Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #258

AI in HR use cases, workforce planning questions, internal mobility diagnostic, case study on psychological safety, and AI's impact on creative problem-solving.

Author

Brian Heger
September 08, 2024

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Welcome to this week’s issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

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THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below is a quick overview with links and brief descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, including bonus resources, you can read the full newsletter.

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

Let’s dive in! ⬇️

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

AI IN HR

My one-page cheat sheet with examples of AI applications in HR, barriers to implementation, and suggestions for overcoming the barrier.

AI has significant potential to unlock capacity and productivity in HR. A BCG analysis suggests that AI can boost HR productivity by up to 30 percent across the HR value chain. To harness this potential, HR leaders must evaluate AI use cases for their ability to support business priorities and add value for stakeholders, while also considering risks such as privacy and potential biases. Here's my one-page cheat sheet to help HR teams generate ideas using 12 examples of AI in HR use cases. Before using the cheat sheet, identify the business problems you’re trying to solve, then use it to explore how AI in HR can address those issues. Each use case includes a brief description, an example of a potential risk, and a recommendation for mitigating that risk. For example, in Employee Onboarding, AI can automate administrative tasks and provide personalized training materials, but the risk of reduced human interaction may diminish the employee experience. To address this, organizations can blend AI-driven onboarding with human touchpoints to ensure a well-rounded experience. There is much more to AI in HR than what is shown on this cheat sheet.  To dive deeper, here are five more resources, including a white paper on considerations and recommendations for validating and using AI-based assessments in employee selection, an article that addresses ethical AI, and more.

WORKFORCE PLANNING

My one-page cheat sheet provides key questions to help establish a stronger connection between workforce planning and business objectives.

Aligning workforce planning with an organization’s business strategy is a straightforward concept; however, articulating the connection can be challenging. To help bridge this gap, I’ve created a one-page cheat sheet with sample questions covering business strategy, talent needs, and workforce planning actions. A few examples: under business strategy: What are the strategic capabilities that disproportionately enable the execution of our business strategy? For talent needs: What roles and skills disproportionately enable our strategic capabilities and business strategy execution? For workforce planning: Which skill gaps can be addressed by developing current talent? You can use the cheat sheet as a preread for team strategy meetings and then discuss select questions. I’m also resharing my editable worksheets to supplement the cheat sheet, which can help you capture discussion notes and ensure workforce planning actively supports strategic goals. Resources like this—templates and worksheets—aren’t about the mechanics of filling out forms; they are intended to spark thought processes and discussions that lead to better talent decisions that deliver value to organizational stakeholders. Use it as a starting point to support your efforts.

INTERNAL MOBILITY

My one-page tool features 20 statements across 10 key areas to help identify opportunities for enhancing internal mobility within organizations.

Internal mobility—the movement of employees across different roles and career opportunities within an organization—is a core component of a firm’s talent strategy. I’ve created this one-page diagnostic to help practitioners identify opportunities to strengthen internal mobility within their organizations. This self-assessment diagnostic covers 10 key areas (2 statements for each). For example, under Transparency and Communication, the statements are: 1) Internal job opportunities are widely and proactively communicated to all employees, and 2) We advertise jobs internally before posting for external recruitment. Under Technology and Tools, the statements are: 1) We utilize effective technology platforms to facilitate internal job matching and applications, and 2) Employees have access to tools that help them explore internal career opportunities. Practitioners can read each statement and check the box to see if they believe it accurately reflects their current organization. Unchecked boxes indicate potential areas for improvement. Although the statements focus on specific example categories, they can be modified to align with your organization’s unique requirements. Ultimately, this tool serves as a starting point to assess strengths and weaknesses in internal mobility practices and prioritize improvement areas.

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE

A new article by Amy C. Edmondson and Per Hugander highlights a case study where psychological safety initiatives helped foster collaboration and achieve better business results.

