SPONSORED BY

Welcome to the new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Allison McCaffrey, Director of Talent, Learning, & Experience at TruGreen, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Allison, for your support of this newsletter!

 Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY TalentNeuron

New Report. The Great Reallocation: Understanding the Impact of AI on Talent Strategy

There is no playbook for AI-led workforce transformation. So, we went looking for one in the hiring data of organizations investing aggressively in AI: Salesforce, Klarna, Wells Fargo, Google, Microsoft, Citi, and BT Group.

What we found wasn't a single workforce strategy. It was several different playbooks, running in parallel, according to each organization's goals and needs.

In this new report, learn how these organizations are making fundamentally different workforce choices—spanning workforce size, organizational structure, talent location, skills, hiring, and development—as AI investment moves from experimentation to execution.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• The AI Future: A Strategic Guide to AI In Workforce Planning | Deloitte | A new 13-page paper helps rethink how SWP continues to evolve, especially in the context of AI. I share where this fits alongside my own SWP resources and the practical approach I continue to reinforce.

• For Good and for Bad: The Distinctive Effects of Successors’ Leadership Behavior on Collective Engagement and Organizational Performance | Journal of Applied Psychology | A recent study with implications for how the scenario a successor inherits shapes their readiness for the role. I expand on how succession planning can account for this.

• AI Transformation Requires Redesigning Work, Not Cutting Roles | Harvard Business Review | A new article shares evidence that AI-driven layoffs are often falling short of expected results and offers tactics for making better workforce decisions. I also share one of my bonus cheat sheets related to the topic.

• Human–AI Collaboration at Scale: Task Criticality, Agency, and Friction Across 250,000 Conversations | Stanford SALT Lab | A new Stanford study analyzes 250,000 real Claude conversations to reveal how people actually delegate work to AI and where the collaboration breaks down.

• The Value of Prompting Skills | IZA Institute of Labor Economics | A new study with German hiring managers measures the actual hiring and pay premium for AI prompting skills, and finds they raise the bar for a role rather than replacing core expertise.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

AI & WORKFORCE PLANNING

The AI Future: A Strategic Guide to AI In Workforce Planning | Deloitte

A new 13-page paper helps rethink how SWP continues to evolve, especially in the context of AI. I share where this fits alongside my own SWP resources and the practical approach I continue to reinforce.

I have written extensively on strategic workforce planning (SWP) over the years, including a book chapter in the SIOP Professional Practice Series, an article in People + Strategy, and numerous resources I’ve created and published on my website. One example is this two-page resource, which includes a sample business case slide for SWP and a one-page “good enough” plan to get started. And in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, we also go deeper through practical discussions on SWP. One point I continue to reinforce across all of these channels is that a persistent gap in SWP often comes down to organizations waiting for perfect plans, technology, or data before they start. My view is the opposite: start where you are, build the foundation, get some quick wins, learn and adjust, and evolve from there. With that in mind, a new Deloitte paper on how SWP is evolving with AI caught my attention, particularly two slides. The first, on page 12, lays out a three-year roadmap from foundational data work to what Deloitte calls an always-on, AI-orchestrated process, helping organizations phase the capability rather than get stuck in “all or nothing” thinking. The second, on page 10, maps how six stakeholder groups, from business leaders to IT, need to show up differently as SWP evolves with AI. Frameworks like these can help simplify a complex topic and translate it into action. Hopefully, it helps you build some momentum.

Access Deloitte resource

SUCCESSION PLANNING

For Good and for Bad: The Distinctive Effects of Successors’ Leadership Behavior on Collective Engagement and Organizational Performance | Journal of Applied Psychology

A recent study with implications for how the scenario a successor inherits shapes their readiness for the role. I expand on how succession planning can account for this.

Much of succession planning focuses on defining future role profiles, identifying required skills, and closing readiness gaps. These are all important. But I believe there is even greater potential in making readiness more contextual by asking: Ready for what? The same role may require a very different leader depending on whether the organization is entering a turnaround, rapid growth, major transformation, stabilization, culture reset, or a period where strong performance simply needs to be sustained. A recent study published in Journal of Applied Psychology reinforces why this distinction matters. Researchers followed leadership transitions across 113 U.S. elementary schools and found that one specific leadership approach, hands-on coaching, improved engagement and performance when employees believed change was needed, but produced declines when they did not. While the research focused on elementary schools, I believe the idea extends well beyond education: context shapes which leadership behaviors are most effective. A successor who is well prepared to lead a turnaround, for example, may not be the strongest choice for a business that needs stability and continuity. How are you factoring different scenarios, ranging from a turnaround to a culture reset, into how you assess and develop successors? As a bonus, here is one of my one-pagers on proactively identifying and taking action on talent risks in critical roles.

Access paper

AI & WORK DESIGN

AI Transformation Requires Redesigning Work, Not Cutting Roles | Harvard Business Review

A new article shares evidence that AI-driven layoffs are often falling short of expected results and offers tactics for making better workforce decisions. I also share one of my bonus cheat sheets related to the topic.

Over the past few years, I have tracked organizational layoffs and job cuts through my layoff tracker, largely to monitor shifts in the labor and job market. One observation I have made over the past several months is an increase in the number of layoff announcements citing AI as a reason for workforce reductions. I have also shared in several posts how I believe many of these decisions are being made prematurely, before organizations fully understand how AI is actually changing the work. One example is the elimination or reduction of entry-level roles. A new HBR article puts numbers behind this broader concern, drawing on several data points. For example, it cites a survey of 600 HR leaders whose organizations made AI-driven layoffs, finding that only 8.4% said the restructuring delivered as promised, while one in three reported losing critical skills they had not anticipated losing. The authors argue the more effective approach starts with the work itself, not headcount targets: breaking roles into tasks and redesigning processes around the right mix of human and AI capabilities. They share several ideas for implementing this. As a bonus, I want to reshare one of my one-pagers that tackles another issue related to layoffs: overhiring, which can partly be caused by defaulting to a decision to backfill a recently vacant role without truly understanding whether it is needed. My one-page cheat sheet includes targeted questions to help leaders make that decision, reducing the costly cycle of overhiring, job cuts, and rehiring.

Access article

AI AND WORK TASKS

Human–AI Collaboration at Scale: Task Criticality, Agency, and Friction Across 250,000 Conversations | Stanford SALT Lab

A new Stanford study analyzes 250,000 real Claude conversations to reveal how people actually delegate work to AI and where the collaboration breaks down.

Most of what we know about how employees actually use AI at work comes from surveys and self-reports. However, a new Stanford study offers a rigorous behavioral look instead, and it is the first of three studies from a new Anthropic pilot giving outside research teams (Stanford's SALT Lab, Oxford's Human Information Processing Lab, and METR) privacy preserving access to real Claude usage data. Each team received access to roughly 250,000 real Claude conversations. Here are just two of the many findings from Stanford's report (the first to be released) along with some of the practical implications. 1) 56% of the tasks people brought to AI were classified as consequential or high stakes, meaning work that is hard to reverse and carries real professional or financial weight, concentrated in advisory and professional domains. Implication: this challenges the assumption that employees mostly hand AI low stakes work, and suggests governance should focus on the majority of work that actually carries higher stakes. 2) friction, meaning moments where the human-AI collaboration broke down or required correction, showed up in nearly half of all conversations, but researchers classified much of it as productive, since working through it tended to improve the output or deepen understanding of the issue. Implication: organizations can frame this kind of friction as a normal, even necessary, part of working with AI rather than a sign the tool has failed.

Access paper

AI AND SKILLS

The Value of Prompting Skills | IZA Institute of Labor Economics

A new study with German hiring managers measures the actual hiring and pay premium for AI prompting skills, and finds they raise the bar for a role rather than replacing core expertise.

Last week, I covered a new International Labour Organization report arguing that AI literacy is becoming a foundational expected skill rather than a nice to have. A new IZA Institute of Labor Economics study drills into one subset of that literacy, prompting skills: the ability to formulate instructions, evaluate outputs, and deploy workflows. Researchers had decision makers from 992 German firms repeatedly choose between hypothetical applicants varying in prompting skills, skills gaps, and social skills, yielding 15,660 hiring choices. Applicants with stronger prompting skills had a 4 to 5 percent higher selection probability, and employers paid roughly 2 percent more for those skills. At larger and AI adopting firms, that advantage nearly doubled to about 9 percent. While prompting skills mattered, it was not the most important skill. Employers valued job fit and social skills far more, and prompting did not offset gaps in occupation specific knowledge, suggesting it is becoming an added expectation rather than a substitute for expertise. There are limitations to the study: it was a hypothetical experiment, not real hiring decisions, conducted in Germany amid rapid AI adoption, and not yet peer reviewed, though it still offers valuable insight. From my standpoint, as various aspects of AI fluency become part of hiring decisions, we need real ways to evaluate and develop it, not just recruit for it. With that backdrop, I am excited for our upcoming conversation with Tracy St. Dic, Zapier's VP of Global Talent, in Talent Edge Circle, my private community for internal HR practitioners, on Zapier’s AI fluency initiative.

Access paper

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

WORKFORCE PLANNING

Strategic Workforce Planning: Testing Demand Before You Add Headcount | Brian Heger

My one-pager helps leaders determine whether additional hiring is needed or if other talent options can address the need.

 Access my one-pager

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Campbell's Company (NASDAQ: CPB). The packaged food company reduced its salaried workforce by approximately 13% through voluntary early retirements and layoffs, alongside the closure of two snack plants. The cuts are part of a new $500 million cost-savings program targeting fiscal 2030, disclosed during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.

• The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD). The programmatic advertising company plans to reduce its total workforce by approximately 15%, an estimated 575 employees, as part of an organizational realignment following its slowest revenue growth since going public. The company expects $39 million to $51 million in restructuring charges, with cuts substantially complete by the end of the third quarter.

• Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER). The ride-hailing and delivery giant plans to lay off about 3,300 employees, or 10% of its global workforce, in its largest cuts since the pandemic. The restructuring will flatten management layers and redirect savings toward autonomous-vehicle investment, with remote work capped at about 1% of staff.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• A.P. Moller - Maersk (COPENHAGEN, DENMARK) [OTCMKTS: AMKBY] — an integrated logistics company connecting and simplifying its customers' supply chains — announced that Roberta Duarte will join as Chief People Officer and member of the Executive Leadership Team, effective November 1, 2026, succeeding Susana Elvira. Duarte previously spent a decade with Maersk from 2014 to 2024, holding senior People leadership roles across Asia Pacific and Latin America as well as Ocean & Logistics, before joining Werfen, where she currently serves as Chief People Officer.

