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

• 2023 Talent Trends Cheat Sheet | Brian Heger | Includes a one-page cheat sheet for understanding the 2023 HR and talent trends from 7 different sources.

• Employee Retention Risk Template | Brian Heger | Provides a one-page summary for assessing employee retention on 13 retention risk indicators.

• Three Resources for Developing Aspects of HR Strategy and Priorities | BCG, Gartner, and SAP | I reshare three resources that HR Leaders and their teams can use as they develop and refine their 2023 priorities.

• Increase Development Inclusion for Neurodivergent Talent | Gartner |Provides 6 actions organizations can take to increase development inclusion for neurodivergent employees.

• No, Remote Employees Aren’t Becoming Less Engaged | Harvard Business Review| Shares research that challenges the assumption that remote work reduces spontaneous meetings and conversations with employees.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

2023 Talent Trends Cheat Sheet | Brian Heger

Various reports on 2023 HR priorities and talent trends have been published over the last several weeks. These reports are replete with insights and in-depth thinking on how firms can effectively meet the talent challenges and opportunities ahead. While each report provides enlightening insights, it can take time to sift through the different reports to identify common themes. To help HR practitioners and leaders distill these insights into a summarized view, I have integrated the priorities and trends from seven resources into a one-page snapshot. Although the sources used for this snapshot are in no particular order and are not a full representation of all reports, they provide a sample from respected sources (e.g., Gartner, McLean & Company, Insight222, HR Trend Institute, and more). For each of the seven resources, I show the trends and priorities they have identified. I’ve also highlighted where there are common themes across the various reports. You can click the company logo for each report to access the source report or learn how to obtain it (one is behind a firewall). This one-page summary is intended to provide directional insights that HR practitioners can consider as they shape and execute their 2023 talent, workforce, and workplace priorities. As new reports are released, I will continue integrating them into this summary document.

Employee Retention Risk Template | Brian Heger

Employee retention continues to be a top concern for many organizations. This one-page template provides a way for managers to assess the retention risk of their employees on 13 retention risk indicators known as ‘pre-quitting behaviors.’ The questions are based on an article by JR Keller, Timothy Gardner, and Brad Winn published in The People + Strategy Journal and are part of a Cues of Turnover Scale (CoTS). A few indicator statements on which employees can be assessed are: 1) Their productivity has decreased more than usual. 2) They have acted less like a team player than usual. 3) They have expressed dissatisfaction with their current job more frequently than usual. I have integrated the 13 statements into this editable template. 1) Managers can use the first row of empty columns to enter the names of employees to be assessed. 2) Managers can then respond to each risk statement by putting a checkmark in the box if they believe the employee has shown the behavior over the last 2 to 3 months. Clicking the box will automatically insert a check mark. Upon completion, the visual will show where the most significant risk exists (i.e., more check marks indicate high risk). The insights can inform actions for mitigating employee retention risk in the most critical areas.

Three Resources for Developing Aspects of HR Strategy and Priorities | BCG, Gartner, and SAP

As HR leaders finalize and/or prepare to share their 2023 priorities with various stakeholders, I wanted to reshare three resources that can guide these efforts. 1) This Gartner resource provides a template to a) identify a shortlist of metrics to describe the HR function’s target state, b) document and monitor key assumptions, c) identify key initiatives and milestones required to move to the end state, and d) craft a concise statement that captures the essence of the strategy.2) This 40-page BCG report segments 32 HR and Talent practices into three categories of urgency based on the organizations’ current level of capability and each topic’s future importance. HR leaders can use this as a reference when framing their HR priorities. 3) This 16-page SAP Thought Leadership paper includes 100 questions (spanning eight talent categories) to help HR teams think critically about their organizations’ talent priorities. It provides criteria for selecting key performance indicators (KPIs) that can show progress toward addressing these questions. These three resources provide incremental value when forming HR strategy and priorities.

Increase Development Inclusion for Neurodivergent Talent | Gartner

Many organizations are investing in developing their workforce, particularly as they experience challenges recruiting external talent. Simultaneously, a segment of firms is building cultures of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This article addresses an under-discussed area in learning and DEI: neurodiversity.Neurodiversity refers to the variety of ways human brains are wired and the associated behavioral traits. Neurodivergent individuals are generally referred to as individuals whose brain functions differ from those who are neurologically typical (neurotypical). These differences can include dyspraxia, dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyscalculia, autism spectrum disorders and Tourette syndrome, among others. The article provides six actions learning and development (L&D) leaders can take in partnership with the rest of the HR to increase development inclusion for neurodivergent employees. For example, since a segment of neurodivergent employees say they find aspects of working in a hybrid environment harder (e.g., usage of cameras in meetings), organizations might want to make cameras optional for virtual meetings and training sessions or alternate with phone calls to avoid virtual meeting fatigue and overwhelming individuals. Other ideas are discussed. As a bonus, I am resharing this 20-page paper by BGG—It’s Time to Reimagine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Exhibit 4 on page 6 illustrates the multiple components that play important roles in shaping who employees are when they come to work and how they experience the workplace.

No, Remote Employees Aren’t Becoming Less Engaged | Harvard Business Review

As remote and hybrid work continues to take hold in many organizations, a segment of leaders still express concern that remote work reduces spontaneous meetings and conversations with employees. But according to new research, data might not support this sentiment. The researchers gathered metadata from all Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webex meetings (involving webcams on and/or off) from 10 large global organizations (seven of which are Fortune 500 firms) spanning various fields. They compared six-week snapshots of raw meeting counts from April through mid-May 2020 following the Covid-19 lockdowns and the same set of six weeks in 2021 and 2022. This dataset resulted in over 48 million meetings for more than half a million employees. The analysis identified five major ways remote meetings have changed since the pandemic first forced all employees to work remotely. A few of the findings are employees are increasingly having efficient (shorter), more frequent, and more spontaneous meetings than they did since the pandemic. While the research has limitations, it provides data to challenge assumptions about remote work. As a bonus resource, I am resharing Microsoft’s 111-page report—Future of Work Report 2022—that provides one of the most comprehensive reviews of various studies by researchers at Microsoft and elsewhere on the future of work through the lens of hybrid work and remote work.

MOST VIEWED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

Using Experience Maps to Accelerate Development | The Talent Strategy Group

A newly updated article on how organizations can accelerate employees’ job and career development through experiences.

CHRO HIRE OF THE WEEK

This past week,31 new 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:

• ​Tesla, Inc. (AUSTIN, TX) [NASDAQ: TSLA] names Chris Winton as the new head of HR, who has received the title of “Champion of the People.” Winton is the former head of HR for FedEx—a position he was promoted to in March 2022.

To learn how to gain access to all 31 detailed Chief Human Resources Officer announcements from this past week and +1800 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.

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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.