Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #28

August 15, 2020

Welcome to this week’s issue of Talent Edge Weekly - the weekly newsletter for strategic human resources practitioners, bringing together talent and HR insights from various sources.

The following resources are covered in this week’s issue:

  • The CHRO’s Team: What Matters Most | Marc Effron and Jim Shanley

  • 21 HR Jobs of the Future | Harvard Business Review

  • Five Talent-Management Practices In A Post-COVID-19 Era | McKinsey

  • Ignition Guide to Conducting Scenario Planning | Gartner

  • Is your Organization’s Talent Acquisition Experience Driving Talent Away? | Deloitte Capital H Blog

  • 2021 Incentive Plans Will Look A Bit Different | WorldatWork

  • Podcast: HR Earned a Seat at the Table. Now What? | Paychex HR Leadership Series Podcast | Josh Bersin

You can access additional resources and articles at www.brianheger.com

If you find this issue to be of value, please share the newsletter link or any of its articles with your social media networks. To share an article summary, you can click the “share” icon located below the summary.

If you enjoy Talent Edge Weekly and aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign-up so that it can be delivered to your email inbox each Saturday afternoon.

Have a nice and safe weekend everyone.

Brian

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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 EDGE

By many measures, including those associated with the current pandemic, CHRO’s have elevated the importance and impact of their role over the past several years. And as pointed out in this article, "CHROs must now rely less on their personal strength and more on their ability to build high-quality teams to sustain their progress." Simultaneously, it is interesting to observe that 47 percent of CEOs replaced their CHROs with external candidates in 2019, an upward trend from 2018 according to the CHRO Trend Report. This trend suggests that CHROs have an opportunity to elevate the quality of their team. This article offers five questions that CHROs can ask when determining if they have an all-star HR team, including: Does the executive team trust your direct reports with their corporate lives?  It also submits that three factors differentiate the members of a high performing CHRO team: 1) A High Performer’s Mindset 2) Capability Built through Experiences 3) Executive Advisor and Influencer. I encourage CHROs to read this article and then incorporate their perspective into development discussions with their teams, and/or make the required talent changes as needed. HR leadership teams can also evaluate themselves against the three criteria and chart a path forward for their own development.

As COVID-19 continues to revolutionize HR’s role, many HR organizations are anticipating how HR jobs will need to change in order to meet future business priorities and drive competitive edge. This article provides insights into 21 HR jobs that will evolve HR’s role over the next decade. It is based on feedback from nearly 100 CHROs, CLOs, and VP’s of talent and workforce transformation. The 21 roles are arranged on a 2×2 grid, where the X-axis depicts time, and the order in which the job is expected to appear over the next ten years; the Y-axis represents “technology centricity” or the degree to which these jobs will require a grounding in computer science. The 21 jobs range from Algorithm Bias Auditor, Distraction Prevention Coach, to Chief Purpose Planner. Each of the 21 jobs embodies five core themes, including data literacy, organizational trust and safety, and human-machine partnerships, to name a few. HR leaders can use this reference as they think through and plan their future HR organization.

Although CHROs and their teams continue to navigate their organizations through the recovery phase of the pandemic, many of them are simultaneously developing HR and talent practices for a post-COVID-19 era. This article outlines actions that HR organizations can take in evolving five talent-management practices for a post-pandemic environment. The five practices areas include 1) finding and hiring the right people, 2) learning and growing, 3) managing and rewarding performance, 4) tailoring the employee experience, and 5) optimizing workforce planning and strategy. Concerning workforce planning, organizations can a) reassess the roles that are most critical in the current stage of the crisis and how they may differ in the recovery phase and beyond, b) look beyond titles and traditional roles by instead looking at the underlying skills that people have and comparing that to future needs, and c) using artificial-intelligence-enabled tools that match individual’s skills, performance, and career interests to open jobs or other work (e.g., short-term projects). Practical suggestions are provided for each of the five talent areas.

While HR leaders continue to help their organizations manage through the recovery phase of the pandemic while planning for the future, I continue to get requests to share resources on scenario planning (SP). This step-by-step guide by Gartner allows practitioners to use (SP) to develop scenarios, identify the risks and impact of each scenario, and document and communicate the scenario-specific action plan to stakeholders. One of the references in this guide includes a chart on five common pitfalls to SP. For each pitfall, there is a counter recommendation on keys to success. For example, one trap of SP is when there is a sole or heavy focus on risk identification that leads to an action plan focused on short-term risk mitigation. Instead, planners should evaluate growth opportunities, not only risks. By focusing on both risks and opportunities for growth, SP activities are more likely to yield insights and actions that have a more significant impact and unlock business value. You can access other posts that I have made on SP by visiting this section of my website.

