Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #53

February 14, 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 CHRO Agenda Report: 10 Key Issues HR Needs to Act on Now | The Hackett Group | Covers ten issues that are driving the 2021 HR agenda, ranging from accelerating enterprise digital transformation to improving HR analytical, modeling and reporting.

  • Redesigning the Post-Pandemic Workplace | MIT Sloan Management Review | Offers ideas on how firms can use this time to rethink and reinvent all aspects of work as they plan their return-to-work strategy.

  • Psychological Safety and the Critical Role of Leadership Development | McKinsey & Co | Shares results from a study on how leaders can cultivate psychological safety by role modeling certain behaviors. Includes implications for leadership development.

  • 5 Reasons to Eliminate the Self-Review | The Talent Strategy Group | Provides scientifically-backed reasons for why self-reviews yield little to no value and can introduce bias, give cover to poor managers and create unrealistic expectations in employees.

  • Research: Men Get More Actionable Feedback Than Women | Harvard Business Review | Covers research that suggests that women tend to be given less actionable and effective feedback in four different ways. Offers ideas for overcoming these challenges.

  • Elevating Equity: The Real Story of Diversity and Inclusion | Josh Bersin Academy | 52-page research report that analyzed over 80 different DEI practices and correlated them with various outcomes (financial, business, and workforce). Uncovered five essential DEI strategies and 15 practices that matter most.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

This report by the Hackett Group suggests that four emerging enterprise themes–1) People, 2) Risk, 3) Cost 4) Digital Acceleration–have influenced the 2021 HR transformation agenda in ten ways. The ten themes (a summary is on p.4) range fromaligning workforce strategy with business strategy, accelerating enterprise digital transformation, improving HR analytical, modeling and reporting capabilities, and enabling HR agility,to name a few. Of the top 10 priorities, seven are assessed as critical development areas, indicating a substantial gap between the objective’s importance and HR’s ability to achieve it. In exploring the most dramatic shifts in enterprise priorities since the report’s inception a)Enterprise digital transformation rose five spots to become the top overall enterprise initiative, b) Diversity and inclusion rose seven spots on the enterprise agenda, c)Cost optimization, which was always among the primary initiatives, dropped from the top of the list to just third. Lastly, top challenges to HR transformation include HR staff deficiencies in critical skills, organizational resistance to change/overload, and technology/process complexity, to name a few. Firms can use this report’s insights to refine HR priorities for 2021.

The development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations have made "return to work" plans more of a reality. As firms think through their plans' specifics, this article submits that they have an unprecedented opportunity to rethink and reinvent all aspects of work. One consideration includes maximizing the benefits of both remote and co-located work. Firms will need to evaluate the benefits they have experienced with remote work (e.g., shorter commutes, shorter and more focused meetings, collaboration across geographic and physical boundaries). They must weigh these benefits against the challenges (e.g., reduction in serendipitous interactions, establishing and maintaining organizational culture in a virtual setting, workers receiving less mentoring and coaching during the shift to remote work). This type of analysis can help managers determine opportunities for enabling a hybrid workplace. Firms will also need to explore the processes and practices that can evolve virtual work--such as digital tools that promote remote participants' inclusion. Another idea for the post-pandemic workplace is to configure physical workplaces to support various purposes (e.g., brainstorming, hosting a workshop, or conducting a daily stand-up meeting). Such a tactic enables better usage of physical space depending on the purpose. Other ideas and company examples are provided. 

