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Top 5 Priorities for HR Leaders in 2024 | Gartner

It's that time of year when numerous reports are released on the talent opportunities and challenges HR leaders will prioritize for their organizations in the upcoming year. In line with this theme, Gartner has published this comprehensive 22-page paper outlining the five key areas HR leaders will prioritize for 2024. These priorities are based on survey responses from over 500 HR leaders across 40 countries and various industries. The five priorities are 1) Leader and Manager Development, 2) Organizational Culture, 3) HR Technology, 4) Change Management, and 5) Career Management and Internal Mobility. The paper delves into driving forces, emphasizes critical actions required from HR leaders, and offers recommended next steps for each priority area. For instance, regarding HR Technology, HR leaders face the challenge of managing an increasingly complex HR technology portfolio, with 56% admitting misalignment between HR technology solutions/strategies and current and future business needs. Page 12 provides nine crucial questions for evaluating four aspects of HR technology, including Governance, Workforce Readiness, Risks and Ethics, and Vendor Landscape. Each section of the paper offers valuable insights for HR leaders and their teams as they refine their plans to deliver stakeholder value in 2024. Additionally, I’ve included my one-page cheat sheet from last year, which integrates the 2023 HR priorities identified by seven different sources. You can use this summary as a benchmark for answering the question: To what extent are HR priorities for 2024 new vs. carried over year-to-year?

2023 Women in the Workplace Report | LeanIn.Org and McKinsey

LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company have published their ninth annual Women in the Workplace report— the most extensive study on women in corporate America. Drawing data from over 270 companies and 27,000 employees, a few findings from this 52-page report include: 1) Women's representation in the C-suite has grown from 17% in 2015 to an all-time high of 28% in 2023, with the most progress seen at the VP and SVP levels. However, progress remains slow, especially for women at the manager and director levels, creating a pipeline bottleneck. 2) Women of Color are consistently underrepresented across the corporate hierarchy, constituting only 6% of the C-suite. 3) Women demonstrate heightened ambition post-pandemic, fueled by flexible work arrangements such as hybrid and remote work; 90% of women under 30 want to be promoted to the next level, and 75% aspire to senior leadership roles. 4) Flexibility is particularly vital for working mothers, with 57% stating they would leave or reduce work hours without it. Considering the increase in organizations enforcing return-to-office mandates, this data point suggests that more working mothers could drop out of the workforce. The report holds a wealth of other insights to explore. As a bonus, here is the IBM Institute for Business Value report, Women in Leadership: Why Perception Outpaces the Pipeline—and What to Do About It. It has more insights on women in leadership.

How People Can Create—and Destroy—Value with Generative AI | BCG Henderson Institute

This study, conducted in collaboration with scholars from Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Warwick, investigates the impact of generative AI (Gen AI) on the productivity of highly skilled workers. Focusing on over 750 BCG consultants globally who served as participants, the study examined the degree to which Gen AI (specifically OpenAI’s GPT-4) influenced the participants’ performance on professional services tasks mirroring their daily work activities. Key findings include: 1) When using OpenAI’s GPT-4 for creative product innovation— a task involving ideation and content creation— around 90% of participants improved their performance. Furthermore, the improvement was 40% higher than those working on the same task without GPT-4. Workers best captured this upside when they did not attempt to improve the output that the technology generated. 2) However, for business problem-solving tasks, using GPT-4 resulted in performance that was 23% lower than that of the control group (see Exhibit 1). These outcomes underscore the necessity for thoughtful consideration of the compatibility of Gen AI with different organizational tasks. The authors also propose that organizations establish a "generative AI lab" to experiment with various use cases for their organizations. In case you missed it, here is a newly released 26-page report from MIT Technology Review Insights on how organizations are experimenting with and deploying Gen AI.