Roberta Duarte

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 5,000 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

Screenshot of recent discussion with Dave Ulrich

We are now in September and the timeframe to make real progress on this year’s most critical talent priorities is shortening.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

Did you miss the Best of August issue 362, sponsored by eQ8. Workforce planning has just gotten easier. Check out eQ8’s AI Workforce Agent. It analyzes your business plans and strategy documents to quickly build workforce forecasts and scenario models.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to this special Best of August issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Jessica Sadowski, Talent Director at General Mills, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Jessica, for your support of this newsletter!

🗞️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly?

And immediately get 5 of my PDF cheat sheets!

PRESENTED BY eQ8

Strategic Workforce Planning Just Got Easier

What skills will matter in three years? Where are your biggest workforce risks? How will AI change workforce demand?

The Future Is Uncertain. Your Workforce Strategy Doesn't Have to Be. But forecasting an agreed trajectory has always been the hard part.

That's starting to change.

eQ8's AI Workforce Agent analyzes your business plans and strategy documents to quickly build forecasts and scenario models. You can generate risk assessments and workforce recommendations much faster.

Learn how AI-guided strategic workforce planning can help turn workforce strategy into an accelerator of business performance. In a world of constant disruption, confidence comes from seeing around corners.

THIS MONTH’S CONTENT

This Best of August issue includes the 15 most popular resources from the August issues of Talent Edge Weekly. They span three sections:

1. Future of Work, AI, and Labor Market. Covers how AI is shifting skills demand, including AI literacy; how AI is helping to uncover similarities in work tasks across occupations; broader AI-driven shifts in employment; how both AI and remote work is narrowing early-career opportunities; and the impact of AI on older workers' careers.

2. HR Impact and Value Creation. Explores how HR practitioners can continue to evolve their function to create even greater value for stakeholders; being more intentional about evaluating and selecting HR technology so that expected ROI can be achieved; and what it takes to build HR for the agentic era.

3. Talent and HR Practices. Addresses strategic workforce planning; freeing up workforce capacity from existing teams; AI-enabled coaching; assessing team readiness before rolling out a new strategy; executing more actionable talent reviews; hiring based on a candidate's potential; and enabling internal mobility.

Plus, bonus resources, along with separate sections on organization layoffs and Chief HR Officer movement that occurred in August.

I. Future of Work, AI, and Labor Market

Covers how AI is shifting skills demand, including AI literacy; how AI is helping to uncover similarities in work tasks across occupations; broader AI-driven shifts in employment; how both AI and remote work is narrowing early-career opportunities; and the impact of AI on older workers' careers.

AI AND SKILLS

Changing Landscape of Skills in the Age of AI | International Labour Organization

A new 60-page report examines how AI is reshaping skills demand, including AI literacy as a foundational capability.

HR leaders continue to help their organizations rethink how the skills of their workforce will need to shift as AI reshapes work. A new 60-page report from the International Labour Organization and five partner organizations helps shed light on this topic, with insights ranging from changing skills demand in AI-enabled organizations to AI hiring trends. One finding worth lifting up: AI literacy is becoming a foundational skill, not a nice-to-have. It frames AI literacy less as knowing how to use specific AI tools, and more as what preserves people's judgment as AI-augmented environments expand. It breaks AI literacy into three domains: technical literacy (understanding how AI systems function), analytical and data literacy (interpreting and judging AI outputs), and ethical and societal literacy (awareness of issues like data privacy, algorithmic bias, and accountability). According to the report, current AI literacy levels remain low, and training alone won't meet the growing demand, a gap that can leave the workforce unprepared. With that as the backdrop, I'm excited to have Tracy St.Dic, Global Head of Talent at Zapier, joining us soon for a discussion in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle. We'll dig into how her team built and rolled out an AI fluency initiative touching hiring, performance, and development, the rationale behind it, and lessons learned so far. If you want to be part of private discussions like these with a curated group of HR practitioners, learn more about Talent Edge Circle.

Access report

AI AND TALENT MOBILITY

Work at the Frontier: How AI Is Expanding What People Do at Work | OpenAI Economic Research

A recent report analyzes 800,000+ workplace ChatGPT conversations to show how AI use overlaps across occupations, with implications for talent mobility across occupations.

As organizations look for ways to redeploy talent to where it is needed most, one underleveraged opportunity is moving people across occupational and functional boundaries. A recent report from OpenAI’s Economic Research team offers an interesting lens into where cross-occupational movement may be most feasible. The team analyzed more than 800,000 work-related ChatGPT conversations from US business users and introduced a concept they call task crossover, instances where someone uses AI to handle work that traditionally belonged to a different occupation. After removing generic tasks like writing and scheduling, they found that 43.5 percent of occupation-specific AI use crosses those traditional job lines. Customer experience, design, and HR workers showed the highest crossover rates. The pattern was strongest at smaller organizations, where workers often do not have a specialist readily available and instead handle the work themselves with AI's help. These insights carry real value for two areas in particular, internal mobility and skills-based talent strategy. They offer an early signal of where cross-discipline work is already happening, well before it would ever show up in a job posting, a title change, or a formal redeployment plan.

Access report

AI & EMPLOYMENT

Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts About the Recent Employment Effects of AI (August 2026 Update) | Stanford Digital Economy Lab

Updated research shares six findings on employment shifts since ChatGPT’s release. I expand on one related to early-career workers and include a recent Stanford webinar that goes deeper into the research.

Stanford's Digital Economy Lab recently released an updated 140-page research paper, Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts About the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence. Using ADP payroll data through mid-2026, the authors examine employment shifts since ChatGPT's release. One insight relates to a topic I’ve covered often in Talent Edge Weekly: AI's impact on entry-level and early-career roles. Employment among workers ages 22–25 in highly AI-exposed occupations is now about 19% below where it would be had it kept pace with similarly aged workers in less-exposed occupations, up from 15% a year ago. The decline appears driven primarily by reduced hiring rather than increased separations. The declines are concentrated among younger workers in roles relying more on “codified knowledge” AI can increasingly reproduce, while experienced workers in those same occupations show no comparable decline and rely more on tacit knowledge built through judgment and experience. These insights reinforce the need to answer this question: as AI takes on more entry-level tasks, what work should replace them so early-career employees can still build the judgment and experience needed for future roles and strengthen the talent pipeline? As a bonus, here is a one-hour Stanford webinar on the updated research and its Canaries Dashboard, which tracks AI's impact on hiring by occupation, age, and gender.

Access updated paper

EARLY-CAREER AND REMOTE WORK

How Remote Work Is Narrowing Early-Career Opportunities | Harvard Business Review

New research published in Administrative Science Quarterly, and repurposed for HBR, suggests remote work, not AI, is the stronger driver behind shrinking early-career opportunity.

Over the last few months, I have shared multiple resources on how AI is reshaping entry-level and early-career roles, from a section of Stanford's AI Index report on employment declines in AI-exposed junior positions to the World Economic Forum's report on safeguarding early-career pathways. New research published in Administrative Science Quarterly, and repurposed for this new Harvard Business Review article, introduces a different factor into this discussion: remote work. Researchers analyzed more than 50 million job postings across 28 European countries and ran a controlled experiment with 1,200 hiring managers, finding that remote roles required roughly 25 percent more skills, experience, and credentials than otherwise identical in-person roles, driven largely by the loss of informal, proximity-based mentoring that once let managers take a chance on potential over experience. When the authors tested AI exposure and remote work against each other directly, the remote work effect held while the AI effect largely disappeared. One implication for early-career strategy is that we should continue to widen the lens beyond AI and look at other factors, like remote work, shaping early-career outcomes.

Access article

AI & OLDER WORKERS

Are the Careers of Older Workers Being Cut Short by AI? | The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

A recent analysis finds that workers 55 and older in highly AI-exposed jobs are leaving work earlier than expected, with the increase showing up mostly as unemployment rather than retirement.

Most of the current AI-and-jobs conversation, including my own recent coverage, has centered on entry-level role impact and the risk of failing to develop the next generation of leaders. But there are also impacts at the other end of the career tail: older workers ages 55 and older. A recent analysis from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College finds that older, highly AI-exposed workers, such as programmers and accountants, are leaving work earlier than expected since ChatGPT's launch, with the increase showing up mostly as unemployment rather than retirement. For programmers, transitions out of work rose by more than 25 percent, compared with just 2 percent for painters, one of the lowest-exposure jobs studied. The author, Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, points to three drivers: automation directly displacing workers, employees choosing to exit rather than adapt, and, less commonly so far, AI-driven productivity gains that extend careers instead. The data so far suggests the first two are outweighing the third. A few practical questions: Do you have visibility into AI-driven exit patterns among workers 55 and older? Do your succession timelines account for earlier, involuntary exits? And are you equipping late-career workers in AI-exposed roles with a path to extend their careers, rather than exit? These and other questions have implications for workforce planning and talent strategy.

Access article

II. HR Impact and Value Creation

Explores how HR practitioners can continue to evolve their function to create even greater value for stakeholders; being more intentional about evaluating and selecting HR technology so that expected ROI can be achieved; and what it takes to build HR for the agentic era.

HR VALUE CREATION

HR Inflection Point: Four Pivots and Fourteen Evolutions for HR | Dave Ulrich

Dave outlines how HR can continue to evolve to create even greater value for stakeholders. I tie it into a recent discussion with Dave in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle.

As HR practitioners explore new ways to create stakeholder value, I was excited to have Dave Ulrich, often called the Father of Modern HR, join my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, last month as a guest. We spent 90 minutes with Dave, also of The RBL Group, on the next evolution of stakeholder value through HR. This article by Dave lays out the shifts defining this moment for HR, built around the same four pivots we discussed. One point ties to his first pivot: pivoting from describing what HR does to why it matters to stakeholders. During our discussion, Dave shared the "so that" value chain, a thoughtful and practical exercise for connecting HR's impact to a stakeholder. For example: I want to build better leadership, so that our strategy happens, so that a customer buys more product, so that an investor invests more money. The "so that" value chain pushes past the first link ("build better leaders") until it answers what every stakeholder is really asking: so why does it matter to me? Try it: run an initiative you're pursuing through the "so that" value chain. If it breaks down before reaching stakeholder value, reevaluate it or think it through further. If you're part of my Talent Edge Circle, you can catch the replay of our discussion with Dave in our private online platform. Also, learn more about one of the premier programs that Dave and his colleagues at RBL run, The HR Learning Partnership (HRLP), a 5-day immersive program (with additional virtual modules) where a company sends a team of five to transform their HR function.  

Access Dave’s article

HR VALUE THROUGH HR TECH

Evaluating HR Tech: Sample Questions to Ask and Answer | Brian Heger

My editable worksheet with starter questions to help assess HR tech solutions, covering areas such as business needs, vendor evaluation, cost and ROI, and more.