Few would dispute that there are numerous benefits to creating and delivering a positive talent acquisition candidate experience (CE). And one vital enabler of the CE is technology. This article reinforces several touch points during the talent acquisition process--referred to as Moments that Matter (MTM) --in which technology can enable the Job Search / Application and Interview Phases of the CE. For example, during the Job Search phase, AI can help candidates quickly understand which jobs they may be best suited for versus having them comb through lengthy and confusing job descriptions. Or, during the Application phase, voice recognition software can be used to have candidates answer a couple of quick questions to apply for a front-end job. This initial process would be followed by an SMS link on their phone to complete their application for a job, a capability used by McDonald's. And even during the Interview phase, technology can enable self-scheduling to reduce interview coordination for candidates. Other ideas are provided on how to enhance the CE via technology.

As organizations evaluate their annual and long-term incentive plans for 2021 in light of the pandemic, there are several options that they will need to consider. And while each organization will have a unique situation (e.g. some organizations are still in recovery phase or survival mode whereas others are in growth mode), this article provides a few tactics that organizations can use, including: Change performance measure mix. Place a higher weight on EBITDA and a lower weight on revenue. Consider relative performance measures. Gauge performance relative to peers to determine how well the company is performing. Adjust the long-term incentive mix. Increase the percentage of time-based restricted stock in the mix. "The lower risk of the pay mix could be offset with longer vesting periods or backloaded vesting (50% after year two and 50% after year three), or adding holding requirements." As organizations think through these and other options, they will need to consider how these decisions align with their talent philosophy and whether the changes are temporary due to COVID or more reflective of the longer-term business landscape. 

THE SOUND OF INSIGHT

In this 25-minute podcast, Josh Bersin discusses how HR leaders are adapting to new responsibilities and changing priorities during the pandemic. Josh addresses everything from the "tightrope between employee engagement and work-life balance, getting more from your existing HR technology platforms, new techniques for networking with your industry peers, and the power of a positive outlook." He mentions how the pandemic has caused an urgency around many HR-related topics, which in turn has many in HR feeling that they have the freedom and buy-in to make decisions quickly, try new things and course correct vs. having to build multi-year plans that require heavy socialization with stakeholders. The conversation also covers how there are various changes in how technology tools are being used, such as how collaboration tools (e.g., Yammer, Microsoft teams, etc.) are not only vital communication tools but learning tools. I am also including the 20+ page Paychex Pulse of HR Survey report that was referenced in the discussion. 

OTHER RESOURCES

Recommended Tools I use for my personal learning and productivity.

Book Recommendations on HR and business topics.

COVID-19 Resources for HR. These resources were gathered from March through May and contain 150+ references that can be leveraged as HR practitioners continue to lead their organizations through the recovery phase and beyond

WHO IS IN THE HR JOB MARKET?

If you are a subscriber to this newsletter and searching for an HR-related role, I am more than happy to list your name, a link to your LinkedIn Profile, and a sentence or two that describes what you are looking for, in a future issue of this newsletter. If interested, please send me an email from the email address that you used when signing-up for this newsletter.

  • Scott Hall - is looking for an Analytics leadership position in a diverse array of areas (HR, Industrial Engineering, Logistics/Supply Chain, Workforce Mgmt.,Workforce Planning). Thoroughly adept with Excel, Tableau, and other data analytics and visualization tools. Virtual position, greater central FL, or hybrid travel position.

  • Serguei Zaychenko - is looking for an Executive Recruiter/Talent Acquisition Recruiter role in the metro New York City area. Serguei worked both for large, Fortune 500, as well as small, entrepreneurial companies and thrives in hyper-growth environments.

  • Nora Kinsela - is currently seeking a mid/senior level Talent Management/Development role in the Greater Boston area. The ideal company is one that looks to create an engaged workforce by providing career development opportunities needed for them to thrive and be their best selves.

SHARE YOUR IDEAS

While I try to read as much as I can and share resources and ideas that I believe would be of value to readers, there is only so much that one person can possibly uncover! This is where I ask for your active contribution to this newsletter.

If you have an article, report, or resource that you recommend, please send me an email at [email protected]. I would love to review it and potentially share it in a future newsletter.

And, if you have any ideas or suggestions on how this newsletter can be improved or deliver greater value (including topics you would like to see covered), please send me a note with your suggestions.

FINAL COMMENTS

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If you enjoy this content and would like to access all issues of Talent Edge Weekly, you can do so by clicking here. You can also access content at www.brianheger.com

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I look forward to sharing more ideas in next week’s Edge!

Have a nice and safe weekend everyone.

Brian