Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #47

January 03, 2021

Welcome to this week’s issue of Talent Edge Weekly—the weekly newsletter for human resources practitioners, bringing together insights about work, the workplace, and the workforce from various sources.

If you find value in this issue or any of its resources, please share them with your network by using the social media icons at the top of the newsletter.

Have a great week, and I look forward to sharing more ideas in next week’s Edge!

Brian 

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 CONTENT

  • 2021 Priorities and Predictions from I4CP’s Boards | I4CP

  • 7 Ways HR Will Look Different in 2021 | Fast Company

  • The HR Practitioner of The Future - 6 Themes | Dave Millner

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Still Matter in a Pandemic | Boston Consulting Group

  • Variety of Approaches to New Human Capital Resources Disclosure in 10-K Filings | Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance

  • Why Cognitive Load Could Be The Most Important Employee Experience Metric In The Next 10 Years | Forbes

  • In Case You Missed It: Top 15 HR and Talent Articles: 2020 Year-End Round-Up | Brian Heger

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

As firms shift from a survival to a thriving mindset in the context of COVID-19, many of them will use 2021 to refine and reimagine practices, processes, and policies that support new ways of working. This 28-page I4CP report provides insights from HR, talent, learning, talent acquisition, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and people analytics leaders on managing these areas in the year ahead. While each practice area provides specifics for those respective areas, five overall priorities have emerged. 1) Culture Renovation (e.g., intentionally changing (renovate) culture will increase). 2) The Fluid and Borderless Organization Powered by Partnership (e.g., purposeful partnership and movement—both internal (across functions and business units and with employees) and external (across suppliers, customers, competitors, academia) to obtain needed skills, 3) DEI at its Tipping Point (e.g., firms will feel compelled to publicize DE&I goals and be under pressure to attain them, 4) Human Capital Disclosure Requirements,  (e.g., determining what HC information to disclose publicly), 5) Holistic Well-Being, (e.g., organizations are doubling down on WB programs and initiatives. Firms can use this reference as they continue to refine and execute their priorities for the new year. Thanks to Kevin Oakes of I4CP for providing this direct link to the report.

As the pandemic has fast-forwarded the arrival of workforce and workplace predictions that we have heard about over the past several years, this article provides seven insights on how next-generation HR functions will look different in 2021 and beyond. They include: 1) HR Will Be Broadly Seen as a Business Function, 2) HR Is Now Distributed by Default, 3) Our Employee Wellness and Benefits Must Now Fully Embrace Mental Health Support, 4) HR Is Becoming an Agile Function, 5) Our Thinking Regarding Diversity Has Broadened to Inclusion, Belonging, Equity, and Acknowledging Systemic Inequity, 6). Our Shift From Silos to Open-source Is Complete, 7) We've Retired the Idea of Separate "work/life" Personas. Regarding #4, I would add that while “agile” has long been a buzzword in business, the pandemic has accelerated its adoption within the human resources function practically overnight. Many HR practitioners have been able to simplify practices and processes and accelerate organizational decision-making while delivering value to the business and workforce. And while this trend hasn't come without a toll, it speaks to "agile's" untapped potential as an enabler of organizational effectiveness. One question that HR teams can answer in 2021: What HR practices, processes, policies, etc., can be eliminated, reimagined, or transformed to enable agile in the best way to benefit the business beyond the pandemic?  

Few functions were more in the spotlight in 2020 than HR. And as HR organizations get ready for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, many are gearing up to meet their roles' demands. This article identifies six key themes that are central to the HR function of the future. For each theme, a set of requirements are provided. The six themes include: 1) Technology Integrator, 2) Talent Practices Enabler, 3) Educator and Coach, 4) Culture and Employee Experience Facilitator, 5) Design and Productivity Architect, 6) Data and Analytics Translator. Each of the themes is important and there are two that are likely to require the most significant shift for HR practitioners, in general: technology integrator and data and analytics translator. The increased reliance on these capabilities in driving all aspects of HR-business decisions, practices, and processes will require HR practitioners (not just those in HR IT or people analytics) to become more conversant in these areas. The six-component framework can be used by individual HR practitioners, teams, and functions to evaluate themselves against the criteria and chart a path forward for development. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) continue to be a priority for organizations making the shift from aspirational DE&I rhetoric to meaningful actions and accountability. However, times of crisis can lead firms to deprioritize DE&I initiatives. This BCG article provides insights on how organizations can stay focused on DE&I efforts. One take I have is that remote work (RW) offers one opportunity for progressing DE&I. A perennial challenge to recruiting and hiring diverse talent has been geographic proximity requirements--where a firm requires talent to be located at the organization's physical office location. Now that the pandemic has led many firms to break through the cultural and technological barriers that have prevented or limited RW in the past, RW can be a catalyst for recruiting, hiring, and retaining talent from a widely dispersed and diverse talent pool. Tapping into this opportunity will require firms to first: 1) Reduce proximity bias, an incorrect assumption that workers who are physically present will produce better results than those working remotely. 2) Determine RW potential - by evaluating which roles and types of tasks lend themselves to RW without a resulting decline in productivity and/or where a productivity gain can be achieved. 3) Labor Market Insights - having the capability to know where diverse talent exists so that firms can conduct outreach. Although RW isn't a panacea to DE&I and is only one lever that impacts a segment of jobs and the workforce, it has the potential to narrow the diversity gap by connecting diverse talent with opportunities in a heightened digital and remote work environment.

The Security Exchange Commission (SEC) recently introduced new disclosure requirements for public companies to describe how they manage their human capital (HC) resources in their upcoming annual reports. The rule, which went into effect on November 9, 2020, gives firms 60-90 days after the end of their fiscal year to include this HC information in their annual report. Since the SEC has given organizations broad latitude to choose which measures to include, many firms are grappling with which HC information to measure and disclose. This analysis by Harvard Law examined the HC components of the first fifty 10-Ks filed after November 8 by registrants with a greater than $1 billion market capitalization. They found: word length varied dramatically, ranging from 9 to 1,582 words, and a median of 369 words. Thirteen HC themes are collectively covered, including the top three:  1) Extensive headcount data (60%), 2) Diversity and Inclusion (54%), and 3) Employee Development and Training (50%). Excerpts of HC disclosures are provided. It will be interesting to see if the SEC provides more specific guidelines for standardizing how companies define and calculate certain HC measures (e.g., employee turnover). Such a practice provides greater utility to investors when deciding to invest in one company over another—a premise on which the ruling is based.

Two weeks ago I made a post on the top 15 articles/resources that have received the highest engagement from posts that I have made during the last few months of 2020. The top 15 (there are actually 21 since I reference a few bonus resources) are listed in no particular order and center on at least one of three broader themes: 1) HR Effectiveness – the changing role of HR, CHROs, and HR priorities, 2) HR Practices – optimizing practices such as talent reviews, learning, people analytics, and workforce planning. 3) Workforce Trends – future of work, women in the workplace, diversity, and remote work. While this resource isn’t an exhaustive list, it does represent a sample of the topics and articles in which readers have been most interested. For each article/resource, I provide you with my summary, point of view, and link to the resource. I hope you find these references to be useful as you enter the new year.

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Partial View of Recommendations. Click Image to See All Books

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