Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #327

Succession planning, scenario planning, AI-enabled hiring study, internal mobility, and the essential guide to agentic AI.

Author

Brian Heger
December 15, 2025

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Welcome to this issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

A shout-out to Jayson Komp, VP of Human Resources at Waupaca Foundry, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Jayson, 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.

👉️ Are you an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners working on shared talent priorities? Learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle 👈️ 

 ⬇️ Now let’s dive in!

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

SUCCESSION PLANNING

My cheat sheet highlights five signs that succession plans may not be providing practical value, along with a few suggestions for addressing these challenges.

Many organizations invest heavily in succession planning, yet surveys consistently show that these plans often become static grids of names that don’t meaningfully influence talent decisions or development. In this one-page cheat sheet, I highlight five signs that an organization’s succession plans may be “just names on a page” rather than practical, implementable plans. The cheat sheet includes sample indicators to help identify whether any of the five challenges exist, along with an example step to help address them. One challenge is that succession plans are updated only during formal succession planning cycles. When this happens, plans tend to reflect process calendars rather than current business realities, increasing the need for off-cycle updates. One way to address this is to define business trigger events, such as strategy shifts, organizational restructuring, or significant changes in company size or scale, that would prompt a reevaluation of succession plans. To support this, I am resharing another one of my cheat sheets that outlines nine sample trigger events that prompt an off-cycle reevaluation of succession plans. Use the five-signs succession planning cheat sheet to facilitate discussion, assess whether any of these challenges exist, and identify practical action steps to address them. Even addressing just one of these challenges can make succession plans more relevant. For more on succession, SuccessionHR is hosting a webinar on 1/21.

SCENARIO PLANNING & AI

A new article offers a streamlined approach to scenario planning that leverages AI to navigate future uncertainties more efficiently.

I’ve made several posts about how scenario planning (SP), which involves envisioning and planning for multiple futures an organization might face, is a critical tool for workforce and talent planning. One of my cheat sheets helps HR and business leaders align workforce plans with potential business scenarios. That said, SP can be hard to execute in practice, often requiring significant time, coordination, and expertise. A new MIT Sloan Management Review article shares ideas on how organizations can apply accelerated SP, including using AI as a brainstorming partner. One useful insight is how two companies, Fazer and Unum Ltd., have put these concepts into action. Fazer, a Nordic fast-moving consumer goods company, used this approach to identify a small set of critical assumptions related to climate change and the availability of key raw materials across its portfolio, including confectionery, bakery and breakfast products, plant-based drinks, and other food innovations. It then used AI to deepen research on environmental trends and turn workshop insights into scenarios that helped leaders rethink strategy, operations, and talent needs across different futures. While AI can speed up scenario creation and analysis, effective SP still depends on leaders’ judgment to assess plausibility and apply insights to talent and workforce decisions. Blending both approaches can provide a strategic advantage.

HIRING & AI

Drawing on a study published this year in the Journal of Management Studies, the authors have released a new HBR article that provides a shorter, practitioner-focused look at AI-based hiring practices and their implications.

In August 2025, the article “Is There Fairness in AI?" was published in the Journal of Management Studies to examine how AI-based hiring practices might lead to fairer hiring practices. The authors have now released a shorter, practitioner-focused version of that research in a new HBR article. The research draws on a three-year field study of a global consumer-goods company processing more than 10,000 job applicants per year. It examines how AI-based hiring systems support more objective hiring practices. To reduce hiring bias, the organization replaced resume reviews with blinded, gamified assessments analyzed by AI and trained the algorithm on current employees’ game data linked to performance outcomes. While this increased consistency, the study found that one definition of fairness—standardization and uniform rules—became hard-coded into the system, deprioritizing managers’ local judgment about role requirements, labor markets, and team needs. Fixed thresholds automatically advanced or rejected candidates, and deviations from the model were framed as breaking the rules rather than as exercising judgment that might otherwise account for regional talent shortages, known candidates (such as interns or project contributors) whose capabilities exceeded what assessments captured, and other contextual factors. The authors also provide questions to help organizations better leverage AI-enabled hiring tools while preserving human and contextual judgment. Both versions of the article are worth reading to understand the study’s limitations and implications.

