Gartner Survey Reveals Only 24% of HR Functions Are Maximizing the Business Value from HR Technology
June 14, 2024 | Gartner, Inc.Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Less than one-quarter of HR employees (24%) reported that their organization’s HR function is deriving the maximum value from HR technology, according to Gartner, Inc.
A Gartner survey of 85 HR leaders in February 2024 found:
- Only 35% are confident their current approach to HR technology is helping to achieve business objectives.
- Two out of three believe that if they don’t take action to improve HR’s approach to technology, their function’s effectiveness will decrease.
“While HR leaders believe that HR technology is important and impactful, they continue to struggle with how to gain the most value,” said Mark Whittle, vice president of advisory in the Gartner HR practice. “The goal isn’t to maximize technology’s value to HR alone, but to maximize the business value the technology can bring to the entire organization.”
Organizations need to shift to an approach that augments HR by increasing HR technology adoption and utilizing technology to create higher impact contributions that maximize business value.
“Strategic business value is generated by bringing humans and technology together, not freeing up employees’ time to do strategic work on their own,” said Piers Hudson, Senior Director in the Gartner HR practice.
To leverage technology for the fullest business value, HR must take three actions:
- Create roadmap strategies that provide transformational blocks that engage stakeholders to prioritize new value
- Expand HR staff’s viewpoints to inspire the pursuit of new value
- Formalize shared goals and new roles that enable complementary, rather than siloed, solutions that create new value for end-users
Augmenting HR’s approach to technology can increase HR technology’s business value by up to 54%, compared to a capacity-centric approach, which can only increase HR technology business value by up to 28%.
Transformational Building Blocks Foster Confidence
“Poor experiences with HR technology cause low confidence in HR’s ability to drive tech transformation,” said Hudson. “Nearly half of the HR staff we surveyed reported that use of HR technology solutions has damaged HR’s reputation across the organization.”
To overcome lack of stakeholder confidence in HR’s ability to deliver against transformational technology, HR leaders should present function and business leaders with proposed smaller changes rather than the big transformational goal. HR leaders must also illustrate the alignment between foundational elements and new technology value. Finally, HR should prepare scenarios to show how plans can adjust if conditions change, i.e., financial outlook or the regulatory environment.
Expanded Viewpoints Inspire Exploration
“Like many employees today, HR staff is concerned about how evolving technology will impact their jobs and careers,” said Whittle. “Nearly half of the HR employees we surveyed agree that HR technology has removed parts of their job they liked and nearly one-quarter of wider employees think AI could replace jobs in the next five years.”
To help HR staff adopt new viewpoints and perspectives around technology, HR leaders need to go beyond training and tangibly illustrate how it supports new high value work rather than limiting current jobs and activities. This entails crafting more transparent vendor relationships that expose HR staff to technology knowledge that links to the business problems they want to solve.
Goals and Roles Drive Complementary Solutions
Among more than 1,200 employees surveyed by Gartner in February 2024, 69% reported experiencing at least one barrier when interacting with HR technology in the past 12 months.
The HR function should shift to creating shared outcomes that every process owner is held accountable for when designing or implementing a technology system. This enables consistency across HR tech initiatives, the ability to easily compare and prioritize investments, and identifying necessary skills to reinforce the outcome.
Suggested Items
2025 ASEAN IT Spending Growth Slows to 5.9% as AI-Powered IT Expansion Encounters Post-Boom Normalization
06/26/2025 | IDCAccording to the IDC Worldwide Black Book: Live Edition, IT spending across ASEAN is projected to grow by 5.9% in 2025 — down from a robust 15.0% in 2024.
DownStream Acquisition Fits Siemens’ ‘Left-Shift’ Model
06/26/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007I recently spoke to DownStream Technologies founder Joe Clark about the company’s acquisition by Siemens. We were later joined by A.J. Incorvaia, Siemens’ senior VP of electronic board systems. Joe discussed how he, Rick Almeida, and Ken Tepper launched the company in the months after 9/11 and how the acquisition came about. A.J. provides some background on the acquisition and explains why the companies’ tools are complementary.
United Electronics Corporation Advances Manufacturing Capabilities with Schmoll MDI-ST Imaging Equipment
06/24/2025 | United Electronics CorporationUnited Electronics Corporation has successfully installed the advanced Schmoll MDI-ST (XL) imaging equipment at their advanced printed circuit board facility. This significant technology investment represents a continued commitment to delivering superior products and maintaining their position as an industry leader in precision PCB manufacturing.
Insulectro & Dupont Host Technology Symposium at Silicon Valley Technology Center June 25
06/22/2025 | InsulectroInsulectro, the largest distributor of materials for use in the manufacture of PCBs and printed electronics, and DuPont, a major manufacturer of flex laminates and chemistry, invite fabricators, OEMS, designers, and engineers to attend an Innovation Symposium – Unlock the Power - this Wednesday, June 25, at DuPont’s Silicon Valley Technology Center in Sunnyvale, CA.
OKI, NTT Innovative Devices Establish Mass Production Technology for High-Power Terahertz Devices by Heterogeneous Material Bonding
06/21/2025 | BUSINESS WIREOKI, in collaboration with NTT Innovative Devices Corporation, has established mass production technology for high-power terahertz devices using crystal film bonding (CFB) technology for heterogeneous material bonding to bond indium phosphide (InP)-based uni-traveling carrier photodiodes (UTC-PD) onto silicon carbide (SiC) with excellent heat dissipation characteristics for improved bonding yields.