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

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THIS MONTH’S CONTENT

This special Best of September issue includes 20 of the most popular resources from the September issues of Talent Edge Weekly.

It’s organized into two sections:

🧰 Talent Practices and Trends. Manager accountability for six talent practices, performance management, recognizing both performance and potential, leadership transitions, succession planning, critical roles, workforce planning, internal mobility, the impact of psychological safety on skill development, HR-based studies, and women in the workplace.

 🖥️ AI in the Workplace. Research on AI’s impact on productivity, capability building, and problem-solving; AI in HR use cases and deploying AI in HR.

This issue includes several bonus resources, news about company layoffs, and updates on Chief HR Officers hired or promoted in September.

🧰 I. TALENT PRACTICES AND TRENDS

Manager accountability for six talent practices, performance management, recognizing both performance and potential, leadership transitions, succession planning, critical roles, workforce planning, internal mobility, the impact of psychological safety on skill development, HR-based studies, and women in the workplace.

TALENT PRACTICES ACCOUNTABILITY

2024 Accountability Report | The Talent Strategy Group 

Examines current and desired levels of manager accountability across six talent practices, offering recommendations for increasing accountability.

Organizations continue to invest heavily in talent management—technology, programs, and processes—to drive business results and stakeholder value. However, without manager accountability, the impact of these efforts can quickly diminish. This new report by Marc Effron of The Talent Strategy Group examines the current and desired levels of manager accountability for six key talent practices: Performance Management, Development, Potential and Succession, Rewards and Recognition, Diversity and Inclusion, and Engagement. Based on responses from 90 companies worldwide, participants rated manager accountability for each practice on a 10-point "accountability ladder" scale, ranging from "1 = No consequences for your actions" to "10 = You are promoted or fired for your actions." The report reveals significant gaps in manager accountability with an average level of "3," and slightly higher for larger companies (>25k employees) at "4." Goal setting and increasing employee engagement show the highest current accountability, while diversity ranks the lowest (2.6), though creating inclusive teams scores slightly better (3.8). The report offers practical recommendations for driving greater manager accountability across all six talent practices.

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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Achieving Year-End Performance Goals: Practical Tips for Leaders, Managers, and Employees | Brian Heger

My infographic with tips for leaders, managers, and employees as they accelerate the achievement of 2024 performance goals.

With only 90 days left until the end of the year, the pressure to meet performance objectives is intensifying, requiring focused efforts from leaders, managers, and employees alike. To help support these efforts and accelerate progress toward meeting year-end goals, here is my one-page infographic featuring practical tips for each stakeholder group to boost organizational, team, and individual performance. For example, leaders can conduct a quick review of current resource allocation—including time, budget, and talent—and redistribute them to areas that will most significantly impact critical year-end goals. Managers can ensure that one-on-one meetings with their direct reports focus on key actions and priorities, driving progress toward year-end objectives. Employees can push back on tasks, requests, or distractions that don’t align with the organization’s key year-end priorities. The tips in the infographic represent starting points to build on, helping your organization create opportunities to finish the year stronger. As many organizations share tools and resources during this time to support year-end performance management, feel free to utilize this infographic if it aligns with your efforts.

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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Six Risk Factors That Could Derail Year-End Goals – A Diagnostic Tool for Leaders and Managers | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet to help managers and leaders proactively identify if 6 factors may detract from year-end performance.

As a supplement to the previous resource (resource 2), here is one of my infographics to help managers and leaders identify if six risk factors may jeopardize team performance goals. By recognizing these risks, leaders and managers can make faster course adjustments and help set their teams up for success. For each risk, I’ve included two questions managers can ask and two indicators that suggest the presence of risks. For example, for goal misalignment, managers can ask: Are team members frequently asking for clarification on priorities or objectives? Are there inconsistencies between individual actions and stated organizational priorities? Two risk indicators: employees working on tasks unrelated to key objectives, and confusion or disagreement about project priorities. If any risk factors exist for your team, you can click the box on the PDF to insert a checkmark. This tool can serve as a diagnostic for identifying opportunities to mitigate performance risks. Even if you’re not a manager or leader, the six factors can help individual contributors identify opportunities to influence change.

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PERFORMANCE AND POTENTIAL

Potential or Performance? We Should Value And Reward Both | IMD

Advocates for a balanced approach to talent management—one that recognizes both performance and potential. I share bonus resources.

