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: Orchestrating Workforce Ecosystems | MIT Sloan Management Review | A new 55-page report that provides ideas on how leaders can manage their workforce as an ecosystem of internal and external contributors.

• The Future of HR: Reflections on What’s Next | The HR Congress Magazine with Dave Ulrich and Marc Effron | Summarizes key points and ideas from the recent “Future of HR” discussion on trends, challenges, and opportunities facing HR today.

• Report: Women @ Work 2022: A Global Outlook | Deloitte | A new 32-page report with insights on how women’s workplace experiences affect their engagement and career progression.

• The Rules for Hybrid Work Were Always Made Up | The New York Times | Provides a perspective that a large-scale return to office may never be on the horizon as more and more workplaces pause or end the expectation of three days a week in the office.

• ESG and the Role of the Chief Human Resources Officer: A Best Practices Study | The HR Policy Association | A 39-page report on how CHROs are playing a greater role in shaping and articulating the corporate narrative on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

Report: Orchestrating Workforce Ecosystems | MIT Sloan Management Review 

This new 55-page report explores how leaders can manage and coordinate their workforce as an ecosystem inclusive of external contributors rather than strictly in terms of hired employees. This broad range of external contributors includes freelancers, gig workers, long-term contractors, third parties, and professional services organizations. And with reports suggesting that upwards of 30%-50% of an organization is composed of these external workers, a workforce ecosystem approach presents several advantages. The report begins with the premise that organizations that are most intentional about orchestrating their workforce ecosystems have five common characteristics, ranging from closely coordinating cross-functional management of internal and external workers to having leadership that understands how to allocate work for internal and external contributors. The report’s ideas help answer several questions, including: To what extent do diversity, equity, and inclusion principles and practices apply to external workers? How far should we go to include external contributors in the existing corporate culture? As bonus references, here are two previous posts I made on articles from Harvard Business Review, Rethinking the On-demand Workforce, and Boston Consulting Group,  Building the On-demand Workforce, that provides a few more ideas on the topic.

The Future of HR: Reflections on What’s Next | The HR Congress Magazine with Dave Ulrich and Marc Effron 

This article summarizes key points from the recent “Future of HR” event led by Dave Ulrich and Marc Effron. The 200 participant event included several CHRO presenters and facilitators and addressed how HR can respond to the challenges of our day. Starting with the premise that “HR is about creating value for all stakeholders through human capability (talent, leadership, and organization),” insights from the discussion were gathered using a 4-component framework that set out to answer. 1) Environment: What is the context of business, including key external stakeholders (customers, investors, communities, partners)? 2) Strategy: What are the ways a business focuses to succeed? 3) Human capability: What does HR contribute in terms of talent, leadership, and organization through HR innovations? and 4) Analytics: How does HR track and prioritize impact? For example, a few trends on the horizon within the Environment category include increased attention to ESG, social justice, climate changes, and the reality of social isolation and loneliness affecting mental health and well-being. Regarding the Human Capability- Talent Component, one trend includes defining work as tasks and not just jobs, matching skills to tasks. The article provides a menu of ideas and actions that helps HR practitioners distill many of today’s challenges and opportunities into an easy-to-understand framework.  

Report: Women @ Work 2022: A Global Outlook | Deloitte 

This 32-page report summarizes how women’s workplace experiences affect their engagement and career progression and offers insights into the state of gender equality in the workplace. It is based on survey responses from 5,000 working women across ten countries. Although the 2022 survey shows a slight improvement in women’s work/life balance and modest increases in job satisfaction and motivation at work since 2021, it also shows a worrying longer-term impact. A few findings include: 1) Women are more likely to be looking for a new role than a year ago, and burnout is the top driving factor: nearly 40% of women actively looking for a new employer cited it as the main reason. 2) Over half of women want to leave their employer in the next two years, and only 10% plan to stay with their current employer for more than five years. Page 28 starts a section on five fundamental issues that employers who wish to make progress on gender equality should address. One recommendation is #3. Make flexible working work for women. This recommendation notes how 94% of women surveyed believe that requesting flexible working will affect their likelihood of promotion in spite of organizations promoting flexible work. As competition for talent continues to heat up, those leaders that address these issues first are likely to gain a significant advantage. In case you missed it, here is LeanIn’s and McKinsey’s 2021 Women in the Workplace Report, which includes additional perspectives on this topic.

The Rules for Hybrid Work Were Always Made Up | The New York Times 

Last week, I posted how a segment ofworkers is expressing frustration with hybrid work policies that center on how they should split their time between working in the office and working from home. The principal argument against these policies is that they focus more on where employees should work rather than on work outcomes. Illustrating this point is news about a group of high-ranking Apple employees that 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. And as a rise in COVID-19 cases leads some firms to pause their plan to have employees return to the office (e.g., The New York Times is delaying its plan to return workers to the office in June, and Apple has just suspended its requirement that employees return to its Cupertino, California, headquarters this month for at least three days a week), restoring a cadence of hybrid work within many organizations has just got more challenging. This new article provides a perspective that a large-scale return to office may never be on the horizon as more and more workplaces pause or end the expectation of three days a week in the office. The article also references that a Robin survey of over 10,000 offices globally found that nearly 20% of American office workers are back one day a week, about 10% are back two days a week, just five percent are back three days a week, even fewer are back four or five days a week and more than 50% do not use the office consistently every week. If you cannot access the online version of the article, here is a PDF copy. 

ESG and the Role of the Chief Human Resources Officer: A Best Practices Study | The HR Policy Association 

Chief People Officers continue to play a more significant role in shaping and articulating their organizations' narrative on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. A recent The Conference Board report, The CHRO's Role in Navigating the Future of Work, pointed out how HR leaders are increasingly called upon to shape the corporate voice on social issues, articulate the company's mission and purpose, and communicate the people strategy to more stakeholders. And with increasing demands for transparency and disclosure from regulatory agencies, investors, workers, and other stakeholders, the report notes that "CHROs will partner with C-suite colleagues to not only address disclosure requirements but also articulate the impact of human capital management, including ESG goals." While I can't share The Conference Board report due to it being only available to CB members, I include here a 39-page report by the HR Policy Association, which covers ESG in the context of the chief human resources officer role. And while the report is from 2019, it provides many useful insights. Page 13 has a section on best practices from firms such as CVS Health, DICK'S Sporting Goods, General Mills, HP, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble to name a few.

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

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.

CHRO APPOINTMENT OF THE WEEK

This past week, 20 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:

• Hasbro Appoints Najuma Atkinson as Chief People Officer 

To learn how to gain access to all 20 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

Report: Orchestrating Workforce Ecosystems | MIT Sloan Management Review

A new 55-page report that provides ideas on how leaders can manage their workforce as an ecosystem of internal and external contributors.

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

You can see several book recommendations by clicking the image below. This week's book to highlight is:

• Agile Workforce Planning: How to Align People With Organizational Strategy for Improved Performance | Adam Gibson

OUR RESOURCE LINEUP

​​brianheger.com provides free access to +1,000 curated articles, research reports, podcasts, etc. that help practitioners drive better business results through strategic human resources and talent management.

CHROS on the Go is a subscription that provides the easiest and most convenient way to stay informed about Chief Human Resources Officer hires, promotions, and resignations in organizations of all sizes and industries.

​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.