I am looking forward to attending the HR Tech Conference in October, where I'll see the latest advancements in HR technology and how they can unlock stakeholder value within organizations. As HR teams evaluate various HR tech solutions, here's my one-pager with questions across four areas, including Business Needs (e.g., What problems are we solving, and how will the technology help us do things more effectively than today?) and Vendor Evaluation (e.g., What percentage of the vendor's customers use the platform for the functionality we need, and with what results?). A third area, Cost and ROI, gets at things such as What is the total cost of ownership, including implementation and ongoing maintenance? How will we measure the ROI? Will the ROI be delivered in the near term or over a longer period of time? What value will be captured in year one, year two, year three, and beyond? This part of the business case is often overlooked, yet critical, since value from tech solutions tends to be unlocked gradually rather than immediately. On that note, a special thanks to Patti Phillips, Ph.D., CEO of ROI Institute, who recently joined my Talent Edge Circle as a guest speaker for a great discussion on ROI for talent initiatives and human capital. For those of you ready to demonstrate the impact and ROI of a specific initiative, consider joining the other 21,000+ practitioners who have participated in the ROI Institute’s ROI Certification program. And if you're part of my Talent Edge Circle community, RSVP in our private platform for my 11/5/26 session where I'll share my insights and key takeaways from the HR Tech conference.

Access my one-pager

AI & HR FUNCTION

Escaping the Pilot Trap: Building HR for The Agentic Era | McKinsey

A new article on building HR for the agentic era includes a framework mapping the automation potential of specific HR processes into three levels.

As many HR leaders and their teams continue to think through the impacts of AI on HR's work, a new McKinsey article offers a few useful ideas. The one part I want to highlight is Exhibit 1, which maps the automation potential of specific HR processes, from candidate screening to payroll to benefits administration, into three levels: 1) fully automated (an agent completes the work end to end, no human involvement), like generating a verification letter; 2) fully automated in delivery (an agent runs the workflow, but a human owns policy and exceptions), like payroll; and 3) augmented (a human leads, an agent supports), like a business partner using agent-assembled analytics in a succession review while still owning the judgment call. A visual like this can help facilitate conversations within HR teams about where AI may reshape their work, and how new ways of delivering that work will require changes in the HR skill set. As HR work moves toward augmented, more consultative, judgment-based work, HR practitioners will need to continue to build capabilities to match. Against this backdrop, you should check out a four-part series by Deloitte, HR Reimagined 2.0., along with downloadable slides, which helps explain how AI will continue to shape the HR function, unlocking more opportunities for HR to create stakeholder value.

Access article

III. Talent and HR Practices

Addresses strategic workforce planning; freeing up workforce capacity from existing teams; AI-enabled coaching; assessing team readiness before rolling out a new strategy; executing more actionable talent reviews; hiring based on a candidate's potential; and enabling internal mobility.

WORKFORCE PLANNING

Strategic Workforce Planning: Testing Demand Before You Add Headcount | Brian Heger

My one-pager helps leaders determine whether additional hiring is needed or if other talent options can address the need.

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) is consistently ranked as a top priority by HR leaders. Yet it has one of the largest gaps between ranked importance and organizational capability. One costly result of ineffective SWP is a familiar cycle: organizations hire aggressively based on optimistic or insufficiently tested assumptions, lay people off when workforce supply exceeds demand, and then rehire when demand returns or essential capabilities prove harder to replace than expected. Not every workforce reduction is evidence of overhiring. But when organizations repeatedly hire, cut, and rehire for similar work, it is a signal to examine whether demand assumptions, work design, capacity planning, and talent alternatives are being sufficiently tested before costly workforce decisions are made. To help leaders identify where this risk may be building, I created a simple “Before You Add Headcount” diagnostic covering demand signals, work and capacity signals, and talent-alternative signals. Instead of asking only, “Do we need more people?” leaders can ask: “What work needs to be done, what is driving the need, and what is the best way to meet that work demand?” Testing these three signal areas before hiring enables leaders to make better and more informed talent decisions. As a bonus, here are two of my slides that can help advance your SWP efforts. It includes an example business case slide for SWP and a one-page plan for getting started.

Access my one-pager

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY

Freeing Up Workforce Capacity From the Team You Already Have | Brian Heger

My one-pager shares 9 ways organizational ways of working can quietly diminish workforce capacity, with warning signs to watch for and one practical next step to address each one.

One objective of workforce planning is ensuring that an organization has the workforce capacity to execute its critical goals and priorities. While acquiring more people (e.g., employees, contractors, etc.) is one way to increase workforce capacity, another way is to unlock capacity of an organization's existing workforce through improved ways of working. Picture a team losing 30% of its time to low-value meetings, prolonged decision-making processes, and work duplicated because no one is clearly accountable for it. By streamlining meetings, speeding up decision-making, and assigning clear ownership for shared work, that same team can free up significant capacity. For example, Shopify reclaimed 76,500+ meeting hours by cutting recurring meetings and completed 25% more projects. AT&T saved 3.6 million hours and over $230 million in three years by eliminating outdated processes, tools, and policies hindering effective ways of working. Where is there trapped capacity on your team and organization? My one-pager covers 9 barriers that quietly limit workforce capacity, from priority misalignment to goal creep (where goals gradually expand without recalibrating priorities and resources) to meeting overload, with the warning signs to watch for and one practical next step for each. As a bonus, since goal creep is one of the barriers covered, I am resharing my other one-pager, to help teams recalibrate goals intentionally.

Access my one-pager

AI-ENABLED COACHING

Coaching in the Age of AI: Perspectives on Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions | SpringerBriefs in Psychology

A recently published 191-page open-access ebook spans 17 chapters on AI-enabled coaching, from leadership development applications to ethical standards.

Technology continues to create new opportunities for organizations to expand coaching at scale, prompting HR practitioners to determine where AI-enabled coaching fits within their broader coaching strategies. In fact, given growing Talent Edge Weekly reader interest in this topic, I recently invited Dr. Anna Tavis, Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU and author of The Digital Coaching Revolution, to join my private community, Talent Edge Circle, as a guest speaker on the topic. We covered topics ranging from the democratization of coaching and the emergence of fully AI-powered coaches to privacy and data ownership. For those looking to explore the topic further, another useful resource is the recently released, open-access ebook, Coaching in the Age of AI, edited by Robert Wegener, Tamara Garcia, Nicky Terblanche, and Till Grossrieder. This 191-page volume spans 17 chapters covering everything from AI coaching for leadership development to ethical standards for AI coaching platforms and the future of the coaching profession. A physical book version is also available for purchase. And if you are part of Talent Edge Circle, you can also access the 90-minute replay of our recent discussion on AI-enabled coaching in our private member platform.

Access ebook

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

CHANGE READINESS & CAPACITY

Before Rolling Out a New Strategy, Assess Your Team’s Readiness | Harvard Business Review

A new article offers a framework for increasing organizational readiness before launching a new strategy, including three conditions leaders should assess and tactics for strengthening each one.

I recently shared a post on organizational capacity to absorb change, drawing on research showing employees can realistically take on only one or two major changes per year, even though leaders are planning three or four by 2027. That post focused on the volume of change across an organization. This HBR article picks up a different thread: even when the volume of change is reasonable, a single initiative can still fail if the right conditions were never built before launch. The author calls this the Readiness Triad: appetite (are people genuinely committed to the outcome and do they see it as theirs to shape), capacity (does the organization have the bandwidth, focus, and resilience to sustain the work), and skillset (the degree to which current capabilities match the actual demands of the work). McKinsey and BCG research cited in the article finds roughly 30% of large-scale change programs deliver expected value, with execution failures tracing to one of these gaps, not a flawed strategy. A few tactics proposed for each: for appetite, explicitly connect the work to something people value. For skillset, create low-stakes practice before the real stakes get high. For capacity, postpone one initiative so another can succeed, or shift resources to what matters most. On that last point, I am resharing my one-page template that helps leaders see all organizational changes in one view, so they can make strategic choices about resource allocation, timing, pacing, and other decisions that determine the success of change efforts.

Access article

TALENT REVIEWS

Executing More Actionable Talent Reviews: 3 Related Tactics | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet on the three interrelated tactics that determine whether a talent review leads to action or just conversation.

Many organizations conduct some version of a talent review. While the specific topics covered will vary by organization, themes range from identifying employees who can advance into larger, more complex roles, to managing unwanted retention risk, to ensuring succession depth for critical roles. One thing I have learned over the years of running many talent reviews across different industries is the real differentiator is strong discipline on what happens after the talent review, not just during it. And that discipline is informed by answering three interrelated questions: 1) Action plan clarity: what specific action are we agreeing to take as a result of this review? 2) Business leader accountability: who outside of HR owns this action? 3) Follow up: What is the timing and expectation for reporting back on the progress and outcomes of the actions identified, and what is the success metric for each action? These three are not independent checkboxes but rather are interconnected. For example, a clear and owned action with no check in date rarely happens on time, and an action with a deadline but no named owner rarely gets prioritized. While these three areas sound easy and fundamental, they are not consistently executed and sometimes are missed completely. To help put this into practice, here is my cheat sheet with a few ideas that can help identify opportunities for enabling more impactful talent reviews. As a bonus, here is my one-pager on succession planning (SP) that consolidates four of my SP resources into into one view, including SP questions, metrics, development role audit, and triggers that prompt SP reevaluation. And here is another one on talent reviews.

Access my cheat sheet

HIRING FOR POTENTIAL

The Power of Opportunity Mindset in Hiring | MIT Sloan Management Review

A new article argues for hiring based on potential, not pedigree, to uncover overlooked talent. I also reshare my hidden talent infographic.

One persistent challenge in hiring is the gap between how objective organizations believe their process is and how objective it actually is. A new article by Emilio J. Castilla, professor at MIT Sloan and author of The Meritocracy Paradox, examines this challenge. His research has found that the more confident a hiring team feels its process is fair and merit-based, the less vigilant it becomes about the bias that shapes who gets hired, which can result in hiring criteria that unintentionally exclude capable candidates from less traditional backgrounds. His alternative is what he calls an opportunity mindset: hire people who are good enough to succeed, then build the onboarding, mentorship, and development structures that help good people become great. He illustrates the shift with a simple example. Say an engineering team has an open entry-level role. The traditional approach narrows the pipeline to candidates with a four-year computer science degree from a highly ranked university. Under an opportunity mindset, the team instead asks what skills the role actually requires, then widens the pool to include community college graduates, career switchers, and parents returning to the workforce. As a bonus, I am resharing my post and infographic on eight segments of “hidden workers” and the red flags that may indicate your hiring process is overlooking them.

Access article

INTERNAL MOBILITY RESEARCH

Internal Mobility: 7 Research Studies and Findings to Inform Practice | Brian Heger

My one-pager highlights seven research studies on internal mobility, translating each into a key finding and practical implication for talent leaders.