Many organizations conduct talent reviews to identify and develop employees with the potential to advance into larger, more complex roles. While developing future leaders is essential, this article by Peter Attfield of The Inflection Point emphasizes that an excessive focus on high-potential leaders can unintentionally overlook high-performing individuals who may not aspire to leadership roles but still contribute immense value. The article advocates for a balanced approach to talent management—one that recognizes both performance and potential—ensuring valuable contributors at all levels feel acknowledged, motivated, and offered development opportunities. Regarding the topic of development opportunities, in my view, internal talent marketplace platforms, supported by a culture of internal mobility, can unlock scalable opportunities for growth and development across various talent segments. With this in mind, I am sharing an MIT Sloan Management Review article, "How to Start Smart With a Talent Marketplace," which shares Booz Allen’s experience in launching an internal talent marketplace, including key lessons learned during the project’s first year. One takeaway emphasizes the necessity for significant cultural shifts to effectively overcome ITM challenges, including managers’ reluctance to release their top talent to other parts of the business. Other ideas are discussed.

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LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONS

4 Traps to Avoid as You Transition into a Leadership Role | Harvard Business Review

Highlights 4 common challenges executives face in their first 90 days of taking on a new role and provides practical strategies for avoiding these traps.

The frequent struggles of newly hired and promoted executives within 12-18 months in their roles are 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. This new HBR article provides tactics for avoiding four common traps that can hinder success in the first 90 days and beyond. 1) Lingering Trap (staying too involved in your current role and not fully transitioning), 2) Adrenaline Trap (failing to replenish energy during the transition), 3) Judgment Trap (forming premature conclusions without enough information), and 4) Dogma Trap (rigidly applying past practices without adapting to the new organization). One suggestion for avoiding the Lingering Trap is to clearly define responsibilities and timelines: work with your boss to agree on how you’ll hand over responsibilities, contribute to successor recruitment, and mentor the new hire. Be explicit about your last day of availability and who will take over your tasks. As HR practitioners support executives and other employees onboarding into new roles, they can incorporate some of these tips. For transitions into a new Chief HR Officer role, I am resharing this bonus article by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, which outlines critical questions newly appointed CHROs should ask and answer during their first 90 days.

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SUCCESSION PLANNING

24 Succession Planning Metrics and the Questions They Help Answer | Brian Heger

My succession planning metrics cheat sheet, organized by key questions each metric helps to answer.

As I continue to receive requests for succession planning metrics, I’ve developed this one-page reference outlining sample options. Instead of merely listing the metrics, I’ve started with the questions each one answers. This reference categorizes 24 metrics into eight areas: Leadership Pipeline, Internal Mobility, Retention and Risk, Development and Performance, Cost and Efficiency, Employee Engagement, Talent Assessment, and Program Effectiveness. For example, under Leadership Pipeline, the question "How many potential successors do we have for each critical role?" is answered by the Bench Strength Ratio, which measures the number of qualified candidates ready to fill critical positions. Similarly, under Retention and Risk, the question "How many critical roles are at risk due to potential retirements?" is addressed by the Retirement Risk Index, which tracks the number of critical positions held by employees nearing retirement age. These metrics are just examples and may not be right for your organization; they’re intended to spark ideas so you can determine which ones—whether on this sample list or not—are most relevant to your needs. Lastly, while individual metrics are important, integrating them into a cohesive narrative that tells the full story of your succession planning efforts can help translate insights into action.

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CRITICAL ROLES

6 Common Barriers to Identifying an Organization’s Critical Roles | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet with 6 barriers to identifying critical roles; my bonus template for critical role identification.

An organization’s ability to identify and plan for its critical roles is a key aspect of workforce planning and talent management. However, common pitfalls often arise in this process. In this new infographic, I highlight six barriers to identifying critical roles and provide a template to assist with this task. A few barriers include: 1) Hierarchical-Driven—basing a role's criticality solely on its level and overlooking non-executive roles, when in reality, role criticality is determined by its impact on stakeholder value, regardless of level. 2) Recruitment Difficulty—assuming that the difficulty of filling a role reflects its criticality when, in fact, not all hard-to-fill roles are critical. 3) Near-term View—basing criticality only on current needs without considering future organizational requirements, when the criticality of roles can shift as business strategies evolve. HR practitioners can use this tool to develop greater awareness of these barriers by regularly reviewing how critical roles are defined and assessed within their organizations. To support this, I am resharing my editable template to help organizations identify critical roles and estimate related risks. 

