Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #77

Covers return-to-office, redesigning total rewards, measuring equity in the candidate experience, how rejected internal candidates end up quitting, and reducing burnout.

August 01, 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

  • How Return-to-Office Policies Are Shifting With U.S. Virus Surge | Bloomberg | Summarizes how a few companies are adjusting the timing of their latest return-to-office plans. Includes a bonus article on which companies are mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for their employees. 

  • Return to Office Hits a Snag: Young Resisters | The New York Times via Boston. com | Shares survey data on how Millennials are said to be the biggest opponents of return-to-office. I reference studies that point to the limitations of generational categorizations in the context of workforce strategies.

  • Rethinking Total Reward Strategies | strategy + business | Provides a four-step approach to designing reward packages that fit today’s workers' changing preferences.

  • Measuring Equity in Candidate Experience | Gartner for HR | Summarizes the state of candidate experience by gender, racial composition (U.S.), and sexual orientation (U.S.), and how these segments may experience the job application process in fundamentally different ways.

  • Research: Why Rejected Internal Candidates End Up Quitting | Harvard Business Review | Shares a study that found how internal job applicants who apply for-- but do not get awarded the job-- are nearly twice as likely to leave their organization, except under two conditions.

  • Companies Offer Workers More Time Off to Avoid Burnout | The Washington Post | Provides a summary of how a segment of organizations is enabling worker wellbeing by providing workers with more time off via company shutdowns or other forms of time off.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

With the Delta variant causing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, firms are reevaluating the impact of this trend on their return-to-office plans. And with a large segment of firms scheduled to make a full return-to-office by the end of the summer through early September, the timing for these decisions is soon. This brief article summarizes what a few prominent companies have said about their latest return-to-office plans. For example, Google announced it is pushing back its planned office return to October 18 from September. Facebook expects about 50 percent of office capacity in the U.S. by early September, with a full return by October. Uber postponed its planned return-to-office date to October 25 from September. As noted in this recent Fortune article, “Big employers pride themselves on making data-driven decisions. They have the data and they don’t have the excuse of not knowing about the danger of an explosive growth in COVID cases.” It will be interesting to see how firms adjust the timing of their plans over the coming weeks. Here is a bonus article from The Wall Street Journal on which companies are mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for their employees. 

Based on a Conference Board survey, this article notes how 55 percent of Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) have more significant reservations than other worker generations about returning to the office. And although there is much interest in understanding worker segments by generational categorization, these categorizations are often too broad to inform workforce strategy. For example, a report based on the scientific literature found that individuals from the same generation are just as likely to differ from each other as individuals from different generations. It notes how differences among worker preferences are more likely to reflect “differences in their ages, career stages, job experiences, and general changes in society and work conditions, rather than their generations.” A separate study by Columbia Business School found that an individuals’ life preferences are strongly related to the economic environment in which they came of age instead of their generation (e.g., those who come of age in an economic downturn might place a higher value on compensation for years to come). Both studies provide insights into the multi-faceted and complex factors that influence worker preferences. 

As workers’ attitudes and preferences continue to shift, employers are rethinking their total rewards strategies. This article provides a four-step approach to designing reward packages that fit today’s changing world: 1) start with the data, 2) customize, 3) communicate, and 4) continually monitor. A few data points include: The relative importance of financial compensation has declined by 11% over the past decade. Many employees will trade 20 to 25% of their salary for a much better work-life balance. Training and career development have tripled in importance, and supplemental healthcare offerings, such as dental care, have a perceived value of at least 1.5 times the cost. Workers who perceive their firm operating with a sense of purpose consider that to be worth as much as 20% total rewards than companies in the same industry that do not. Since the primary drivers of worker preferences and perceived value are an individual’s life stage and career aspirations, firms should offer some customization in reward offerings. The authors recommend an 80/20 approach: maintain 80% of the current offering and redesign 20% to personalize to the needs of different worker segments.

The candidate experience is described as the perception and feelings of a job seeker about an employer and their job application process. This report shows how different candidates experience the job application process in different ways. The report summarizes the state of candidate experience segmented by gender, racial composition (U.S.), and sexual orientation (U.S.). A few points include: 1) Women are more likely than men to discontinue an application process for work-life balance. 2) Racially diverse candidates in the U.S. are more likely to discontinue an application process because of the diversity of the team and the management style of the potential manager. 3) LGBTQ + candidates are more likely to not apply for a job because they perceive they lack the education and years of work experience required for the role. 4) Men are significantly more likely to receive application support, including a timeline for the length of the process, a list of process steps, and practice or preparation materials before their interviews. While many factors besides candidate demographics could influence the candidate experience, HR and talent acquisition practitioners can use this report to understand high-level differences between candidate segments and drive needed improvements.

As organizations recognize the advantages of filling their talent needs with existing internal talent, the internal talent marketplace (ITM) has become a vital component of their talent strategy. An ITM makes it easier for current employees to learn about and apply for new internal opportunities (jobs and projects), usually via a technology platform. While ITM has several benefits, this article notes an inherent drawback related to the job opportunity component: internal job applicants who apply for an internal role and do not get awarded the position are nearly twice as likely to leave their organizations. And since managers receive an average of 10 internal applications for every job, there is an increased retention risk of rejected candidates. However, the study shows that two factors reduce this risk: 1) Internal candidates who were rejected after interviewing with the hiring manager were half as likely to exit as those who did not reach the point of a manager interview. 2) Retention risk was cut by half if the role was awarded to another internal candidate instead of an external candidate. These and other ideas in the article reinforce how multiple factors beyond technology impact an ITM's effectiveness.

As I noted in a post about a Gallup report titled, The Wellbeing-Engagement Paradox, more workers report increased engagement while experiencing diminished wellbeing. This article summarizes how a segment of organizations is providing workers with more time off to enable the wellbeing of its workforce and alleviate burnout. For example, Mozilla shut down the entire company for a “Wellness Week.” Bumble also took a week off, and LinkedIn shut down for a week in April. Fidelity is granting U.S. full-time and part-time employees five additional paid “relief days.” Marriott International added three paid “TakeCare Days Off” for non-hotel staffers, and Shopify instituted “Rest & Refuel Fridays." One reason firms have embraced companywide shutdowns (e.g., one week) is because it is easier for workers to rest and recharge when everyone is not working. And while various forms of paid time off won't be sufficient by themselves to address the employee burnout issue (which stems from multiple reasons), the good news is that many firms are experimenting with these tactics as part of their worker wellbeing and employee engagement strategies.

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

Proximity Bias is Real. Returning to The Office Could Make it Worse | Protocol | Addresses how proximity bias—an incorrect assumption that onsite workers are more effective than their remote counterparts—will increase as firms return to the office.

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