Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #49

January 17, 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

  • Glassdoor Workplace Trends 2021: 5 Trends Reshaping How We Work After COVID-19 | Glassdoor Economic Research

  • HR Predictions for 2021 Report | Josh Bersin Academy

  • HR 2021 Trends: People Strategies for an Uncertain Future | Visier  

  • HR Leaders Monthly Special Issue on Skills | February 2021 | Gartner

  • The Future of Work Is Through Workforce Ecosystems | MIT Sloan Management Review

  • Podcast: The Future of HR with Dave Ulrich, Brigette McInnis-Day (Google) and Rupert Morrison (orgvue) | David Green | Digital HR Leaders Podcast

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

While workers and employers best prepare for the year ahead, this 28-page report shares the five most compelling workplace trends emerging from Glassdoor’s window into the workplace. They include Trend 1) Office life will return, but it will never be the same. Trend 2) Employees expect progress, not just pledges, on corporate DEI. Trend 3) Salary expectations get a permanent work-from-home rehaul. Trend 4) Even the best company cultures must adapt to new post-COVID-19 realities. Trend 5) The COVID-19 recession is probably over, but these jobs may never return. Concerning trend 1, there will be a wave of experimentation and innovation around hybrid remote-in-office roles — part remote and part in-office — in 2021 and beyond. And while the pandemic has helped firms break through the cultural and technological barriers that have prevented or limited the adoption of remote work (RW) in the past, 2021 is more likely to be a model of workers splitting time between home and the office. As firms continue to decide how to optimize hybrid work models, they can leverage these three additional in-depth articles that I have previously posted by 1) MIT Sloan Management Review, 2) Mckinsey, and 3) Boston Consulting Group. 

In this annual report, Josh Bersin covers 12 HR predictions on topics ranging from employee experience, wellbeing, employee listening, DEI, HR transformation and innovation, talent mobility, capability-focused learning, and workplace safety. Regarding two of the predictions: 3) Employee Experience (EX) Is Now a Corporate Strategy - EX will require a cross-functional EX-team (e.g., HR, IT, legal, facilities, finance, and workplace safety) that looks at employee segments, employee journeys, and service delivery centers' role in responding to employee problems and needs. It will go beyond "HR-related moments that matter" and will increasingly focus on all aspects of work, career, and life journeys. 4) Employee Listening, Hearing, and Communications Go Big. Since the pandemic has underscored the criticality of quickly understanding and acting on employee sentiment and feedback at any given time, firms will develop their capability of opening up various channels to "talk, share, listen, and get feedback." For those interested in tactics on the employee survey and sensing channel, you can check out the book, Employee Surveys and Sensing: Challenges and Opportunities.

This 24-page report addresses three critical areas where organizations must rethink their talent approaches in 2021 and beyond. 1) Problem-solving through uncertainty becomes the new norm - e.g., to be more agile, firms will increasingly pivot from long-term strategic planning to operational planning that looks out weeks and months rather than years. 2) D&I action must happen now - e.g., after years of rhetoric on D&I, firms will commit to actions that accelerate meaningful progress. 3) The new expectations around employee experience (EX) - e.g., "EX is no longer confined to the four walls of the office and employers must find ways to balance employee well-being and safety with business continuity." Examples are provided on how each trend can translate into talent practices. For instance, as trend #1 requires firms to be more agile, one response is to drive more agile workforce planning (WP) by focusing on skills (that apply to multiple roles) rather than roles. For each trend, there are questions that firms can answer as they develop their responses to the trend (e.g., what segments of our workforce will shrink or grow the most as business models change?) As a bonus resource on workforce planning (WP), you can listen to this 25-minute podcast where Adam Gibson discusses agile WP. Adam also is releasing his new book, Agile Workforce Planning: How to Align People with Organizational Strategy for Improved Performance. 

There has been much discourse about the speed at which skills continue to change and the pressure this places on workers and organizations to keep pace. This 32-page issue of HR Leaders Monthly is devoted to the skills economy and includes eight articles on how organizations can best prepare to have the right skills when needed. The articles range from realizing agile learning outcomes through dynamic skilling, rewards considerations for companies focusing on skills, supporting employees whose skills are expiring, and leveraging skills adjacencies to address skills gaps. Regarding how to help employees whose skills are expiring (beginning on p.18), one strategy suggested by the authors is to offer Learning Leaves — where workers get to take time to learn new skills. If cost is preventative during a furlough, skills development can still be enabled through "mentoring programs, informal knowledge sharing and continuing access to on-demand learning libraries." I also like the idea of Skills Transparency - where a firm is transparent about skills that are becoming obsolete and those emerging as critical. Such candor enables workers to prepare and take control of their career development. This magazine issue offers several ideas on executing a future-focused skills strategy and prioritizing learning investments. 

Although many firms ostensibly view their workforces as both employees and non-employees (e.g., contractors, contingent), legacy talent management practices and workforce strategies often take separate, unintegrated approaches to managing internal and external workers. As a firms' workforce increasingly crosses internal and external boundaries, this article submits that a more modern workforce management approach is warranted. They call this approach workforce ecosystem - viewing and managing the workforce in a more integrated and holistic manner. Such an approach can help firms better manage four key shifts. Shift 1) More non-employees are doing more work for business (e.g., non-employees are responsible for performing more than 25% of work in the enterprise.) Shift 2) The nature of work is evolving (e.g., work is more short-term, skills-focused, team-based).  Shift 3) There is growing recognition that a diverse and inclusive workforce can deliver more value. Shift 4) Workforce management is becoming more complex. As the number of non-employees increases within a firm's workforce, adopting a workforce ecosystem approach can enable firms to make an integrated set of talent choices. In case you missed it, here are two posts I made on articles from Harvard Business Review, Rethinking the On-demand Workforce, and Boston Consulting Group,  Building the On-demand Workforce, that provide a few tactics on the topic.

Few functions were thrust more in the spotlight in 2020 than HR. And as HR organizations get ready for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, the conversation is increasingly shifting towards how the function can deliver value for its various stakeholders. With this as the backdrop, David Green facilitates a discussion in this podcast with Dave Ulrich, Rupert Morrison, and Brigette McInnis-Day on how HR can generate value for the business, the customer, the workforce, investors, and the community at large. Several topics are discussed, including: how HR can be more value and business-focused; the skills that Google looks for in its HR business partners, and how Google measures its culture; the impact of the pandemic on workforce planning, organizational design and people analytics; and what HR can do in 2021 to capture more value for the business, to name a few. In terms of what Google looks for in its People Partners (HRBPs), one thing is the ability to use data, analytics, and metrics to understand the issues at hand and inform decisions. Several other ideas are discussed across all the topic areas, and the podcast is certainly worth the time investment. 

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

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