Psychological safety (PS)—the belief that team members can be candid and take risks without fear of negative consequences—is essential for high-performing teams and thriving organizations. Research from the scientific literature shows that PS boosts engagement, job satisfaction, and performance while reducing turnover (Frazier et al., 2017). It also fosters creativity and team performance (Edmondson & Lei, 2014), to cite a few examples; however, many organizations struggle to cultivate it. While PS skill-building is often included in leadership development programs, Per Hugander and Amy C. Edmondson note in this new article that translating training and theory into measurable results remains challenging. One solution is integrating skills training into real work contexts, as demonstrated by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), a leading Nordic financial services group, where a management intervention focused on PS improved collaboration and helped its investment bank exceed revenue targets by 25 percent. The article shares more details and offers four recommendations for building PS in real work settings. My take is that teams can start by asking: What are the top two or three things preventing us from candidly sharing perspectives and taking risks without fear of negative consequences? How is this affecting our ability to meet business priorities and deliver stakeholder value? What immediate actions can we take, within our control, to improve this? Asking these questions can be the first step toward fostering PS and unlocking its potential benefits.

AI IN THE WORKPLACE

New research explores how combining human creativity with AI's practicality leads to more innovative and feasible solutions to complex business problems.

The article examines the potential of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to creatively address complex business challenges. Research led by Harvard Business School's Jacqueline Ng Lane, soon to be published in the journal Organization Science, compared human-generated ideas with those produced by AI. Participants were asked to propose business ideas for a sustainable circular economy, where resources are reused or recycled to develop new products. The research found that while human ideas often displayed more creativity and originality, AI-generated solutions were typically more practical and easier to implement. For instance, a human idea was praised for its innovation but deemed unrealistic, while AI's proposal to convert food waste into biogas—a renewable energy made from decomposed organic materials—was seen as both viable and profitable. The study highlighted that the best results come from blending human creativity with AI's efficiency. The authors recommend businesses foster an AI-literate workforce, avoid over-reliance on AI, and treat generative AI as a collaborative tool to produce innovative yet feasible solutions to complex problems.

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

SUCCESSION PLANNING

My new succession planning metrics cheat sheet, organized by key questions.

This reference categorizes 24 succession metrics and questions into eight areas: Leadership Pipeline, Internal Mobility, Retention and Risk, Development and Performance, Cost and Efficiency, Employee Engagement, Talent Assessment, and Program Effectiveness. You can also view my LinkedIn post related to this resource.

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

Partial view of tracker on brianheger.com

A few job cuts announced this past week:

  • ChargePoint Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CHPT). The electric vehicle-charging company announced it will cut about 250 jobs, representing 15% of its workforce, as part of a reorganization aimed at reducing annual operating expenses. 

  • Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW). The medical device company announced it is laying off 540 employees, representing 3% of its workforce, as part of a “one-time right-sizing” following the $4.2 billion sale of its critical care division to BD.

  • Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ: LYFT). The ride-hailing company disclosed it will lay off 1% of its workforce as it reduces its footprint in the dockless scooter and bike space.

Click here to access all listed announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER HIRE OF THE WEEK

This past week, 12 new Chief HR Officer announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my subscription-based platform, where I track movement in and out of the CHRO role. This week’s CHRO hire of the week is:

  • Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. (WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS) [NASDAQ: DYN]—a clinical-stage muscle disease company focused on developing life-transforming therapeutics for genetically driven diseases—announced the appointment of Lucia Celona as Chief Human Resources Officer. Lucia brings over 30 years of experience in talent management and organizational design, having previously held senior HR roles at Biogen, Bioverativ, and Apellis. ​

Lucia Celona

Never miss another Chief HR Officer announcement. Subscribe to CHROs on the Go with a quarterly or yearly plan and gain immediate access to +3900 (and growing) CHRO announcements, including hires, promotions, resignations, and board appointments.

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FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

Catch up on what you may have missed from me on LinkedIn:

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FROM ME ON X

HIRING ACTIVITY

TALENT EDGE WEEKLY REWIND

SKILLS AND HIRING

This article emphasizes the shift many organizations are making toward skills-based hiring. It highlights the advantages of this approach for broadening the talent pool to include self-taught individuals and those who gained their skills through experience rather than solely through academic qualifications. While the article provides many noteworthy trends in skills-based hiring (such as the US leading this shift while other countries like Singapore still heavily emphasize degrees), it also offers examples of how organizations can make this transition.

THE BEST OF AUGUST 2024

Did you miss the “Best of August ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #257, which includes 16 of the most popular resources from the month.

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RESOURCE LINEUP

​brianheger.com provides free access to +1,300 curated articles, research reports, podcasts, and more 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 6 PM EST.

Talent Edge Weekly is written by Brian Heger, an internal human resources practitioner. You can connect with Brian on Linkedin, X, and brianheger.com