Purposeful Talent Development: How Employers Did on 3 Key 2023 People Goals

The Josh Bersin company’s HR Predictions for 2023 report suggested that the last year would be one of transition for work, people in the workforce and human resources.

And it was. We had some wins and in other areas people strategy leaders could have been more responsive. Let’s review what went well, and what we need to spend some time improving in 2024.

In this blog, I’ll address three of the Bersin report’s 15 predictions, rating them on a five-point scale with “5” meaning that organizations did a great job. I’ll also provide some context and possible next steps.

1. The Employee Experience Will Be Tested by Hybrid Work: 3.5 

The employee experience has definitely been tested by hybrid work—and by the fact that all-in-person and all-remote work are now going on at the same time. Organizations have done a slightly better than average job of adjusting to this new situation, hence my 3.5 rating.

Today managers often have employees working in all three models, each of which will have its own climate. This circumstance is so different from when everyone (or practically everyone) came to work in an office and there was just one climate to manage.

Climate and its nine dimensions are so important to people strategy that I’ve discussed this topic in two previous columns—Purposeful Talent Development: 5 (of 9) Dimensions of Organizational Climate and Purposeful Talent Development: Four More Dimensions of Organizational Climate—and this podcast.

Organizations did well to make the shift to offering more flexible work and having more work models. Unfortunately, most organizations haven’t done a good job of helping managers learn how to supervise people in this highly complex, three-climate situation.

Strategy, listening and training will be key to helping leaders and managers understand what they’re grappling with and how to create appropriate performance tools for each climate. Development also can teach leaders and managers to ask employees how they like to engage. That way, they can personalize each team member’s performance support.

When performance metrics are clear and appropriate for the work model involved, engagement can mean different things to different people. For example, if the right tools are in place, a manager can ask each employee, “How often would you prefer to connect with me? We can talk every day, once a week, or once every couple of weeks.” And different team members will be able to respond differently.

2. Every Company Will Get Serious and Pragmatic About Skills: 2

I gave people strategists’ response to this trend a pretty low rating because I don’t think they are taking the deep benefits of having a skill mindset to heart. Maybe that’s because they don’t fully understand skills and what they can deliver. (If you want to learn more about this listen to this podcast, “Align and Streamline Your Organization Using a Skills Focus.”)

Organizations talk about having a lack of succession planning. Skills can help. They talk about the need to offer employees a career path. Skills can help with that, too.  Setting up a strong mentorship and coaching system.  Once again, skills may be the answer.

While a skills mindset has not been adopted by enough organizations, I’m starting to see a shift. Academic settings and government agencies are starting to use skills effectively. Plus, a Colorado law that went into effect Jan. 1, 2024, requires employers to offer career paths to employees (“make available to all eligible employees the requirements for career progression.”)

This law is the first of its kind, and California is already looking at following suit.

3. Every Company Will Need to Revisit Its Leadership Model: 3

This prediction reflects the first one in this blog. It’s pretty typical for organizations to make quick changes when forced to, as they did with the unexpected pivot to remote work in 2020. It’s also pretty typical for them to not be timely about analyzing all the repercussions of having made the change. 

2023 was the first year of being fully past the pandemic. I think people strategists should have had the opportunity to step back, take a breath and ask themselves the bigger questions, such as “How does this new three-climate situation affect our team’s performance?” and “Are our manager development and management tools still appropriate?” and “How has the quick change affected our organization as a whole?” Maybe some did.

But my overall analysis is that organizations did something but probably not enough. And they certainly didn’t step back to look at and work on the larger repercussions. That’s why I’ve given fairly low ratings across the board. As leaders, we need to stay attuned to the good and the bad of what our organizations are going through as well as to new, emerging strategies and tools that can help us. We didn’t do that fully in 2023, let’s be more proactive in 2024 and ask the questions.

If you’re ready to commit to leading your people strategy more effectively in 2024, give me a call.

Stepping into the gap between corporate complacency and organizational excellence is where Lesley Sears strives to be. Now VP/consulting services for CUES. In her role at CUES, Lesley leads CUES Consulting, which provides talent strategy support to credit unions of all sizes. Lesley is passionate about helping leaders find their company’s superpowers in talent development through a holistic approach: identify–develop–document-repeat. She’s a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, a certified executive leadership coach and has over 20 years of experience consulting with organizations across many industries to strategically develop their talent’s best selves. When she’s not working to help organizations maximize their potential, you can find her digging in her flower beds, reading or watching classic movies. Maybe, on a good morning in the spring and fall, you’ll find her running—really slowly.