With many organizations increasingly focused on moving internal talent to opportunities, from full-time roles and lateral moves to short-term projects and gigs, we’ve been spending time in my private community, Talent Edge Circle, discussing ways to strengthen internal mobility. Aside from sharing practices and lessons learned from implementations within our own organizations, we also draw from academic and scientific research to help shape and test different strategies. With that in mind, I pulled together seven studies that can help others stay current on the research. They cover different factors impacting internal mobility, including talent hoarding, how development breadth affects lateral movement, how certain jobs shape future career options, the role managers play in enabling mobility, how internal talent markets balance employee preferences with business needs, and the career value of lateral moves. The studies were published in journals such as the American Economic Review, Academy of Management Journal, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Management Science. Since some full articles require a subscription, my one-pager summarizes what each study examined, a key finding, and one potential implication for talent practice, with links to the original research so you can explore further.

Access my one-pager

JOB CUTS TRACKER

Here is my tracker, which includes announcements from a segment of organizations that have announced job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few announcements from August:

• Imperial Brands (LSE: IMB). The British tobacco giant is preparing to cut thousands of jobs across the U.S. and Europe as part of a broader cost-reduction plan. The first wave will hit its U.S. subsidiary ITG Brands — spanning HR, finance, procurement, and supply chain roles, followed by a second phase affecting legal, marketing, and insights teams around mid-2027, as the company contends with declining cigarette sales.

• PagerDuty (NYSE: PD). The AI-first incident management software company is cutting about 15% of its workforce, or roughly 173 roles, under a global restructuring to realign teams and boost operational efficiency. PagerDuty expects $5.5 million to $7.5 million in related charges, mostly landing in fiscal Q3 and Q4 2027.

• Sodexo (EPA: SW). The food services and facilities management company plans to cut 963 positions in France, about 4% of its French workforce, as part of an overhaul to accelerate growth and improve competitiveness. A separate project tied to the group's head office could add up to 134 more job losses.

• Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN). The meat processing giant is laying off about 3,321 employees as it permanently closes beef plants in Joslin, Illinois, and Eagle Mountain, Utah, by October 12. The company cited a historic national cattle shortage and is consolidating its beef operations into facilities in Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.

• Zillow Group (NASDAQ: Z). The online real estate and rental marketplace is laying off more than 500 employees, about 7% of its workforce, in its second and largest round of cuts this year. The company said the move is about cost discipline and efficiency rather than AI adoption.

Access all announcements

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVES

In August, I tracked 67 hires, promotions, and resignations in the Chief HR Officer (CHRO) role through CHROs on the Go, my subscription-based digital platform that monitors movement in and out of the CHRO role.

A few headlines from August:

• 3M (ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA) [NYSE: MMM] — a global science and innovation company — announced the appointment of Jennifer Cunningham as EVP and Chief HR Officer. Cunningham joins 3M following a career spanning more than 28 years in HR including nearly 24 years with ADM— a global agricultural supply chain manager and processor—where she most recently served as VP HR  – Global Commercial, North America and LATAM.

• Conagra Brands, Inc. (CHICAGO, ILLINOIS) [NYSE: CAG] — one of North America's leading branded food companies — announced that Charisse Brock, EVP and Chief HR Officer, will retire in October after 20 years of service. Her HR responsibilities move to a newly created Chief Administrative Officer role, to which Conagra has named Amy Held, effective September 14, 2026. Held joins from The Simply Good Foods Company where she has served as Chief HR Officer since March 2024.​

• Danaher Corporation​ (WASHINGTON, D.C.) [NYSE: DHR] — a global science and technology company — announced that​ Heathre Moler​ will succeed​ Georgeann Couchara​ as Chief HR Officer, effective October 1, 2026. Couchara has held the CHRO role since April 2022.​ ​Moler has spent more than a decade at Danaher, most recently as Group VP, HR for the Diagnostics platform, and previously held HR leadership roles across the company's Water Quality, Hach, ChemTreat and Thomson Industries divisions.

To access all 67 detailed announcements from August and +5,000 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR Officer role. Monthly + annual subscriptions available.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

We're heading into September, and just over 65% of 2026 has passed. If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

With only four months left to make an impact in 2026, give yourself the edge now.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to the new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Bonnie Levitt, Chief HR Officer at Citadel Credit Union, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Bonnie, for your support of this newsletter!

 Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY eQ8

Strategic Workforce Planning Just Got Easier

What skills will matter in three years? Where are your biggest workforce risks? How will AI change workforce demand?

The Future Is Uncertain. Your Workforce Strategy Doesn't Have to Be. But forecasting an agreed trajectory has always been the hard part.

That's starting to change.

eQ8's AI Workforce Agent analyzes your business plans and strategy documents to quickly build forecasts and scenario models. You can generate risk assessments and workforce recommendations much faster.

Learn how AI-guided strategic workforce planning can help turn workforce strategy into an accelerator of business performance. In a world of constant disruption, confidence comes from seeing around corners.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• Strategic Workforce Planning: Testing Demand Before You Add Headcount | Brian Heger | My one-pager helps leaders determine whether additional hiring is needed or if other talent options can address the need.

• Work at the Frontier: How AI Is Expanding What People Do at Work | OpenAI Economic Research | A new report analyzes 800,000+ workplace ChatGPT conversations to show how AI use overlaps across occupations, with implications for talent mobility across occupations.

• Coaching in the Age of AI: Perspectives on Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions | SpringerBriefs in Psychology | A recently published 191-page open-access ebook spans 17 chapters on AI-enabled coaching, from leadership development applications to ethical standards.

• Internal Mobility: 7 Research Studies and Findings to Inform Practice | Brian Heger | My one-pager highlights seven research studies on internal mobility, translating each into a key finding and practical implication for talent leaders.

• The Power of Opportunity Mindset in Hiring | MIT Sloan Management Review | A new article argues for hiring based on potential, not pedigree, to uncover overlooked talent. I also reshare my hidden talent infographic.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

TALENT EDGE CIRCLE - my private community

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

WORKFORCE PLANNING

Strategic Workforce Planning: Testing Demand Before You Add Headcount | Brian Heger

My one-pager helps leaders determine whether additional hiring is needed or if other talent options can address the need.

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) is consistently ranked as a top priority by HR leaders. Yet it has one of the largest gaps between ranked importance and organizational capability. One costly result of ineffective SWP is a familiar cycle: organizations hire aggressively based on optimistic or insufficiently tested assumptions, lay people off when workforce supply exceeds demand, and then rehire when demand returns or essential capabilities prove harder to replace than expected. Not every workforce reduction is evidence of overhiring. But when organizations repeatedly hire, cut, and rehire for similar work, it is a signal to examine whether demand assumptions, work design, capacity planning, and talent alternatives are being sufficiently tested before costly workforce decisions are made. To help leaders identify where this risk may be building, I created a simple “Before You Add Headcount” diagnostic covering demand signals, work and capacity signals, and talent-alternative signals. Instead of asking only, “Do we need more people?” leaders can ask: “What work needs to be done, what is driving the need, and what is the best way to meet that work demand?” Testing these three signal areas before hiring enables leaders to make better and more informed talent decisions.

Access my one-pager

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Work at the Frontier: How AI Is Expanding What People Do at Work | OpenAI Economic Research

A new report analyzes 800,000+ workplace ChatGPT conversations to show how AI use overlaps across occupations, with implications for talent mobility across occupations.

As organizations look for ways to redeploy talent to where it is needed most, one underleveraged opportunity is moving people across occupational and functional boundaries. A new report from OpenAI’s Economic Research team offers an interesting lens into where cross-occupational movement may be most feasible. The team analyzed more than 800,000 work-related ChatGPT conversations from US business users and introduced a concept they call task crossover, instances where someone uses AI to handle work that traditionally belonged to a different occupation. After removing generic tasks like writing and scheduling, they found that 43.5 percent of occupation-specific AI use crosses those traditional job lines. Customer experience, design, and HR workers showed the highest crossover rates. The pattern was strongest at smaller organizations, where workers often do not have a specialist readily available and instead handle the work themselves with AI's help. These insights carry real value for two areas in particular, internal mobility and skills-based talent strategy. They offer an early signal of where cross-discipline work is already happening, well before it would ever show up in a job posting, a title change, or a formal redeployment plan.

Access report

AI-ENABLED COACHING

Coaching in the Age of AI: Perspectives on Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions | SpringerBriefs in Psychology

A recently published 191-page open-access ebook spans 17 chapters on AI-enabled coaching, from leadership development applications to ethical standards.

Technology continues to create new opportunities for organizations to expand coaching at scale, prompting HR practitioners to determine where AI-enabled coaching fits within their broader coaching strategies. In fact, given growing Talent Edge Weekly reader interest in this topic, I recently invited Dr. Anna Tavis, Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU and author of The Digital Coaching Revolution, to join my private community, Talent Edge Circle, as a guest speaker on the topic. We covered topics ranging from the democratization of coaching and the emergence of fully AI-powered coaches to privacy and data ownership. For those looking to explore the topic further, another useful resource is the recently released, open-access ebook, Coaching in the Age of AI, edited by Robert Wegener, Tamara Garcia, Nicky Terblanche, and Till Grossrieder. This 191-page volume spans 17 chapters covering everything from AI coaching for leadership development to ethical standards for AI coaching platforms and the future of the coaching profession. A physical book version is also available for purchase. And if you are part of Talent Edge Circle, you can also access the 90-minute replay of our recent discussion on AI-enabled coaching in our private member platform.

Access ebook

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Internal Mobility: 7 Research Studies and Findings to Inform Practice | Brian Heger

My one-pager highlights seven research studies on internal mobility, translating each into a key finding and practical implication for talent leaders.

With many organizations increasingly focused on moving internal talent to opportunities, from full-time roles and lateral moves to short-term projects and gigs, we’ve been spending time in Talent Edge Circle, my private community for internal HR practitioners, discussing ways to strengthen internal mobility. Aside from sharing practices and lessons learned from implementations within our own organizations, we also draw from academic and scientific research to help shape and test different strategies. With that in mind, I pulled together seven studies that can help others stay current on the research. They cover different factors impacting internal mobility, including talent hoarding, how development breadth affects lateral movement, how certain jobs shape future career options, the role managers play in enabling mobility, how internal talent markets balance employee preferences with business needs, and the career value of lateral moves. The studies were published in journals such as the American Economic Review, Academy of Management Journal, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Management Science. Since some full articles require a subscription, my one-pager summarizes what each study examined, a key finding, and one potential implication for talent practice, with links to the original research so you can explore further.

Access my one-pager

TALENT ACQUISITION

The Power of Opportunity Mindset in Hiring | MIT Sloan Management Review

A new article argues for hiring based on potential, not pedigree, to uncover overlooked talent. I also reshare my hidden talent infographic.

