Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #95

Covers preparing for the future of work, digital workers sentiments about remote work, developing skills, talent management challenges during Covid-19, and working parents.

December 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

  • Report: Preparing for the Short and Near-Term Future of Work | Deloitte Development | A 30-page report with questions firms should consider as they develop and execute both short and long-term workforce strategies.

  • Decoding the Digital Talent Challenge | BCG | Shares digital worker sentiments about remote work, job change, and what their preferred workplace should offer.

  • Organizations Need a Dynamic Approach to Teaching People New Skills | HBR | Offers tactics for how firms can shift from a predictive to a more dynamic approach to identifying and developing the skills workers need.

  • Talent Management Challenges During Covid-19 and Beyond: Performance Management to the Rescue | Business Research Quarterly | Provides five recommendations for adapting and improving performance management to better align with the future of work.

  • Married to the Job No More: Craving Flexibility, Parents Are Quitting to Get It | McKinsey | Offers strategies for how firms can be more bold and creative in retaining working parents.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

As concerns over the Omicron variant grow, many company executives are asking: 1) Do we stay the course with office reopening plans or push back timelines again? 2) Do we alter our protocol for when workers are together in person? And while most firms appear to be taking a wait-and-see stance as new information develops, a few have made adjustments. Google announced that it would not be requiring its employees to return to the office on January 10 as it expected. The Hartford is delaying plans for the company's senior leaders to return to the office on December 6 but still plans to return workers to the office on January 18. Hyundai Motor Group has introduced new office rules, one of which is reducing the maximum number of people allowed for meetings and seminars from 50 to 30 people. It also has closed office lounge areas and is expanding work-from-home arrangements. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that "the company's physical schedule would be pushed back until February, with employees only having to come in once or twice a week for the first month." As firms continue to evaluate short and long-term workforce strategies and tactics, I am resharing this 30-page checklist by Deloitte that includes questions firms should answer related to work, the workforce, and the workplace. Also, here is my  list (pre-omicron) of how 149 firms were approaching their return-to-office plans. Both resources can provide ideas as firms make workplace decisions.

As many firms undergo digital transformations, they seek to attract and retain digital talent in IT, automation, and analytics, to name a few. But as noted in this report, digital workers have even more employment options than before—making this a highly sought-after talent segment. And as the power dynamic between employers and digital workers continues to shift in favor of workers, employers must adapt to remain attractive to this talent segment. Based on a global survey of almost 10,000 digital workers, the report shares digital worker sentiments about remote work, job change, and what their preferred workplace should offer. A few of the findings include: 1) Digital workers are primarily leaving their current roles for better career opportunities and new challenges. They feel undervalued and are seeking a better work-life balance. 2) These workers seek even greater flexibility in where and when they work, and 3) Sixty-eight percent of surveyed digital workers say they are willing to work remotely for an employer that lacks a physical presence in their country, opening up opportunities for firms to broaden their digital talent pool. Page 5 includes the top 10 countries where digital workers would seek remote employment. With 40 percent of surveyed digital workers actively job hunting and close to 75 percent expecting to change positions in the near future, firms have an opportunity to strengthen their attraction and retention efforts for digital talent. 

The shelf-life of skills continues to decline rapidly, presenting challenges to firms as they prioritize upskilling and reskilling efforts. According to BCG’s 2021 research on 32 HR and people practices, upskilling and reskilling ranked second 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 practitioners globally. And while many firms spend effort trying to predict the skills of the future, this article argues that this predictive approach results in workers applying only 37% of the new skills they learn. They argue for a more dynamic approach to skills identification and development, one that results in workers applying 75% of the new skills they learn. This approach to skills management enables firms and employees to “move fast in responding to the things they know and can anticipate.” The authors present three steps for adopting this dynamic approach. Step 2 focuses on jumpstarting skills development via skill adjacencies—where related skills a worker already has are tapped into to speed up reskilling and upskilling efforts. Other ideas are discussed. 

Many firms are adjusting their approaches to performance management (PM) to align with new ways of working. This journal article provides five recommendations for adapting and improving PM to better align with the future of work. The recommendations include (1) measure results besides behaviors, (2) measure adaptive performance, (3) conduct stay interviews to retain top performers, (4) implement a multi-source performance management system, and (5) collect and use performance promoter scores. While a few of these recommendations are well underway in many firms, two have been less discussed. Concerning #2, the authors suggest PM should include the measurement of eight dimensions of adaptability, ranging from handling emergencies and crises to dealing with uncertain and unpredictable work situations. They also recommend developing a Performance Promoter Score (PPS), an aggregate of answers to the questions: How likely would you recommend working with [name of individual, workgroup, or unit] to a friend or a colleague? Why did you provide the rating that you provided? What would it take to raise the score just by one point? Table 1 summarizes the five recommendations. What are your thoughts on the two highlighted recommendations? Do they add more complexity to a talent process that firms have been working hard to simplify, or do they provide incremental value? For other ideas on PM, check out Gartner’s September issue of HR Leader’s Monthly, which includes seven articles on PM.  

Much has been written about how workers are leaving (or considering leaving) their jobs for new opportunities. Simultaneously, the challenges faced by working parents throughout the pandemic have been well-documented. According to this new McKinsey article, parents were more likely to have left their jobs over the past several months than their nonparent counterparts—with non-White parents planning to leave at even higher rates. And given that “parents also tend to belong to a crucial category of mid-tenure employees who play key managerial and individual-contributor roles, are leaders or are on the leadership track, and have institutional knowledge,” losing these employees, at scale, will impact firms ability to execute business strategy. The article points to three areas where organizations can be more bold and creative in their thinking about how to retain working parents: 1) Embrace radical flexibility, 2) Get more creative with childcare support, and 3) Let them go—and make a concerted effort to get them back (e.g., implement ramp up programs to gradually bring them back). If you missed it, here is a 34-page report by Great Place to Work® that represents the largest-ever study of working parents and offers several practices firms are implementing to support parents.

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