- Talent Edge Weekly
- Posts
- Talent Edge Weekly - Best of October - Issue #267
Talent Edge Weekly - Best of October - Issue #267
Here are 17 of the most popular HR, talent, and future of work articles and resources from the October issues of Talent Edge Weekly. An abridged version is also available.
Brian Heger
October 31, 2024
SPONSORED BY
Welcome to this special Best of October issue of Talent Edge Weekly!
First, a shout-out to Ingrid Kraaijbeek, VP of Talent, Learning & Organizational Development at Aliaxis, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Ingrid, for your support of this newsletter!
Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Subscribe here for free!
PRESENTED BY Perceptyx
Our new series of Guidebooks can help you build an employee listening and action strategy that moves the needle on the issues that matter most to your people and your bottom line.
The first three guidebooks in the series are free and available now: Employee Retention, Employee Engagement, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB). Inside you’ll find:
Foundational best practices,
Common mistakes and how to avoid them,
Core KPIs and success metrics, including expected business outcomes,
A persona-based checklist of questions to ask across the employee lifecycle, and more!
Share your brand, product, or service with 41,000+ Talent Edge Weekly subscribers. Learn how to become a sponsor.
THIS MONTH’S CONTENT
This special Best of October issue includes 17 of the most popular resources from the October issues of Talent Edge Weekly.
They are organized into 3 categories:
HR Priorities and Chief HR Officer. Emerging priorities for HR leaders in 2025, CHRO compensation trends, and 9 CHRO role appointments.
Talent and Workplace Practices. Performance management, internal mobility, identifying leadership potential, 20 leadership challenges, remote work, and employee feedback.
AI in the Workplace. The impact of AI on jobs and skills, responsible AI, and flexible AI in the workplace.
This deep dive issue includes several bonus resources.
⏩️ Prefer a quicker read? Check out an abridged version with just links.
✨ Last, we’re exploring launching The Talent Edge Circle—a new online community for internal HR practitioners in 2025 with access to exclusive resources, a dedicated discussion space, and more. Indicate your interest here!
Ready for the deep dive? Let’s jump in! ⬇️
THIS MONTH’S EDGE
I. HR PRIORITIES AND CHIEF HR OFFICER
Emerging priorities for HR leaders in 2025, CHRO compensation trends, and 9 CHRO role appointments.
HR EFFECTIVENESS
Explores priorities HR leaders will face in 2025, offering actionable ideas for each.
It's that time of year when reports on HR leaders' priorities for the coming year are released. In this context, Gartner has identified five key HR areas for 2025 based on feedback from over 1,400 HR leaders across 60 countries. 1) Leader and manager development, 2) Organizational Culture, 3) Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP), 4) Change Management, and 5) HR Technology. Regarding SWP, 66% of respondents admit their SWP efforts are limited to headcount planning, and 61% state their plans cover only a one-year horizon. To close this gap, the report suggests a gradual "crawl, walk, run" approach, where organizations start small and expand over time. Four key questions are provided to guide a phased SWP implementation. Another approach Merck uses to simplify SWP is having leaders submit workforce-related problem statements and evaluate their strategic importance and feasibility based on available data, skills, and tools. By focusing on one problem at a time, Merck streamlines the process and avoids the "perfectionism" barrier of SWP. To complement this part of the paper, I'm resharing a 2019 article I co-authored in People+Strategy, which addresses phased SWP and common SWP barriers.
TALENT TRENDS
A 24-page report covering 5 talent trends poised to shape 2025 talent strategies.
In this 24-page report, Korn Ferry explores five talent trends poised to shape 2025 strategies, drawing insights from over 400 talent professionals and 40 Korn Ferry experts. The report’s key themes include 1) AI’s Growing Pains: Reality Kicks In, 2) Razor-Sharp Focus on Critical Skills, 3) Learning & Development’s (L&D) Wake-Up Call, 4) Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is Finally a VIP, and 5) Beyond the Office: Hybrid 360. Each section provides an overview and reflection questions to help organizations evaluate these areas. For example, regarding EVP, questions include: "How is our EVP perceived and actualized at each stage of the talent journey, from candidate to employee?" and "How do we use data to ensure the candidate experience aligns with the employee experience?" For hybrid and remote work, questions to consider are: "How sustainable is our current working model?" and "Have we limited future opportunities by being rigid in our approach?" Additional ideas are discussed.