What’s Fueling Burnout in Your Organization? | Harvard Business Review

The issue of employee burnout continues to be a significant concern for many organizations. Burnout, characterized by an ongoing imbalance between job demands and available resources, leads to undesirable outcomes, such as extreme fatigue and diminished creativity and problem-solving abilities. While excessive workload is frequently identified as the primary cause, this article highlights an often-overlooked factor: the impact of collaboration demands on employee well-being and overall organizational health. "Collaboration demand" refers to the excessive expectation of collaboration among individuals or teams within the workforce. The article introduces four essential questions for leaders to address excessive collaboration demands. Two questions are: 1) Can we reduce structural complexity? Many organizations inadvertently introduce complexity by expanding hierarchical structures and spans of control, resulting in increased employee interactions. Companies like Netflix and Trader Joe's employ explicit processes to identify and eliminate structural complexity. 2) Does our workflow make sense? Organizations often employ between six and nine different collaboration methods (e.g., email, Zoom, in-person meetings, etc.), leading to inefficiencies due to varying preferences and usage patterns among team members. One practice to address this challenge is to establish collaborative norms to streamline communication. For more ideas on organizational factors contributing to employee burnout, see McKinsey Health Institute’s article, Addressing Employee Burnout: Are You Solving the Right Problem? 

Jobs of Tomorrow: Large Language Models and Jobs | World Economic Forum  

This new 34-page report discusses the direct impact of Generative AI, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), on various jobs and tasks. Based on an analysis of 19,000 tasks in 867 occupations, researchers assessed the level of risk exposure of tasks and jobs to automation via LLM using four categories: 1) High potential for automation: Going forward, the task will be performed by LLMs, not humans. 2) High potential for augmentation: Humans will continue to perform the task, and LLMs will increase human productivity. 3) Low potential for either automation or augmentation: Humans will continue to perform the task with no significant impact from LLMs. 4) Unaffected. Non-language tasks, such as those that emphasize physical movement (e.g., loading products for transport). Table 1 on page 8 summarizes specific tasks and the four categories in which they fall. For example, tasks with the highest potential for automation by LLMs tend to be routine and repetitive, such as administrative or clerical activities, whereas tasks with lower potential for automation and augmentation are those that require a high degree of personal interaction and collaboration (e.g., negotiation of contracts, scientific and technical work). Organizations can use this four-category framework to help break down roles into tasks, and then use this information to determine the most optimal way to accomplish those tasks through different tactics (e.g., automation, full-time employees, external partnerships, etc.). To supplement this report, I am resharing the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Job Report, which explores how jobs and skills will evolve over the next five years.

Rethinking Work and the Workplace: Fall 2023 | People + Strategy

The 70-page Fall 2023 issue of People + Strategy includes articles on workplace topics like performance management, generations in the workplace, and return-to-office. Two articles have implications for strategic workforce planning (SWP): 1) The Pixelated Workforce Has Arrived…Are We Ready? (starts on p. 22). This article by Josh Bersin discusses the transformation of the workforce into the "Pixelated Workforce," marked by increased mobility and a shift away from long-term employment to contingent and gig-based work arrangements. Bersin presents a framework to help organizations strategically determine employment types (full-time, part-time, contract-based, or outsourced) for various types of work. 2) Fractional Work & Your Talent Strategy (starts on p. 34) by RJ Milnor covers how more organizations are relying on fractional work—where individuals provide specialized skills or services to multiple organizations on a part-time or project basis, or a fraction of the 40-hour work week. It also includes four questions to assess how fractional work may alter an organization's talent strategy: 1) What is your independent worker strategy? 2) Which roles should be “gig-ified”? 3) How does this change how you manage your FTEs? 4) How are you taking care of your independent workers? Both articles reinforce the need for organizations to consider a range of employment arrangements as part of their SWP. As a bonus, here are three articles from Gartner on talent risks, data sources for SWP, and breaking roles into tasks to inform SWP.

Template for Identifying an Organization’s Most Critical Positions | Brian Heger

An organization's ability to identify and plan for its critical roles is essential to workforce planning and talent management. And while there has been a much-needed shift in broadening our view of work beyond traditional roles to focus on skills and tasks, critical roles still play an important part in informing an organization's talent practices. However, a recurring challenge in identifying critical roles arises when assessors use less valid criteria, such as 1) job level (e.g., where only executive roles are considered critical, even though role criticality is level-agnostic); 2) basing criticality on how challenging it is to recruit and hire for a role (a challenging-to-fill role may not be critical); and 3) assessing the role based on the incumbent rather than the role's impact on organizational value. Assessors must also be reminded that a role deemed critical may lose its criticality over time as business strategies evolve. Against this backdrop, here's my new one-page editable template to help organizations gain insights into their critical roles. The first column allows you to list the roles for evaluation, and the following columns provide sample indicators of role criticality. For each role, you can mark the relevant indicators with a simple click, and upon completion, the visual representation will reveal the most critical roles (i.e., more checks indicate greater criticality). While this approach is not sophisticated, a simple exercise like this can assist in identifying and planning for an organization's most vital positions.