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WORKFORCE PLANNING

Resourcing And Talent Planning Report 2024 | CIPD

A new 42-page report covering HR practices, recruitment strategies, flexible working, selection processes, talent management, and strategic workforce planning (SWP). I highlight a few points about SWP.

This newly published CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) 42-page report, based on a UK sample, examines employer practices, offering insights and recommendations to guide talent management and investment decisions. The report covers recruitment activity, attraction strategies, flexible working, selection processes, recruitment challenges, talent management, and workforce planning. Notable data points on workforce planning include: 1) workforce planning time horizons (p. 34), where organizations vary in how far ahead they plan for current and future workforce needs. While 31% of organizations take a short-term approach (up to six months), 18% plan more than two years ahead, with larger organizations tending to plan further into the future. 2) Data collection. Only 38% of organizations collect data to identify skills gaps, and less than a third attempt to identify future skill requirements or retention issues. About 1 in 5 assess talent availability in the market, the cost of replacing talent internally versus externally, or the cost of investing in technology for automation. HR and talent practitioners can use this report to identify opportunities for differentiated talent strategies and practices.

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WORKFORCE PLANNING

10 Statements to Evaluate Your Workforce Planning Effectiveness | Brian Heger

My worksheet to help organizations identify opportunities to strengthen their workforce planning.

Improving strategic workforce planning (SWP) is a priority for many organizations. To support this effort, I've created a 10-item diagnostic to help you assess and enhance your approach. The template addresses key areas such as strategic alignment, business case and ROI, cross-functional collaboration, and scenario planning. For example, one statement prompts you to evaluate whether you have a business case for SWP that demonstrates the expected return on investment and value to stakeholders. Another asks whether you've ensured strong collaboration among key SWP stakeholders, including Talent Acquisition and Finance. There’s also a statement about whether your SWP accounts for multiple scenarios the organization may face rather than relying on a single scenario. Additionally, it asks whether you’ve developed a clear philosophy on whether your SWP will focus on skills, roles, or other approaches to organizing and planning work. As you review each statement, check the box if you agree, and consider unchecked areas as opportunities for improvement. Once you've identified these opportunities, determine the actions needed to close any gaps. Remember that these 10 factors are just examples and not an exhaustive list; use your judgment to include factors based on the maturity level of your organization’s SWP.

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WORKFORCE PLANNING

Aligning Workforce Planning with Business Strategy: Sample Questions | Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet provides key questions to help establish a stronger connection between workforce planning and business objectives.

Aligning workforce planning with an organization’s business strategy is a straightforward concept; however, articulating the connection can be challenging. To help bridge this gap, I’ve created a one-page cheat sheet with sample questions covering business strategy, talent needs, and workforce planning actions. A few examples: under business strategy: What are the strategic capabilities that disproportionately enable the execution of our business strategy? For talent needs: What roles and skills disproportionately enable our strategic capabilities and business strategy execution? For workforce planning: Which skill gaps can be addressed by developing current talent? You can use the cheat sheet as a preread for team strategy meetings and then discuss select questions. I’m also resharing my editable worksheets to supplement the cheat sheet, which can help you capture discussion notes and ensure workforce planning actively supports strategic goals. Resources like this—templates and worksheets—aren’t about the mechanics of filling out forms; they are intended to spark thought processes and discussions that lead to better talent decisions that deliver value to organizational stakeholders. Use it as a starting point to support your efforts.

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INTERNAL MOBILITY

Internal Mobility Diagnostic Tool | Brian Heger

My one-page tool features 20 statements across 10 key areas to help identify opportunities for enhancing internal mobility within organizations.

Internal mobility—the movement of employees across different roles and career opportunities within an organization—is a core component of a firm’s talent strategy. To help practitioners identify opportunities to strengthen internal mobility within their organizations, here is my diagnostic that covers 10 key areas (2 statements for each). For example, under Transparency and Communication, the statements are: 1) Internal job opportunities are widely and proactively communicated to all employees, and 2) We advertise jobs internally before posting for external recruitment. Under Technology and Tools, the statements are: 1) We utilize effective technology platforms to facilitate internal job matching and applications, and 2) Employees have access to tools that help them explore internal career opportunities. Practitioners can read each statement and check the box to see if they believe it accurately reflects their current organization. Unchecked boxes indicate potential areas for improvement. Although the statements focus on specific example categories, they can be modified to align with your organization’s unique requirements. Ultimately, this tool serves as a starting point to assess strengths and weaknesses in internal mobility practices and prioritize improvement areas.

