Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #310

Connecting HR and business initiatives, CHROs top priorities for the rest of 2025, determining if a vacant role should be backfilled, three talent questions to ask about your team, and employee wellbeing.

Author

Brian Heger
August 10, 2025

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Welcome to this week’s issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

A shout-out to Bridget Penney, Chief People Officer at Applied Systems, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Bridget, 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 

HR EFFECTIVENESS

Discusses how CHROs and their teams can frame their HR initiatives in hard numbers rather than narratives to secure executive buy-in and elevate their credibility.

A few months ago, I shared my one-page cheat sheet with guiding questions to help HR leaders and their teams think through key components of their business case for building a new HR team or initiative. My nine-section resource takes you from identifying the core problem or opportunity to articulating ROI and mapping implementation timelines. To build on that resource, I’m sharing a recent article by Bob Goodwin that offers practical guidance on connecting HR initiatives directly to business problems so they’re easier to explain, prioritize, and execute. It highlights seven questions every HR leader should be able to answer to link workforce strategy to business performance—ranging from How exactly does our company make money? to What specific workforce metrics can we directly connect to financial outcomes? It also features a five-part format that helps HR teams frame proposals in terms that resonate with C-suite priorities and decision-making criteria. Using a midsize healthcare tech example, the proposal—presented to the CEO and CFO—focuses on tackling nurse attrition in client hospitals to protect revenue and strengthen client value. The example covers: problem statement, proposed initiative, expected outcome (e.g., reduce turnover by 10 percentage points, lift renewal rates by 7%, protect $4.2M in recurring revenue), implementation plan, and risks and contingencies. It can be used as a framework for sharing summarized proposals to gain buy-in from senior leaders, using a language and style that resonates with them.

CHIEF HR OFFICER

A 28-minute podcast highlights CHRO priorities for the rest of the year—ranging from succession, workforce planning, and internal mobility—to the growing importance of scenario planning.

With just under five months left in 2025, many HR leaders are refocusing their priorities and adapting plans to meet emerging business needs for the rest of the year. A new 28-minute episode of The Conference Board podcast shares timely insights from CHROs on where their focus is heading next. One standout—echoing several of my recent posts on scenario planning—is how CHROs are leaning more heavily on scenario planning to guide both succession and strategic workforce planning. In succession planning, leaders are increasingly using “what if?” scenarios to prepare for sudden changes in key roles, asking, “If this happens, then what?” and ensuring contingency talent is ready for vacancies or shifts driven by economic, geopolitical (e.g., tariffs), or technological (e.g., automation) factors. In workforce planning, scenario planning helps organizations stress-test their readiness for multiple possible futures, ensuring greater agility and resilience. As this practice becomes more integral across HR, developing scenario-planning capabilities is essential. With this in mind, I am resharing my one-page cheat sheet with key questions to guide thinking about potential business scenarios, their talent implications, and how to prepare for them. Also, here is the transcript from the referenced podcast discussion.

TALENT ACQUISITION

My one-page cheat sheet with targeted questions to help leaders make decisions on whether to backfill vacant roles, reducing the costly cycle of over-hiring and rehiring.

As I’ve tracked thousands of layoffs over the past few years through my layoff tracker, a common theme continues to emerge: many organizations cite “over-hiring” as a reason for workforce reductions, resulting in costly cycles of hiring, layoffs, and rehiring. While better workforce planning and talent forecasting can help minimize the likelihood of over‑hiring, an equally important—and often overlooked—practice is to be more intentional about whether roles need to be backfilled when they become vacant. Rather than automatically replacing someone, leaders and talent partners should ask sharper questions—such as “Has there been any change in current business context since the role was created?” and “How likely is this role to remain vital in two years?”—to guide a deliberate, evidence‑based decision. To help facilitate these discussions, I’ve developed a one‑page cheat sheet with eight sample questions designed to spark deeper evaluation and better hiring choices. With AI and other technologies rapidly redefining how work gets done, using tools like this is more important than ever. Further, replacing reflexive rehiring with thoughtful reviews can help organizations break the cycle of over‑hiring and optimize resources.

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Three targeted questions leaders can use to surface critical talent decisions sooner, enabling timely talent decisions.