One persistent challenge in hiring is the gap between how objective organizations believe their process is and how objective it actually is. A new article by Emilio J. Castilla, professor at MIT Sloan and author of The Meritocracy Paradox, examines this challenge. His research has found that the more confident a hiring team feels its process is fair and merit-based, the less vigilant it becomes about the bias that shapes who gets hired, which can result in hiring criteria that unintentionally exclude capable candidates from less traditional backgrounds. His alternative is what he calls an opportunity mindset: hire people who are good enough to succeed, then build the onboarding, mentorship, and development structures that help good people become great. He illustrates the shift with a simple example. Say an engineering team has an open entry-level role. The traditional approach narrows the pipeline to candidates with a four-year computer science degree from a highly ranked university. Under an opportunity mindset, the team instead asks what skills the role actually requires, then widens the pool to include community college graduates, career switchers, and parents returning to the workforce. As a bonus, I am resharing my post and infographic on eight segments of “hidden workers” and the red flags that may indicate your hiring process is overlooking them.

Access article

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY

Freeing Up Workforce Capacity From the Team You Already Have | Brian Heger

My one-pager shares 9 ways organizational ways of working can quietly diminish workforce capacity, with warning signs to watch for and one practical next step to address each one.

Access my one-pager

BONUS RESOURCE

CRITICAL ROLES

Are Your Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet offers five factors for evaluating whether a critical role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value.

Access my cheat sheet

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• HelloFresh (OTCMKTS: HLFFF). The meal-kit company is closing its Swedesboro, New Jersey distribution center, cutting 374 jobs effective November 17. The company said the facility's operations will be integrated into its broader fulfillment network.

• Qualtrics. The experience-management software company is cutting jobs across its Seattle and Provo, Utah headquarters and international offices, with at least 50 roles confirmed cut at its Seattle site. The reductions follow the company's $6.75 billion acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta and are aimed at eliminating duplication between the combined organizations.

• Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN). The meat processing giant is laying off about 3,321 employees as it permanently closes beef plants in Joslin, Illinois, and Eagle Mountain, Utah, by October 12. The company cited a historic national cattle shortage and is consolidating its beef operations into facilities in Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• 3M (ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA) [NYSE: MMM] — a global science and innovation company — announced the appointment of Jennifer Cunningham as EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer. Jennifer joins 3M following a career spanning more than 28 years in HR including nearly 24 years with ADM— a global agricultural supply chain manager and processor—where she most recently served as VP HR  – Global Commercial, North America and LATAM. 

Jennifer Cunningham 

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 5,000 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

Screenshot of recent discussion with Dave Ulrich

We are one week away from the start of September. With the Fall season approaching quickly, the timeframe to make real progress on this year’s most critical talent priorities is shortening.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF JULY 2026

SPONSORED BY

Did you miss the “Best of July ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #358, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of July issue. Download Draup’s paper on Which Skills Stay Durable When AI Can Do the Task

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

PRESENTED BY

Welcome to the new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to David Hinds, Sr. Director, Talent Development at Spectrum, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, David, for your support of this newsletter!

 Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY Talent Edge Circle

My private community for internal HR practitioners

If you’re part of my private community, Talent Edge Circle, this is a reminder that we have an upcoming discussion this week you won’t want to miss.

On Thursday, Aug 20, Patti Phillips, CEO of the ROI Institute, will join us for a 90-minute discussion on Demonstrating the ROI and Impact of Talent Initiatives.

And thanks again to Dave Ulrich, Co-Founder & Principal at The RBL Group, for recently joining us to discuss Creating Stakeholder Value Through Human Capability. Check out last week’s issue to learn about two learning opportunities from Dave and his colleagues at RBL: the HR Learning Partnership (HRLP) and the RBL Institute.

If you’re an internal HR practitioner and not yet a member of my Talent Edge Circle, learn more and apply below.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts About the Recent Employment Effects of AI (August 2026 Update) | Stanford Digital Economy Lab | Updated research shares six findings on employment shifts since ChatGPT’s release. I expand on one related to early-career workers and include a recent Stanford webinar that goes deeper into the research.

• Making the Invisible Hand Visible: Managers and The Allocation of Workers to Jobs | Quarterly Journal of Economics | A recent study of 200,000+ workers explores how manager behaviors that support internal talent mobility can lead to various positive outcomes, including an increased number of lateral moves.

• Freeing Up Workforce Capacity From the Team You Already Have | Brian Heger | My one-pager shares 9 ways organizational ways of working can quietly diminish workforce capacity, with warning signs to watch for and one practical next step to address each one.

• Before Rolling Out a New Strategy, Assess Your Team’s Readiness | Harvard Business Review | A new article offers a framework for increasing organizational readiness before launching a new strategy, including three conditions leaders should assess and tactics for strengthening each one.

• Book Feature: The Changing Leadership Landscape: New Challenges, New Expectations, New Actions | SIOP Professional Practice Series | I highlight this new book, edited by Sheri Feinzig, Ph.D., and Mariangela Battista, Ph.D., which brings together nearly 50 contributors to examine how leadership is changing, along with strategies and tactics for leading effectively in a new era.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

AI & EMPLOYMENT

Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts About the Recent Employment Effects of AI (August 2026 Update) | Stanford Digital Economy Lab

Updated research shares six findings on employment shifts since ChatGPT’s release. I expand on one related to early-career workers and include a recent Stanford webinar that goes deeper into the research.

Stanford's Digital Economy Lab just released an updated 140-page research paper, Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts About the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence. Using ADP payroll data through mid-2026, the authors examine employment shifts since ChatGPT's release. One insight relates to a topic I’ve covered often in Talent Edge Weekly: AI's impact on entry-level and early-career roles. Employment among workers ages 22–25 in highly AI-exposed occupations is now about 19% below where it would be had it kept pace with similarly aged workers in less-exposed occupations, up from 15% a year ago. The decline appears driven primarily by reduced hiring rather than increased separations. The declines are concentrated among younger workers in roles relying more on “codified knowledge” AI can increasingly reproduce, while experienced workers in those same occupations show no comparable decline and rely more on tacit knowledge built through judgment and experience. These insights reinforce the need to answer this question: as AI takes on more entry-level tasks, what work should replace them so early-career employees can still build the judgment and experience needed for future roles and strengthen the talent pipeline? As a bonus, here is a one-hour Stanford webinar on the updated research and its Canaries Dashboard, which tracks AI's impact on hiring by occupation, age, and gender.

Access updated paper

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Making the Invisible Hand Visible: Managers and The Allocation of Workers to Jobs | Quarterly Journal of Economics

A recent study of 200,000+ workers explores how manager behaviors that support internal talent mobility can lead to various positive outcomes, including an increased number of lateral moves.

I am looking forward to attending the 2026 HR Tech Conference in October, where I will get a firsthand look at where HR technology, including internal mobility (IM) platforms, is headed next. But as I have shared many times, while technology is a critical enabler of IM, many non-technological factors also determine its impact. One example is organizational practices and guidelines that can unintentionally get in the way of talent movement, which I cover in my one-page diagnostic. Another underleveraged factor is the manager. A recent Quarterly Journal of Economics study of 200,000+ white-collar workers and 30,000 managers over 11 years reinforces this point. Seven years after gaining a high-flyer manager (defined as reaching the first management level by age 30), employees’ lateral moves were 40% higher, including moves into different types of work and functions. Pay was also 13% higher, with 64% of the higher salary explained by lateral job changes. The organizational benefit went beyond mobility: these managers also increased employee sales productivity. What is most interesting is what these managers actually did to support IM: they spent more time in one-on-ones, provided structured feedback, created opportunities aligned with employees’ skills and aspirations, and encouraged employees to explore new roles, teams, and projects. As your organization invests in IM technology, is it making the same investment in the manager behaviors that enable mobility to actually happen?

Access research

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY

Freeing Up Workforce Capacity From the Team You Already Have | Brian Heger

My one-pager shares 9 ways organizational ways of working can quietly diminish workforce capacity, with warning signs to watch for and one practical next step to address each one.

One objective of workforce planning is ensuring that an organization has the workforce capacity to execute its critical goals and priorities. While acquiring more people (e.g., employees, contractors, etc.) is one way to increase workforce capacity, another way is to unlock capacity of an organization's existing workforce through improved ways of working. Picture a team losing 30% of its time to low-value meetings, prolonged decision-making processes, and work duplicated because no one is clearly accountable for it. By streamlining meetings, speeding up decision-making, and assigning clear ownership for shared work, that same team can free up significant capacity. For example, Shopify reclaimed 76,500+ meeting hours by cutting recurring meetings and completed 25% more projects. AT&T saved 3.6 million hours and over $230 million in three years by eliminating outdated processes, tools, and policies hindering effective ways of working. Where is there trapped capacity on your team and organization? My one-pager covers 9 barriers that quietly limit workforce capacity, from priority misalignment to goal creep (where goals gradually expand without recalibrating priorities and resources) to meeting overload, with the warning signs to watch for and one practical next step for each. As a bonus, since goal creep is one of the barriers covered, I am resharing my other one-pager, to help teams recalibrate goals intentionally.

Access my one-pager

CHANGE READINESS & CAPACITY

Before Rolling Out a New Strategy, Assess Your Team’s Readiness | Harvard Business Review

A new article offers a framework for increasing organizational readiness before launching a new strategy, including three conditions leaders should assess and tactics for strengthening each one.

I recently shared a post on organizational capacity to absorb change, drawing on research showing employees can realistically take on only one or two major changes per year, even though leaders are planning three or four by 2027. That post focused on the volume of change across an organization. This HBR article picks up a different thread: even when the volume of change is reasonable, a single initiative can still fail if the right conditions were never built before launch. The author calls this the Readiness Triad: appetite (are people genuinely committed to the outcome and do they see it as theirs to shape), capacity (does the organization have the bandwidth, focus, and resilience to sustain the work), and skillset (the degree to which current capabilities match the actual demands of the work). McKinsey and BCG research cited in the article finds roughly 30% of large-scale change programs deliver expected value, with execution failures tracing to one of these gaps, not a flawed strategy. A few tactics proposed for each: for appetite, explicitly connect the work to something people value. For skillset, create low-stakes practice before the real stakes get high. For capacity, postpone one initiative so another can succeed, or shift resources to what matters most. On that last point, I am resharing my one-page template that helps leaders see all organizational changes in one view, so they can make strategic choices about resource allocation, timing, pacing, and other decisions that determine the success of change efforts.

Access article

LEADERSHIP

Book Feature: The Changing Leadership Landscape: New Challenges, New Expectations, New Actions | SIOP Professional Practice Series

I highlight this new book, edited by Sheri Feinzig, Ph.D., and Mariangela Battista, Ph.D., which brings together nearly 50 contributors to examine how leadership is changing, along with strategies and tactics for leading effectively in this new era.

