Talent Edge Weekly - Issue # 163

Covers Deloitte's new article on workforce risks, and others on redesigning how we work, the skills revolution, the future of talent acquisition, and pay equity.

Author

Brian Heger
February 26, 2023

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Welcome to this week’s issue of Talent Edge Weekly—bringing together insights about work, the workplace, and the workforce. Read by human resources practitioners, business leaders, and others interested in the world of work.

A special shout out to Sarah Truchard—Talent Management Manager, CITGO Petroleum Corporation— for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Sarah, for your support of this newsletter!

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Have a great week, and I look forward to sharing more ideas in next week’s Edge!

Brian 

Brian Heger is an internal 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

Below is a glance at the content of this week's issue. My detailed summaries of these resources can be found in the section after this one. However, you can click the quick links below if you want to go directly to the source without seeing my summary and bonus resources—but I recommend that you read the summaries!

  • Redesigning How We Work | Harvard Business Review | Explores why making decisions about hybrid work goes beyond the number of days workers should come into the office. It’s also about testing long-held assumptions about work itself. Offers four questions for testing these assumptions.

  • The Skills Revolution is Now | Mercer | A 10-page paper that helps answer five questions related to skills-based talent practices. I share a bonus resource with additional questions.

  • 2023 The Future of Talent Acquisition | Korn Ferry | A 21-page paper that explores 7 trends impacting the world of talent acquisition and recruiting. I expand on one idea about rehiring former employees.

  • A Cross-Functional Approach to Pay Equity | Gartner | Covers how implementing a successful pay equity strategy requires CHROs to enlist the support of a cross-functional team—inclusive of other executives, HR, and employees.

And don't forget to check out the Chief HR Officer Hire of the Week, the 2023 Job Cuts and Layoffs Tracker, the most viewed resource from last week, and more!

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

HR leaders continue to help their organizations detect and manage workforce risks, particularly in this era of hyper-unpredictability and disruption. But as noted in this new Deloitte article, organizations can overlook many of the less obvious types of workforce risks. As these risks go unmanaged, they can pose a threat to organizations’ financial, operational, reputation, brand, and regulatory and compliance outcomes. As organizations take a more expansive view of workforce risks, Figure 2 shows various internal and external risks to consider, including access to talent to meet business needs, worker activism, changes to workforce disclosure and reporting requirements, and the responsible use of workforce data, emerging technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI). The article, which includes several insights, also addresses what leading organizations—called Pioneers firms — are doing differently to help mitigate workforce risks. HR leaders and their teams can review the various workforce risks, identify those that present the greatest threat, and develop potential risk-mitigation responses. As HR leaders are increasingly called upon to present their organization’s talent narrative—which should also address workforce risks — they can draw from these responses to inform aspects of their talent story. As a bonus, I am resharing this 20-page Conference Board report that provides guidance on developing an organization’s talent narrative.

Last week, I made a post about an article highlighting how a segment of firms (e.g., Amazon, Disney, Starbucks, etc.) is increasing the number of days they require workers to be in the office. The author mentioned one reason firms are increasing the number of mandatory in-office days is: as economic uncertainty looms, and companies axe jobs on a wide scale, the power dynamic is swinging back towards employers: many may be using the downturn as an opportunity to enforce or overhaul their working practices. I mentioned how these decisions could come with unforeseen risks, especially when not made with intention and without considering the range of factors that influence these decisions. In this new HBR article, the author notes: “Many of us assumed that by now, years into the pandemic, we’d have settled on new structures, practices, and processes for hybrid work. But we haven’t. Instead, most companies are stuck in a transitional phase, where little is resolved. Why is it taking us so long to work this out?” One answer provided is that hybrid work isn’t simply about determining whether everybody should return to the office full-time. It’s also forcing us to test long-held assumptions about how work should be done and what it even is. As leaders continue to challenge their beliefs about work and determine its implications for hybrid work arrangements, the article raises four fundamental questions to consider, such as: what are our overarching values and principles? What isn’t working, and what problems are we trying to solve? Other ideas are discussed.

