Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #57

March 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 EDGE

  • 9 Ways to Make Your Mark in a New CHRO Role | Gartner | Covers tactics on how newly transitioned CHROs can accelerate their effectiveness to full productivity nine months before less-prepared peers.

  • The New Normal for Succession Planning | CEOWORLD Magazine | Provides the case that many firms will have succession risk once the pandemic comes to an end and offers ideas on how firms can reset their approach to succession.

  • What Employees Expect in 2021 | IBM Institute for Business Value | A recent study to better understand how employee perspectives shifted in 2020 and their motivations for 2021, including their intention to stay with their firm.

  • The Future of Work is Here | Deloitte Liberty Global Policy Series | A report on how work, workers, and the workforce are changing and how firms can adapt, such as how to maximize the benefits of hybrid-work models.

  • The Flipside of ‘Flexibility’: Working Moms Make the Powerful Case for Going Back to The Office | Fast Company | An overview of the challenges that many working moms have faced working remotely this past year, and how many of them are eager to get back to the workplace.

  • The New Possible: How HR Can Help Build the Organization of the Future | McKinsey | An in-depth article on how CHROs and their teams can accelerate to a dynamic talent and work model by rethinking 3 areas. 

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

This article provides nine critical moments that CHROs face in their transition and offers ideas to speed up their effectiveness to full productivity nine months before less-prepared peers. It bases the nine tactics on Gartner’s research and ranges from 1) Set a clear strategy for your listening tour, 7) Generate credibility and momentum with a quick win, and 8) Elevate talent discussions with the Board. Concerning #8, I believe Boards will want more oversight on talent issues considering the talent and workplace challenges that have been exposed throughout the pandemic. This oversight will extend to a post-pandemic world and will go beyond traditional topics such as succession planning. As CHROs (both newly transitioned and tenured) create opportunities to elevate talent and workforce discussions with their Boards', they can check out a previous post I made on a Deloitte article. It includes 14 questions that the Board asks about the workforce, including What measures are we tracking to give us real-time insight on the sentiments of the workforce—both internal and external?

As more people get vaccinated against the coronavirus, many workers and organizations envision a “return-to-work” in closer sight. Alongside this sentiment comes reports warning firms they may find their CEO and C-suite succession bench at risk once they enter a full recovery (see DDI and strategy + business). One reason cited is that a segment of C-suite incumbents and potential successors have been “riding out” the crisis at their current organizations. Simultaneously, the new business environment has reset required leader capabilities, rendering pre-pandemic succession plans less relevant in a post-pandemic world. This article cites ideas on how firms can reassess their succession planning. One idea offered is to “ensure objective and fact-based assessments for all succession candidates to identify readiness, context-specific characteristics, and development priorities.” There is also a call to develop future executives with broader capabilities rather than target development against a narrow role profile. Although many firms paused their succession efforts in 2020, they must now reset and fuel their leadership pipeline to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead. 

According to a recent study by the IBM Institute for Business, the pandemic continues to alter employees’ expectations of their employers. The study surveyed over 14,000 people across nine countries to better understand how employee perspectives shifted in 2020 and to explore their motivations and aspirations for 2021. One in five employees surveyed voluntarily switched employers in 2020—of which Gen Z (33%) and Millennials (25%) accounted for more than half of those who departed from their firms. Work location flexibility was the top reason people changed jobs (32%), followed by the desire to find more purposeful and meaningful work (27%). In looking to the rest of 2021, 1 in 4 employees plan to change jobs, and Gen Z and Millennials make up the most significant portion of this group. Adding to this retention risk is that 87 percent of this segment feel confident that they have the skills to land new roles. The report provides other insights on employee preferences,including that 51% of all surveyed workers cite work-life balance as the top priority for engaging the workforce.In case you missed it, here is a previously posted Accenture report that explores six dimensions that influence employee sentiment.

This Deloitte report draws on interviews with 26 business leaders, policy-makers, and researchers on how work, workers, and the workforce are changing and how firms can adapt. There are a few chapters and themes throughout the report, including one (page 15-19) on how the physical workplace will serve a new role. It submits that the office will no longer be a default place of work for everyone but will be reimagined as places for innovation, co-creation, social engagement, teaming, and celebration. While many firms have reported high worker productivity during the past year of remote work (RW) at scale, worker sentiment suggests fatigue and frustration by RW and a diminished sense of belonging and purpose. The chapter provides ideas on unlocking the benefits of in-person interaction (e.g., collaborative space to exchange ideas and spark innovation that drives a competitive edge) and remote work (e.g., reduced commuting time, less traffic and congestion, and a better work-life balance for workers). Other topics are discussed, such as how firms will increasingly employ people with capabilities that technology can’t easily replicate.

Before the pandemic, many workers who could work remotely (or from home) saw this work arrangement as a benefit. This sentiment has been especially true for many working mothers, who manage both work and childcare disproportionately (see report from LeanIn.org) and use remote work to handle the demands of work and childcare better. But as noted in this article, many working mothers who have been working remotely since the start of the pandemic are ready to get back to the office. This 12-minute read includes quotes from working moms, reflecting the challenges they have faced over the past year, including burnout, increased stress, and “loss of identity.” Although this article’s title may signal that all/most working mothers want to come back to the office, it is essential to note that this sentiment will vary depending on individual preference and circumstance. As pointed out in the article, one best practice is for “employees and managers to decide together what sort of in-office schedule works for them, and there is no across-the-board policy requiring in-person or remote work, or how many days are required in the office.” 

This in-depth article (about a 14-minute read) underscores how CHROs can continue to meet the need for a more dynamic talent and work model by rethinking processes in three fundamental areas: 1) Identity: being clear about why the organization exists, what it does and how it runs. 2) Agility: flattening the organization with teams that make fast decisions and treat people as the “scarcer capital.” and 3) Scalability: How the organization grows by scaling up its ability to out-learn others and innovate to drive value creation. Within these three areas, the article provides nine imperatives that can accelerate change. It offers questions for CHROs and their teams to answer on how they can strengthen each of the three areas. Examples include Identity: How can we develop an energizing sense of purpose that has a tangible impact on our strategic choices and ways of working? Agility: Can we enable more effective decision-making by pushing decisions to the organization’s edges, creating psychological safety that empowers people, and building capabilities? Scalability: What critical skills drive future value creation, and how can we upskill our talent base accordingly? Several other ideas are discussed. 

LAST WEEK'S POLL RESULTS

When do you expect that your organization will return to normal business operations?

Based on 107 responses, organizations are at various stages of their return to work plans, with the majority (30%) planning to return to "normal" business operations in Q3-2021.

  • 30 percent - Q3-2021

  • 28 percent - 2022

  • 21 percent - Q4-2021

  • 15 percent - We are already back

  • 4 percent - Q2-2021

  • 2 percent - Beyond 2022

Since many of you are in the process of refining your return to work plans for the "new normal," next week I will share a resource that can help you to think through and plan these efforts.

THIS WEEK'S POLL QUESTION

When it comes to modern strategic workforce planning, should the focus be on a) planning for jobs/roles, b) skills, or c) both?

Click Here to Vote. Upon casting your vote, you can view the most recent results. I will share the final results in next week’s newsletter.

If there is a poll question you would like to see in an upcoming newsletter, you can submit your question HERE.

BOOK SHELF

Sample Book Recommendations

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.