INTERNAL MOBILITY

I share two of my resources: a one-page diagnostic to identify opportunities to enhance mobility and examples of metrics to assess aspects of internal mobility.

As I continue to receive requests for internal mobility (IM) resources, here are two of my cheat sheets on IM-related topics. The first is an IM Diagnostic, which includes 20 statements across 10 key areas to help identify opportunities for enhancing internal mobility within organizations. For example, in the Transparency and Communication area, statements include "Internal job opportunities are widely and proactively communicated to all employees" and "Jobs are advertised internally before external recruitment." Practitioners can review each statement and check boxes that accurately reflect their current organization, with unchecked boxes indicating potential areas for improvement. The second resource is a one-pager with nine example metrics on IM. Each metric provides a definition, highlights its importance, and offers a sample practice. Take the "Time-to-Fill for Internals" metric, which measures the average time to fill a position with an internal candidate compared to external hiring. This metric is crucial because faster internal hiring processes reduce productivity gaps, minimize disruption, and demonstrate an organization's ability to mobilize talent quickly. A recommended practice is streamlining the internal application process by reducing approval requirements and shortening interview stages without compromising quality.

AGENTIC AI

A new 30-page report that explores three essential components for scaling agentic AI and making it a performance enabler for the business.

As AI agents evolve from passive tools to active collaborators, they are reshaping how work gets done, who does it, and how teams are structured. Scaling this capability across an organization, however, is complex and requires careful consideration. This 30-page report outlines three essential components for scaling agentic AI and turning it into a true performance enabler: 1) the chassis, or the strategic technical framework, which provides a secure and open foundation connecting agents, models, and systems enterprise-wide to support orchestration, interoperability, and scalability; 2) the fuel, or the high-quality, well-governed data streams that power adaptive decision-making through integration, accessibility, and real-time flow across the enterprise; and 3) the powertrain, or the human–AI collaboration that converts potential into measurable outcomes by aligning actions to KPIs and embedding accountability. The report explores each component in depth, and starting on page 21, introduces an Action Guide designed to help put these ideas into practice. For example, to enable continuous data flow to and among agents, one recommended action is to conduct a quick audit of your data governance framework to identify bottlenecks that slow access to high-quality data and pinpoint the high-impact data sources most critical to agent decision-making. Other ideas are discussed. As a bonus, I am resharing the McKinsey article, The Agentic Organization: Contours of the Next Paradigm for The AI Era, which offers considerations for enabling agentic AI.

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

TALENT STRATEGY

My cheat sheet with 12 talent tactics that help organizations determine when each approach works well, when it doesn’t, and examples of them in practice.

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 my job cuts tracker on brianheger.com

A few job cuts announced this past week:

  • Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE: ELAN). The global animal health company that develops, manufactures, and sells products and services to prevent and treat diseases in both farm animals and pets announced a restructuring that will affect 600 positions across the company, with 300 eliminated, and 300 shifted to other areas or locations.

  • Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN). The biopharmaceutical company announced it will lay off about one-third of its workforce—roughly 85 employees—as part of a restructuring plan aimed at cutting operating costs and bringing 2026 expenses below projected 2025 levels.

  • Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE). The U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant disclosed that it plans to cut more than 200 jobs in Switzerland.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, 10 new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my subscription platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role.  

This week’s CHRO move of the week is:

  • DaVita (DENVER, COLORADO) [NYSE: DVA]—a leading provider of kidney care services—announced the promotion of Stephanie Hendrickson as Chief People Officer, effective immediately. Hendrickson previously served at DaVita from 2013 to 2018 and returned to the company in 2023, most recently serving as Group VP of Operations, bringing more than a decade of experience building and leading teams across the healthcare provider, medical device, and pharmaceutical sectors. 

👉️ To access all detailed 10 CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

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

THE BEST OF NOVEMBER 2025

SPONSORED BY

Did you miss the “Best of November ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #325, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

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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

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