Talent Edge Weekly - Issue 281

Skills-based hiring, HR tech, 2025 leadership insights, high-potential identification, and unlocking workforce capacity.

Author

Brian Heger
January 26, 2025

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Welcome to this issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

A shout-out to Erin Hanley Bostick, Head of Talent Management at Par Pacific Holdings, Inc., for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Erin, 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 

SKILLS-BASED HIRING

My cheat sheet provides 9 questions to evaluate whether an academic degree is essential for job selection.

Numerous headlines highlight the shift toward skills-based hiring, where organizations prioritize skills over traditional credentials like academic degrees. But does removing degree requirements actually increase the hiring of candidates without degrees? A Harvard Business School and Burning Glass Institute report analyzing 11,300 roles found that firms saw only a 3.5 percentage point increase—less than 1 in 700 hires last year. However, 37% of firms classified as Skills-Based Hiring Leaders achieved nearly a 20% increase. This gap suggests skills-based hiring has potential but requires a thoughtful, intentional approach. To support this effort, here’s my infographic with 9 sample questions, including "What essential skills are needed for this role, and can they be acquired outside a formal degree?" "How quickly do required skills for this role evolve, and does a degree ensure up-to-date knowledge?" and "Are there successful employees in similar roles without the specified degree?" While skills-based hiring involves more than just reconsidering degree requirements, critically evaluating questions like these can help organizations make more informed decisions as they become more skills-based.

HR TECHNOLOGY

A new article that explores why HR tech can fall short of expectations. I reshare my cheat sheet to navigate some of these challenges.

HR technology can be a critical enabler of talent practices and business performance. However, a 2025 Gartner report (see p. 20) reveals that 55% of surveyed HR leaders believe their HR tech solutions fail to meet current and future business needs. And 51% agree that they cannot measure the business value delivered by their HR technology. As highlighted in a new MIT Sloan Management Review article, numerous factors can contribute to HR tech falling short of expectations. Yet, many of us have also been part of successful HR tech implementations that met or exceeded their intended outcomes. While several factors influence the success of HR tech implementations, a critical one is clearly defining the technology’s purpose, desired outcomes, required capabilities, and alignment with the overall business strategy, tech ecosystem, and culture. To support this effort, I’m resharing my one-page cheat sheet, featuring 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 not exhaustive, this cheat sheet provides a good starting point for further evaluation and discussion.

LEADERSHIP

A new 25-page report highlights 10 key insights into various aspects of leadership, including retaining leadership talent. I share my bonus template on employee retention.

This new report by DDI shares findings from its Global Leadership Forecast 2025, the largest and longest-running global study on leadership. Based on a survey of 11,000 global leaders—including 2,000 HR professionals—the 25-page report highlights 10 key insights, each with a “where to focus” section outlining potential actions. A key finding concerns the retention risk of high-potential (HiPo) individual contributors. While HiPo leaders’ departure intentions have remained steady the past few years at 10%, HiPo individual contributors show a sharp rise—from 13% in 2020 to 21% in 2024. These employees were nearly four times more likely to leave if their manager didn’t provide regular growth opportunities. As we approach the second month of the year, many workers—HiPos and beyond—are reassessing their employment, especially with upcoming bonus payouts that could trigger departures. To help managers proactively identify and act on critical retention risks, I’m resharing my template, which prompts key questions: Is this person a high performer? A high-potential? Do they hold a critical role? How would their departure impact the organization? Managers can list employees, check relevant criteria, and determine any follow-up actions to mitigate retention risk. While templates aren’t necessary, simple tools like this can help managers thoughtfully evaluate retention risk and take action where needed.

HIGH-POTENTIAL IDENTIFICATION

A new peer-reviewed article that challenges the conventional approach to high-potential identification (podcast summary of article provided).

Many organizations conduct a talent review process—where one goal is to accurately identify (and develop) employees with the greatest potential to move into more complex roles. However, accurately assessing potential is not easy. A new study challenges the conventional approach, which often relies on universal measures of potential and focuses on vertical advancement. The research finds that context-specific methods are more effective, as each organization has a unique success profile shaped by industry, strategy, and culture. Also, viewing potential through a framework for lateral moves (not just upward moves) not only improves opportunities for employees but also helps organizations with their talent management. The study underscores the need for organizations to develop internal models of potential aligned with their values and business context. While you will need an account to download the research paper, here is a podcast episode that summarizes the article. Thank you to John Golden, Ph.D, one of the paper’s authors and VP of People Sciences & Organizational Capability at T-Mobile, for providing the podcast summary link. As a bonus, I am resharing my HiPo identification playlist with five additional resources.

ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

My worksheet to help teams identify opportunities to enable workforce capacity by eliminating unnecessary work, improving processes, etc.

Leaders continuously seek ways to boost organizational capacity to execute business priorities. While acquiring more people (e.g., employees, contractors, etc.) is one way to increase workforce capacity, another way is to unlock capacity through improved ways of working. According to Mercer’s 2024 Global Talent Trends report, many workers report barriers to productivity at work, including being bogged down with lower-value work, frequent interruptions, insufficient thinking time, and too many meetings. Although these productivity barriers may seem insignificant by themselves, they collectively stifle an organization’s efficiency and undermine a high-performing culture. For instance, AT&T’s Project Raindrop Initiative identified numerous opportunities to streamline work processes. A “raindrop” is described as an outdated policy, a redundant process, or an unhelpful tool—anything that impedes progress. While one or two of these issues might be manageable, their cumulative effect can overwhelm employees and waste time, energy, and money. Addressing these issues has saved AT&T 3.6 million hours and avoided over $230 million in costs over the past three and a half years. Here is my worksheet that can help jumpstart conversations for identifying opportunities for improving ways of working and unlocking workforce capacity. 

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

SKILLS

A new 47-page report with a roadmap for implementing skills-based practices.

This new 47-page report outlines a three-step roadmap for enabling skills-based talent practices: 1) identify strategic priorities and talent challenges a skills-based approach can address, 2) assess and define the skills needed, and 3) sustain a skills-first culture with effective governance.

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:

  • CNN. (NASDAQ: WBD) The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned media company may cut 3,500 jobs globally to lower production costs and consolidate teams. The company is focusing on building out digital subscription products as audiences shift away from linear TV.

  • Nissan (OTCMKTS: NSANY). The automaker announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs as part of a restructuring effort crucial to its potential business integration with Honda. The reductions include approximately 6,700 roles in production and direct divisions and around 2,300 in administrative and indirect roles.

  • Stripe. The fintech company is laying off 300 employees, or about 3.5% of its workforce. The cuts will be primarily in product, engineering, and operations roles as part of a team-level restructuring. Despite the cuts, Stripe plans to grow its workforce by 17% in 2025.

 Click here to access all listed announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, 11 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:

  • International Paper (MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE) [NYSE: IP]—a global producer of sustainable packaging, pulp, and fiber-based products—announced the appointment of Joy Roman  as SVP, Chief People and Strategy Officer, effective February 1. Roman, who will report to Chairman and CEO Andy Silvernail, joins International Paper from Berry Global, where she served as Chief People & Strategy Officer. ​

Joy Roman

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FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

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

✂️ ‘Read Online’  if email cuts off

THE BEST OF DECEMBER 2024

Did you miss the “Best of December ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #277, which includes 17 of the most popular resources from the month.

And make sure you check out my announcement about my new invitation-only community for internal HR practitioners launching soon —Talent Edge Circle!

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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