Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #266

Redeploying resources to critical objectives, 9 Chief HR Officers hired or promoted over the last 90 days, 2025 talent trends report, evaluating internal mobility guidelines, and translating employee feedback into actions.

Author

Brian Heger
October 27, 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 move of the week.

Let’s dive in! ⬇️

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

PERFORMANCE

My one-page worksheet to help managers and leaders identify opportunities to redeploy resources—talent and financial— to high-priority areas.

As we approach the final two months of the year, leaders have a prime opportunity to reassess, realign, and reinvigorate organizational goals to meet 2024 objectives. One practical way to support this effort is by ensuring that resources—both financial and talent—are allocated effectively to the most critical areas. My one-page worksheet assists managers and leaders in evaluating key factors for resource deployment by enabling them to 1) list ongoing projects or initiatives, 2) prioritize these based on stakeholder value and alignment with objectives, 3) indicate project status (e.g., on track, behind, ahead, completed, on hold), 4) note the percentage of the project’s budget already used (e.g., $25,000 of a $100,000 budget represents 25% utilization), and 5) track talent utilization for each project (e.g., if 3 of 4 team members allocated to the project are actively working on it, this equates to 75% utilization). With this information, leaders can make informed decisions to shift resources and optimize performance in the year's final stretch. While this worksheet isn’t sophisticated, it can spark meaningful conversations that drive decisions with a tangible impact on performance results.

CHIEF HR OFFICERS

My PDF highlights 9 Chief HR Officers who were appointed to a new CHRO role between August and October 2024.

The Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) role continues to grow in importance across many organizations. According to LinkedIn’s September 2024 Economic Graph report, State of the C-Suite and Executive Report, CHRO is now among the top three fastest-growing C-suite roles, following Chief Data Officer and Chief Legal Officer. Reflecting this trend, we’ve seen numerous notable hires and promotions into the CHRO position across various companies. Over the past 90 days alone, I’ve tracked hundreds of CHRO appointments on CHROs on the Go, my subscription-based platform offering insights into CHRO hires, promotions, and resignations. To provide an overview of recent moves, this PDF includes summaries of nine CHROs hired or promoted between August and October at companies including Baker Hughes, CVS Health, DaVita, Johnson & Johnson, McAfee, McDonald’s, Secureworks, SPX Technologies, and Woodward. Each summary features a link to the CHRO’s LinkedIn profile. Congratulations to all nine Chief HR Officers on their appointments, as well as to the many others recently appointed. I hope this resource helps keep track of some of the recent moves in the evolving CHRO landscape. Here is also a one-page version.

TALENT TRENDS

A new 24-page report covering five talent trends poised to shape 2025 talent strategies.

As we approach the final two months of 2024, several reports are emerging on HR leaders' priorities and trends for the coming year. Last week, I shared Gartner's 2025 Top Priorities for HR Leaders report, which highlighted areas like strategic workforce planning (SWP); many HR leaders note their SWP remains narrowly focused on headcount planning and short-term horizons, signaling opportunities for improvement in 2025. In a new 24-page report, Korn Ferry explores five talent trends poised to shape 2025 strategies, drawing insights from over 400 talent professionals and 40 Korn Ferry experts. The report’s key themes include 1) AI’s Growing Pains: Reality Kicks In, 2) Razor-Sharp Focus on Critical Skills, 3) Learning & Development’s (L&D) Wake-Up Call, 4) Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is Finally a VIP, and 5) Beyond the Office: Hybrid 360. Each section provides an overview and reflection questions to help organizations evaluate these areas. For example, regarding EVP, questions include: "How is our EVP perceived and actualized at each stage of the talent journey, from candidate to employee?" and "How do we use data to ensure the candidate experience aligns with the employee experience?" For hybrid and remote work, questions to consider are: "How sustainable is our current working model?" and "Have we limited future opportunities by being rigid in our approach?" Additional ideas are discussed.

INTERNAL MOBILITY

My template to help organizations evaluate the impact of their internal mobility guidelines on internal talent movement.

