Talent Edge Weekly - Issue # 170

AI and tech in HR, impact of generative AI on jobs, 11 types of talent strategies, building and sustaining an internal talent marketplace, and developing high-potential employees.

Author

Brian Heger
April 09, 2023

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 JP Elliott, Chief People Officer, WilliamsMarston — for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, JP, 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. You can connect with Brian on Linkedin, Twitter, and brianheger.com

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below is a glance at the content of this week's issue. My detailed summaries of these resources are in the section after this one.

And don't forget to check out the 2023 Job Cuts and Layoff Tracker.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

As technology continues to be one of HR’s top investments for enabling talent strategy, this new 52-page April issue of Gartner’s HR Leader’s monthly includes seven articles related to this topic. The articles focus on major tech trends HR leaders need to be aware of in 2023, ways HR technology can advance a more human employee value proposition, and how CHROs can promote digital dexterity, to name a few. Beginning on page 10, one article covers five ways AI shifts how organizations think about skills data. It argues that while many organizations continue to explore ways of using AI to understand the skills of their workforce, HR leaders and their teams can face challenges in deciding what types of existing data within different systems (e.g., learning management, human capital management suites, etc.) should be leveraged to help AI platforms infer worker skills. To get better results from an AI platform’s skill inferences engine, the authors recommend feeding the platform more — and better — data from a variety of sources (see Figure 2 on page 12). Several other ideas are discussed across the seven articles. As practitioners evaluate opportunities for utilizing HR and AI-based technology in their organizations, I am resharing this 59-page toolkit by the World Economic Forum that provides ideas to promote the responsible use of HR-based AI tools, tactics for evaluating vendors, and more.

This 20-page paper by Goldman Sachs analyzes the impact of generative AI on the economy and jobs. Based on occupational tasks data in the US and Europe, the report notes that roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation and that generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work. The analysis suggests 300 million jobs could be lost or diminished if generative AI delivers on its promised capabilities. As noted on page 7 (Exhibit 5), a few areas most impacted by automation are office administrative support, legal, architecture and engineering, business and financial operations, management, sales, and healthcare. It should be noted that advances in AI will also generate demand for new jobs, types of work, and related skills. The combination of job creation and job loss raises several questions for HR practitioners, such as: What jobs and work tasks in our organization are most exposed to automation by AI? How will these changes affect the skills that our workforce needs? Due to these changes, how will we alter our workforce planning, talent acquisition, and development efforts? In what ways will AI help us to unlock workforce capacity? HR leaders and their teams should answer these and other questions related to how AI will impact their business and workforce strategies. The report includes several other analyses to help understand the work areas most exposed to automation by AI.

Most organizations have a talent strategy to enable their business strategy. However, the tactics supporting a talent strategy can vary by organization. As leaders determine the right mix of buy, build, borrow, and bot tactics to help meet their organizations’ talent needs, this editable template includes a list of 11 talent strategies that I sourced from Gartner. The strategies range from acqui-hire (acquiring skills through acquisition), redesign work (change structure, workflows, role designs, etc.), and use rotations or temporary assignments (move existing employees with needed skills on a short-term, time-bound basis). The template provides a space to type in your initial thoughts on talent strategies you might consider. A few suggestions for using this template is to a) define 2-3 business scenarios your organization might face (e.g., 15% growth in China, FDA approval of drug Y, etc.), b) identify the talent implications of each scenario (e.g., an increase of X # of sales representatives in regions A, B, C, etc.) and c) define the mix of talent strategies that could address the talent implications. You can also prioritize the strategies based on factors such as: 1) Costs: the strategy’s direct financial or nonfinancial short and long-term costs. 2) Time: The time required to implement the strategy effectively, and 3) Long-term value: The benefit of implementing the strategy beyond the immediate needs. Thinking through these components in advance enables a firm to execute an optimal mix of talent strategies as different business scenarios unfold.

