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Welcome to this new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Zoe Winsey-Thomas, Head of Talent Management at bp, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Zoe, for your support of this newsletter!

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PRESENTED BY Draup

How Leading Organizations are Redesigning for the AI Era

Most enterprises are running AI on an organizational structure it was never designed for. That is easy to overlook early on. Over time, it becomes one of the costliest problems a leadership team can inherit.

Draup's latest research gives HR, strategy, and operations leaders a clear framework for getting ahead of it:

1. What AI actually does to organizational structure and reporting lines

2. How leading enterprises are sourcing capability beyond the traditional build-buy-borrow model

3. Where to place AI leadership so it drives real strategic value

4. How to keep humans in the loop without slowing the organization down

5. What the financial return on getting organizational design right actually looks like

The findings draw on research from IBM, PwC, Deloitte, Gartner, and McKinsey, mapped to decisions you can act on today.

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.

• HR Monitor 2026 | McKinsey | A new 44-page report with benchmark insights on workforce planning, employee development, and talent acquisition, among other topics. I expand on building proactive external talent pipelines.

• Are Your Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet offers five factors for evaluating whether a critical role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value.

• Sidetracked: The Hidden Crisis in Mid-Career Mobility | Burning Glass Institute & NYU School of Professional Studies | A new 41-page report finding that 24.2% of mid-career professionals are stalled— 5 or more years with no meaningful promotion. I zoom in on how lateral moves can help.

• Strategic Workforce Planning and Scenario Planning Worksheet | Brian Heger | My one-page worksheet for thinking through workforce planning responses to different scenarios.

• When Employees Are Drowning in Change | MIT Sloan Management Review | Outlines three suggestions for managing change more effectively. I build on the one related to sequencing change based on employees’ capacity.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

👉️ P.S. - If you are part of my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, this is a reminder that thought leader Adam Gibson will be joining us on Wed, 6/17 for a 90-minute discussion on agile workforce planning. See you then!

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

TALENT TRENDS

HR Monitor 2026 | McKinsey

A new 44-page report with benchmark insights on workforce planning, employee development, and talent acquisition, among other topics. I expand on building proactive external talent pipelines.

This past week, McKinsey released its HR Monitor, an annual benchmark survey on the biggest global workforce and HR trends. The 44-page report covers topics such as workforce planning, talent acquisition, employee development, and employee experience. One section I want to zoom in on is the talent acquisition chapter, which emphasizes building proactive pipelines through active relationship management with passive candidates, strong referral programs, and reengaging prior "runner-up" candidates. An often-overlooked pipeline source I would add is former employees. Although not every former employee makes sense to re-recruit, some high performers who voluntarily left may want to return after realizing their new role and/or culture was not the right fit. And research supports the case for rehiring. A study in the Academy of Management Journal found former employees often outperform new hires in roles requiring relational skills and coordination, while research in Organization Science shows returning employees tend to help colleagues more than external hires. Is rehiring part of your talent strategy? As you think through your strategy, consider a Visier analysis that found the average time away before returning is 13 months (up to 36), but likelihood drops sharply after 16, making 13 to 16 months the critical window. Don't let that window close. These are the types of strategic discussions we have in my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

Access report

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Are Your Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet offers five factors for evaluating whether a critical role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value.

In last week's issue of Talent Edge Weekly, I shared my cheat sheet for evaluating six factors that can signal risk in an organization’s critical roles. These roles, which may represent roughly 20% of total roles, have a disproportionate impact on business strategy execution. The intent is to jumpstart discussions that help organizations proactively identify risks and turn those insights into actions that protect performance and strengthen talent advantage. One factor I presented is top talent risk, where a critical role is not occupied by the best available talent. This risk can signal an opportunity to strengthen organizational performance by ensuring the role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value. To help make this determination, I’m sharing another cheat sheet that considers five factors, including performance results, such as whether the person is delivering what the role requires, and internal benchmarking, such as whether someone internal could perform the role significantly better. The cheat sheet also includes why each factor matters, probing questions, and indicators. These are examples, and you can use your judgment to determine the criteria that best fit your organization.

Access my cheat sheet

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Sidetracked: The Hidden Crisis in Mid-Career Mobility | Burning Glass Institute & NYU School of Professional Studies

A new 41-page report finding that 24.2% of mid-career professionals are stalled— 5 or more years with no meaningful promotion. I zoom in on how lateral moves can help.

Internal mobility (IM) is a critical talent management strategy. However, IM is often viewed though a narrow lens of upward movement, such as job promotions and hierarchical progression. Lateral moves, or transitions into roles at a similar level across functions, teams, or disciplines, are often seen differently. Employees may view them as a career setback, while managers may treat them as a fallback when promotion opportunities are limited. A new report from the Burning Glass Institute and NYU School of Professional Studies challenges that view. Drawing on over 1.3 million career histories, it finds that 24.2% of mid-career professionals are “stalled,” defined as five or more years with no meaningful promotion and negligible wage growth. The report notes that warning signs of a stall are often visible as early as the 10-year career mark. For HR and talent practitioners, this creates an opportunity to utilize data and analytics to identify employees showing early signs of a career stall and offer lateral development moves (which also helps supply work demand) before disengagement and attrition sets in. One example in the report: a stalled IT worker who pivots into an adjacent, lateral data science role can see their stall risk drop by 86%. My takeaway: organizations need to better position and market lateral moves as a deliberate and valuable development strategy that have significant benefits to employees, managers, and leaders. This report provides a useful starting point for beginning to craft that message.

