Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #101

Covers 11 workplace trends, C-suite priorities, HR priorities, predictors of employee turnover, and criteria for determining if corporate functions should be decentralized.

January 16, 2022

Welcome to this week’s issue of Talent Edge Weekly—the weekly newsletter for human resources practitioners, bringing together insights about work, the workplace, and the workforce from various sources.

If you find value in this issue or any of its resources, please share them with your network by using the social media icons at the top of the newsletter.

Have a great week, and I look forward to sharing more ideas in next week’s Edge!

Brian 

Brian Heger is a human resources practitioner with a Fortune 150 organization and has responsibilities for Strategic Talent and Workforce Planning. To connect with Brian on Linkedin, click here.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

  • 11 Trends that Will Shape Work in 2022 and Beyond | Harvard Business Review | Covers 11 underlying workplace trends that will help organizations prepare for the challenges ahead.

  • C-Suite Outlook 2022: Reset and Reimagine Report | The Conference Board | A 33-page report that addresses what C-Suite executives are most concerned about in 2022, including various aspects of work, workers, and the workplace.

  • 2022 Priorities & Predictions Report | i4cp | A 40-page report that provides the perspectives of thought leaders and senior executives across various HR disciplines. Distills insights into four overall priorities and predictions.

  • Top Predictors of Employee Turnover During the Great Resignation | MIT Sloan Management Review | Reveals the top five predictors of attrition and four actions managers can take in the short term to reduce attrition.

  • Redefining Corporate Functions to Better Support Strategy and Growth | McKinsey | Shares ideas and criteria for determining the degree to which corporate functions should be (de)centralized to maximize business value.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

After two years of disruption in the workplace, many believe that volatility will only increase in 2022. As firms navigate this uncertainty, this article—authored by Gartner’s research team members—shares 11 underlying trends to help organizations prepare for the challenges ahead. A few trends include: 3) To compete in the war for knowledge worker talent, some companies will shorten the workweek rather than increase pay. 8) Wellness will become the newest metric that companies use to understand their employees, 7) The complexity of managing a hybrid workforce will drive some employers to require a return to the office. The number one priority for many HR executives will be managing fairness and equity across the increasingly varied employee experience. Against this backdrop, firms will consider questions such as: Who has access to flexible work, and how do we handle situations where some managers allow their employees flexibility while others don’t? What should be the compensation impact on employees that move to locations with a lower cost of living? As we offer targeted investments for segments of our workforce (e.g., financial resources to support employees with children), how do we mitigate perceptions of unfairness among employees not in those segments? HR Leaders can use this reference as they refine and implement their 2022 priorities.

This report addresses what C-Suite executives are most concerned about in 2022. Based on feedback from 1,614 C-suite executives, including 917 CEOs globally, this 33-page report addresses several insights, including 1) CEOs across the globe cite talent attraction and retention as their number-one internal focus for 2022. This priority is presumably driven by the awareness of talent shortages and the general shift in power dynamics from employer to employee/worker. 2) Cost-cutting, as a priority, drops to 9th place in 2022 among CEOs globally from 4th place in 2021. The relative de-prioritization of cost-cutting will likely enable various workforce investments (e.g., higher wages, starting bonuses, enhanced benefits, flexible working hours) needed to attract and retain workers. 3) Developing the next generation of leaders is a top-five internal priority for CEOs globally. Because of changes in work models (e.g., hybrid work), business models, and worker preferences, CEOs believe leadership skills, such as agility, resilience, empathy, digital fluency, inclusive leadership, and interpersonal communication, are increasingly required. Page 22 looks at how CEOs and human capital executives differ on the most important talent issues for 2022. Several other insights are covered. 

This 40-page report provides the perspectives of thought leaders and senior executives who serve on i4cp’s six Boards, including heads of HR, talent, learning, talent acquisition, DEI, total rewards, and people analytics. While the report includes a section for each of these distinct areas, the aggregate input is distilled into four overall priorities and predictions.1) Internal Talent Marketplaces—which catalogue the skills of the existing workforce and enable greater talent mobility—will become more prevalent. One reason I support the use of ITM technology platforms is that it enables firms to identify “hidden talent” within their organization — at speed and scale—when filling talent needs. However, firms often focus disproportionately on the technology component of ITMs at the expense of the non-tech factors that enable it (e.g., remove policy barriers to redeploying workers, motivating managers to share talent, etc.) As firms plan and implement ITMs, they need to think beyond technology. 2) Hybrid work models will morph into truly flexible work. This insight emphasizes that trying to enforce homogenous policies (e.g., requiring a certain number of days on site, or even specific days) across a diverse workforce is not the way to go. 3) Patience and options for the unvaccinated will run out. 4) CHROs—both retired and employed—will experience greater demand to serve on public boards. To access the report, you must download it directly through i4cp by using the title link.

This article explores the top reasons workers have left their firms during the past several months. Relative to compensation—which ranks 16th among all topics that predict employee turnover—the top five are: 1) Toxic corporate culture (10.4x more likely to contribute to attrition than compensation), 2) Job insecurity and reorganization (3.5x), 3) High levels of innovation (3.2x), 4) Failure to recognize employee performance (2.9x), and 5) Poor response to COVID-19 (1.8x). Surprisingly, employees are more likely to exit from innovative companies. One explanation offered is “innovation typically requires employees to put in longer hours, work at a faster pace, and endure more stress than they would in a slower-moving company.” The article also shows the attrition rate across 38 industries from April through September 2021. While being aware of broader retention themes is a useful starting point, the factors influencing retention can vary significantly by each individual. For example, a few of my most important factors do not make the top five “retention predictors” suggested by different reports. This observation reinforces the limitations inherent in generalized employee retention themes. If managers are concerned about retention risk, they can start by: ask their workers directly about how they are doing, what keeps them motivated to stay, what they have concerns about, and what can be done to improve those feelings. Managers can pick one idea within their control and affect change while organizational leaders address broader themes (e.g., policy on remote work) that may be impacting employee retention in general.

A common challenge of organization design is determining the extent to which corporate functions should be (de)centralized to maximize business value. On the one hand, centralized functions enable scalability, consistency, and standardized metrics. Conversely, decentralized corporate functions can provide business units with the advantage of speed, control, and adaptability. But as pointed out in this article, the decision to centralize or decentralize functions is often prompted more by who is designing them rather than objective, fact-based decisions about what maximizes value. This article provides criteria for decision-makers of organization design when choosing a centralized or decentralized model. It bases decisions on the strategic rationale for the current design and on how it drives business value. One recommendation from the authors is to identify what type of business unit leaders it needs to maximize value and how empowered and focused they need to be in the context of the overarching strategy. The chart illustrates how four primary archetypes of business-unit leaders can help determine the degree to which corporate functions should be (de)centralized to best support the business. For another resource on organization design, check out Rupert Morrison’s recently released book, Data-driven Organization Design: Delivering Perpetual Performance Gains Through the Organizational System.

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

Offers 3 top-level themes HR leaders and their teams should prioritize for 2022, and includes a 5-component model of World-Class CHROs.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

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