Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #84

Covers the effects of remote work on collaboration, things to get right about culture, drivers of employee turnover, flow-to-work model, and a documentary on the future of work.

September 19, 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 140) Are Adjusting Their Return to Office Dates and Vaccine- Mask Mandates Due to Delta Variant | BrianHeger .com | I share an update on how 140 firms are approaching their return to the office and vaccine mandates.

  • The Effects of Remote Work on Collaboration Among Information Workers | Nature Human Behaviour | A peer-reviewed study released last week that analyzed the impact of remote work (within Microsoft’s 61,100+ US workforce) on outcomes, such as collaboration.

  • 10 Things Your Corporate Culture Needs to Get Right | MIT Sloan Management Review | Shares research that analyzed 1.4 million employee reviews on Glassdoor and identified which aspects of organizational culture mostly shape how employees rate their firms’ culture.

  • Who Is Driving the Great Resignation? | Harvard Business Review | Shares a three-step plan to help employers take a more data-driven approach to identify the drivers of employee retention.

  • The Key Role of Dynamic Talent Allocation In Shaping the Future of Work | McKinsey | Describes the “Flow to Work model,” which quickly addresses talent needs by using pools of internal talent based on similarity of skills, rather than business functions.

  • Future of Work: Changing Work, Changing Workers | Episode 3 Aired Sept.15 | PBS | A one-hour documentary—part of a three-part series— that explores the long-term impact of the changing workplace on workers, employers, educators, and communities.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

Organizations continue to adjust their return-to-office dates and vaccination mandates as they obtain more information about the Delta variant. As firms communicate their decisions, I continue to update my list that tracks how 140 companies are approaching these decisions. A few headlines this past week include: 1) Humana announced it is delaying its reopening for a second time and will now return to the office after Jan 14. Humana initially postponed its office reopening from Sept 7 to Oct 18. 2) Reuters has again extended its return for staff working in the US until Jan 3. Previously, Reuters delayed its return to Oct 1. 3) Wells Fargo and Duke Energy are shifting their return date again by another month but still plan to bring workers back in 2021. 3) While not updated on my list yet, ViacomCBS just announced it is again shifting its return date from Oct 17 to January; the firm was scheduled to return in Sept. 4) Southwest Airlines announced this week that employees who upload their vaccination cards to the company by the end of Nov 15. will get 16 hours of pay. You can click the link to see all 140 firms on this list, which I will continue to update as new information becomes available.  

The impact of remote work at scale on organizational collaboration has been a topic of interest but has lacked empirical research. However, last week, a peer-reviewed study was published on this topic. Based on Microsoft’s 61,100+ US workforce, the study analyzed data from employees’ emails, calendars, instant messages, video/audio calls, and workweek hours over the first six months of 2020. Results suggest that employees’ collaboration time with cross-group connections dropped by about 25% of the pre-pandemic level. It proposes that less time in face-to-face meetings and more time speaking to each other via instant messaging and email resulted in a diminished quality of information shared. The study also found that the length of the average workweek inside the company increased by about 10% after the shift to remote work.  It should be noted that the study was conducted from December 2019 to June 2020—when workers had less experience with working remotely. Also, only 18% of Microsoft’s population worked remotely before the pandemic, meaning 82% of the population had to adjust to remote work quickly—likely affecting the results. Still, the study provides empirical data to consider as part of this discussion. You can also check out another recent empirical study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology that explores how cameras impact fatigue during web meetings. 

As firms plan their gradual return to the office, they are likely asking: how will our company culture need to enable new ways of working and re-prioritized worker expectations? This research analyzed 1.4 million employee reviews on Glassdoor using a Natural Employee Language platform—looking at 150 culture topics to determine which cultural elements shape how employees rate their firms’ culture. The number one predictor is 1) Employees feel respected. Employees are treated with consideration, courtesy, and dignity, and their perspectives are taken seriously. This factor is the most significant predictor (17.9x more powerful) of culture score than any other factor. One chart shows the variation in how employees rate respect in their company’s culture across 37 industries. Among the most powerful indicators relate to leadership: Supportive leaders (9.4x): Leaders help employees do their work, respond to requests, offer encouragement, etc. Leaders live core values (7.3x), i.e., their actions are consistent with the organization’s values. Firms can use this data-driven reference as one source for determining which aspects of culture may matter most to their workers.  

Many organizations are investing time in understanding the reasons employees are leaving / or considering leaving their company. And in this new article by Ian Cook, various insights are provided on how firms can take a more data-driven approach to retention. The insights are based on an analysis of over 9 million employee records at 4,000 global companies and offer a three-step plan to help employers address the issue: 1) Employers should quantify both the problem and its impact on key business metrics. For example, firms can calculate their retention rate using the formula: Number of Separations per Year ÷ Average Total Number of Employees = Turnover Rate. 2) Then, they should use a data-driven approach to identifying the root causes of turnover. This approach is superior to relying solely on anecdotal information that might lead to incorrect conclusions. For example, a McKinsey study I shared last week highlighted the gap between employers’ and employees’ perspectives on why employees leave their organizations.  3) Organizations should implement targeted retention campaigns designed to address drivers of retention that are specific to certain employee segments. In case you missed it, here is a guide by Gartner on conducting effective “stay interviews.” 

Firms are implementing more flexible talent models to deploy their talent to the highest priority work quickly. This article describes the “Flow to work model,” which uses pools of internal talent “formed based on similarity of skills, rather than business functions, making it easier for organizations to access the right skills when they need to. The leader of these resource pools matches and deploys workers to tasks or projects based on the highest-priority work areas for the organization and the combination of skills required to complete them.” The article raises four questions organizations should consider when implementing a flow-to-work model. 1) What types of work would benefit from flexible deployment?  2) What types of talent should be organized into pools? 3) How should the talent within each pool be deployed? Exhibit 2 describes three models for how talent can be deployed and managed: project-based deployment, advisory/business partnering, and centers of excellence. 4) What is the mechanism for making staff deployment decisions? (e.g., stand up a specialist function dedicated to matching people, and/or use a more technologically driven, decentralized approach—usually known as an internal talent marketplace platform). Other ideas are discussed.

As work, the workplace, and workers continue to undergo profound changes, PBS has produced an excellent three-part broadcast series exploring the long-term impact of these changes on workers, employers, educators, and communities. This Episode 3, which aired on September 15, 2021, is almost an hour and touches on topics such as how companies are rethinking the need and purpose of offices, how offices are being redesigned to fit a specific purpose, and how the traditional 9 to 5 workplace continues to lose relevance, especially considering remote work. This episode also touches on how many women continue to leave the workforce—a phenomenon that some are calling a “she-cession.” If you enjoy well-produced documentaries, you will probably enjoy this series. You can also access the other two episodes through the provided link. 

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

‘Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The Choice is Yours | McKinsey | Emphasizes the disconnect between employers’ and employees’ perspectives on why employees are leaving their organizations. Suggests employers should uncover the reasons workers leave and use that information to drive change and build a strong talent attraction brand.

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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