Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #276

Succession planning reevaluation worksheet, HR technology roadmap, 9 organizations adjusting their return-to-office, five hybrid work predictions for 2025, and five case examples of organizations implementing various talent practices.

Author

Brian Heger
December 22, 2024

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Welcome to this issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

A shout-out to Shahzad Umar, Head of HR - Nestle Indochina Region, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Shahzad, for your support of this newsletter!

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THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, 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 

SUCCESSION PLANNING

My new template to help leaders evaluate aspects of their succession plans.

As we enter the new year, many HR teams are enhancing their talent practices to deliver greater value to stakeholders. For many, succession planning (SP) is a top priority. Rather than simply updating plans with names and readiness levels of successors, now is an optimal time for a more thoughtful review of key positions in the SP process. To support this, I’ve developed a template to help leaders assess changes in the targeted succession role(s) and their impact on succession plans. It includes questions such as: “How might our business strategy evolve over the next few years, and what impact would that have on this role?”; “What emerging technologies or trends could reshape this role’s responsibilities?”; “Are there previously identified successors who may no longer align with anticipated changes?”; and “Are there new successors now viable based on changing requirements?” This approach keeps succession plans dynamic, future-focused, and aligned with organizational needs. The template provides space for leaders to jot down notes as they think through their plans for 2025 and beyond. If you’re an internal HR practitioner who values tools like this, join the waiting list for Talent Edge Circle—my exclusive, invitation-only digital community for internal HR practitioners launching soon. If you’ve already completed the interest form, stay tuned for updates!

HR TECHNOLOGY

Offers a 3-step roadmap to ensure an HR tech portfolio is fit for purpose and helps to achieve the intended business outcomes. I share a bonus template.

HR technology is a key enabler of various talent practices and business performance. However, as this Gartner article highlights, “more than 50% of HR leaders say their HR technology solutions do not meet current and future business needs,” and “83% of HR software buyers report moderate or high regret following their purchases.” Given the resources (financial investments, people, time) required for implementing HR tech, ineffective solutions can have a significant negative impact on organizations. Conversely, well-chosen HR tech aligned with business needs can enable business priorities. The article outlines a 3-step roadmap to ensure an HR tech portfolio is fit for purpose: craft the vision, analyze technology options, and sequence transformation initiatives. Regarding step one, Figure 1 illustrates connecting desired business outcomes (e.g., revenue growth) to HR outcomes (e.g., talent agility) and the HR technology outcomes that best support them (e.g., internal talent marketplace enablement). Establishing this connection early is critical to making informed decisions throughout the next steps. As a bonus, I’m sharing my one-page cheat sheet with questions to help HR leaders evaluate HR technology across four areas: 1) business needs, 2) vendor evaluation, 3) cost and ROI, and 4) security and compliance. While other questions and categories should be added, this cheat sheet provides a starting point for initiating these discussions.

RETURN-TO-OFFICE

My one-page cheat sheet highlighting recent return-to-office announcements.

Organizational leaders continue to refine their return-to-office (RTO) guidance, with many implementing changes at the start of the year. To provide a snapshot, here’s my one-page cheat sheet highlighting nine announcements from the past 90 days, with links to full articles for more details. Recent headlines include: 1) AT&T (NYSE: T)—Corporate employees will be required to work on-site five days a week, with a staggered rollout starting January 2025. 2) Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN)—The company delayed its five-day office mandate, originally set for January 2025, due to workspace shortages at some locations, with certain sites delayed until May. 3) Sweetgreen (NYSE: SG)—The salad chain will increase support staff’s in-office presence to a “hard four day” policy a week starting January 2, 2025, up from the current “recommended” three to four days guidance. As leaders continue to evaluate RTO strategies, I’m resharing a Microsoft Work Lab article that explores setting “in-person” office expectations based on “moments that matter.” It highlights three scenarios where in-person connections provide clear benefits: strengthening team cohesion, facilitating onboarding, and kickstarting projects.

HYBRID WORK

Brian Elliott’s new article on anticipated hybrid work trends for 2025 and their implications.