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INTERNAL MOBILITY

Internal Mobility Metrics and Sample Practices Cheat Sheet | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet with 9 examples of internal mobility metrics, why the metric is important, and a sample practice related to the metric.

Organizations increasingly leverage internal mobility as a key component of their talent strategy to drive business goals. As various internal mobility strategies are implemented, measuring their impact is essential to maximize return on investment. My cheat sheet offers nine example metrics to help organizations assess different aspects of internal mobility. Each metric includes a definition, its significance, and a sample practice tied to the metric. For example, the "Time-to-Fill for Internals" metric measures the average time to fill a position with an internal candidate compared to external hiring. This metric is important because it reflects the efficiency of internal hiring, with faster internal processes reducing productivity gaps, minimizing disruption, and showcasing the organization's ability to mobilize talent quickly. A sample practice to improve effectiveness in this area is to streamline the application process for internal candidates by reducing approval requirements and shortening interview stages without sacrificing quality. HR professionals and business leaders can use this list of nine metrics as a starting point, adapting or expanding it to create new metrics that best measure the effectiveness of internal mobility within their organization.

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INTERNAL MOBILITY

When Moving Sideways Makes Sense | MIT Sloan Management Review

Discusses how slower promotions and a tighter job market have created opportunities for organizations to highlight the benefits of lateral moves.

In this new article, Brian Elliott discusses how slower promotions and a tighter job market have left employees feeling stuck in their careers, suggesting lateral moves within their company as a solution. He highlights several companies that have successfully implemented internal mobility strategies to address this issue. For example, Allstate increased internal hiring from 45% to 60% by focusing recruiters on internal candidates and hosting coffee chats with employees. PepsiCo’s myDevelopment program combines a skills-based approach with a job database, allowing employees to apply for special projects and short-term assignments. Synchrony enables employees to swap jobs for 90 days to a year, helping them explore new roles and develop skills. From my perspective, despite the tremendous growth opportunities offered by lateral moves, they are often underutilized due to the stigma that they represent a lack of career progress. Organizations can help shift this perception by highlighting the critical skills and experiences employees gain through lateral moves. Since many lateral moves don't come with monetary rewards (e.g., salary increases), organizations should consider other forms of recognition and rewards, such as exposure to senior leadership or high-impact projects to raise an employee’s profile within the company. Are lateral moves part of your organization’s internal mobility strategy? This could be a topic for discussion at your next talent strategy meeting.

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CULTURE AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Skills Training Links Psychological Safety to Revenue Growth | MIT Sloan Management Review

A new article by Amy C. Edmondson and Per Hugander highlights a case study where psychological safety initiatives helped foster collaboration and achieve better business results.

Psychological safety (PS)—the belief that team members can be candid and take risks without fear of negative consequences—is essential for high-performing teams and thriving organizations. Research from the scientific literature shows that PS boosts engagement, job satisfaction, and performance while reducing turnover (Frazier et al., 2017). It also fosters creativity and team performance (Edmondson & Lei, 2014), to cite a few examples; however, many organizations struggle to cultivate it. While PS skill-building is often included in leadership development programs, Per Hugander and Amy C. Edmondson note in this new article that translating training and theory into measurable results remains challenging. One solution is integrating skills training into real work contexts, as demonstrated by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), a leading Nordic financial services group, where a management intervention focused on PS improved collaboration and helped its investment bank exceed revenue targets by 25 percent. The article shares more details and offers four recommendations for building PS in real work settings. My take is that teams can start by asking: What are the top two or three things preventing us from candidly sharing perspectives and taking risks without fear of negative consequences? How is this affecting our ability to meet business priorities and deliver stakeholder value? What immediate actions can we take, within our control, to improve this? Asking these questions can be the first step toward fostering PS and unlocking its potential benefits.

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HR ANALYTICS AND RESEARCH

5 Resources on HR-Related Scientific Studies | Curated by Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet with five example resources on how scientific studies can effectively inform HR practices.

