for an uncertain and disruptive future, HR needs to both facilitate workforce readiness and execute transformative people and talent management initiatives.

The SHRPA Global State of HR Industry 2024 Report notes how external disruptions today are challenging the core tenets of HR. Not only is the "war for talent" going to further intensify in the coming year, but companies will also need better leaders and a new drive towards productivity in an AI-driven work environment. Looking at the tech side of HR impact, HR and business leaders across APAC and the Middle East highlight the indispensability of HR tech while mentioning the glaring challenges that exist today in identifying, implementing, and adopting newer technologies like AI and automation.



Acing both their ability to adapt and execute impactful initiatives around skilling, leadership development, hiring, and talent management in a period of change is necessary for HR.

Looking at the HR industry—what HR, business, and tech leaders have to say—most are ready to change. But they are failing at change execution.

 

The Challenge of Execution

 

The SHRPA Global State of the HR Industry Report looked at the satisfaction levels of HR and business leaders in executing people-centric and tech-led talent initiatives. We found that while HR across Asia Pacific and the Middle East was acing its readiness to adapt and align with business needs, it is failing at executing tech-led change. Across the region, 48% of HR leaders are dissatisfied with their ability to leverage AI and analytics to raise productivity. Another 34% struggle to execute digital transformation. This dissatisfaction extends to other people-centric parameters like creating the right learning programs and delivering superior employee experiences.



We see a similar trend impacting companies across the region. Looking at Southeast Asia, India, Pacific-ANZ, and the Middle East, companies report a familiar split of opinions: High satisfaction in their readiness to change but lacking in implementing and executing talent initiatives.



A major factor driving the lack of satisfaction across tech-led parameters like executing digital transformation and raising productivity through AI stems from HR's own lack of capabilities around leveraging these technologies.

The inertia in building new, more relevant skills, adopting a curious and experimental mindset all impact HR's effectiveness in preparing for the future.

But for companies, the lack of skills and appetite to experiment is only part of the problem. The real challenge in acing execution stems from the low tech maturity levels across the region.

 

HR's Tech Maturity is Falling Behind Expectation

 

Given the problems of change execution, it's also important to look at where companies are at in their HR tech maturity curve. In other words, HR's ability and effectiveness are greatly impacted by the effectiveness of their HR tech solutions across different talent functions.

The SHRPA Global report shows that HR tech effectiveness—and by extension tech led change execution— is influenced by the current stage of HR tech maturity.

In a comparative analysis among companies at different stages of HR tech maturity, we found that companies with advanced AI usage and integrated HR systems (progressives) show significantly higher satisfaction in driving impact across different functions than companies still dependent on data-driven HR systems (adopters) or are still at a basic HR automation stage (laggards).

Across APAC and the Middle East, 6 in 10 companies with low HR tech maturity are falling behind the change execution journey.

Furthermore, the difference in HR tech's effectiveness across key parameters like talent analytics and talent management is the greatest between progressive and laggard companies.

Technology today emerges as a clear enabler of talent and business results. HR's successful transformation centers on it being people-centric and tech-enabled. The growing trust in HR tech solutions as a key partner is also reflected in HR's growing investment in HR tech solutions. But it remains a tale of trust with its twists and turns. We explore the current state and future of the HR tech landscape in greater detail here.



However, in order to raise HR's effectiveness across the board, it is vital to move ahead on the HR tech maturity curve and move from basic automation and simple data-driven solutions to more integrated HR systems that leverage AI and analytics solutions.

 

Two-Fold Solution For 2024

 

The SHRPA Global report identifies three major gaps that will prove crucial for the HR industry as a whole to overcome in the coming year. Out of these gaps, two play a key role in raising HR effectiveness. These are:

  • Change management gap between HR's change readiness and change execution.
  • Acknowledgment gap about the correlation between HR's effectiveness and HR tech performance and maturity.

 

Recent Accenture data shows that around 89% of CEOs say HR should have a central role in the business. As the business need for skilled, agile, and digitally ready talent rises, HR's role in the business will grow in strategic importance. But to create business impact, raising its effectiveness will be an important journey for HR leaders across the region to undertake.

The SHRPA Global Report identifies two imperatives that will guide this transformational journey:

 

Imperative 1: HR of the Future Must Execute Change with Speed



To ensure HR is able to overcome the change management gap, execution at pace needs to be prioritized. Technological advancements in the realm of AI, analytics, and automation will prove key in enabling HR's change execution pace. To this end, the report highlights how 59% of HR leaders will prioritize effectively leveraging AI and Analytics to survive and thrive in 2025.

However, to ensure this is successful, HR tech needs to be an enabler, with HR leaders driving conscious and monitored change across key focus areas that are of business priority. Additionally, this growing adoption has to be people-centric to ensure it is meaningful for employees and addresses concerns of productivity, performance, and experience.

As M Lakshmanan, CHRO, L&T Technology Services, points out that in 2025, "investing in HR solutions like AI is no longer optional—it's crucial for attracting, retaining, and developing top talent. To stay competitive, we must actively invest in technologies like GenAI for HR. This isn't just about technology; it's about securing a future with a strong workforce."

Imperative 2: HR Must Develop Functional Resilience to Enhance Effectiveness



While technological adoption will raise the ability to execute for change, it's building HR's functional resilience that will be critical to enhancing its effectiveness. The rapidly evolving world of work, business, and technology mandates HR focus on its skills and develop resilience to help their companies weather the disruptive impact of external changes.

To do this successfully, the report predicts that around 57% of HR leaders will prioritize improving functional effectiveness and tech skills in the coming year. This will be critical to ensuring gaps emerging from a lack of HR effectiveness are overcome in 2025.