As someone who contributed a chapter, Enabling Strategic Workforce Planning Through Skills, Artificial Intelligence, and Internal Talent Marketplace, to Strategic Workforce Planning: Best Practices and Emerging Directions (SIOP Professional Practice Series, March 29, 2024), edited by Marc Sokol, Ph.D., and Beverly Tarulli, Ph.D., I am always excited when the SIOP series releases a new book on an important topic. I value how these robust resources bring together perspectives from corporate practice, academia, and consulting to help translate ideas into practices that create stakeholder value. That is why I had been eagerly awaiting the recent release of The Changing Leadership Landscape: New Challenges, New Expectations, New Actions, edited by Sheri Feinzig, Ph.D. and Mariangela Battista, Ph.D.. Spanning 500+ pages and 27 chapters, with nearly 50 contributing authors, the book examines how leadership is changing amid hybrid and remote work, AI, and continued disruption, while also offering strategies and tactics for leading effectively in this new era. I'm looking forward to exploring these themes further this fall when Sheri and Mariangela join my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, as guest speakers for a practical and strategic discussion on this very topic.

Learn more about the book

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

TALENT REVIEWS

Executing More Actionable Talent Reviews: 3 Related Tactics | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet on the three interrelated tactics that determine whether a talent review leads to action or just conversation.

Access my cheat sheet

BONUS RESOURCE

TALENT STRATEGY

Talent Strategy Mix: 12 Examples of Tactics | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet with 12 talent tactics that help organizations determine when each approach works well, when it doesn’t, and examples of them in practice.

 Access cheat sheet

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Imperial Brands (LSE: IMB). The British tobacco giant is preparing to cut thousands of jobs across the U.S. and Europe as part of a broader cost-reduction plan. The first wave will hit its U.S. subsidiary ITG Brands, spanning HR, finance, procurement, and supply chain roles, with notices possible as early as Aug. 19. This will be followed by a second phase affecting legal, marketing, and insights teams around mid-2027, as the company contends with declining cigarette sales.

• Rapid7, Inc. (NASDAQ: RPD). The cybersecurity company is cutting about 12% of its workforce, roughly 300 employees, as part of a board-approved restructuring to concentrate resources on its core Detection and Response and Exposure Management platform and expand AI investment. The plan, disclosed alongside Q2 2026 earnings, will incur $10–$11 million in restructuring charges, mostly in Q3 and Q4 2026.

• reAlpha Tech Corp (NASDAQ: AIRE). The AI-powered real estate technology company disclosed in its second-quarter earnings release that it implemented a restructuring plan cutting approximately 25% of its global workforce. The reduction also included rationalizing third-party vendor relationships to better align the company's cost structure with its strategic objectives.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• Paysafe (LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM) [NYSE: PSFE] — a global payments platform — has appointed Najuma Atkinson as Chief People Officer. Atkinson most recently (March 2025) served as EVP and Chief People Officer at Hasbro, the toy and entertainment company. Prior to Hasbro, she spent more than 20 years at Dell Technologies, progressing to SVP of Global HR Services through key roles across HR, Strategy and Customer Experience. In her new capacity, she assumes full responsibility for Paysafe's global People function, reporting into CEO Bruce Lowthers. 

Najuma Atkinson 

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 5,000 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

Screenshot of recent discussion with Dave Ulrich

We’re at the mid-point of August, and 60% of 2026 is complete. With the Fall season approaching quickly, the timeframe to make real progress on this year’s most critical talent priorities is shortening.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF JULY 2026

SPONSORED BY

Did you miss the “Best of July ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #358, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of July issue. Download Draup’s paper on Which Skills Stay Durable When AI Can Do the Task

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to the new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Liz Dente, Chief People Officer at Priceline, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Liz, for your support of this newsletter!

👉️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY 365Talents 
^{_{A Docebo Company}}

The 2026 Skills Toolkit

Your 2026 skills plan is not stalling because of strategy. It is stalling because of the work nobody has time to do.

The business case that keeps getting deferred. The RFP that never quite gets started. The rollout plan that lives only in your head.

Move past these bottlenecks. Here are 14 ready-to-use templates to build your skills strategy, covering business case, vendor selection, transformation and rollout. Browse by category, download what you need, customize for your organization.

P.S. See 365Talents’ AI-powered skills intelligence in action. Book a demo

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• Executing More Actionable Talent Reviews: 3 Related Tactics | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet on the three interrelated tactics that determine whether a talent review leads to action or just conversation.

• How Remote Work Is Narrowing Early-Career Opportunities | Harvard Business Review | New research published in Administrative Science Quarterly, and repurposed for HBR, suggests remote work, not AI, is the stronger driver behind shrinking early-career opportunity.

• Are the Careers of Older Workers Being Cut Short by AI? | The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College | A recent analysis finds that workers 55 and older in highly AI-exposed jobs are leaving work earlier than expected, with the increase showing up mostly as unemployment rather than retirement.

• Escaping the Pilot Trap: Building HR for The Agentic Era | McKinsey | A new article on building HR for the agentic era includes a framework mapping the automation potential of specific HR processes into three levels.

• Do You Want More Content on the Impact of AI on Organization Design? | Brian Heger | A quick post inviting readers into a recent Talent Edge Circle discussion on how AI is reshaping organization design. Includes a chance to weigh in on whether this topic becomes a recurring topic in the newsletter.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

TALENT EDGE CIRCLE - my private community

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

TALENT REVIEWS

Executing More Actionable Talent Reviews: 3 Related Tactics | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet on the three interrelated tactics that determine whether a talent review leads to action or just conversation.

Many organizations conduct some version of a talent review. While the specific topics covered will vary by organization, themes range from identifying employees who can advance into larger, more complex roles, to managing unwanted retention risk, to ensuring succession depth for critical roles. One thing I have learned over the years of running many talent reviews across different industries is the real differentiator is strong discipline on what happens after the talent review, not just during it. And that discipline is informed by answering three interrelated questions: 1) Action plan clarity: what specific action are we agreeing to take as a result of this review? 2) Business leader accountability: who outside of HR owns this action? 3) Follow up: What is the timing and expectation for reporting back on the progress and outcomes of the actions identified, and what is the success metric for each action? These three are not independent checkboxes but rather are interconnected. For example, a clear and owned action with no check in date rarely happens on time, and an action with a deadline but no named owner rarely gets prioritized. While these three areas sound easy and fundamental, they are not consistently executed and sometimes are missed completely. To help put this into practice, here is my cheat sheet with a few ideas that can help identify opportunities for enabling more impactful talent reviews.

Access my cheat sheet

EARLY-CAREER AND REMOTE WORK

How Remote Work Is Narrowing Early-Career Opportunities | Harvard Business Review

New research published in Administrative Science Quarterly, and repurposed for HBR, suggests remote work, not AI, is the stronger driver behind shrinking early-career opportunity.

Over the last few months, I have shared multiple resources on how AI is reshaping entry-level and early-career roles, from a section of Stanford's AI Index report on employment declines in AI-exposed junior positions to the World Economic Forum's report on safeguarding early-career pathways. New research published in Administrative Science Quarterly, and repurposed for this new Harvard Business Review article, introduces a different factor into this discussion: remote work. Researchers analyzed more than 50 million job postings across 28 European countries and ran a controlled experiment with 1,200 hiring managers, finding that remote roles required roughly 25 percent more skills, experience, and credentials than otherwise identical in-person roles, driven largely by the loss of informal, proximity-based mentoring that once let managers take a chance on potential over experience. When the authors tested AI exposure and remote work against each other directly, the remote work effect held while the AI effect largely disappeared. One implication for early-career strategy is that we should continue to widen the lens beyond AI and look at other factors, like remote work, shaping early-career outcomes.

Access article

AI & OLDER WORKERS

Are the Careers of Older Workers Being Cut Short by AI? | The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

A recent analysis finds that workers 55 and older in highly AI-exposed jobs are leaving work earlier than expected, with the increase showing up mostly as unemployment rather than retirement.

Most of the current AI-and-jobs conversation, including my own recent coverage, has centered on entry-level role impact and the risk of failing to develop the next generation of leaders. But there are also impacts at the other end of the career tail: older workers ages 55 and older. A recent analysis from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College finds that older, highly AI-exposed workers, such as programmers and accountants, are leaving work earlier than expected since ChatGPT's launch, with the increase showing up mostly as unemployment rather than retirement. For programmers, transitions out of work rose by more than 25 percent, compared with just 2 percent for painters, one of the lowest-exposure jobs studied. The author, Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, points to three drivers: automation directly displacing workers, employees choosing to exit rather than adapt, and, less commonly so far, AI-driven productivity gains that extend careers instead. The data so far suggests the first two are outweighing the third. A few practical questions: Do you have visibility into AI-driven exit patterns among workers 55 and older? Do your succession timelines account for earlier, involuntary exits? And are you equipping late-career workers in AI-exposed roles with a path to extend their careers, rather than exit? These and other questions have implications for workforce planning and talent strategy.

Access article

AI & HR FUNCTION

Escaping the Pilot Trap: Building HR for The Agentic Era | McKinsey

A new article on building HR for the agentic era includes a framework mapping the automation potential of specific HR processes into three levels.

As many HR leaders and their teams continue to think through the impacts of AI on HR's work, a new McKinsey article offers a few useful ideas. The one part I want to highlight is Exhibit 1, which maps the automation potential of specific HR processes, from candidate screening to payroll to benefits administration, into three levels: 1) fully automated (an agent completes the work end to end, no human involvement), like generating a verification letter; 2) fully automated in delivery (an agent runs the workflow, but a human owns policy and exceptions), like payroll; and 3) augmented (a human leads, an agent supports), like a business partner using agent-assembled analytics in a succession review while still owning the judgment call. A visual like this can help facilitate conversations within HR teams about where AI may reshape their work, and how new ways of delivering that work will require changes in the HR skill set. As HR work moves toward augmented, more consultative, judgment-based work, HR practitioners will need to continue to build capabilities to match. Against this backdrop, you should check out a four-part series by Deloitte, HR Reimagined 2.0., along with downloadable slides, which helps explain how AI will continue to shape the HR function, unlocking more opportunities for HR to create stakeholder value.

Access article

AI & ORGANIZATION DESIGN

Do You Want More Content on the Impact of AI on Organization Design? | Brian Heger

A quick post inviting readers into a recent Talent Edge Circle discussion on how AI is reshaping organization design. Includes a chance to weigh in on whether this topic becomes a recurring topic in the newsletter.

One of the things we do inside Talent Edge Circle, my private community for internal HR practitioners, is host Zoom discussions tied to the group’s current work priorities and initiatives. This past week the group tackled how AI is reshaping org design, with impacts ranging from span of control to decision-making accountability to a notable shift from pyramid to diamond-shaped organizational structures. Regarding span of control, for years most companies leaned on a standard ratio, something like five or more direct reports for senior managers, but the group agreed AI breaks that logic, turning span into a contextual design choice that can be shaped by several factors, including how embedded AI is in the work and absorbing routine coordination. The group began identifying those factors and how they could translate into a few meaningful manager archetypes, each with its own guidelines around how span might shift by archetype. For Talent Edge Circle members, the full recording and discussion notes are already up in the private forum. If you want to see more on AI's impact on organization design covered here in the Talent Edge Weekly newsletter, along with practical cheat sheets and more, please indicate so below so I can gauge interest.