As HR practitioners increasingly rely on scientific studies to inform workplace and talent strategies, here’s my one-page cheat sheet featuring five resources that cover various insights. For instance, Michael Luca and Amy C. Edmondson stress the importance of critically assessing research quality, highlighting common pitfalls like confusing correlation with causation and misjudging the relevance of findings. Marc Effron’s examination of emerging scientific research on work-from-home and hybrid work provides fact-based insights into how different work arrangements affect outcomes like performance and collaboration. A study in the Academy of Management Journal shows that rehiring former employees often leads to higher performance, especially in roles requiring relational demands and internal coordination. Research on internal mobility demonstrates that managers who actively support the movement of their direct reports to other internal opportunities tend to attract more high-quality internal applicants. These examples can help HR professionals guide organizations toward data-driven insights and decision-making, minimizing reliance on trends, opinions, and anecdotal evidence. To access any of the five source articles or reports, click the hyperlinks in the PDF.

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WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary Report | McKinsey & Company

A new report on the largest and most comprehensive study on the state of women in corporate America and Canada.

The 2024 Women in the Workplace report, marking a decade of research, highlights both progress and persistent challenges in achieving gender parity in corporate America. It is the largest and most comprehensive study on the state of women in corporate America and Canada. While there are too many insights to cover in this summary, a few key points from the report are: 1) Women have made gains, especially in senior leadership roles (29% of C-suite positions in 2024 compared to 17% in 2015). However, this progress is at risk of stalling or declining, especially for women of color, who remain significantly underrepresented at the highest levels. Of the 29% of C-suite positions held by women, women of color represent only 7%. 2) Women still face the barrier of the "broken rung," where entry-level men are promoted to manager at much higher rates than women. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women are promoted. This phenomenon is even worse for women of color: for every 100 men promoted, just 54 Black women (down to 2020 levels) and 65 Latinas (the lowest since the research began) get the same opportunity. 3) The report also reveals a decline in corporate commitment to gender diversity, with only 78% of companies now considering it a high priority, down from 88% in 2017. As a bonus to this report, I am including my Women in the Workplace playlist with five more resources.

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🖥️ II. AI IN THE WORKPLACE

Research on AI’s impact on productivity, capability building, and problem-solving; AI in HR use cases and deploying AI in HR.

AI IN THE WORKPLACE

GenAI Doesn’t Just Increase Productivity. It Expands Capabilities | BCG Henderson Institute

A new article explores the impact of generative AI (GenAI) on knowledge workers, enabling them to broaden the range of tasks workers can perform. I share bonus resources.

This article presents findings from a field experiment conducted by the BCG Henderson Institute, Boston University, and OpenAI's Economic Impacts team, exploring how GenAI can assist workers in completing tasks beyond their current capabilities. Over 480 BCG consultants participated, completing three tasks requiring data science skills they typically lacked: writing Python code to merge and clean datasets, building a predictive model for sports investing, and validating and correcting statistical outputs from ChatGPT. While GenAI couldn’t fully automate these tasks, it provided assistance. Only half of the participants had access to GenAI tools, and their performance was compared to a control group of 44 data scientists who completed the same tasks without GenAI. A key finding showed that GenAI significantly expanded participants' coding and statistical abilities, with those using it achieving 86% of the data scientists' benchmark, compared to just 29% for those without it. Despite the limitations of the research, such as a small sample size, the study provides insights into the tasks GenAI can assist with. With this as the backdrop, I am resharing two resources: A Deloitte AI Institute report, which includes a framework for determining which work tasks are best performed by a) AI, b) humans with the help of AI, and c) humans by themselves. An Accenture report, which includes a framework for categorizing four types of impacts that AI can have on jobs and work tasks.

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AI IN THE WORKPLACE

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving? | Harvard Business School: Working Knowledge

New research explores how combining human creativity with AI's practicality leads to more innovative and feasible solutions to complex business problems.

The article examines the potential of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to creatively address complex business challenges. Research led by Harvard Business School's Jacqueline Ng Lane, soon to be published in the journal Organization Science, compared human-generated ideas with those produced by AI. Participants were asked to propose business ideas for a sustainable circular economy, where resources are reused or recycled to develop new products. The research found that while human ideas often displayed more creativity and originality, AI-generated solutions were typically more practical and easier to implement. For instance, a human idea was praised for its innovation but deemed unrealistic, while AI's proposal to convert food waste into biogas—a renewable energy made from decomposed organic materials—was seen as both viable and profitable. The study highlighted that the best results come from blending human creativity with AI's efficiency. The authors recommend businesses foster an AI-literate workforce, avoid over-reliance on AI, and treat generative AI as a collaborative tool to produce innovative yet feasible solutions to complex problems. Here is also the working research paper on which the article is based.