Skills-based talent practices (SBTP) continue to be a focus of many firms. However, the shift to SBTP can be a long journey, requiring practitioners to answer various questions about the operationalization and implementation of SBTP. This paper provides insights into five of those questions: 1) What skills do we need, and how will we incorporate a skills taxonomy into our job architecture? 2) What skill proficiency level do we expect for each role? 3) How do we assess the skills that will drive our business forward? 4) How will we reward for top skills? 5) How will we operationalize our skills-based strategy? Concerning skill proficiency (#2), survey responses from 650 global organizations show there is no consensus on the optimum number of proficiency levels (e.g., intermediate—practical application, expert—recognized authority), with a fairly even distribution between companies that report three levels (9%), five levels (7%), four levels (6%), and six or more levels (6%). Further, skills assessment remains a predominantly subjective process comprising self-assessment, manager assessment, and/or 365-style reviews—potentially reducing objectivity and fairness. As practitioners think through these and other questions, I am resharing this one-page bonus resource I have curated from Deloitte’s 101-page report, Building Tomorrow’s Skills-based Organization Jobs Aren’t Working Anymore. The summary includes ten additional questions and answers on SBTP.

The talent acquisition function continues to undergo change in many organizations. This 21-page Korn Ferry paper explores seven trends that are impacting the world of recruiting, hiring, and talent acquisition. One part of the paper (p.15) notes how there will be an uptick in the number of former employees being rehired in organizations—often referred to as Boomerang employees. It points to a study that found 15% of professionals who quit their jobs have returned to their former companies. Another study in the Academy of Management Journal found that upon being (re)hired into the organization, former employees outperform new hires. This performance advantage is larger in jobs requiring greater relational demands and internal coordination and in contexts characterized by greater internal resistance to external hires. As recruiting teams devise strategies to re-recruit a segment of former employees (not all former employees should be re-recruited), they should keep in mind a Visier analysis showing: the average time away for employees resigning from and returning to their previous employer is 13 months. And while it can take up to 36 months or longer before a former employee is rehired, the chances of returning drop sharply after being away for 16 months. These data points suggest that 13 to 16 months could be a critical time frame for rehiring former employees. For a bonus resource on this topic, check out the HBR article, Leave the Door Open for Employees to Return to Your Organization.

Pay equity—compensating employees the same when they perform the same or similar job duties while accounting for other factors, such as their experience level, job performance, and tenure with the employer (SHRM)—is a hot topic for many organizations. While much of this attention has been driven by legislation around pay transparency, there is also a greater acknowledgment that perceptions of pay equity—whether or not those perceptions are accurate—influence certain outcomes. For example, as shown in Figure 1 of this Gartner article, perceptions of pay equity impact workers’ intent to stay with their organization, their job search activity, and engagement. And although CHROs and total rewards leaders are leading efforts to improve pay equity in their organizations, this Gartner article also submits that the implementation of a successful pay equity strategy requires CHROs to enlist the support of a cross-functional team to execute it. Table 1 provides a suggested model for a pay equity team structure, inclusive of 1) Senior Leaders (e.g., CHRO, Legal Counsel, Business Unit Leaders, and Chief Financial Officer), 2) HR Leaders, ranging from Head of Total Rewards and Head of DEI, and 3) Employees—both managers and employees. The chart provides a high-level view of the role these stakeholders play in improving their organizations’ pay equity. In case you missed it last week, here is an ADP Research Institute report that shares research on factors that influence how workers feel about pay equity.

MOST VIEWED FROM LAST WEEK

A 41-page issue that looks at how CEOs and Chief Human Resources Officers can strengthen their relationships as they partner in five different areas. You can also view this post here on LinkedIn and share it with your network!

CHIEF HR OFFICER HIRE OF THE WEEK

This past week, 24 new Chief Human Resources Officer announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go – a subscription that provides the easiest way to stay informed about CHRO hires, promotions, and resignations.

This week’s CHRO highlight is:

  • Lyft (SAN FRANCISCO) [NASDAQ: LYFT]—the mobility as a service company—announces the appointment of Alicia Zuiker as its Chief People Officer. Alicia joins Lyft following 15 years of best-in-class HR experience at GE, and most recently serving as Chief People Officer for Visby Medical during a period of growth and transformation. Alicia succeeds Nilka Thomas, who served as Lyft’s Chief People Officer for over two years. READ MORE

To learn how to gain access to all 24 detailed Chief Human Resources Officer announcements from this past week and +2000 archived announcements, visit CHROs on the Go.

If you are already a member of CHROs on the Go, you can log in to access all announcements and site functionality.

Here you can see the latest updates from a segment of organizations that have announced job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023. Recruiters, search firms, and hiring managers can use this resource to identify opportunities for recruiting talent from organizations affected by layoffs. A few firms that announced job cuts this past week include BASF, Ericsson, and McKinsey, to name a few.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

TALENT EDGE WEEKLY REWIND

Highlights a previously shared Talent Edge Weekly resource that received many views and engagement! This week's rewind is an article by Allan Church that provides three alternatives to the classic 9-box for high-potential employee identification.

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

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