Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #81

Covers culture change, combining talent strategies, SEC human capital disclosure reporting requirements, LGBTQ+ employees, and the digital workplace.

August 29, 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

  • Updated: How 20+ Companies (Now 121) Are Adjusting Their Return to Office Dates and Vaccine- Mask Mandates Due to Delta Variant | BrianHeger .com | I provide an update on how 151 firms are approaching their return to the office and vaccine mandates. I have added 25 new organizations since last week's update.

  • Why Every Executive Should Be Focusing on Culture Change Now | MIT Sloan Management Review | Covers how leaders must now take a proactive approach to build the right culture in parallel with large-scale organizational transformation. Shares 7 elements of adaptive culture that enable successful transformation.

  • How to Mix Your Talent Strategies to Bridge Skills Gaps | Gartner | Provides a list of 11 talent strategies for HR leaders to consider as they close skills gaps, and offers five factors for evaluating those strategies.

  • It’s Time For An SEC Human Capital Disclosure Requirement Rule Reset | Center for American Progress | An in-depth article that recommends quantitative workforce metrics the SEC should require corporations to disclose as part of its human capital disclosure rule.

  • Why the First Year Matters for LGBTQ+ Employees | BCG | Shares findings from BCG's Out@Work Barometer Survey on the experience of LGBTQ+ employees during the first year of employment. Presents inclusion practices that correlated with higher rates of LGBTQ+ employees who come out at work. 

  • Reconstructing the Workplace: The Digital-ready Organization | Deloitte Insights | Shares various insights on how technology allows firms to combine digital tools with physical space to create a modern digital workplace that uses the best capabilities of both. 

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

Three weeks ago, I published an initial list of how 20 firms are changing their return to office timing and vaccine mandates. This article, which now includes 121 organizations and links to 93 references, is the most viewed article on my website, www.brianheger.com. And while I have updated the article with key information, one headline that caught attention this past week is: Delta Airlines said that, while it is not mandating vaccinations, beginning on November 1, it will charge employees using the company’s health insurance $200 a month if they refuse to get vaccinated. The company cited that the average Delta employee hospitalized for COVID-19 has cost the company $50,000. Several industries — like manufacturing and distribution—are considering similar moves. United Airlines made the stakes higher by requiring employees to be vaccinated starting September 27 or face termination. Regarding the timing of return-to-office, Ford Motors announced it is delaying its return for salaried employees to 2022. This announcement follows news that Apple and Facebook are moving their returns to 2022. I will continue to update the list as new information becomes available, so please check it daily for updates.

As noted in my article, 2021 HR Priorities: A Summarized View of Nine Sources, culture transformation is a top priority for many organizations. And as the pandemic continues to redefine all aspects of work and worker preferences, this MIT Sloan article notes how leaders must now take a proactive approach to build the right culture in parallel with large-scale organizational transformation. It starts with the premise that culture is a shared set of values (what we care about), beliefs (what we believe to be true), and norms of behavior (how we do things). The authors identified seven elements of adaptive culture that enable successful transformation; a few of them include: Bias to Action (valuing speed, not risk minimization, over perfection), Collaborative Reflex (proactively engaging in cross-organizational collaboration and teamwork rather than working in silos), and Learning Mindset (engaging in experimentation and rapid learning). The article includes an assessment to help firms measure themselves on these elements and determine the extent to which they are ready to adopt digital technologies, embrace new business models, or implement new ways of working. Other ideas are discussed. 

As HR leaders help their firms determine the right mix of talent strategies to close skills gaps, this article provides a list of 11 talent strategies for HR leaders to consider. They range from acqui-hire (acquiring skills through acquisition), redesign work (change structure, workflows, role designs, etc), and use rotations or temporary assignments (move existing employees with needed skills on a short-term, time-bound basis). It also suggests evaluating the 11 strategies on five factors: 1) Costs: The strategy’s direct financial or nonfinancial short and long-term costs. 2) Time: The time required to implement the strategy effectively, 3) Long-term value, 4) Viability: Internal and external prerequisites for implementing the strategy, and 5) Impact. One suggestion I have for firms is to a) define 2-3 business scenarios they might face (e.g., 15% growth in China), b) identify the talent implications of each scenario, c) define the mix of talent strategies that could be employed to address the talent implications, and d) prioritize those strategies using the five factors. Thinking through these components in advance enables a firm to quickly execute an optimal mix of talent strategies as different business scenarios unfold.

This in-depth article (estimated 30 min read) summarizes how the SEC’s Human Capital Disclosure Requirement Rule's lack of standardization often leaves stakeholders (e.g., investors) with information that is not detailed, reliable, consistent, or comparable enough to use to make informed decisions. For example, in a previous post, I noted that an analysis by Harvard Law of the first fifty 10-Ks filed after November 8 varied dramatically. Another study published by Stanford University reported that 57 percent of the 10-K filings it surveyed contained no quantitative metrics. This article recommends the SEC should require corporations to disclose quantitative workforce metrics in at least four categories: 1) Demographics (e.g., number of full-time employees, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender), 2) Job quality (e.g., minimum wages for workers, by job duties or another classification). 3) Worker voice (e.g., description of outstanding National Labor Relations Board complaints and related legal costs, and 4) Human capital development (e.g., whether the company has a business plan for workforce retention and redeployment of workers whose jobs are eliminated.) Across these four areas, the article offers 25 metrics for firms to consider. It would be useful at some point for firms to report the impact of their human capital on specific business outcomes. For a range of articles I have covered on the SEC disclosure requirements, please check here. 

While the first 12 months of employment are important for new employees, they are critical for LGBTQ+ workers to present their authentic selves in the workplace. According to BCG’s Out@Work Barometer survey of 8,800 people in 19 countries: “an average of 70% of LGBTQ+ respondents said that they came out either during the hiring process or within the first twelve months of starting their job. (See Exhibit 2.) Just 10% came out after the first year, and the remaining 20% stayed closeted.” This broad trend applied in most countries except India and China, where employees generally took longer to come out or chose to stay closeted. The article provides ideas on how firms can develop and implement a holistic plan to ensure all stages of an employees’ journey are shaped by a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture—ranging from recruiting, onboarding, and the day-to-day environment. As shown in Exhibit 5, 12 inclusion initiatives correlated with higher rates of LGBTQ+ employees who were out at work. Among the practices that showed the highest correlation are gender-neutral bathrooms, visible role models, nonbinary choices on forms, and appropriate health coverage (e.g., same-sex partners). Other ideas are discussed. 

When one thinks of “the workplace,” visions of workers converging in a building, conference rooms, and cubicles are likely to emerge. However, as the pandemic continues to evolve this view of the workplace from merely a physical to a digital concept, this article notes how technology allows us to combine digital tools with physical space to create a modern digital workplace that uses the best capabilities of both. And while this 16-minute read has too many insights to summarize adequately, one guiding principle offered for how we work digitally is: rather than grouping workers by location, warehousing them in an office, we might group them by the problem they’re working to solve, such as launching a new product, optimizing a process. These teams work via digital tools and platforms, using physical places—the office, for instance—as necessary, but those places no longer define them. Stated differently, the needs of the work and the workers determine how physical space is used, rather than the physical space determining how the work is organized. Other ideas are discussed for how firms can “reconstruct” the workplace through a combination of digital and physical solutions. 

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

To check out my summary of book recommendations, click here or on the bookcase image below.

Partial View of Book Recommendations

OUR RESOURCE LINEUP

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