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AI IN HR

12 AI in HR Use Cases, Barriers, and Risk Mitigation Cheat Sheet | Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet with examples of AI applications in HR, barriers to implementation, and suggestions for overcoming the barrier.

AI has significant potential to unlock capacity and productivity in HR. A BCG analysis suggests that AI can boost HR productivity by up to 30 percent across the HR value chain. To harness this potential, HR leaders must evaluate AI use cases for their ability to support business priorities and add value for stakeholders, while also considering risks such as privacy and potential biases. Here's my one-page cheat sheet to help HR teams generate ideas using 12 examples of AI in HR use cases. Before using the cheat sheet, identify the business problems you’re trying to solve, then use it to explore how AI in HR can address those issues. Each use case includes a brief description, an example of a potential risk, and a recommendation for mitigating that risk. For example, in Employee Onboarding, AI can automate administrative tasks and provide personalized training materials, but the risk of reduced human interaction may diminish the employee experience. To address this, organizations can blend AI-driven onboarding with human touchpoints to ensure a well-rounded experience. There is much more to AI in HR than what is shown on this cheat sheet.  To dive deeper, here are five more resources, including a white paper on considerations and recommendations for validating and using AI-based assessments in employee selection, an article that addresses ethical AI, and more.

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AI IN HR

How to Make Informed Choices When Deploying Generative AI in HR | Gartner

Outlines 5 primary approaches to deploying GenAI in HR and shares 7 questions to evaluate vendor capabilities.

This article outlines five primary approaches to deploying GenAI in HR, each with its own advantages and considerations, spanning from simplicity to customization. Regardless of the approach, all require HR to collaborate with IT teams on topics related to compliance, security, and alignment with organizational requirements. Further, as HR leaders and their teams engage with HR tech vendors to understand vendor capabilities and limitations, it’s important to ask the right questions to avoid overpromising and misunderstanding vendor capabilities. The article includes seven questions HR teams can ask vendors, including: 1) What mechanisms will ensure the accuracy of the generated output, and how can we actively monitor and verify its correctness? 2) How does the tool access and interact with our HR data and knowledge bases? What security measures safeguard this sensitive information? 3) How can we jointly engage in corrective actions if a generative AI tool provides false information? 4) How does the system manage highly sensitive HR data? Are certain use cases restricted to ensure data protection? As a bonus, I am resharing this 33-page toolkit developed by the World Economic Forum in partnership with GEP. It offers a framework to help internal practitioners navigate the AI procurement landscape and ask relevant questions during the evaluation process.

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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 September include:

• Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO). The technology leader disclosed it is cutting approximately 5,600 jobs, about 7% of its global workforce, as part of a cost-management strategy aimed at shifting focus towards high-growth areas like AI and cybersecurity. This follows an earlier round of layoffs in February, where 4,000 employees were impacted.

• Disney. (NYSE: DIS). The entertainment giant laid off at least 300 employees across multiple corporate departments, including HR, legal, and finance, as part of an effort to manage resources and costs more effectively.

• Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW). The medical device company announced it is laying off 540 employees, representing 3% of its workforce, as part of a “one-time right-sizing” following the $4.2 billion sale of its critical care division to BD.

• Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). The US-based telecom giant announced plans to cut nearly 5,000 jobs, half of which will be cut by the end of September. The remainder of the layoffs will be completed by March 2025.

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CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVEMENT

77 Chief HR Officers were hired, promoted, and/or resigned in September. A few headlines include:

• CarGurus, Inc. (CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS) [NASDAQ: CARG]—the No. 1 visited digital auto platform—announced that Jennifer Hanson has been appointed as Chief People Officer, effective September 30, 2024. Most recently, Hanson served as Chief HR Officer at Accolade.

• Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. (WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS) [NASDAQ: DYN]—a clinical-stage muscle disease company —announced the appointment of Lucia Celona as Chief Human Resources Officer. Lucia has held senior HR roles at Biogen, Bioverativ, and Apellis.

• FanDuel (NEW YORK)—North America's premier online gaming company—announced it has appointed Caralyn Cooley as the company's new Chief People Officer. Cooley most recently served as EVP and Chief People Officer of Bowery Farming.

• McAfee (SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA)—a global leader in online protection—announced that Justin Hastings has been appointed as SVP and Chief People Officer, effective September 25, 2024. Justin joins McAfee from Experian, where he most recently served as Chief Operating Officer, Global HR.

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