The Rules for Hybrid Work Were Always Made Up, The New York Times, by Emma Goldberg
If you feel like your organization doesn’t have hybrid working all figured out, you’re not alone. In her recent New York Times article, writer Emma Goldberg explores some of the complexities that leaders are encountering as they aim to introduce the 2.0 version of office life. One of the most important takeaways: there’s too much of an emphasis on rigid expectations, which is causing many executives to overlook the larger opportunity to reframe the relationship between work and workplaces.
What Stops Employees from Applying for Internal Roles?, Harvard Business Review, by Lauren Smith, Jamie Kohn, and Iga Pilewska
The stats in this Harvard Business Review article speak for themselves—most notably, only 1 out of 3 employees who are searching for a new job start by looking for opportunities with their current employer. Let’s reflect on that: 2 out of 3 employees start by looking outside their organization. That figure tells us that most businesses aren’t tapping into their most valuable talent pool: their current employees. This article spotlights some of the boundaries that hinder internal mobility and the role marketplaces can play in breaking down career development barriers.
All Those Quitters? They’re at Work, The New York Times, by Emma Goldberg
Now that we’re more than one year into the Great Resignation, trends are starting to emerge that shed light on what employees are doing after they leave. Hint: they aren’t calling it quits. Instead, employees are capitalizing on an abundance of opportunities to pursue new roles that prioritize flexibility, autonomy, respect, work-life balance, and yes, better pay. This article proves that what we’re seeing isn’t so much a mass exodus, but instead a fundamental shift (as Heather Long described in her Washington Post article about the Great Reassessment).
What Work Without Jobs Means for Managers, MIT Management Sloan School, by Meredith Somers
We’ve been talking a lot about the shift towards workforce pixelation. But as businesses move away from relying on jobs as the primary way to structure work, what will that mean for managers? Here are some great takeaways from our friends Dr. John Boudreau and Ravin Jesuthasan, who recently led a webinar hosted by MIT Sloan Management Review. Among their best practices, they advise using a talent marketplace to encourage employees to take on projects outside of their day-to-day roles and interact with other leaders and groups.
Why Isn’t New Technology Making Us More Productive?, The New York Times, by Steve Lohr
If you want to learn more about the role AI is playing in transforming the way we work, this article by New York Times reporter Steve Lohr is a must-read. He discusses how people and AI are working together and spotlights some emerging management practices to harness the opportunities of AI, workers, and work. My favorite example from the article is the call center operators at Anthem Inc., who are shifting their focus to becoming “care navigators” now that chatbots are helping them handle more inquiries. The challenge is to focus on workforce, workplace, and automation strategies and to look beyond substitution to augmentation and collaboration strategies. What can people AND machines do together?
The Market Slows: What Should Employers Do?, JoshBersin.com, by Josh Bersin
Now that leaders are bracing for an economic slowdown, there’s a lot of uncertainty about what it takes to hire carefully in a market like this. Industry analyst Josh Bersin shares a few tips that every employer should take advantage of. One piece of advice he offers is that in a time of “stock picking”, leaders should be choosing internal candidates, which he calls “the equivalent of asset reallocation.” He goes on to explain that in fields like banking and healthcare, companies are already creating new career pathways to develop the talent needed to fill in-demand roles internally.
