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THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Here’s a glance at this week’s content. A deep dive is in the section that follows.

• Return-To-Office Mandates Will Just Keep Getting Harsher as Bosses Stick to ‘Management by Walking Around’ | Fortune | Discusses studies suggesting that managers tend to underestimate the performance of remote workers.

• What Generative AI Means for Your Talent Strategy | Gartner Business Quarterly 3Q23 | Shares a framework for how organizations can assess the impact of AI on their talent strategies. Includes bonus resources.

• 12 Chief HR Officers Hired or Promoted Over the Last 90 Days  | Brian Heger | I share my new PDF, which summarizes announcements of 12 CHROs who were appointed to their new roles between Aug-Oct 2023.

• Five Ways to Make One-on-One Meetings Between Managers and Direct Reports More Effective | MIT Sloan Management Review | Shares 5 questions to enable effective discussions between managers and their direct reports during one-on-one meetings.

• Transition Strategies to Overcome the High Cost of New-Leader Failure | People + Strategy | Provides a framework for facilitating smoother executive leadership transitions into a new role.

Also, check out the 2023 job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer hire of the week.

Let’s dive in.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

Return-To-Office Mandates Will Just Keep Getting Harsher as Bosses Stick to ‘Management by Walking Around’ | Fortune

Organizational leaders can make more informed decisions about remote and hybrid work when they leverage research and studies on the topic. This article points to two studies that explored how managers perceive the productivity and performance of remote and hybrid workers. The studies, involving Nick Bloom, a Professor of Economics at Stanford University who has been researching work from home for over 20 years, found that managers tend to underestimate the performance of remote workers. One study showed a 13% increase in performance for call center employees working from home, and another study showed a 4.4% boost in productivity for employees with a hybrid arrangement. However, these findings didn't change how managers assessed performance or promotion rates. These results highlight the importance of building managers’ capability to effectively evaluate the performance of remote and hybrid workers. With this in mind, I am resharing my post from last year on six indicators of proximity bias— an incorrect assumption that workers in close physical proximity to their team and company leaders are better performers than their remote counterparts. Helping managers to conduct self-audits to see if they engage in these behaviors could be one of several steps to mitigating proximity bias.

What Generative AI Means for Your Talent Strategy | Gartner Business Quarterly 3Q23

The use of AI in the workplace is gaining increasing support from organizational leaders despite initial concerns. A recent poll of 240 U.S. CEOs conducted in October 2023 by Chief Executive revealed a significant shift in their attitude toward AI. In February 2023, only 23% of these CEOs were considering the use of AI tools, but within just eight months, 53% (a 130% increase) now see practical business applications for generative AI. As AI becomes more integrated into the workplace, talent practitioners must assess its impact on talent strategies and the workforce. In this context, this new Gartner paper provides insights into identifying and navigating these impacts, including Figure 1, a Talent Impact Matrix for Generative AI highlighting nine specific scenarios requiring talent development and workforce planning investments. As a bonus, here is another new article by Gartner, “Prepare for AI Regulation by Addressing 4 Critical Areas,” which discusses the need for organizations to prepare for AI regulation in four critical areas, including 1)Transparency About AI Use, 2) Risk Management, 3) Governance, and 4) Data Privacy. In case you missed it, this recent study by BCG Henderson Institute shares how Gen AI improves, as well as detracts, from the performance of skilled workers on different types of tasks. These resources can assist leaders in preparing for multiple aspects of AI in the workplace.

12 Chief HR Officers Hired or Promoted from August through October 2023 | Brian Heger

The role of the Chief Human Resource Officer (or Chief People Officer) is increasingly recognized as vital to organizational success. Recently, N2GROWTH published its 2023 list of 40 exceptional CHROs who have excelled in their roles and continue to redefine HR within their organizations. Simultaneously, I regularly post hundreds of announcements each month on CHROs on the Go of CHRO hires and promotions. These appointments range from first-time CHROs to seasoned HR leaders transitioning into new CHRO roles. To spotlight a segment of these HR leaders, I'm pleased to share my new PDF highlighting 12 CHROs who have been hired or promoted into the role between August and October 2023. These appointments span a range of organizations, including Bausch + Lomb, Grammarly, Nordstrom, Inc., SAP, and Shell, among others. The PDF provides a summary of each CHRO's announcement, a link to their LinkedIn profile, and a link to the detailed source announcements. If you're already a member of CHROs on the Go, you can log in here to access over 3000 (and counting) CHRO announcements—covering hires, promotions, resignations, and Board appointments.