Formal talent practices—such as performance management and talent reviews—are designed to help us make better decisions about various aspects of talent management. But managers and leaders don’t need to wait for formal processes to start thinking intentionally about talent decisions. A few questions that I’ve found helpful include: 1) Would I enthusiastically rehire this individual for their current role? (Reveals if the person is truly the best fit for the role and how strongly you value their contributions.) 2) What unique value does this team member bring to our organization? (Centers on distinct contributions—what the person offers that others do not—clarifying how they enhance culture, elevate others, and drive outcomes.) 3) If this person were a retention risk, how hard would I fight to keep them? (Indicates your perception of their overall value, long-term potential, and belief in their future contributions). While there are many other questions managers can ask, these starter questions can surface talent decisions faster and with greater clarity. Based on the answers, managers and leaders can identify one talent decision to make in the next 30–45 days—whether a development conversation, stretch assignment, or other targeted action. Making important talent decisions sooner—versus waiting for formal processes—can be the difference between falling short of achieving organizational objectives and exceeding them.

EMPLOYEE WELLBEING

A 43-page report on employee wellbeing, including key metrics to help build a strong business case for well-being investments. Bonus resources shared.

As noted in resource 2 of this issue (What Are CHROs' Top 10 Priorities for the Rest of 2025? | The Conference Board), employee well-being is a top priority for many Chief HR Officers and their organizations. Against this backdrop, I wanted to reshare a 43-page report published earlier this year by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey Health Institute. The report highlights actionable insights, including how organizations can calculate the returns on their well-being investments through drivers like higher productivity, reduced absenteeism, improved retention, talent attraction, and healthcare cost savings. Exhibit 10 on p. 26 includes metrics, definitions, and performance indicators that could help with measurements. Case studies further illustrate how organizations are putting these strategies into practice. As a bonus, I’m resharing a “microstress diagnostic” by Rob Cross and Karen Dillon, which helps identify 14 types of everyday stressors in organizations that can quietly compound and impact employee well-being and organizational performance. Similarly, here is a reshare of an MIT Sloan Management Review article, where AT&T’s Chief Technology Officer, Jeremy Legg, covers how addressing seemingly minor frustrations with tools, processes, and systems can have a significant impact on improved ways of working and organizational outcomes. Leadership teams can use each of these resources to identify opportunities for elevating employee well-being and organizational performance.

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

AI’S IMPACT ON THE HR FUNCTION

A 22-page slide deck that explores how AI agents are reshaping HR work, offering frameworks and use cases to help HR teams plan for the function’s transformation.

As AI agents shift from passive tools to active collaborators, they’re transforming how work is done, who does it, and how teams are structured. While HR plays a key role in helping organizations prepare for the broader impact of agentic AI, HR leaders also need to reimagine how this shift will reshape HR itself. This 22-page Deloitte presentation offers a useful starting point.

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.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

  • Bayer AG (OTCMKTS: BAYRY). The German life sciences group disclosed that it has cut more than 11,000 jobs—reducing headcount from 101,200 to 89,600—since launching a restructuring program, with additional reductions expected over the next 18 months.

  • BP (NYSE: BP). The global energy giant disclosed plans to cut 6,200 office jobs—up from 4,700 announced in January—as part of a “reset” strategy aimed at slashing costs by $2 billion by 2026.

  • Stanford University. The private university disclosed that it has laid off 363 employees as part of efforts to address a $140 million budget cut for the upcoming academic year.

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:

  • Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (TAMPA, FLORIDA) [NASDAQ: BLMN]—one of the largest casual dining restaurant companies in the world with a portfolio of leading, differentiated restaurant concepts—announced the appointment of Jessica Mitory, who will join the Company on August 11, 2025, as SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer. Jessica joins from Advance Auto Parts, where she most recently served as SVP, Global Total Rewards & Employee Experience.

🔓️ Never miss another Chief HR Officer announcement!

CHROs on the Go has over 4,000 archived announcements in its online platform, with new announcements added daily!

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FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

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THE BEST OF JULY 2025

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Did you miss the “Best of July ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #308, which includes 17 of the most popular resources from the month.

Thank you to our sponsor, Draup, who sponsored the Best of July.

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