Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #118

Covers investing in and retaining front-line workers, barriers to internal mobility, return-to-office, talent acquisition and HR metrics, and candidates with a criminal record.

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

  • Report: Building from the Bottom Up | Harvard Business School | An 86-page report that provides ideas for businesses to strengthen their bottom line by investing in and retaining front-line workers.

  • What Stops Employees from Applying for Internal Roles | Harvard Business Review | Addresses three main barriers that discourage employees from applying internally and offers suggestions for firms to overcome these challenges.

  • Return-To-Office Plans Unravel as Workers Rebel in Tight Job Market | Bloomberg | Shares how firms are becoming more concerned about losing talent as workers express frustration with being told how to split their time between working in the office and working from home. 

  • The Top 10 Strategic Talent Acquisition and HR Metrics That CEOs Want to See | Visier Blog | Provides 10 talent metrics that can help firms expand their metrics from mostly tactical to strategic ones that impact business results. I provide a few bonus resources.

  • You May Be Overlooking One in Three Candidates — Here’s How to Change That | LinkedIn Talent Blog | Presents a few data points that might lead a segment of firms to reconsider candidates with a criminal record for employment. 

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

Business leaders continue to express concerns about their ability to fill open jobs. And while many leaders are asking, “where can I get the workers I need?,” this 86-page report suggests employers ask and answer, “how do we keep the workers I have?”  The report explores this question through the lens of a company’s front-line workers—who represent 44% or 53 million workers in America alone. These lower-wage workers are often the foundation of many firms’ operating models, yet they receive less attention in terms of retention efforts. Instead, many firms accept that low-wage jobs will always have high turnover and that this reality is just the cost of doing business. But as more front-line workers leave their organizations, the direct and indirect costs caused by constant churn will be magnified. The paper provides ideas for businesses to strengthen the bottom line by investing in front-line workers and retaining this worker segment. One point made is that 62% of front-line workers surveyed said a clear pathway to promotion, job security, stable and predictable pay, and working hours were the most critical attributes in deciding whether to stay with a company. Yet, an analysis of front-line jobs shows that those attributes are rarely mentioned in job postings or communicated throughout employment. Page 3 illustrates the factors contributing to the “low-wage, high turnover trap,” and firms can use the report's findings as they develop retention strategies for their front-line workers. 

As workers continue to reevaluate their work preferences and what they want from their work and career, firms are at a greater risk of losing current workers who pursue external opportunities. And although organizations continue to face challenges in filling open jobs, it is interesting that a Gartner survey shows that only 33% of respondents who recently searched for a new opportunity looked internally first. This article addresses three barriers that discourage employees from applying to internal roles. 1) Awareness - “Only 51% of candidates are aware of available internal job openings, which are often communicated informally.” And women are 55% more likely than men to say they were not aware of internal job openings. 2) Access - “A top barrier is a perception that another employee (e.g. a high potential) is already favored for the role,” which leads to the candidate not applying. 3) Support - “Only 17 % of employees feel their manager facilitates the process of applying for internal job openings.” I mentioned previously that one reason managers stand in the way of internal mobility is talent hoarding, an issue illustrated in this infographic by i4cp. The HBR article also provides solutions for overcoming barriers to internal mobility, ranging from using technology to democratize awareness of opportunities to building support for internal mobility. In case you missed it, here is a bonus article by Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp, Let Your Top Performers Move Around the Company. The article offers additional ways for firms to create a culture that encourages internal mobility.