CHRO COMPENSATION
A new study examining CHRO compensation in Fortune 1000 organizations.
This newly published fourth annual CHRO compensation study provides insights into various aspects of Chief HR Officer compensation. For the analysis, 1) publicly available data on the Fortune 1000 were used, including CHRO compensation data on 177 senior HR executives from those companies, a valid sample of 17.7%; 2) data were further segmented into Fortune 50, Fortune 100, Fortune 200, and Fortune 500 subcategories for analysis, 3) correlations between the senior HR executive compensation and company performance metrics (e.g., earnings per share) were analyzed, 4) findings were segmented by the respondents location of North America or EMEA. Among the key findings, in the Fortune 1000, CHROs earn an average of $2,761,253 in total annual compensation, rising to $4,438,450 in the Fortune 50. In the Fortune 1000, women earn more on average than men—$2,855,020 vs. $2,623,282, respectively. However, in the Fortune 500 and above, men earn more, with the largest gap in the Fortune 50, where men earn $5,192,584 compared to $3,684,315 for women, a difference of 34%. Notably, three of the four highest-paid CHROs were women, but their data were excluded from calculations as outliers. Additional insights are discussed.
CHIEF HR OFFICERS
My PDF highlights 9 Chief HR Officers who were appointed to a new CHRO role between August and October 2024.
The Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) role continues to grow in importance across many organizations. According to LinkedIn’s September 2024 Economic Graph report, State of the C-Suite and Executive Report, CHRO is now among the top three fastest-growing C-suite roles, following Chief Data Officer and Chief Legal Officer. Reflecting this trend, we’ve seen numerous notable hires and promotions into the CHRO position across various companies. To provide an overview of recent moves, this PDF includes summaries of nine CHROs hired or promoted between August and October at companies including Baker Hughes, CVS Health, DaVita, Johnson & Johnson, McAfee, McDonald’s, Secureworks, SPX Technologies, and Woodward. Each summary features a link to the CHRO’s LinkedIn profile. Congratulations to all nine Chief HR Officers on their appointments, as well as to the many others recently appointed. I hope this resource helps keep track of some of the recent moves in the evolving CHRO landscape.
II. TALENT AND WORKPLACE PRACTICES
Performance management, internal mobility, identifying leadership potential, 20 leadership challenges, remote work, and employee feedback.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
My cheat sheet with questions across 8 categories to enable effective 1:1 discussions.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared two of my resources on performance management to help leaders and their teams strive to meet or exceed year-end performance goals. One included actions managers, leaders, and employees can take to enable year-end goal achievement. The second was a summary of indicators when performance goals may be at risk. To augment these resources, here’s my cheat sheet with 24 example questions across 8 different areas managers can draw from for 1:1 performance check-in discussions with their direct reports. For example, under the Progress category, a few questions are: "What key 'wins' have you achieved on your projects and goals since our last meeting? How can you build on your recent achievements to maintain momentum?" In the Goal Alignment section: "Are you able to focus your time on the most important priorities? What adjustments can we make to better align your work with our most critical objectives?" For non-managers without direct reports, these questions can help prepare for and set the tone for performance check-ins with their managers.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
My one-page worksheet to help managers and leaders identify opportunities to redeploy resources—talent and financial— to high-priority areas.
As we approach the final two months of the year, leaders have a prime opportunity to reassess, realign, and reinvigorate organizational goals to meet 2024 objectives. One practical way to support this effort is by ensuring that resources—both financial and talent—are allocated effectively to the most critical areas. My one-page worksheet assists managers and leaders in evaluating key factors for resource deployment by enabling them to 1) list ongoing projects or initiatives, 2) prioritize these based on stakeholder value and alignment with objectives, 3) indicate project status (e.g., on track, behind, ahead, completed, on hold), 4) note the percentage of the project’s budget already used (e.g., $25,000 of a $100,000 budget represents 25% utilization), and 5) track talent utilization for each project (e.g., if 3 of 4 team members allocated to the project are actively working on it, this equates to 75% utilization). With this information, leaders can make informed decisions to shift resources and optimize performance in the year's final stretch. While this worksheet isn’t sophisticated, it can spark meaningful conversations that drive decisions with a tangible impact on performance results.
There are many more resources included in this issue! ⬇️