Internal mobility is a critical component of an organization’s talent strategy. And one way practitioners are increasingly enabling internal mobility in their organizations is through the internal talent marketplace (ITM). An ITM—usually hosted on a technology-enabled platform—uses AI to connect employees with organizational opportunities, such as full-time roles, projects, and short-term assignments, to name a few. As organizations unlock the potential of their ITM, this 16-page paper offers suggestions for thinking through various ITM components, such as the business case, examples of ROI, challenges in implementation, and guidance on how to gain momentum. For instance, Figure 1 on page 4 shows examples of metrics that can be used for gauging progress in ITM initiatives, such as: 1) Awareness and usage (e.g., # of employees and managers who used the ITM, # of roles and tasks recruited internally vs. externally), 2) Experience and advocacy (e.g., net promoter score (after using, to what extent would users use it again, or to what extent would they recommend it to someone else), 3) Business benefits (e.g., # of employees upskilled, hours of productivity gained, talent acquisition cost savings, etc.). Page 8 begins a section on gaining momentum with your ITM efforts, such as starting with one “use case” versus trying to tackle too many simultaneously. As a bonus, I am resharing these six additional articles and resources for enabling internal mobility in an organization.

In a recent issue of Talent Edge Weekly, I shared an article by Allan Church on identifying and assessing leadership potential. The article pointed to a strong body of research showing there are three critical dimensions on which leadership potential criteria are based: 1) Foundational (personality characteristics future leaders must have, derailers to avoid, and “smarts” needed), 2) Growth (indicators of learning orientation, capability for growth, and the drive and energy required at more senior levels), and 3) Career (standard leadership competencies and key functional skills required at higher levels of leadership). As organizations look to develop those with leadership potential, this HBR article shares findings from a research study on the leadership challenges and development opportunities facing high-potential employees. Based on an analysis of over 3,000 applications to Harvard Business School’s High Potentials Leadership Program over a nearly 20-year period, the findings show that high-potentials identified five consistent leadership challenges — leading teams, leading change, leadership style, leadership style, leading at scale, and driving business results. The sponsors of these high potentials identified six areas of development — strategic management, emotional intelligence, communication, leading at scale, leading teams, and relationship management. The collective insights from this study can help inform strategies for accelerating the development of an organization’s future leaders.

MOST VIEWED FROM LAST WEEK

This new report provides insights into the practices organizations use (and don't use) today in performance management. The practices are organized into 5 sections: goal setting, coaching and feedback, reviewing, training, and technology. You can also view this post on LinkedIn and share it with your network!

CHIEF HR OFFICER HIRE OF THE WEEK

As part of CHROs on the Go— a digital platform subscription that provides the easiest, fastest, and most convenient way to stay informed about hires, promotions, and resignations in the Chief Human Resources Officer role—18 new CHRO announcements were posted on the platform last week.

This week’s CHRO highlight is:

  • Kohl’s (WISCONSIN) [NYSE: KSS]—the American department store retail chain— has promoted Mary Steinmetz to Chief People Officer. Steinmetz has been employed by Kohl's since 2009 and has held positions such as HR Manager, HR Director, VP of HR, and was most recently the SVP of HR. Prior to Kohl's, Ms. Steinmetz held various HR roles with Target. Steinmetz succeeds Marc Chini, who announced last week that he would be retiring from his post.

Do you want to join hundreds of others getting the EDGE each week in knowing which CHROs are being hired, promoted, and resigning? If so:

Currently, there are +2000 CHROs announcements on CHROs on the Go, with an average of 25 new announcements added each week!

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

Click the link or table below to 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 are Hulu and Lending Tree.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

TALENT EDGE WEEKLY REWIND

Highlights a previously shared Talent Edge Weekly resource that received many views and engagement!

This in-depth article provides several ideas for organizations to leverage as they find ways to operationalize skills-based talent practices.

If so, you can check out issue #169, which includes 16 of the most popular resources from March. Topics include HR effectiveness, performance management, recruiting, skills, employee wellbeing, contingent workforce, and more!

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Partial View of Recommendations. Click Image to See All Books

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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.