Many firms have developed and communicated hybrid work policies or guidelines for how their workers should split their time between working in the office and working from home. But as noted in this article, organizations are becoming more concerned about losing talent as workers express frustration with policies that center on where employees should work, rather than on work outcomes. Recently, a group of high-ranking Apple employees published an open letter to the company declaring their resignation in April after learning they’d need to commute to an office at least three days a week. Their letter offers counterpoints to the benefits of in-office work, such as “the serendipity that comes from bumping into colleagues in the office.” And while many companies are opting for some form of hybrid work, firms like Airbnb have communicated to their employees that they could work remotely indefinitely. Excerpts from a tweet by Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, on remote work guidance to employees include: 1) You can work from home or the office—whatever works best for you. 2) You can move anywhere in the country, like from San Francisco to Nashville, and your compensation won’t change. 3) We’ll meet up regularly for team gatherings. Most employees will connect in person every quarter for about a week at a time (some more frequently). These tenets show strong support for remote work and communicate how compensation won’t be determined by geographic location—another highly discussed topic. It will be interesting to observe how firms’ remote and hybrid work policies shift over time and how these stances affect their ability to attract and retain top talent. 

Every survey on CEO and C-Suite priorities—such as The Conference Board C-suite Outlook 2022 Report and PWC’s Executive Views on Business Challenges and Opportunities in 2022 — shows talent as a critical priority. And as organizations are under greater pressure to show the ROI of talent initiatives and investments, it is important to measure and report on the metrics that matter most. Yet, many organizations continue to lag when reporting meaningful talent metrics. For example, one post I made last year on an analysis of 427 Annual Reports on Form 10-K filed by companies in the S&P 500 showed a significant variation in what firms share, with many publishing basic measures (e.g., headcount, stats on training, etc.). To help firms expand their metrics from mostly tactical to strategic ones that impact business results, this article by Dr. John Sullivan provides 10 metrics for firms to consider. One example includes 4) Dollars of revenue lost due to position vacancy. This is calculated by dividing the average total yearly revenue generated by an employee, in a targeted job, by the number of working days. Report the decrease in vacancy days and the dollar reduction in the amount of lost revenue. Since metrics should help answer the most critical talent questions, I am resharing this SAP paper, which includes 100 questions spanning eight talent categories, ranging from recruiting, onboarding, and employee experience, to name a few. This reference can help HR teams determine the metrics and measures that matter most to their organizations.

In September 2021, I shared a post about a 74-page report by Harvard Business School and Accenture that outlines several barriers that keep companies from considering 'hidden workers' as job candidates. Hidden workers “have a desire to work and are actively seeking work, but their regular efforts to seek employment consistently fail because of hiring processes that focus on what they don’t have (such as credentials) rather than the value they can bring (such as capabilities).” Hidden workers range from retirees/post-working age population who could work to people without traditional qualifications. Another segment of hidden workers is people with a criminal record. According to this LinkedIn article, one-third of U.S. adults are being automatically screened out from finding a new job because of criminal records---“ who’ve been convicted for everything from fishing without a license to possession of marijuana (and serious crimes too, of course).” The article presents a few data points that might lead a segment of firms to reconsider candidates with a criminal record for employment. It cites a recent study from the nonprofit research group RAND that found “most who enter the criminal justice system ultimately desist from crime. The risk of recidivism declines the longer a person is in the community and does not commit a crime. Eventually, a past criminal record is no longer predictive of future convictions.” Examples are provided of a few firms that have shifted their hiring practices to consider job candidates with a criminal record. As noted in the article, “while you may not be ready to adopt a policy to hire people with a criminal record, making your policies more inclusive can help you find hidden talent.” What is your position on this topic? 

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

A newly released 111-page report provides one of the most comprehensive reviews of hybrid work from researchers at Microsoft and around the globe.

CHRO APPOINTMENT OF THE WEEK

This past week, 26 Chief Human Resources Officer announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go – a subscription that provides the easiest way to stay informed about CHRO hires, promotions, and resignations. This week's CHRO highlight is:

To learn how to gain access to all 26 detailed Chief Human Resources Officer announcements from this past week and +1600 archived announcements, visit CHROs on the Go .

If you are already a member of CHROs on the Go, you can log in to access all announcements and site functionality.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

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OUR RESOURCE LINEUP

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​Talent Edge Weekly is a free weekly newsletter that brings together the best talent and strategic human resources insights from various sources. It is published every Sunday at 6PM EST.