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Unlocking Internal Mobility Across the Organization | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet consolidates four of my individual cheat sheets on internal mobility (IM), helping identify opportunities for enabling IM within an organization.

Access my cheat sheet

BONUS RESOURCE

SUCCESSION PLANNING

Are Your Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet offers five factors for evaluating whether a critical role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value.

Access my cheat sheet

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY). The online crafts marketplace is laying off about 220 employees, or 12% of its workforce, mostly across its product and engineering teams. The restructuring is aimed at speeding decision-making ahead of the company's next growth phase.

• TikTok. The social media platform's U.S. joint venture is laying off 250 employees and closing its Nashville office, which housed part of its content-moderation team. The office will shut down October 5.

• Zillow Group (NASDAQ: Z). The online real estate and rental marketplace is laying off more than 500 employees, about 7% of its workforce, in its second and largest round of cuts this year. The company said the move is about cost discipline and efficiency rather than AI adoption.
  

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• Conagra Brands, Inc. (CHICAGO, ILLINOIS) [NYSE: CAG] — one of North America's leading branded food companies — announced that Charisse Brock, EVP and Chief HR Officer, will retire in October after 20 years of service. Her HR responsibilities move to a newly created Chief Administrative Officer role, to which Conagra has named Amy Held, effective September 14, 2026. Held joins from the Simply Good Foods Company, where she has served as Chief HR Officer since March 2024.

Amy Held

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 5,000 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

We’re now in August, and 60% of 2026 is complete. With the Fall season approaching quickly, the timeframe to make real progress on this year’s most critical talent priorities is shortening.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF JULY 2026

SPONSORED BY

Did you miss the “Best of July ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #358, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of July issue. Download Draup’s paper on Which Skills Stay Durable When AI Can Do the Task

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to this special Best of July issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Bob Carruthers, VP North America Talent Acquisition at Bayer, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Bob, for your support of this newsletter!

🗞️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly?

And immediately get 5 of my PDF cheat sheets!

PRESENTED BY Draup

Which Skills Stay Durable When AI Can Do the Task

AI is not reducing demand for technical talent. It is exposing which skills stay durable and which ones it can now absorb.

Draup's latest analysis maps exactly where that line falls, and what it means for who you hire and how you develop the people you already have.

Inside the report:

1. The durability test that sorts any skill into safe or exposed

2. A role-by-role AI exposure read on nine engineering and data roles

3. How the seniority premium ties to durability

4. Why AI fluency is now a baseline, not a differentiator

5. How pay data already tracks skills durability

Built on 2.85 million active job descriptions, mapped to workforce moves you can make today.

THIS MONTH’S CONTENT

This Best of July issue includes the 13 most popular resources from the July issues of Talent Edge Weekly. They span three sections:

1. Reinventing the Early-Career Pipeline for the AI Era. Explores how AI is pushing organizations to rethink entry-level and early-career roles, what's at stake for those who don't adjust their strategies, and examples of tactics for redesigning these roles for an AI-enabled world.

2. AI Value Creation and Its Impact on Talent Practices. Covers the 7 levers organizations use to create value with AI, why AI reskilling efforts require redesigning work first, how performance management metrics might need to shift for the AI era, and AI-enabled coaching.

3. Talent & Leadership Practices. Explores the role of cognitive capacity in managing organizational change, strategic talent management of critical roles, enabling internal mobility, a talent hoarding diagnostic, high-impact development moves, and improving candidate selection.

Plus, bonus resources, along with separate sections on organization layoffs and Chief HR Officer movement that occurred in July.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

A special thanks to Dave Ulrich for recently joining my private community, Talent Edge Circle, as a guest speaker to discuss the next evolution of creating stakeholder value through HR and human capability!

• If you’re in Talent Edge Circle, catch the replay of this 90-minute discussion, along with discussion notes, in our private platform.

• If you're not yet part of the Circle and want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn how to apply.

With nearly 60% of 2026 complete, the timeframe to make real progress on this year's most critical talent priorities is shortening. Give yourself the edge to drive greater impact in the months ahead.

I. Reinventing the Early-Career Pipeline for The AI Era

Explores how AI is pushing organizations to rethink entry-level and early-career roles, what's at stake for those who don't adjust their strategies, and examples of tactics for redesigning these roles for an AI-enabled world.

EARLY-CAREER PIPELINE RISK

Your Talent Strategy Has to Keep Up with Your AI Transformation | Harvard Business Review

Introduces "capability debt," the gap between the leadership judgment companies will need and what a shrinking pipeline is actually producing, plus three tactics to close it.

This past week, in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, we had a discussion on AI's impacts on organization design and practical tactics to get ahead of the disruption. Impacts ranged widely, from span of control to decision-making rights, to the impact of AI on entry-level and early career roles. Regarding entry-level roles, we discussed how to help organizations reimagine the purpose of these roles, rather than following what many organizations are doing by reflexively eliminating or reducing them without understanding the impact on future talent pipeline. Against this backdrop, this HBR article by Jenny Fernandez builds on this topic, naming a key implication of a shrinking early-career pipeline: “organizational capability debt,” the accumulating gap between the judgment and tacit skills a company will need in future leaders and what its shrinking pipeline is actually creating. Her three recommended actions: redesigning entry-level roles as capability-building cohorts, building a distributed apprenticeship pipeline across the organization, and auditing and repaying the capability debt that has already accumulated. To build on the third point, I'd add that developing and tracking a set of leading indicators can help organizations spot capability debt as it's quietly accumulating. This tactic can provide a real talent edge: the ability to course-correct early and build the leadership pipeline needed to execute business strategy and deliver stakeholder value.

Access article

EARLY-CAREER SKILLS

Two Futures for Jobs in an AI Era: 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer | PwC

A new report with a section on how AI is reshaping certain entry-level roles to require more senior-level skills, with implications for early-career strategy.

As HR practitioners help their organizations reimagine entry-level roles for an AI-enabled world, this 30-page paper offers useful data to inform tactics. While the report covers several related topics, ranging from how AI is reshaping jobs broadly to which companies are capturing the greatest productivity gains from AI, section 2, beginning on page 11, focuses specifically on entry-level roles and AI and can help inform where job redesign in entry-level roles could have the greatest ROI. Analyzing over 1 billion job postings globally, the analysis identifies a phenomenon it calls "seniorization," where entry-level roles in highly AI-exposed occupations are rewritten to require skills typically reserved for experienced workers, such as judgment and people management. Looking specifically at US data (see figure, p. 13), entry-level roles that had been "seniorized," meaning they had added 10 or more of these traditionally senior skills, grew 35% between 2019 and 2025, while non-seniorized roles in the same category fell 10%. This is an opportunity for organizations to be intentional about early-career reinvention, so they can build the talent pipeline for the future rather than simply eliminating or reducing early-career roles. How do entry-level and early-career roles need to be reinvented in your organization, and how will that change how you recruit, hire, and develop early-career talent? 

Access report

EARLY-CAREER SKILL BUILDING

Building Expertise in The Age of AI: Who Trains the Next Generation? | McKinsey Quarterly

A new article explores how organizations are redesigning entry-level roles for the AI era, including hiring for judgment and using various tactics to develop it faster.

Last month, I shared a 42-page World Economic Forum report on a four-component framework (job access, job design, talent pipelines, and education system alignment) for reinventing early-career pathways in an AI era. That paper outlined several tactics across all four areas. This new McKinsey article offers additional tactics, particularly around job design and coaching. One worth zooming in on is how organizations are placing greater weight, in hiring and development, on factors such as judgment. Bank of America is one example. The bank held its 2026 intern and campus recruit class steady at nearly 4,000, matching last year's hiring, while redesigning roles around AI and using simulation exercises to accelerate the development of skills such as judgment. Some organizations are also using the "answer-key model," where employees complete an assignment independently, then compare their reasoning against an AI-generated response with a manager. Tracking whether that gap narrows over time is one indicator of developing judgment. One point I'd add: if organizations are hiring early-career talent with these prioritized criteria in mind, they will need to reevaluate the tools they use to ensure they are valid and reliable. And if managers are going to coach early-career workers on skills such as judgment, organizations need to ensure managers are adequately equipped to do so. Both need to be factored into an organization's broader early-career strategy.

Access article

II. AI Value Creation and Its Impact on Talent Practices

Covers the 7 levers organizations use to create value with AI, why AI reskilling efforts require redesigning work first, how performance management metrics might need to shift for the AI era, and AI-enabled coaching.

AI & RETURN-ON-INVESTMENT

The AI Value Levers: How Innovation-Focused Strategies Outperform — for Firms and Workers | Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

A new report identifies seven levers companies use to create value with AI, plus my one-pager to map your own AI use cases against the framework.

Measuring AI's return is only possible if you're clear on the value each use case is supposed to create in the first place. This new report, based on interviews with 30 executives, speaks directly to this. While the report covers various aspects of AI, from the true pace of enterprise AI adoption to why survey-based ROI studies often contradict each other, one part to highlight is the section on the seven levers of how AI creates value, from reducing labor intensity to improving decision making. Interestingly, 91% of the AI use cases discussed centered on reducing labor intensity, suggesting opportunities to use AI to create value beyond any one lever. Also, although each of these seven levers is listed separately, they are not mutually exclusive (e.g., an application that reduces labor intensity may also reduce cycle time). To help put the framework into practice, I created a modified version, adding practical examples and space to list your own AI use cases and evaluate them against each lever. The resulting visual can help you spot whether your AI portfolio is spread broadly across the seven levers or leaning on just one, providing insight to evaluate and evolve your strategy.

Access report

AI & RESKILLING

Reorganize or Fall Behind: The Real Race in The AI Decade | KPMG and Nasscom

A new 26-page report finds that while most organizations have invested in AI pilots and training, few have fundamentally changed how work is organized, and offers suggestions for closing that gap.

A new 26-page report from KPMG and Nasscom finds that while most organizations have invested in AI pilots, tools, and training, few have fundamentally changed how work is organized, decisions are made, or value is created. While there are various suggestions in this report for addressing this challenge, one section I want to highlight: redesign first, reskill second. It points to the issue that organizations often train people on AI tools before redesigning the work itself, when it should be the reverse. Here are a few questions I'd use to pressure-test any reskilling effort underway or in planning: What specific changes to how work is performed are driving this reskilling? What evidence supports these changes (data or speculation)? Are we reskilling people for roles/work as they exist today, or how they will be in the future? To help guide some of these discussions, I've previously shared a few related resources that might help: the World Economic Forum's report on redesigning core workflows around AI, and HBS Working Knowledge's interactive tool for checking whether a specific occupation is more likely to be enhanced or eliminated by AI. These are just a few of the many resources I have covered on my website at brianheger.com.

