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

• Rethinking Pay and Benefits in a Hybrid Workplace | The Wall Street Journal | Discusses tactics firms can consider as they re-evaluate and shift their compensation strategies in light of remote work.

• Figure Out the Right Hybrid Work Strategy for Your Company | Harvard Business Review | Summarizes three distinct conversations firms must have about hybrid work—each of which has different objectives, challenges, and success criteria.

• Report: Evidence-Based Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Practices | The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania | A newly released study that examines the relationship between 7 categories of diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and 12 workplace outcomes.

• Too Important to Fail: Four New Rules for CEO Succession Planning | Spencer Stuart | Provides 4 tactics for reducing CEO succession risk, including planning for multiple succession scenarios.

• Fifth Annual HR Acuity Employee Relations Benchmark Study | HR Acuity | Offers best practices and metrics to compare a firm’s employee relations function with other firms.

• Poll Question on Whether Executive Compensation Should Be Linked to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Goals | Brian Heger

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

Rethinking Pay and Benefits in a Hybrid Workplace | Wall Street Journal 

Many firms continue to re-evaluate and shift their compensation strategies, considering remote work. Behind this evaluation is determining whether remote workers—who moved to lower-cost areas during the pandemic—should face a salary adjustment to align with labor costs at their new location. I asked this very question to readers of this newsletter in an April 2021 poll: based on 117 responses, 42% said it would depend on the job, 37% say salary should not be adjusted, and 20% say it should. This recent Wall Street Journal article by Bruce Horovitz summarizes experts' opinions on a few compensation issues that companies may need to reconsider as remote work models are increasingly adopted. Peter Cappelli, who says cutting pay for employees who relocate isn't a good idea, raised the question: If you're asking [employees] to do the same job that they did before, why do they become less valuable if they're doing it from somewhere else?" Susan Schroeder also sees issues with location-based pay: "Once you pay different salaries for the same job based on where people live, you are on a slippery slope of pay fairness, equity, and gender discrimination." Other ideas are discussed to help firms think through the compensation implications of a “work-anywhere” model.

Figure Out the Right Hybrid Work Strategy for Your Company | Harvard Business Review 

As firms continue to evaluate hybrid work options, they are trying to answer a series of questions. And as noted in this article, these questions include: 1) What’s the actual cost of hybrid working for our bottom line and our ability to deliver on our promises? 2) How much flexibility do employees want and need? 3) Who should decide who does and doesn’t get to work remotely? 4) Can we maintain our culture if people aren’t spending as much time together in the office? 5) How can we effectively onboard new employees remotely? While these questions appear to be part of a single discussion on hybrid work, the article argues they represent three different discussions with different objectives, challenges, and success criteria. The three discussions are about: 1) productivity (explores the optimal form and mix of work arrangements to allow a firm to deliver on its commitments, 2) staffing (looks to select the model that allows a firm to succeed in a talent market that’s increasingly virtual, global and competitive), and 3) culture (ensures the work model doesn’t irreparably damage or dissolve the culture that makes your organization what it is). The author breaks down these three conversations and provides steps for how to navigate them.

Report: Evidence-Based Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Practices | The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania 

This study examines the relationship between seven categories of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices and twelve workplace outcomes (e.g., burnout). The Table on page 3 of this 62-page report includes the seven DEI category practices: 1) Diversity Recruiting Initiatives (increasing representation of underrepresented groups), 2) Education and Training (improving knowledge, skills, and abilities concerning DEI)  3) Internal Diversity Partners (getting stakeholders engaged in DEI), 4) Managerial Involvement (supporting employees and DEI through managerial behaviors), 5) Mentoring and Sponsorship (providing employees with a variety of developmental opportunities), 6) Physical Visibility (physically showcasing different employees within the company and their accomplishments), and 7) Workplace Policies (e.g., ensuring employees can contribute and be heard, policies for fair promotion). Managerial involvement, workplace policies, and mentoring and sponsorships programs were found to be the most common factors that shaped inclusivity in the workplace. The report provides recommendations on practices for improving these areas. As a bonus, here is a previous post about a 50-page report by the Center for Employment Equity that provides DEI research-based strategies. 

Too Important to Fail: Four New Rules for CEO Succession Planning | Spencer Stuart 

I have previously posted various reports suggesting that firms will find their CEO and C-suite succession bench at risk once they enter a full recovery from the pandemic (see one of these posts here). Behind this risk is a perception 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 new article by Spencer Stuart highlights four new succession planning rules that will drive best-in-class CEO succession planning: 1) Take a multidimensional view when scenario planning, 2) Increase succession options, 3) Evaluate and accelerate potential, don’t just rely on proven experience, 4) Think beyond CEO succession to CEO-plus—which focuses on accelerating the development of a broad set of leaders that are critical to the new CEO’s success; stated differently, succession planning should consider the ecosystem of talent that enables the success of the targeted role. While the authors wrote the article with CEO succession in mind, the ideas apply to most forms of succession planning.

Fifth Annual HR Acuity Employee Relations Benchmark Study | HR Acuity 

As the employee relations (ER) management landscape continues to evolve, this study provides best practices and metrics to compare a firm’s employee relations function with other firms. The study is based on 126 ER leaders’ responses — individuals dedicated to managing or working on employee relations matters. Select findings from the study include: 1) Centralized COES responsible for managing ER issues and conducting investigations across the organization has become a standard best practice, with 93% of respondents using a centralized or mixed model; 22% of those who are still using a decentralized model are planning to transition to a centralized model in the future. 2) Despite a strong desire to use tracking data for predictive analytics and incorporate it with AI, only 7% of respondents are doing so. Regarding the Employee Relations full-time equivalent (FTE) per every 1000 employees, page 10 provides staffing ratios by ER model (e.g., centralized, decentralized, mixed) and a company’s total number of employees. For example, a firm with 10,000 - 19,999 employees has a staffing ratio of .67 employee relations professionals per 1,000 employees. Other ideas are discussed. 

POLL QUESTION

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

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

• Moments That Matter: An Emerging Approach to Understanding Employees | Gartner | Provides 5-criteria for determining and evaluating moments that matter–moments that impact an employee’s organizational experience throughout his/her tenure with an organization.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

SURVEY ON IMPLICATIONS OF “WORK FROM ANYWHERE” ON EXPATRIATION PRACTICES

Sergey Gorbatov (Director, Area HR Lead LATAM at AbbVie), Angela Lane (Vice President - Global Talent Abbvie), and Julian Dalzell (ex-Shell HR exec and now professor at Darla Moore at USC) are working on research that would shed light on the impact of "work from anywhere" on expatriation practices. Their goal is to understand the extent to which this work model will change the purpose for which organizations use ex-pat assignments, the nature of the roles filled, or the duration of assignments post-pandemic.  Their research will also examine the potential impact of these changes on the skills profile of future leaders. They welcome you to participate in their research by taking 10 minutes to complete this anonymous survey.  It includes an option to provide your email to receive a copy of their findings.

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