A New Approach to Writing Job Descriptions | Harvard Business Review

Job descriptions are a foundational component of many talent practices, such as workforce planning, recruitment, hiring, performance management, compensation, and career development. However, as work continues to evolve quickly and becomes less predictable, there is a growing realization that traditional job descriptions present limitations for organizations’ talent management. This article shares three emerging and flexible approaches to job descriptions: 1) Outcome-Focused Role Descriptions, focusing on desired outcomes for a role rather than specific tasks or duties. 2) Skills-focused role Descriptions, emphasizing an employee's skills and capabilities, allowing for dynamic application of those skills within various company projects. 3) Team-Based Role Descriptions, wherein employees are grouped into teams with collective goals, outcomes, and deliverables. The article also addresses challenges in implementing these flexible approaches, including unclear expectations, legal compliance, recruitment, and performance evaluation. While traditional job descriptions are unlikely to go away any time soon, practitioners can begin to think of ways to evolve job descriptions in response to the changing nature of work. For additional ideas on organizing work beyond jobs, check out Deloitte's 101-page report, Building Tomorrow's Skills-Based Organization: Jobs Aren't Working Anymore. Page 32 discusses how firms can organize work by creating broad commitments to problems to be solved, outcomes to be achieved, or new sources of value to be created.

Five Ways to Make One-on-One Meetings Between Manager and Direct Reports More Effective | MIT Sloan Management Review

One enabler of effective performance management (PM) is ongoing and frequent PM conversations between managers and employees. While this philosophy is widely endorsed, several barriers can impede these discussions, including a misalignment on topics that both managers and individual contributors want to discuss in regular one-on-one meetings (see image below). To address this issue, this article offers five crucial questions for managers to pose during one-on-one meetings to ensure appropriate time allocation to topics of interest to both managers and direct reports: 1) What's going well? (fosters self-reflection and recognition), 2) Where can I help? (clarifies direction and addresses roadblocks), 3) What are your top priorities these days? (enhances visibility into employees' work), 4) Is there anything new or upcoming you'd like to put on my radar? (proactively identifies potential issues), and 5) How are you feeling outside of work? (can help build personal rapport and trust). Managers and individual contributors can modify this framework to their liking as they prepare for more effective 1:1 discussions. To supplement this article, I’m resharing my PM playlist with five resources that help answer questions on PM, ranging from what PM practices do organizations use (and don’t use) today and how can employee well-being be integrated into PM?

The Rise of the Invisible Workforce | The Conference Board

Many organizations rely on external contributors, such as temporary workers, gig workers, and independent contractors, to help meet work demands. According to a Brookings Institution report on workforce ecosystems, external workers, often referred to as contingent workers, can make up 30-50% of an organization's workforce. However, as pointed out in this recent article by The Conference Board, the management of the contingent workforce is often characterized by a "tactical, piecemeal approach, with insufficient focus on risks like hidden labor costs, protecting intellectual property, or financial penalties and higher labor costs if regulators judge external workers are permanent employees." As such, the paper emphasizes the need for a strategic and integrated approach to the contingent workforce, based on three foundations: 1) strategic governance, 2) integrated workforce planning, and 3) clear guidelines for managers to ensure transparency, consistency, and compliance with regulations. The article provides ideas for each of these foundational components, including strategic governance, where it notes how Cisco has shifted responsibility for contract workers from the procurement team to a newly created cross-functional steering committee to oversee the deployment of external workers. As a bonus, I am resharing this 12-page Harvard Business Review Analytics Services whitepaper, which addresses how HR and Procurement teams can strategically collaborate on a contingent worker strategy.