Access report

WORKFORCE AND SCENARIO PLANNING

Strategic Workforce Planning and Scenario Planning Worksheet | Brian Heger

My one-page worksheet for thinking through workforce planning responses to different scenarios.

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) consistently ranks among the talent practices with the largest gap between importance and capability. One contributing factor is that workforce plans are often built on a single expected scenario, which can make it harder to respond when business conditions shift. Scenario planning (SP), the practice of anticipating and preparing for plausible future business conditions, can help close this gap. While SP is best enabled by technology, data, and analytics, even a high-level discussion is a strong starting point. My worksheet covers three elements: 1) a Base Scenario, the scenario your organization expects and its workforce implications; 2) at least one Alternative Scenario, a plausible different scenario informed by your organization’s strategic business planning process; and 3) the Triggers that signal the alternative scenario is more likely to happen, along with the workforce plan changes you would make. As I noted in a 2019 People + Strategy article, one reason the SWP gap persists is that organizations wait for perfect technology and analytics before acting. This cheat sheet helps you get started. Even directional insights put you in a better position than having no view at all. For members of my Talent Edge Circle community, this will also be a timely lead-in to our 90-minute discussion this Wednesday, 6/17, with thought leader Adam Gibson on agile workforce planning.

Access worksheet

CHANGE ENABLEMENT

When Employees Are Drowning in Change | MIT Sloan Management Review

Outlines three suggestions for managing change more effectively. I build on the one related to sequencing change based on employees’ capacity.

As organizations implement new technologies, AI tools, team restructurings, and other organizational changes, change fatigue has become a growing concern for HR and business leaders. Change fatigue happens when the volume and pace of change outpaces what employees can realistically absorb. Prosci's 2023 Best Practices in Change Management Report found that the average organization is managing five major change initiatives at any given time. Many are juggling 10 or more once smaller projects and process changes are factored in. A new MIT Sloan Management Review article adds important context: research cited in the piece finds that employees can realistically absorb only one or two major changes per year, yet leaders are planning three or four by 2027. Most organizations don't fail at change because they are doing too much. They fail because they are not intentional about the cumulative changes occurring at the same time. The article outlines three suggestions for managing change more effectively, including sequencing change with people's capacity in mind. With this as the backdrop, I am resharing my one-page template that provides space to capture current and proposed changes, priority level, degree of impact, timing, risks, and recommended action. It gives leaders a practical starting point for aligning the pace of change with what employees can realistically handle.

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MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

SUCCESSION & TALENT MANAGEMENT

Critical Role Identification Without Action Is Just a List | Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet to evaluate six risk factors in your critical roles and prioritize actions accordingly.

Access my cheat sheet

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:

• Expeditors International (NYSE: EXPD). The global logistics and freight forwarding company cut approximately 230 technology-related jobs across five Washington state locations, representing about 15% of its information systems branch and 1.1% of its total workforce of roughly 20,000 employees. This marks the first layoffs in the company's 47-year history and ending a longstanding no-layoff policy. The cuts affect software developers, quality assurance engineers, project managers, and business analysts, with separations running from August 8 through December 31.

• Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TEVA). The global pharmaceutical company plans to cut approximately 250 jobs at its active pharmaceutical ingredients division,Teva Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (TAPI), over the next two years, primarily at its Neot Hovav site in Israel. The cuts come as Teva's search for a buyer for the TAPI unit  (which employs 4,100 people worldwide)  continues to drag on since the division was put up for sale in January 2024.

• Volkswagen (OTCMKTS: VWAGY). The German automaker confirmed it will reduce its German workforce by 19,000 positions by the end of 2026, with a binding target of more than 28,000 job cuts at the core Volkswagen brand by 2030. CEO Oliver Blume is set to deliver the update at the company's annual general meeting on June 18, citing a 20% reduction in German factory costs already achieved through 2025 and ongoing pressure from Chinese competition, high production costs, and slowing electric vehicle demand.

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

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

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

This week’s highlight is:

• ​Dana Incorporated (MAUMEE, OHIO) [NYSE: DAN] — a global powertrain systems manufacturer serving commercial and light vehicle markets — announced that Erin Rowse, currently SVP HR, Industrial at Eaton (NYSE: ETN), will serve as Chief Human Resources Officer of the combined Dana/Eaton Mobility company upon closing of the companies' definitive merger agreement. The transaction, structured as a Reverse Morris Trust, values Eaton Mobility at approximately $5.1 billion and is expected to close in Q1 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. The combined company will operate under the Dana Incorporated name and retain its NYSE listing.

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

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

Talent Edge Circle - my private community

If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

👉️ And if your a Chief HR Officer who has someone on your team who can benefit from and be a good fit with Talent Edge Circle, reply to this email, or have them apply here.  

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF MAY 2026

Did you miss the “Best of May ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #349, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of May issue. Download Draup’s paper 10 Operating Principles of Skills-based Organizations.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

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