Many organizations have internal mobility (IM) policies and guidelines to support career development. These guidelines are intended to facilitate better decision-making, streamline internal processes, ensure compliance with laws and regulations, and minimize business disruption. IM guidelines often include things such as 1) Tenure: conditions on how long an employee should be in a role or with the company before applying to other internal opportunities; 2) Manager Approval: requiring employees to request and receive permission from their managers before they can apply for an internal role; and 3) Levels: restricting employees from applying for roles beyond a certain level from their current role. While guidelines can be helpful, certain types can impede internal movement by overly regulating the rules and conditions under which these moves occur. As you consider your organization’s IM guidelines and policies, which do you believe are necessary and enable internal mobility? Which detracts from IM and should be eliminated or modified? Critically evaluating these questions can help organizations create guidelines that fuel internal movement. To support your effort, here is my template to facilitate a discussion on the topic.

EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK

A new article identifying seven key challenges organizations face when turning employee feedback into action and offers tactics to overcome them.

This new article provides strategies and examples of how companies are overcoming challenges in turning employee feedback into action. It identifies seven key challenges organizations face when managing employee feedback: making sense of collected data, ensuring employees feel heard, identifying underlying problems, protecting privacy, navigating conflicting views, addressing negative feedback, and providing meaningful follow-up. For instance, Microsoft effectively manages these challenges with specialized listening teams comprising analysts, data scientists, and psychologists. These teams coordinate employee-listening efforts across the organization, partner with HR groups and local business units, and ensure open information flow. Microsoft also publishes company-wide survey results and requires managers to discuss team experiences after each survey. While not every company will have the resources to make extensive investments in employee listening programs like Microsoft's, the article shares various tactics for organizations of all sizes to overcome these challenges and ensure that collective feedback translates into meaningful action.

NEW COMMUNITY FOR HR?

Due to popular demand, I’m considering launching The Talent Edge Circle—an exclusive, vetted, invitation-only digital community for internal HR practitioners.

Members will have a safe space to connect with other internal HR practitioners and me, access exclusive resources (e.g., templates), communicate asynchronously through a best-in-class digital platform, and participate in occasional live virtual sessions.

If you’re interested in becoming part of this community of internal HR practitioners, please take 90 seconds to indicate your interest. If there is enough interest, I will share more details soon!

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

My infographic with 10 challenges that help individuals and managers create meaningful development opportunities without changing roles.

One often-underutilized approach to talent development is "development in place," which involves adding challenges to a person’s current role to broaden their portfolio of development and leadership experiences. To help identify these opportunities, I’ve created a one-page cheat sheet based on Cynthia McCauley’s work at the Center for Creative Leadership.

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:

  • Beyond Inc. (NYSE: BYON). The parent company of Bed Bath & Beyond and other brands disclosed plans to cut 20% of its workforce in Q4, aiming to save $20 million annually by creating a more variable cost structure.

  • Chief. The executive network for senior women disclosed job cuts in its technology and administrative functions to increase agility and prioritize U.S. operations after closing its London office. This restructuring follows previous layoffs amid a challenging market.

  • Takeda. (NYSE: TAK). The pharmaceutical company disclosed plans to cut 79 jobs across two Massachusetts sites as part of a $900 million restructuring initiative to simplify operations and boost profits.

Click here to access all listed announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, 10 new Chief HR Officer announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my subscription-based platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. This week’s CHRO move of the week is:

Citadel (MIAMI, FLORIDA)—one of the industry’s largest hedge funds—has reportedly appointed Sjoerd Gehring as its new Chief People Officer, according to sources familiar with the situation. Gehring is joining Citadel after serving as Apple's Vice President of Talent, where he oversaw talent management, recruiting, immigration, and administration of its global HR team for the past six years. Gehring’s departure from Apple was announced internally by Carol Surface, Apple's Chief People Officer, who is also departing after an 18-month tenure with the company. ​

Sjoerd Gehring

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FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

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

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TALENT EDGE WEEKLY REWIND

SKILLS-BASED HIRING

An analysis of the decline in the number of job postings requiring a certain number of years of experience.

This analysis by Indeed shows that “less than a third of US job postings on Indeed asked applicants for a specific number of years’ experience, down from almost 40% the year prior.

THE BEST OF SEPTEMBER 2024

Did you miss the “Best of September ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #262, which includes 20 of the most popular resources from the month.

If you are not already signed up to receive Talent Edge Weekly,  subscribe here to receive future issues. It’s FREE!

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, a human resources practitioner. You can connect with Brian on Linkedin, X, and brianheger.com