Podcast: What Works…Talent Review | Future of HR Podcast

One talent practice I continue to receive requests for additional resources is the organizational talent review. While the approach and structure of talent reviews vary across organizations, most include common elements, such as identifying high-potential (HiPo) employees and determining actions to develop HiPos for future opportunities, including those integrated into an organization's succession planning. Despite being a core talent management practice, organizations often encounter challenges when conducting these reviews, such as deciding on criteria to identify HiPos (e.g., using the "traditional 9-box" of performance potential or other tools). In this recently released 39-minute Future of HR podcast episode, host JP Elliot discusses talent reviews with guests Anne Davis Gotte, VP of Global Talent at General Mills, and Joe Garbus, EVP Global Head of Talent at PVH Corp. Anne and Joe share many practical insights on what makes an effective talent review, including 1) the importance of establishing consistent and shared definitions for evaluating and differentiating talent and 2) how the best talent reviews are described as "action-oriented" and result in tangible plans, outcomes, and progress. This episode includes many actionable insights from respected internal talent management practitioners charged with leading talent reviews for their organizations. To supplement this podcast, I am resharing Marc Effron’s article, Six Steps to Great Talent Reviews, which delves into overcoming common challenges in executing effective talent reviews, including overly complex processes and lack of follow-up.

The Role of Culture in Enabling Change | MIT Sloan Management Review

As leaders continue to manage various change initiatives, organizational culture—shorthand for describing 'how we do things in our organization'—is a critical enabler (or inhibitor) of these changes. However, as highlighted in this new article, the enablers of cultural change vary based on the specific type of change the organization aims to achieve. To effectively use culture as an enabler of change efforts, organizations should first identify their change priority and analyze the factors within their culture that facilitate or inhibit the change. The authors offer three types of changes as a framework: 1) Reinforcing Magnitude—refining and deepening the actions contributing to high levels of relevance for key stakeholders and distinctiveness from the competition; 2) Reimagining Activity—refreshing the approaches, channels, and tools being used to pursue the current strategy; 3) Rethink Direction—reinvent the business model to deliver the levels of relevance and distinctiveness necessary for an economically viable business. Company examples are provided for each type of change context, and the article's table illustrates the specific cultural actions that can be taken in response. As you evaluate various changes within your organization, consider which of the three categories they fall under and determine what aspects of the corporate culture are enabling and detracting from its ability to effectively implement change initiatives.

Transition Strategies to Overcome the High Cost of New-Leader Failure | People + Strategy  

The high failure rate of newly hired and promoted executives within 12-18 months in their new roles is well-documented. According to a report by DDI, nearly 50% of externally hired executives and 35% of internally promoted leaders fall short of performance expectations in their positions. As the business environment and workplace issues become increasingly complex, leaders—especially those transitioning into a new role—, will face several challenges they will need to overcome. This article offers a framework for facilitating smoother executive leadership transitions. It includes nine factors, each with three related questions (27 in total) that organizations can use to help leaders build a clear transition plan with goals for ongoing development. A few factors and questions include: Situation (e.g., What leadership behaviors does this situation require?), Self-awareness (e.g., What will the leader need to stop/start/continue doing to be successful?), Organizational Change (e.g., What expectations need to be set? How do you align others with those expectations?), State of the Leadership Team (e.g., Are the right people on the "bus" and in the right seats?), Engaging with the Culture (e.g., Where is the balance between fitting in versus transforming the Culture? How much Change and how fast?). The article presents a case study from Schneider Electric, illustrating how integrated transition coaching can help leaders navigate complex transitions successfully.

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Checklist to Review Your HR Technology Roadmap | Gartner

HR leaders face the challenge of managing an increasingly complex HR tech portfolio. To help HR leaders manage, measure, and adjust their tech roadmaps as the needs of the business evolve, this Gartner reference offers a comprehensive checklist for leaders to consider. This 15-page resource comprises four key components: 1) Reassess Business Outcomes (e.g., determining new stakeholders and business outcomes, adjusting timelines, modifying guiding principles), 2) Refresh Needs and Gap Analysis (e.g., evaluating new emerging requirements, conducting a gap analysis, reprioritizing needed capabilities), 3) Review Market Scan and Portfolio Assessment (e.g., scanning the HR tech market landscape for changes, staying updated on vendor information), and 4) Measure and Replan (e.g., measuring the value of roadmap initiatives, conducting governance meetings with stakeholders to share wins, progress, needed adjustments). The checklist provides examples of timelines and specific tasks supporting each of the four components of the roadmap.

