Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #29

August 22, 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.

For this week's issue, I cover the following resources:

  • Human Capital As an Asset: An Accounting Framework to Reset the Value of Talent in the New World of Work | Willis Towers Watson and WEF

  • Full Report: 21 HR Jobs of the Future | Cognizant | Center for Future of Work

  • Think Outside the 9 Box | TalentQ | Allan Church

  • Employee Experience: Research Findings | Limeade Institute

  • COVID-19: It's Time to Rethink Where, How and Why We Work | World Economic Forum

  • Scenario Planning for a Post-COVID-19 World: Be Prepared for the New Normal | IMD

  • Book: Proving the Value of Soft Skills: Measuring Impact and Calculating ROI | by Jack Phillips, Patti Phillips, Rebecca Ray - released August 4, 2020

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.

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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

As organizations continue to reset for the new world of work and demonstrate the value of their talent investments, this 36-page report by Willis Towers Watson and the World Economic Forum provides seven principles for doing so. These principles form a "new human capital accounting framework that enables a company’s board and management to track how their investment in people is augmenting the firm’s human capital and support the delivery of better outcomes for the business, the workforce, and the wider community." Figure 1 (p.13) shows the seven principles, including #3: move FROM:  Stand-alone - where companies take an inward, stand-alone and self-sustaining view of business and human capital strategy  TO: Ecosystem - where organizations work with the communities in which they operate, partners, suppliers, ancillary industries and at times even competitors for talent. For example, when McDonald's faced the possibility of having to cut jobs due to potential restaurant closures, it signed an agreement with Aldi Germany (a grocery chain facing a talent shortage) to redeploy McDonald’s workers on a voluntary basis to Aldi stores. McDonald’s avoided lay-offs, enabling it to preserve its human capital, and Aldi was able to satisfy its customers due to this mutually beneficial partnership. The report has other company examples related to the seven principles and concludes with recommended actions for policy-makers, CHROs, and boards. 

Last week I made a post about a Harvard Business Review article written by Jeanne C. Meister and Robert H. Brown, titled 21 HR Jobs of The Future. The article provided insights into 21 HR jobs that will evolve HR’s role over the next decade and is based on feedback from nearly 100 CHROs, CLOs, and VP’s of talent and workforce transformation. When I shared this article on Linked In, there were a few people that inquired about seeing the detailed job descriptions for the 21 roles. One of the authors, Robert Brown, was kind enough to share a 60-page report with me that provides the details on each of these roles. For each role, the report includes a 1) Position Summary, 2) Overall Requirements, 3) Specific Responsibilities, and 4) Skills and Qualifications. I commend both Jeanne and Robert, their teams, and those who provided input into the research for expanding our thinking on how the future roles in HR may need to change to support a new world of work. For me, the value of this work is less about whether all of the predictions come true, but rather that it is expanding our thinking on how the HR function will continue to evolve in ways that will drive business and workforce strategies of the future.

The ability to accurately identify and develop high-potential employees is considered by many to be the holy grail of talent management. But as noted by Allan Church in this article, it's never simple. And rather than continue to struggle with methods, such as the classic 9 box model, that have shown to be less effective over the years, this article offers three different alternatives to the classic 9 Box model. The models vary in terms of simplicity, but they all rely on some talent categorization and answer the question: Potential for what? They include 1) Potential by mobility in which talent gets categorized by a three- or four-category mobility framework, such as global: mobile to any location in the world.  regional: only mobile to locations within certain areas (U.S. only, Latin American only). local: not mobile and needs to remain in his or her current location. 2) Potential by behavioral science insights. Involves looking at leadership competencies and behaviors that measure future success. When done right and legally valid, it can help "uncover hidden gems that would probably otherwise be overlooked." 3) Potential by future destination, which is mostly associated with senior levels, succession needs, and factors in knowledge, skills, ability, and career interests aligned with specific roles. Organizations can easily combine these alternatives depending on their needs. I am also including a link to one of my posts that covers another one of Allan's articles where he describes aspects of Pepsi's approach to HiPo identification.  

Despite the growing interest in the notion of the employee experience (EX), there is still an opportunity to understand further the impact that the EX has on business and talent outcomes of interest. This research by Limeade set out to answer two questions on EX. 1) Does a positive EX relate to significant differences in outcomes of interest, such as an employees'/workers 'intent-to-stay, likelihood to recommend, engagement, well-being? 2) Which organizational care elements (e.g., fair pay, receiving feedback, feeling respected, etc.) most strongly predict a positive EX? The findings show:  1) those with a positive EX had significantly higher outcomes on all variables of interest than groups who had an unfavorable experience. 2) Of the 25 drivers of EX that were explored, the items that mostly impacted the EX related to the emotional connection one felt to the organization — specifically, feeling cared for by one’s organization, trusting one’s organization, and viewing the organization's culture as positive. This finding reinforces that EX drivers are more than "transactions that occur or processes, and systems— it’s about how employees feel about their organization overall." Although there are limitations to the study, the findings provide useful insights for informing current EX practices and future research. 

While the concept of the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) has been with organizations for the last few decades, it has more recently come under scrutiny due to the current pandemic. And although there are many definitions of the EVP, in general, it refers to an organization’s unique offering for prospective and current employees/workers. These offerings include things such as pay, benefits, affiliation, career, and the work itself, to name a few. The crisis has provided workers the opportunity to re-evaluate what they want from work and how and where they want to work beyond the pandemic. Organizations now have an opportunity to re-evaluate and modify their EVP to better align with what workers' value--with the intent that doing so will drive productivity, engagement, and heighten talent brand, to name a few. This article highlights a few considerations related to an organization's EVP, including flexibility in where work gets done. It argues that organizations "need a blended strategy supporting different parts of the workforce with combinations of in-person and distributed working." As noted in the article, "if employees can relocate anywhere, companies can support economically challenged cities, smaller towns, and rural areas by bringing jobs to people, rather than requiring people to move to jobs." Efforts like these can also help accelerate diversity and inclusion efforts. Other ideas are discussed.

As mentioned in several posts over the past few months, scenario planning (SP) is a tool designed to help organizations plan for uncertain futures. And while SP has been used heavily in industries, such as Oil and Gas, whose performance is "vulnerable to major economic, social, political, and environmental shifts," COVID-19 has made SP a priority for many organizations. This IMD report provides examples of plausible scenarios for the world after COVID-19. I am offering it as a reference--not necessarily for the actual scenarios it contains--but rather how the examples illustrate ways to describe, contrast, and determine implications of scenarios. Pages 14 through 16 show these examples. Page 16 shows an exercise that can be used to facilitate SP discussions. From a talent perspective, I would add that once the scenarios are formed, each should articulate the talent implications associated with the scenario. HR leaders, strategic workforce planners, and talent strategists can use these resources as they help their organizations build, refine, and plan for various scenarios that they may face during the pandemic and beyond. 

WHAT I AM READING

According to the LinkedIn 2020 Workforce Learning Report, "soft-skills" or the essential interpersonal skills that make or break our ability to get things done, are becoming increasingly vital (more so than technical skills) to individuals and organizations. And as these skills become even more important in a post-pandemic world, I was especially excited to see the publication of this new book, released August 4, 2020. The book offers insights on how to use an ROI Methodology to clearly show the impact and ROI of soft skills investments. The authors, who are all respected and accomplished in the field, guide readers through an easy-to-apply process that includes everything from business alignment, design evaluation, data collection, isolation of the program effects, cost capture, ROI calculations, and results communication. I am looking forward to diving into this book over the next few days and will provide an update once I am finished.

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 Linked In 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