Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #90

Covers how to organize work beyond the constraints of jobs, apprenticeships, inclusive hiring practices, employee preferences, and SEC human capital reporting requirements.

October 31, 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

  • Beyond the Job: Developing New Work Models | Deloitte Insights | Shares ideas on how firms can organize work beyond the constraints of the traditional job.

  • Reviving the Art of Apprenticeship to Unlock Continuous Skill Development | McKinsey Quarterly | Argues that apprenticeships, with some modernization, can build skills that today’s knowledge-based workforce requires.

  • 5 Ways of Crafting Inclusive Hiring Processes | Gartner | Identifies barriers that prevent underrepresented talent groups from completing the hiring process. Offers five ways firms can minimize these barriers.

  • The Truth About What Employees Want: A Guide to Navigating the Hyper-competitive U.S. Labor Market| Mercer | Shares insights on how workers' preferences and concerns continue to change and explores how these expectations vary by worker segments.

  • The Current State of Human Capital Disclosure in Corporate America: Assessing What Data Large U.S. Employers Share | Just capital | Provides a recent analysis of human capital disclosures among the 100 largest U.S. employers. Looks across 28 metrics covering six key human capital themes.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

The traditional notion of a job continues to be challenged as work becomes less predictable, more fluid, and affected by rapid disruption. In his article, From Workforce to Work-task Planning, Dave Ulrich discusses the practice of deconstructing jobs into tasks and activities and then using this information as the basis for workforce planning. John Boudreau and Ravi Jesuthasan emphasize in their article, Work Without Jobs, how unpacking jobs into more discrete tasks can provide firms with more options to deliver work in real-time. And in this new article by Susan Cantrell of Deloitte, she shares insights on how firms can organize work beyond the constraints of the traditional job to increase agility in meeting work demands. One recommendation provided is to “organize work by creating very broad commitments to problems to be solved, outcomes to be achieved, or new sources of value to be created, essentially providing guardrails for workers in terms of the broad “what” of work but giving them the freedom and autonomy to choose the “how.” There are many insights and informative charts in the article (about an 11-minute read) that emphasize how firms can execute this approach in practice. Although jobs won’t completely go away, these forward-thinking views about the future of work will require firms to think through the implications of various talent and workforce practices traditionally organized around jobs. 

According to BCG’s 2021 research on 32 HR and people practices, upskilling, reskilling, and learning and development ranked #2 in terms of the most significant gaps between current capabilities and future importance. Similarly, LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report, found that upskilling and reskilling is the top priority for L&D pros globally. And while many L&D teams are working hard to address upskilling and reskilling, this new McKinsey article notes that only 42 percent of employees are taking up employer-supported reskilling and upskilling opportunities in their organizations. As firms close skills gaps in their workforce, this article calls for reviving the art of apprenticeships as a solution. It argues that apprenticeships—where any colleague with domain expertise is empowered to teach key skills, model behaviors, and transfer skills—can build skills that today’s knowledge-based workforce requires. It is based on a learning model that “distributes apprenticeship skills and responsibilities throughout the organization.” The article provides four ways to introduce apprenticeships as one skill-building tactic that augments formal learning programs, mentorships, and sponsorships. Could apprenticeships be integrated into your firm’s 2022 upskilling and reskilling strategy?

Organizations continue to prioritize diversity initiatives, such as hiring more diverse candidates. But as noted in this Gartner paper, increasing the number of diversity hires in a firm requires more than sourcing from a diverse talent pool. It also demands they remove hidden barriers that restrict candidates from underrepresented talent groups from completing the hiring process. This article shares five strategies HR leaders can use to remove these barriers. The strategies range from 1) Define Job Requirements Based on Work Outcomes, Not Credentials, 2) Create More Inclusive Job Posts, and 5) Leverage Technology to Reduce Bias in Assessments.  Figure 3 provides an example of job descriptions that describe the outcomes a role must achieve rather than prescribing the qualifications needed to achieve them. Figure 4 illustrates how one firm's applicant tracking system (ATS) reminds recruiters of bias and biased language while screening candidates. As firms prioritize diversity initiatives and inclusive hiring practices, they should identify which barriers (along each step of the hiring process) they can remove to increase their ability to hire diverse talent. If you missed it, here is an HBR article about a study that found how people's speech patterns — how they pronounce words and phrases — led assessors to predict a person's socioeconomic status, which influenced whether they would recommend the candidate for the job.  

Worker preferences, expectations, and values continue to shift. And given these areas can vary significantly by individual, it is challenging for firms to understand the extent to which workers’ expectations are changing. A few reports have highlighted the disconnect between what employers think workers want and what they prefer, including a McKinsey article that focused on worker expectations for hybrid work. As firms understand worker expectations across myriad factors, this 18-page report provides insights based on findings from multiple Mercer research studies, spanning over 4,000 US employees and 1,300 employers. One insight is that while there has been much discussion about the Great Resignation, specific workers segments—such as frontline, low-wage, minority, and lower-level employees— are more likely to leave, at rates significantly higher than historical norms (see page 7). The report shares which values and concerns (e.g., mental health, financial concerns, etc.) are top of mind for these worker segments and provides recommended actions firms can take to address those concerns. Although there are inherent limitations in understanding worker preferences by segment or demographics—given individual needs can vary significantly within segments—these broader insights can help firms be aware of common themes. It should be noted that, across all demographics, physical and mental health claimed the top spot in employees’ list of concerns.

I have shared over 10 resources and posts regarding the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulation S-K human capital (HC) disclosure requirement during the past year. The rule, which went into effect on November 9, 2020, gives public firms governed by the SEC 60-90 days after their fiscal year to include HC information in their annual report. This new report by Just capital analyzed how the 100 largest U.S. employers disclose 28 metrics across six critical HC themes: Employment and Labor Type, Job Stability, Wages, Compensation and Benefits, Workforce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Occupational Health, and Safety, and Training and Education. Consistent with other analyses, there is much variation in what firms are reporting, given the SEC leaves it up to companies to determine what measures to disclose. The analysis found that disclosure is “low across the board, with the disclosure rate below 20% for most metrics,” Also, “most metrics are currently disclosed in Corporate Social Responsibility or Sustainability Reports, which do not require auditing or have standardization requirements.” I expect the SEC to establish more rigor on what HC measures firms should use to show the connection between human capital practices and business performance. While the SEC figures this out, it is a good time for firms to leverage these materials to develop their approach to HC disclosure. Even for firms not governed by the SEC, the report provides several insights on HC measures, including one chart summarizing 28 HC metrics by theme.  

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