Psychology safety (PS) is a term used to describe the belief that one won't be rejected, embarrassed, or punished for speaking up or being themselves. And with studies showing that PS can promote risk-taking, innovation, and team performance, PS has become an important workplace topic--particularly during the pandemic where PS is more likely to be threatened. In this research by McKinsey, they identify how leaders can cultivate PS by role modeling PS behaviors and creating the right climate, mindsets, and interactions within their teams. One finding is that a positive team climate is the most critical driver of PS and most likely to occur when leaders demonstrate supportive and consultative behaviors in their teams. Interestingly, the research found that the skills that promote PS behaviors--such as situational humility (how to develop a personal-growth mindset and curiosity) and sponsorship (enabling others’ success ahead of one’s own)-- are least often found in leadership development programs. These findings suggest that firms can benefit from reorienting the skills developed in leadership programs to include PS-based leadership capabilities. The impact can yield many benefits, "from improved innovation, experimentation, and agility to better overall organizational health and performance." In case you missed it, here is a 40-minute podcast where Amy Edmondson and David Green have a discussion about PS in the workplace.

Before the pandemic, many organizations had made adjustments to their performance management (PM) approaches to reflect new workplace dynamics. Despite these improvements, the pandemic has generated new opportunities to reimagine PM once again. And as firms optimize their PM while eliminating unnecessary complexity (or enabling simplicity), this article identifies one opportunity for doing so: eliminating self-reviews.  It provides five reasons--supported by the science--on how self-reviews are not worth the time and emotion invested by employees, and can introduce bias, give cover to poor managers and create unrealistic expectations in employees. Among the points are that employees are the least accurate observers of their performance with lower-performing employees over-rating themselves and the very highest-performing employees under-rating themselves. Building on this point, I believe one way to unlock PM's potential is by enabling ways (e.g., digital capabilities) to gather more team-based feedback. As work becomes more team-based and interdependent, and managers have less direct visibility into their 'teams' day-to-day interactions, high-quality peer input can accelerate and drive improved performance. Even if you are not ready to fully cut self-reviews from your PM, the article has many insights to consider as you evaluate the pros and cons of this decision.

Few would dispute that receiving honest and timely development feedback positively impacts an individual's work performance, professional growth, and career opportunities. And while most organizations tout the importance of development feedback, this new research suggests that women tend to be given less actionable and less effective feedback than men. The authors identified four differences in how advice and development feedback is framed for female leaders: 1) Vision - feedback to women focuses on delivering the vision rather than developing it, 2) Political skills - the focus is on coping with politics versus leveraging politics, 3) Asserting Leadership - the emphasis is on getting along and cooperating with others rather than being assertive and 'claiming their space,' 4) Confidence - generic advice is given such as "be more confident" instead of specific examples that are more likely to be given to men, such as "express arguments more forcefully." One implication of these results is that women will be less likely to advance to more senior positions due to less actionable feedback. Ideas are provided on how to overcome these feedback obstacles. You can check out two other posts I made related to this topic: Women Hear More White Lies in Performance Evaluations Than Men (Cornell Chronicle) and The Real Reason Women Aren't Advancing (Angela Lane and Sergey Gorbatov).

Virtually every report I have read on 2021 business and talent priorities has Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) near the top of the list. And while many firms have affirmed DEI as a priority, what is less evident is the DEI practices they will embrace to drive meaningful progress. To help organizations make these decisions, this 52-page research report analyzed over 80 different practices and correlated them with various outcomes (financial, business, and workforce). The study's output is five essential DEI strategies and 15 practices that matter most, regardless of industry, geography, and company size. One finding is that DEI training, recruitment practices, employee resource groups, and many other DEI interventions add value – but not as much as previously suggested. Two practices that differentiate on workforce and business outcomes is when 1) DEI efforts focus on the company ecosystem--partners, suppliers, and customers, and 2) when the CEO sets the strategy and frequently communicates DEI progress. The report includes a four-stage DEI maturity model (p.25), and page 33 provides a framework for understanding how DEI touches every aspect of the company.  

OUR RESOURCE LINEUP

​brianheger.com provides free access to +1,000 curated articles, research reports, podcasts, etc. that help practitioners drive better business results through strategic human resources and talent management.

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​Talent Edge Weekly is a free weekly newsletter that brings together the best talent and strategic human resources insights from various sources. It is published every Sunday at 6PM EST.