HR Business Partner And Succession Statistics

Leadership Development Spend And Impact

Spend and learning hours come from ATD, and the manager figures come from Gartner.

How to test whether that spend changed anything is covered in training evaluation.

• Three-quarters of 805 HR leaders say managers are overwhelmed by expanding duties (Gartner, HR Priorities, 2024)

• 69% agree leaders and managers are not equipped to lead change (Gartner, HR Priorities, 2024)

• Leader and manager development was the top HR priority for 2025, the third year running (Gartner, HR Priorities, 2024)

• Direct learning expenditure per employee fell from $1,254 in 2024 to $846 in 2025 (ATD, State of the Industry, 2026)

• Formal learning hours per employee rose to 16.7 in 2025, from 13.7 in 2024 (ATD, State of the Industry, 2026)

• 62% of organisations rely on employee surveys to measure leadership effectiveness (Harvard Business Impact, Leadership Development Study, 2025)

AI And The HR Function

The AI figures use different bases, so each is stated as its publisher measured it.

• 88% of HR leaders report their organisations have not realised significant business value from AI tools (Gartner, AI Value Survey, 2025)

• 39% of organisations currently use AI in their HR functions (SHRM, State of AI in HR, 2026)

• Less than half of HR functions are involved in AI strategy and vision in any way (SHRM, State of AI in HR, 2026)

• 38% agree AI is a core part of their people strategy (CIPD, HR Pulse, 2026)

• Only 19% of core HR processes in Europe use gen AI, and 32% are still in pilot (McKinsey, HR Monitor, 2025)

Skills And Capability Gaps

These figures cover skills demand, leader development and hiring for skills.

DDI, Gartner and McKinsey supply these five.

• 83% of HR organisations predict a surge in the need for new leadership capabilities within five years (DDI, Leadership Forecast, 2025)

• 61% of leaders cite developing future talent as crucial, yet only 32% have had relevant development (DDI, Leadership Forecast, 2025)

• 48% of 190 HR leaders agree demand for new skills is evolving faster than talent structures and processes can support (Gartner, Closing Skills Gaps, 2025)

• Employees hired for promise are 1.9 times more likely to perform effectively than those hired for proficiency (Gartner, Closing Skills Gaps, 2025)

• 24% of employees report no training participation at all (McKinsey, HR Monitor, 2026)

How These Figures Were Selected

Four rules decided which figures appear in this brief.

• Each figure comes from a report, press release or survey page that was opened and read on 28 October 2026

• Each is attributed to the original publisher, with the report title and year

• Figures from unattributed roundups were excluded, even when widely repeated

• Figures are quoted as the publisher states them, with sample size where given

Every report was published between 2024 and 2026.

The brief cites eight publishers and 15 sources, each listed with a URL.

Samples differ in size and population, so figures from different reports are not directly comparable.

For two Gartner figures, the public abstract states the headline figure and the full research is available to Gartner clients only.

Using These Figures

To cite a figure, name the original publisher, the report and the year, and link to the publisher’s page.

Quote the sample size where one exists, because 200 executives and 10,796 leaders carry different weight.

Check the publisher’s page for newer editions before quoting a figure.

McKinsey and ATD publish new editions each year.

Two AI figures in this brief sound alike and measure different things.

The CIPD figure of 38% counts people professionals who agree that AI is a core part of their people strategy.

The SHRM figure of 39% counts organisations that use AI in their HR functions.

About Talentient

Talentient publishes this brief alongside Trusted Talent Advisor, a seven-part practitioner system for HR and talent leaders who advise the business.