Five Ways to Make One-on-One Meetings Between Manager and Direct Reports More Effective | MIT Sloan Management Review

One enabler of effective performance management (PM) is ongoing and frequent PM conversations between managers and employees. While this philosophy is widely endorsed, several barriers can impede these discussions, including a misalignment on topics that both managers and individual contributors want to discuss in regular one-on-one meetings (see image below). To address this issue, the authors of this article offer five crucial questions for managers to pose during one-on-one meetings to ensure appropriate time allocation to topics of interest to both managers and direct reports: 1) What's going well? (fosters self-reflection and recognition), 2) Where can I help? (clarifies direction and addresses roadblocks), 3) What are your top priorities these days? (enhances visibility into employees' work), 4) Is there anything new or upcoming you'd like to put on my radar? (proactively identifies potential issues), and 5) How are you feeling outside of work? (can help build personal rapport and trust). Managers and individual contributors can modify this framework to their liking as they prepare for more effective 1:1 discussions. To supplement this article, I’m resharing my PM playlist with five resources that help answer questions on PM, ranging from what PM practices do organizations use (and don’t use) today and how can employee well-being be integrated into PM?

Transition Strategies to Overcome the High Cost of New-Leader Failure | People + Strategy  

The high failure rate of newly hired and promoted executives within 12-18 months in their new roles is well-documented. According to a report by DDI, nearly 50% of externally hired executives and 35% of internally promoted leaders fall short of performance expectations in their positions. As the business environment and workplace issues become increasingly complex, leaders, especially those transitioning into a new role, will face several challenges they will need to overcome. This article offers a framework for facilitating smoother executive leadership transitions. It includes nine factors, each with three related questions (27 in total) that organizations can use to help leaders build a clear transition plan with goals for ongoing development. A few factors and questions include: Situation (e.g., What leadership behaviors does this situation require?), Self-awareness (e.g., What will the leader need to stop/start/continue doing to be successful?), Organizational Change (e.g., What expectations need to be set? How do you align others with those expectations?), State of the Leadership Team (e.g., Are the right people on the "bus" and in the right seats?), Engaging with the Culture (e.g., Where is the balance between fitting in versus transforming the Culture? How much Change and how fast?). The article presents a case study from Schneider Electric, illustrating how integrated transition coaching can help leaders navigate complex transitions successfully.

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Okay, let’s dive back in!

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

Template for Identifying an Organization’s Most Critical Positions | Brian Heger

Here is my new one-page editable template to help organizations determine their most critical roles. You can also view my post on LinkedIn related to this resource and share it with your network!

2023 JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Here is my tracker, which includes announcements from a segment of organizations that have announced job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few firms that announced job cuts this past week include:

• Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN). Is letting go of 350 employees following its $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics. Separations will start taking effect on Dec. 30 and continue throughout 2024.

• Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB). Has announced plans for additional job cuts beyond the previous dismissal of 800 senior roles in April this year. Is also considering reducing bonuses due to a 12% decrease in revenue.

• Liberty Mutual. The insurance company is set to cut around 850 jobs, or about 2% of its US workforce, this month, making it the latest insurer to announce layoffs in recent weeks.

Click here or the image below to access all listed announcements from 2023.

CHIEF HR OFFICER HIRE OF THE WEEK

​​​Domino's Pizza Inc. (ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN) (NYSE: DPZ)—the largest pizza company in the world—has named Sam Jackson as its EVP of Human Resources, effective Nov. 4. Jackson joined Domino's in 2018 as the VP of HR, where he led the HR Business Partners teams. Most recently, Mr. Jackson served as VP for the Office of the CEO—a position he's held since April 2022. Prior to joining Domino's, Jackson spent almost 12 years at Target, where he held various roles across real estate, supply chain, store design, and human resources, inclusive of leading HR for Target's headquarters in India.

• If you want access to +3000 (and growing) detailed announcements of CHROs hired, promoted, and resigning, join CHROs on the Go.

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FROM X (AKA TWITTER)

TALENT EDGE WEEKLY REWIND

4 Resources for Identifying and Addressing Employee Retention Risk

This one-page reference integrates four resources for managers to leverage as they identify and address their most critical employee retention risks.

THE BEST OF SEPTEMBER

Did you miss the “Best of September” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #200, which includes 15 of the most popular resources from September. 

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