aconso, an innovator in HR document management systems and a leading provider of cloud-based HR software solutions, today launches a new global report that reveals the growing challenges faced by senior HR leaders in addressing employee wellbeing amid rising workloads, limited budgets and evolving workforce dynamics.
The report, From Manual to Meaningful: Unlocking HR’s Potential Through AI and Digital Transformation, which surveyed 650 global senior HR leaders, reveals that 69% of respondents identify employee wellbeing, mental health and stress as a top priority over the next three to five years.
However, though there is desire to enhance the employee experience, barriers remain. While 56% of HR leaders view employee wellbeing as a critical long-term consideration, 72% feel constrained by limited budgets and resources. These constraints, combined with the pressures of organisational change, contribute to low morale, with 41% of senior HR leaders struggling to manage their own work-life balance.
Consequently, 43% of HR leaders say they feel unable to fully alleviate the toll of burnout and stress on employees, highlighting the urgent need for more robust support and resources to prioritise both employee and HR wellbeing.
Navigating multigenerational workforce complexities
The challenges are further compounded by the increasing complexity of today’s workforce. The evolution of remote and hybrid work models (50%), alongside the growing diversity of the workforce (51%), were called out by respondents as making their jobs harder as they manage a dispersed workforce and a more intricate set of demands.
The emergence of Generation Z into the workplace introduces new expectations and working styles, which must be balanced alongside the needs of previous generations. More than half (55%) of senior HR leaders report that managing multigenerational teams has significantly increased the complexity of their workloads.
Leveraging AI to focus on employee experience
To overcome these challenges, HR leaders are shifting their priorities toward investing in AI and automation to alleviate the burden of manual and monotonous tasks within their team and refocus their efforts on employee-centric initiatives.
Almost three-quarters (72%) of senior HR professionals plan to increase their technology use to enhance efficiency and free up time to invest in employee experience initiatives. This shift is essential as 69% of respondents report frequently diverting resources from employee-focused programmes to address urgent change-related tasks in the business.
With 99% of senior HR professionals already integrating AI and automation into their operations, the focus is on using technologies to automate routine processes, enabling teams to invest in initiatives that improve employee wellbeing, engagement and long-term satisfaction. Seen as a game-changer by 60% of senior HR leaders, automation can significantly reduce administrative burdens so that they can spend more time on programmes and initiatives that are valuable to employees.
Ulrich Jaenicke, Co-founder and CEO, aconso comments: “The findings highlight the growing recognition that a thriving workplace and sustainable business relies on supporting employees’ emotional health, fostering engagement and ensuring they feel valued. However, senior HR leaders are facing a balancing act with managing strategic and operational demands with employee initiatives, often with the latter being deprioritised when resources and times are tight. By adopting the right tools, HR can focus less on repetitive, mundane tasks and more on designing employee experiences that maintain a culture of care and sustainable growth for all generations, plus have more time to adapt initiatives as the workplace evolves.”
For more information, visit: blog.aconso.com/en-gb/hr-trends-report-2025
