Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #120

Covers how HR can support the social aspect of ESG, identifying and developing high potentials, C-suite job design, assessing digital maturity, and employee sentiment.

May 29, 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

  • The Good Work Framework: A New Business Agenda For the Future of Work | The World Economic Forum | A new 30-page report that provides a five-component framework to help organize HR-related goals supporting the Social aspect of ESG.

  • How to Spot — and Develop — High-Potential Talent in Your Organization | Harvard Business Review | Presents a model anchored in three observable and measurable behaviors that indicate individuals’ ability to grow and handle increased complexity in new roles.

  • Set Up to Fail: Poor Design of C-suite Jobs Can Block Executives From Succeeding in Their Roles | MIT Sloan Management Review | Provides an analysis of 185 executive-level job specs that show how poor design of C-suite jobs is one factor that negatively impacts executives from succeeding in their roles.

  • Assessing Digital Maturity in Human Resources | BCG | Identifies six building blocks that the HR function can use to assess and close its digital maturity gap. 

  • PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022 Report | PwC | A new 26-page survey report that helps organizations gain greater insights into the sentiments of workers on a range of workplace topics.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

Last week, I posted how Chief People Officers play a prominent role in shaping their companies’ responses to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues. And with the S (Social) component of ESG receiving much focus, HR leaders must have people strategies with clear and measurable goals that enable the S component. This new 30-page report provides a five-pronged framework for organizing HR-related goals in support of the Social aspect of ESG. This “Good Work Framework” proposes five objectives: 1) promote fair pay and social justice; 2) provide flexibility and protection; 3) deliver on health and well-being; 4) drive diversity, equity and inclusion; 5) foster employability and learning culture. As shown in Figure 5 on page 12, each pillar of the framework comprises a set of goals — a core goal that is the most immediate imperative for action and an expanded set of goals that are also needed to create good work. And as illustrated in Figure 6 on page 13, each of the core goals includes a metric that organizations can use to set time-bound and quantifiable targets. For example, Objective #2 is to “provide flexibility and protection” and its core goal is to “enable all workers to benefit from flexibility, where possible and appropriate.” To support this core goal’s three expanded goals, there is a metric “jobs with flexible options (%)” — the proportion of jobs offering flexibility across key dimensions (place and time). This five-component framework provides a useful tool for developing, implementing, and reporting HR-related goals supporting ESG.

According to The Conference Board report, C-suite Outlook 2022: Reset and Reimagine, developing the next generation of leaders is a top-five internal priority for CEOs globally. And while identifying and developing future leaders has been a perennial priority for most CEOs, many of them report how new workplace challenges and complexities have placed increased importance on this priority. This new HBR article presents a model anchored in three observable and measurable behaviors that indicate individuals’ ability to grow and handle increased complexity in new roles. 1) Cognitive quotient (CQ): how they leverage their intellect. 2) Drive quotient (DQ): what motivates them and how they apply their energy. 3) Emotional quotient (EQ): how they interact with those around them. The authors argue that while these markers are rooted in intellect, motivations, and interpersonal style, they don’t provide raw measures of these qualities, as personality tests and other tools often try to do. Instead, they capture how people use these qualities on the job, and together, they give organizations a concrete, objective way to gauge leadership potential, regardless of candidates’ depth of experience. Ideas are discussed for how organizations can introduce this model into their talent processes. For one of the most comprehensive and well-researched models on high-potential - check out Rob Silzer’s and Allan Church’s book chapter—Identifying and Assessing High-Potential Talent: Current Organization Practices — in Strategy-Driven Talent Management. 

The high failure rate of newly hired and promoted executives within 12-18 months of taking on a new role is well documented. One report by DDI, Leadership Transitions Report 2021, shows that nearly half of externally hired executives fail in their roles. The numbers are slightly better (35%) for internally promoted executives. And while many factors can detract from a leader’s success in a new role, this recent article points to poor role design as one reason. In looking at 185 executive-level job specs from the four largest executive recruiting firms, midsize recruiting firms, and several boutique firms, the researchers found that a significant percentage of these job specs are poorly designed. Said differently, the degree to which expectations, responsibilities, and experience synced up and matched one another was not aligned. For example, 41% of a role’s expectations do not align with the candidate’s qualifications, 36% of responsibilities do not align with a candidate’s professional experience, and 33% of the time, expectations do not match a role’s area of responsibility. The authors point out that CMO specs had the highest level of misalignment on expectations-experience. To help leaders and executive recruiters better design an aligned role from the start, the authors provide an example of a job alignment map that better aligns job expectations, responsibilities, skills, and performance measures. As noted in the article, given the short tenure of C-level leaders, taking time to design an aligned role upfront can yield significant value to both parties. If you are unable to see the full article using the link, here is also a PDF version.

Many organizations have underway efforts to enhance operational performance and the employee experience through digital human resource tools and strategies. But according to a recent BCG survey, the vast majority (81%) of surveyed organizations have significant potential to improve HR’s digital maturity and performance. This article identifies six building blocks (see exhibit 2) that all companies can use to close HR’s digital maturity gap. While each of the six building blocks is important, I want to emphasize one, which is foundational: agile ways of working when implementing digital initiatives. Given the vast investments (time, money, resources, and change management) involved, it is critical to conduct due diligence on the many aspects of an HR digital transformation. However, my experience is that firms often get immobilized when making these decisions and treat every decision in the digital initiative as being of equal importance. Giving every decision equal importance results in a protracted implementation where firms spend excessive time “majoring in the minor things.” In some organizations, efforts may stop entirely because of this ineffective approach. The article includes suggestions for implementing more agile digital initiatives, including beginning with use cases that are most likely to deliver quick wins (which will provide momentum for the digitization journey) and a strong return on investment. I also recommend coupling this approach to a pilot (a miniature version of implementation and integration in a select business unit) to learn and adjust quickly before implementing more broadly.

As organizations seek to understand the sentiments of workers, this PwC survey report— Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey of 52,195 workers in 44 countries and territories—provides a few insights. A few stats include 1) One in five respondents say they are likely to switch to a new employer in the next 12 months, 2) More than a third plan to ask for a raise, but finding fulfillment at work is just as important, 3) Skilled employees are most likely to ask for promotions and pay raises and to feel listened to by their manager, while those lacking skills feel they lack power in the workplace, 4) By a margin of more than 30 points, respondents felt discussing social issues at work has had a positive impact on them. The implication is that conversations about sensitive political and social issues might not be as polarizing as managers might fear. 5) Regarding hybrid work, 45% of respondents said their job could not be done remotely; these workers are also far less likely than others to say they find their job fulfilling, believe that their team cares about their well-being, feel that they’re fairly rewarded financially or feel they can be creative in their work. Of those workers that say their job can be done remotely, 63% say they prefer some mix of in-person and remote working. Organizations can use these data points as one of several sources to inform their workforce strategies.

CHRO APPOINTMENT OF THE WEEK

This past week, 22 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 22 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.

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

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

TWEET OF THE WEEK

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

You can see several book recommendations by clicking the image below.

Partial View of Recommendations. Click Image to See All Books

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.

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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.