As organizations refine return-to-office, hybrid, and remote work policies, a new article by Brian Elliott outlines five key hybrid work trends for 2025: 1) Organizations embracing flexible work will steal talent from those imposing harsh mandates. 2) Forward-looking companies will measure performance by results, not attendance. 3) The hybrid work conversation will shift from days in the office to core hours and focus time. 4) Leaders will abandon one-size-fits-all hybrid policies. 5) Flexible organizations will lead in artificial intelligence innovation. Regarding the first trend, Brian notes: “If the economy continues to improve, the battle for strong employees will resume again,” adding that “organizations that take flexible hybrid work approaches will get better access to more talent.” To help recruiting teams whose organizations emphasize flexible work as part of their employee value proposition, I’m resharing my one-page worksheet to target talent from companies with less flexible policies. The worksheet also includes a column where you can indicate if certain organizations have announced recent layoffs. These data points—return-to-office status and layoffs—help prioritize recruiting efforts that are more likely to identify, recruit, and hire top talent.

HR PRACTICES

My one-page summary showcases how 5 organizations have implemented various talent and workplace practices—from internal talent marketplaces to skills-based talent practices.

As I continue to receive requests for examples of how organizations are implementing various talent and workplace practices and the results they are achieving, I’m resharing my one-page cheat sheet featuring five distinct examples from Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, Novartis, and AT&T. Each case study offers unique insights and practical examples of HR and workplace practices that deliver stakeholder value. For example, J&J presents a case study detailing how it leveraged AI to assess its workforce's current skills and their alignment with future requirements for organizational success. This process yielded workforce insights that guided employees’ personal development and the organization’s enhanced strategic workforce planning (SWP), both of which reduced skills gaps at J&J. IBM’s AI-powered AskHR digital assistant now handles 94% of HR FAQs worldwide, reducing task completion time by over 75%. Novartis found that normalizing discussions about colleagues’ struggles, regardless of severity, increased participation in mental health support programs by up to 8%. This summary will help you quickly identify the examples most relevant to your interests. To access the source documents, click on the company logos in the PDF.

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

WORKFORCE PLANNING

My template outlining six common SWP challenges, a potential solution, and immediate next step to implement.

One common challenge to SWP is that HR practitioners and stakeholders often struggle with where to begin or how to prioritize actions to advance SWP efforts. In such cases, starting small—focusing on one area for improvement—can be the most effective way to gain momentum. Here’s my one-page template to help determine the next step you might take. If you find value in tools like this, stay tuned for my new, exclusive community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, launching in early 2025.

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:

  • Calendly. The scheduling platform announced it is laying off about 70 employees, approximately 13% of its workforce, as part of a “strategic reorganization” that will affect the engineering, customer experience, marketing, and billing teams.

  • Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The tech giant announced a 10% reduction in management, director, and vice president-level roles as part of a broader organizational restructuring to enhance operational efficiency and align resources with strategic priorities.

  • Party City (OTCMKTS: PRTYQ). The party supply retailer has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. CEO Barry Litwin announced the company is "winding down" operations, with mass layoffs at its New Jersey headquarters and plans to close all stores by February 2025. Party City attributed its financial struggles to a challenging retail environment and shifting consumer behaviors.

 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:

  • Vimeo (NEW YORK) [NASDAQ: VMEO]—the world’s most innovative video experience platform for creators and enterprises—announced the appointment of Irene Hendricks as Chief People Officer. Hendricks brings over 25 years of HR leadership experience, including prior roles as Chief People Officer at Acclara and DailyPay, and senior leadership positions at MasterCard and Citi. ​

Irene Hendricks

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FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

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

THE BEST OF NOVEMBER 2024

Did you miss the “Best of November ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #273, which includes 19 of the most popular resources from the month.

Thank you to Gloat for sponsoring this Best of November issue! You can download Gloat’s comprehensive 25-page guide, The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Skills-Based Organization.

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RESOURCE LINEUP

​brianheger.com provides free access to +1,500 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 Circle. A new, exclusive, vetted, invitation-only digital community for internal HR practitioners to be launched in early 2025. If you are an internal HR practitioner interested in this paid community, indicate your interest here.

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