Business leaders optimistic for growth and opportunities

Ceridian has released the results from its annual Executive Survey focused on the power of mobilizing the boundless workforce. The survey revealed 85% of leaders feel confident their organizations will achieve their 2023 goals and 75% see strong revenue growth ahead. Additionally, eight out of 10 survey respondents said their workforce has the skills to meet organizational performance goals in the next two years.

At the same time, the results uncovered friction between the positive outlook for operating results and a growing complexity crisis. 92% of respondents see workforce challenges like employee attraction, engagement, and retention, in addition to compliance complexities creating risks for their organization’s ability to achieve its goals in the next year.

“Top leaders feel confident they will reach their goals - guided by an understanding that it will take strong technology and tough decisions to meet demands and continually unlock the potential of today’s boundless workforce, which is fluid, always-on, and borderless,” said Susan Tohyama, CHRO, Ceridian. “The efforts towards workforce transformation that organizations have already made are remarkable, but more opportunities abound. Our latest Executive Survey is a rallying cry for business leaders to invest today in people strategies and systems to be positioned for future growth and resiliency.”

The survey polled more than 2,000 business leaders at the director level or above across seven countries, in companies with at least 1,000 employees. The research shows leaders globally have begun embracing modern technology and reimagined talent strategies to help elevate their people operations and unlock efficiencies, however, there is still work to do in a number of critical areas including:

Using technology to maximize productivity: 81% of respondents said their organization uses artificial intelligence (AI) to replace repetitive tasks, which three-quarters of these respondents say increases productivity and efficiency. But less than half of the leaders surveyed said their organizations are using technology to optimize skills usage throughout the business.

Optimizing use of contingent workers: 80% of surveyed organizations currently employ contingent workers, with the majority (65%) saying they will increase their reliance on these workers in the next two years. However, 70% say they are somewhat or strongly challenged when integrating them into their workforce, and nearly half (44%) say finding contingent workers with specific skills presents issues.

Simplifying internal mobility: 74% of surveyed leaders expect internal mobility to increase in their organizations in the next two years. With respondents ranking engagement and retention (55%) as their top roadblocks to achieving their organizational priorities and goals, followed by labor and skills shortages (50%), harnessing internal mobility opportunities will help give workers the flexible careers they want while fostering higher organizational performance and productivity.