How HR Operations Can Drive Business Value in the Automation Age | Gartner

HR leaders continue to reevaluate and evolve their HR operating models to enhance functional efficiency, effectiveness, and stakeholder value. One component of an HR operating model is HR Shared Services (HRSS)—a part of HR traditionally responsible for managing transactional HR tasks, allowing the rest of the function to concentrate on strategic work. However, as highlighted in this article, only 32% of HRSS leaders perceive business leaders as recognizing the value of HRSS. And with AI offering new capabilities that can handle many routine and high-volume tasks performed by HRSS, a crucial question arises: what will be the purpose of HRSS going forward? The article suggests three ways that HRSS can provide value. Given AI’s impact on HRSS, one recommendation offered is to redefine and broaden the roles within HRSS—focusing on upskilling employees to take on diverse tasks beyond traditional transactional work. The article highlights a case study from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that showcases successful strategic skills-building initiatives within HRSS, resulting in unlocked capacity in HR and career opportunities for HRSS employees. As an additional resource, I am resharing my curated list of 5 Resources on HR Operating Models.

12 Chief HR Officers Hired or Promoted from August through October 2023 | Brian Heger

The role of the Chief Human Resource Officer (or Chief People Officer) is increasingly recognized as vital to organizational success. Recently, N2GROWTH published its 2023 list of 40 exceptional CHROs who have excelled in their roles and continue to redefine HR within their organizations. Simultaneously, I regularly post hundreds of announcements each month on CHROs on the Go of CHRO hires and promotions. These appointments range from first-time CHROs to seasoned HR leaders transitioning into new CHRO roles. To spotlight a segment of these HR leaders, I'm pleased to share my new PDF highlighting 12 CHROs who have been hired or promoted into the role between August and October 2023. These appointments span a range of organizations, including Bausch + Lomb, Grammarly, SAP, and Shell, among others. The PDF provides a summary of each CHRO's announcement, a link to their LinkedIn profile, and a link to the detailed source announcements. If you're already a member of CHROs on the Go, you can log in here to access over 3000 (and counting) CHRO announcements—covering hires, promotions, resignations, and Board appointments.

2023 JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Here is my tracker, which includes announcements from a segment of organizations that have announced job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few firms that announced job cuts in October include:

• Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN). Is letting go of 350 employees following its $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics. Separations will start taking effect on Dec. 30 and continue throughout 2024.

• Centene Corp. (NYSE: CNC). The health insurer is cutting about 3% of its workforce as it reduces costs amid a multiyear plan to boost profits. The terminations will affect about 2,000 people.

• Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM). Is laying off 1,258 California workers, which will take place at its offices in Santa Clara and San Diego around Dec 13. The job cuts represent roughly 2.5% of the company’s workforce.

• Meta. (NASDAQ: META). Facebook parent Meta is slashing 10,000 jobs, about as many as the social media company announced late last year in its first round of cuts, as uncertainly about the global economy hits the technology sector particularly hard.

• Nokia (NYSE: NOK). The Finland-based mobile company is planning to cut between 9,000 to 14,000 jobs amid a sales slump and reduced demand for 5G equipment. The cuts could potentially impact around 16% of the company's current global workforce of 86,000.

Click here or the image below to access all listed announcements from 2023.

CHIEF HR OFFICER HIRE OF THE MONTH

​​Nordstrom, Inc. (SEATTLE, WASHINGTON) [NYSE: JWN]—an American luxury department store chain—announced the appointment of Lisa Price as Chief Human Resources Officer, effective November 6. Lisa joins Nordstrom from Domino's Pizza, where she served as EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer since August 2019. Prior to joining Domino's, Price served as a member of the Human Resources team at Nordstrom from 2015 to 2019, most recently as SVP of Human Resources. During her tenure with Nordstrom, Price supported human resources teams for key corporate functions, including technology, finance, credit, strategy, legal, supply chain, and store operations.

• If you want access to +3000 (and growing) detailed announcements of CHROs hired, promoted, and resigning, join CHROs on the Go—a digital platform that offers a 3-month and annual subscription. It’s a one-stop shop for CHRO announcements.

• If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.