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Welcome to this special Best of April issue of Talent Edge Weekly! 

First, a shout-out to Erin Hanley Bostick, Head of Talent Management at Par Pacific Holdings, Inc., for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Erin, for your support of this newsletter!

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The Strategic Buyer Guide to Skills Intelligence

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The Strategic Buyer Guide to Skills Intelligence helps you cut through the noise: 9 core capabilities to evaluate, high-impact use cases, and ready-to-use templates so you can compare platforms with confidence.

P.S. - Want to see 365Talents’ AI-powered skills intelligence platform in action? Book a demo

THIS MONTH’S CONTENT

This special Best of April issue includes the 16 most popular resources from the April issues of Talent Edge Weekly. They span two main areas:

1. Talent Practices. Focuses on specific talent practices including many of my cheat sheets, covering performance management, determining whether to backfill vacant roles, evaluating AI-based tools in hiring, advancing talent initiatives, skills-based practices, critical roles, succession planning, internal mobility, and engagement and retention.

2. AI in the Workplace. Covers how AI is transforming organizations and reshaping jobs, examining what separates successful enterprise AI deployments from failures, AI's impact on early-career roles, how AI is influencing employee engagement and the global workplace, and redesigning work in an AI era.

👉️ This abridged version has quick links to each of the resources.

If you prefer to read my full issue, including my commentary, 20+ bonus resources, job cuts, Chief HR Officer appointments, and more, click below.

THIS MONTH’S EDGE

Below are quick links to the 16 resources. Again, you can get the full issue here, which includes much more.

I. TALENT PRACTICES

Focuses on specific talent practices including many of my cheat sheets, covering performance management, determining whether to backfill vacant roles, evaluating AI-based tools in hiring, advancing talent initiatives, skills-based practices, critical roles, succession planning, internal mobility, and engagement and retention.

• The Year Is Moving Fast: Three Cheat Sheets to Strengthen Performance and Goal Execution Through Year-End | Brian Heger | I share three of my cheat sheets to help leaders prevent goal creep, address ways of working that may undermine execution, and realign resources to drive results.

• 8 Questions for Determining if a Vacant Position Should Be Backfilled | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet with questions to help leaders decide whether to backfill vacant roles, reducing the costly cycle of hiring, layoffs, and rehiring.

• How to Evaluate Artificial Intelligence (AI) Based Employment Tools from Vendors | CHRO Association and SIOP Foundation | A new guide offering HR practitioners questions to evaluate AI-based employment tools from vendors, covering everything from validity and legal defensibility to data privacy.

• Moving Talent Initiatives Forward: A Business Case and Implementation Plan for Action | Brian Heger | I share two of my slides using workforce planning as an example to show how pairing a clear business case with a practical phased implementation plan can help move talent work into action.

• Rethinking Skills-Based Talent Models: 4 Paths to Business Value | Deloitte Insights | A new article based on an analysis of 87 organizations and more than 28 skills strategies shows why skills-based talent practices create the most value when anchored in specific business outcomes.

• Are Your Most Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger | A few of my slides to help leaders evaluate whether their organization’s top talent is occupying its most critical roles.

• Role-Based vs. Pool-Based Succession Planning: A Few Ideas for Determining the Right Approach | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet that helps HR practitioners evaluate whether to use role-based succession, pool-based succession, or a combination of both based on their organization's context.

• Succession Planning: Taking Action Based on Scenario Type | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet with with eight succession scenarios, each requiring distinct talent actions to keep plans current, relevant, and actionable.

• Three Tools to Strengthen Internal Mobility in Your Organization | Brian Heger | I share three of my internal mobility cheat sheets to help HR practitioners identify IM gaps, measure progress, and remove barriers.

• Are You Overburdening Your Most Engaged Employees? | Harvard Business Review | A new HBR article draws on research published in Organization Science to show how managers often overload their most motivated employees, quietly hurting retention.

II. AI IN THE WORKPLACE

Covers how AI is transforming organizations and reshaping jobs, examining what separates successful enterprise AI deployments from failures, AI's impact on early-career roles, how AI is influencing employee engagement and the global workplace, and redesigning work in an AI era.

• The Enterprise AI Playbook: Lessons from 51 Successful Deployments | Stanford Digital Economy Lab at Stanford University | A new 116-page report that draws insights from enterprise AI deployments to identify what separates success from failure.

• AI Will Reshape More Jobs Than It Replaces | BCG Henderson Institute | A new 21-page report examining how AI will reshape jobs using a 6-category framework, with implications for talent strategy.

• The AI Transformation Manifesto: 12 Themes Driving Growth | QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey | A new article distills 12 themes that separate companies that are transforming their business with tech and AI from those that are not, drawing from hundreds of large-scale transformations.

• 2026 AI Index Report | Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI | A new 400+ page report that provides the most comprehensive annual AI state-of-the-field report. I hone in on one finding related to early-career roles.

• State of the Global Workplace 2026: The Human Side of the AI Revolution | Gallup | Gallup’s new 2026 edition of its annual global workplace report offers insights on various aspects of employee sentiment and engagement.

• Work Redesign: Reinvent for a Human Advantage | Mercer | A 20-page paper focused on how work redesign in an AI era should start not with the technology, but with one question: what work actually needs to be done?

My Private Community

Talent Edge Circle

If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

🗓️ May 6, Anna Tavis, thought leader and Department Chair, Human Capital Management at New York University, will join Talent Edge Circle for a discussion on how organizations are scaling digital and AI-enabled coaching.