Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #82

Covers "hidden workers," the fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings, creating psychological safety, a one-page template for HR planning, and re-onboarding.

September 05, 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 132) Are Adjusting Their Return to Office Dates and Vaccine- Mask Mandates Due to Delta Variant | BrianHeger .com | I provide an update on how 132 firms are approaching their return to the office and vaccine mandates. I have added 10 new organizations since last week's update.

  • Report: Hidden Workers: Untapped Talent | Harvard Business School and Accenture | A 74-page report that outlines barriers that keep companies from considering "hidden workers"— workers that are skilled and seek work, but go undetected—as candidates to meet their talent needs.

  • The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings: A Within-Person Field Experiment | Journal of Applied Psychology | Shares new research on how camera usage during virtual meetings contributes to fatigue and how these effects are more substantial for women and employees newer to the organization.

  • Taking Your Team Behind the Curtain: The Effects of Leader Feedback-Sharing and Feedback-Seeking on Team Psychological Safety | Organization Science | References research to support how leaders can promote psychological safety by openly discussing with their teams' criticisms and suggestions that the leader has already received about his or her personal performance.

  • Strategic Planning for Human Resources Leaders on One Page | Gartner | Offers a one-page page framework for articulating an agile HR strategy via four strategic planning components.

  • It’s Time to Re-Onboard Everyone | Harvard Business Review | Presents five steps firms should take to re-onboard all employees, including a set of questions firms can ask to reset clear cultural expectations across their organization.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

As we approach the fourth week since I released a list of how 20 firms are changing their return to office timing and vaccine mandates, this reference now includes 132 firms and links to 105 references. A few headlines that received attention this past week include: 1) Uber announced for the second time that it is moving its return. It originally moved its return from September to October 25th and has now extended it to January 2022. 2) Starbucks also shared it has shifted its return to the office from October to January 2022. Uber and Starbucks are now part of a growing segment of firms returning to the office in 2022, such as Airbnb, Apple, Amazon, Charles Schwab & Co, Expedia, Indeed, Liberty Mutual, Lyft, Facebook, Ford Motors, Roblox, Starbucks, Target, and World Bank. 3) While Nike announced it is delaying its return, it still plans to come back in 2021, adjusting its plan from September to November. Kroger and Intel have joined a growing number of companies that are incentivizing their workers to get vaccinated. Kroger provides a $100 bonus to vaccinated employees, and frontline workers receive an additional $100 store credit and 1,000 fuel points for use at its Fuel Centers. Intel provides $250 to all vaccinated employees, and hourly employees get an additional $100 food voucher. I will continue to update the list as new information is released. 

This excellent 74-page report outlines several barriers that keep companies from considering hidden workers as candidates to meet their talent needs. Hidden workers "have a desire to work and are actively seeking work, but their regular efforts to seek employment consistently fail because of hiring processes that focus on what they don’t have (such as credentials) rather than the value they can bring (such as capabilities)." One contributing factor to this dilemma is Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), which sort through applicants at scale and exclude viable candidates whose resumes don’t match a specific criterion of the job description. The result can be an efficient process that is less effective at identifying skilled talent. In fact, 88% of those surveyed in this global study believed that their ATS weeded out high-skilled prospects because of this issue. One way to minimize this risk is to ensure job descriptions focus on the most critical criteria versus a litany of “nice to have” skills, traits, and experience. Firms can use this reference to evaluate the impact of their talent acquisition policies, practices, and technology on their ability to access hidden talent.

“Zoom fatigue” refers to a feeling of being drained and lacking energy following a day of virtual meetings. And despite the ubiquity of this concept, it has received limited empirical research. This new research explores how camera usage during virtual meetings contributes to fatigue. Results of 1,408 daily observations over four weeks from 103 employees show: 1) when people had cameras on or were asked to keep cameras on, they reported more fatigue than their non-camera using counterparts. 2) The effects of fatigue were more substantial for women and employees newer to the organization, likely because of self-presentation pressures. This study contradicts conventional thinking that suggests cameras heighten engagement levels in virtual meetings. And while there are a few limitations to the study (e.g., it did not account for the size and type of meetings), it provides empirical support suggesting it is a good practice to let workers decide whether to use their cameras in virtual meetings. This practice, however, will also require other meeting participants not to make assumptions that those who choose to keep their cameras off are less engaged. 

Much has been written about the benefits of psychological safety (PS) in the workplace. Simultaneously, leaders are expected to foster PS within the company culture and teams they lead. But as noted in this journal article (which I cannot post since it is part of a subscription), few studies have examined how leaders establish PS in the workplace. The article, written by Constantinos G. V. Coutifaris and Adam Grant, “proposes that leaders can promote PS by sharing feedback—openly discussing criticisms and suggestions they have already received about their performance.” One study referenced, Study 3, explores how feedback-sharing had an enduring effect on PS, but feedback-seeking did not. Through interviews with participating leaders and employees two years later, researchers found that while leaders initiated vulnerability by seeking feedback, it dissolved because of defensiveness and inaction. However, those who shared feedback they had already received “opened the door for more actionable feedback, greater accountability, and ongoing practices that allowed PS to endure.” You can also check out this article by McKinsey on how leaders can cultivate PS in the workplace. 

Many HR organizations are planning their 2022 priorities, initiatives, and investments at this time of the year. And while a segment of firms prides themselves on having sophisticated, robust, and sometimes cumbersome planning tools and processes, one learning during the pandemic is that these plans can be altered quickly because of a rapidly changing business environment. As such, it can be helpful for firms to have a streamlined planning process that flexes and evolves with changing business conditions. This Gartner resource offers four planning components that HR organizations can leverage as they develop agile plans. They include: 1) identify a shortlist of metrics to describe the function’s target state, 2) document and monitor key assumptions, 3) identify key initiatives and milestones required to move to the end state, and 4) craft a concise statement that captures the essence of the strategy. Pages 5 and 6 include a template to document this information. As HR leaders and their teams use this template to develop their priorities, they can also reference a popular post I made on a 40-page BCG report that prioritizes 32 HR and people practices across nine clusters. 

In May 2021, I shared an article by Gallup titled; The Workforce Has Changed: Ensure Your Employees Are Prepared. The article highlighted how firms—when fully bringing workers back to the office— would need to recalibrate five drivers of their organizational culture to align with the new way of getting work done. And as the Delta variant continues to further delay many firms' return to the office, the need for re-onboarding workers is even more acute. This new HBR article presents five steps firms should take to re-onboard all employees. It notes how even long-time employees will need to be re-onboarded as many of them feel like new employees because of the number and magnitude of changes. One of the recommendations is to re-set clear cultural expectations, which starts by asking questions such as a) How can we ensure teammates who aren't in the office still have a voice? b) How will we track progress and update each other throughout the week? c) How do we each prefer to receive feedback? Developing and executing a firm's re-onboarding strategy can be one of the most critical components of its return to office strategy. What are the 4-5 most vital aspects of your firm's re-onboarding plan?  This might be a good topic to discuss at your next team meeting. 

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

​​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.

CHROS on the Go is a subscription that provides the easiest and most convenient way to stay informed about Chief Human Resources Officer hires, promotions, and resignations in organizations of all sizes and industries.

​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.