Access report

AI & PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance Management Needs New Metrics in the AI Era | Harvard Business Review

A new article explores how traditional performance metrics need to evolve in the context of AI-enabled performance. Proposes a three-layer framework.

This new HBR article highlights that many organizations still evaluate employees with pre-AI metrics like productivity and goal completion, creating a performance paradox: employees who rely heavily on AI look highly productive, while those who slow down to verify or correct outputs can look less efficient, when they are adding the most value. For example, one field experiment (published in Organization Science) on 750 knowledge workers using GPT-4 found workers were 25% faster and 12% more likely to succeed on tasks within the AI's capability, with higher-quality output. But on a task just outside that capability, workers using AI were 19% less likely to produce a correct solution than those without it. The authors of the HBR article propose a three-layer measurement framework: 1) metrics for human contribution, 2) metrics for the AI system or AI agent, and 3) metrics for how well the two perform together, including a complementarity index measuring whether a person genuinely added value (e.g., catching an error or reframing a problem) beyond what AI produced. From my standpoint, the complementarity index is conceptually clear but would need to be operationalized, including how incremental value gets determined and defined, by whom, and at what standard. Is there a simplified version of this your organization could pilot? Regardless, the article offers various considerations for evolving performance management as AI itself continues to evolve.

Access article

AI-ENABLED COACHING

Putting AI Into Career Coaching: The Effectiveness of A Career Coaching Intervention Conducted by A Chatbot | Journal of Vocational Behavior

A new study finds that a single AI chatbot coaching conversation can meaningfully reduce career-related anxiety and boost career optimism.

I recently had the pleasure of having Dr. Anna Tavis, Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU and author of The Digital Coaching Revolution (2024), join my private community, Talent Edge Circle, for a 90-minute discussion on how AI-enabled and digital coaching are reshaping how organizations develop employees at scale. As this topic continues to generate strong interest among Talent Edge Weekly readers, I'm sharing this new research study. Researchers compared employees who used a career-coaching chatbot (just one small example of broader AI-enabled coaching capabilities) with a waitlist group that had not yet used it. The results found that a single conversation with a chatbot significantly reduced participants' negative affect (how anxious or distressed someone felt about their career situation) compared to the control group, and that this emotional relief was linked to greater clarity about their career goals and stronger career optimism. One implication: this capability can help people feel less anxious about their careers, enabling them to think more clearly about their career options. While this is just one study, its randomized design still makes it a useful contribution that can help inform more research-backed evaluations of AI-based coaching technologies. For more on the topic of AI-enabled coaching, check out Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic's article, Does AI Coaching Work? And if you missed it, here is the 2026 Coaching Futures Report by the International Coaching Federation, which also covers AI-enabled coaching.

Access paper

III. Talent & Leadership Practices

Explores the role of cognitive capacity in managing organizational change, strategic talent management of critical roles, enabling internal mobility, a talent hoarding diagnostic, high-impact development moves, and improving candidate selection.

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY & CHANGE

Designing for the Cognitive Cost of Change: Protecting the Capacity Teams Need for Their Best Thinking | McKinsey

A new article that views cognitive capacity as an organizational resource to manage strategically, outlining three research-backed practices to support it.

Organizations invest significant time and resources in attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent to enable business strategy execution. But two things can quietly work against that investment: 1) the sheer volume of change moving through the organization, which outstrips employees' capacity, and 2) additional work added throughout the year without considering capacity to deliver on it. Last year I shared my one-pager to help leaders better understand the full scope of changes happening simultaneously in their organizations, and more recently, my mid-year one-pager to address goal creep, where new goals get added without deciding what makes room for them. Both are meant to help leaders manage workforce capacity more deliberately. A new McKinsey article picks up where both leave off, treating cognitive capacity, the mental bandwidth people need for deep thinking and learning, as an organizational resource to manage strategically. Drawing on eight sources of research from publications such as Organization Science and Journal of Management Studies, the authors outline three practices for safeguarding cognitive capacity, including agreeing on what work stops before something new starts, a practice also shared in my mid-year one-pager. This article is an example of how HR practitioners can use scientific research to inform and strengthen their own recommendations.

Access article

TALENT MANAGEMENT & CRITICAL ROLES

The 5i Model: A Strategic Framework for Talent Management | Holly Tyson in The Age of HR

A chapter from the eBook (The Age of HR) explores how organizations can apply the same ROI discipline to human capital that they apply to financial capital by mapping role criticality against talent caliber.

Over the years, I have written several posts and shared my tools on talent management for critical roles: roles that have a disproportionate impact on an organization's strategy execution and competitive advantage. These tools range from frameworks for identifying which roles are truly critical, to assessing and managing risks in these roles, to ensuring that an organization's top talent occupies these roles so the organization can create stakeholder value faster. With many organizations getting ready to conduct talent reviews, of which critical roles and succession planning are a part, I want to highlight chapter 25, beginning on page 120, by Chief People Officer, Holly Tyson, in the excellent, open access eBook, The Age of HR. Holly reinforces how organizations should manage human capital like financial capital, with targeted development, deployment, and measurement of ROI. Her 5i Model maps Role Criticality (core, critical, and differentiating) against Talent Caliber (core, key, and top talent), prescribing one of five actions (invest, improve, inspect, increase impact, or inject), based on where a role and its incumbent land on this matrix. The framework helps force conversations and decisions that talent reviews can easily miss: which roles matter most, whether incumbents perform at the level required, and where differentiated talent investment should be made. And as a bonus, here is one of my cheat sheets on managing talent risks in critical roles.

Access eBook and chapter

STRATEGIC TALENT DEVELOPMENT

When High-Impact Development Roles May Signal a Need for Talent Movement | Brian Heger

My slides to help evaluate if key development roles are used effectively to support talent growth and leadership pipeline flow.

In every organization, certain roles are accelerators of development, where the nature of the role and its challenges enable individuals to build critical skills and gain key experiences faster than in other roles. However, when an incumbent remains in one of these high-impact roles for too long, without the interest or potential to transition into larger, more complex roles, it can hinder both individual growth and organizational performance. To keep development and leadership pipelines flowing, it's helpful to periodically assess whether these roles (often limited in supply) are being used to accelerate the development of others, including those on succession plans. To jumpstart your thinking, my attached slides provide some guiding questions for managers: Has the person been in the same development role for an extended period without progression? Are they open to new responsibilities or stretch opportunities? Is their continued presence in the role limiting access to valuable experiences for successors? While there are other ways to accelerate development, such as short-term assignments, these high-impact roles remain a meaningful and powerful source of growth. This topic can also be integrated into talent review discussions to support more informed and deliberate talent planning and decisions. The slides are from a larger deck available in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle.

Access slides

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Unlocking Internal Mobility Across the Organization | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet consolidates four of my individual cheat sheets on internal mobility (IM), helping identify opportunities for enabling IM within an organization.

Internal mobility (IM), or the movement of employees across roles and opportunities within the same organization, is a critical component of talent management. Here is my one-page cheat sheet that consolidates four individual cheat sheets I previously created on different aspects of IM. Together, they can help identify opportunities for unlocking mobility: 1) manager behaviors that get in the way of talent movement (helps pinpoint where managers may be hoarding talent, intentionally or not), 2) policies that unintentionally minimize talent sharing (helps surface rules or norms quietly discouraging movement), 3) organizational barriers that limit access and visibility to opportunities (helps identify where employees feel they lack access or awareness) and 4) internal mobility metrics that help track progress (helps measure whether mobility efforts are actually working). Regarding internal mobility metrics, one example included is Net Exporter of Talent, defined as the extent to which a leader develops more high-performing employees who move on to roles elsewhere in the organization. This metric is important because it highlights where a philosophy of talent sharing is truly practiced versus where talent hoarding may be occurring, helping organizations better target subsequent actions and strategies. As a bonus, here is my one-pager that helps you to evaluate certain policies/guidelines that might get in the way of internal mobility.

Access my cheat sheet

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

INTERNAL MOBILITY & TALENT HOARDING

Is Talent Hoarding Blocking Internal Mobility in Your Organization? A Self-Reflection for Managers | Brian Heger

My one-page diagnostic to help managers identify and address behaviors that may unintentionally limit internal mobility within the organization.

I previously shared my cheat sheet to help organizations evaluate whether their internal mobility policies and guidelines support or hinder internal talent movement. While some policies might be needed, others may create unintended barriers by over-regulating how and when internal moves occur. For example, some organizations require employees to remain in a role for a set period before applying for other internal opportunities. However, policies and guidelines aren’t the only thing that can unintentionally hinder internal talent movement. Some of the obstacles can be certain behaviors and mindsets, including a management practice sometimes referred to as talent hoarding. This happens when managers discourage high performers (either knowingly or unknowingly) from pursuing internal opportunities. Since many managers may not realize they’re exhibiting these behaviors, self-awareness is a critical first step. To support this, here’s my one-page diagnostic with 10 reflection statements to help managers assess their talent-sharing mindset. As many organizations prepare for talent reviews this time of year, when talent movement is often discussed, this cheat sheet can serve as a timely reference to help managers self-assess whether they are enabling or hindering internal mobility. This awareness could help promote greater talent sharing, resulting in shared benefits for both the organization and its individual employees.

Access my cheat sheet

TALENT ACQUISITION

Are You Biased Toward Job Candidates Who Reply Quickly? | Harvard Business Review

A new study, published in Management Science and repurposed for HBR, finds that people regularly choose candidates who respond quickly, even when a higher-quality option is available.

A new study, published in Management Science and adapted for a broader audience in this new HBR article, explores how candidate response time, or how quickly someone replies to an employer's message, can influence hiring decisions. Researchers analyzed 11 million-plus Fiverr transactions (a global freelance marketplace) and conducted controlled experiments with over 8,600 participants. Response speed mattered: a one-hour delay made candidates 46% less likely to be hired, while a delay of more than 24 hours reduced the likelihood by 90%. In fact, people regularly chose candidates who replied quickly even when a higher-quality option was available. Faster replies were often interpreted as signs that candidates were competent, easy to work with, and likely to remain responsive. While the study is based on gig-work data, the research offers a useful prompt for examining where bias may quietly influence an organization's hiring decisions. Reflection for Hiring Managers: Think back to a candidate you considered a top hire at the time who ultimately underperformed and/or was not the right fit. What factors created that initial positive impression? Were those factors influenced by what personally impressed you more so than those factors that are more relevant and predictive of job performance? Reviewing these decisions can reveal hidden biases and help teams improve future hiring choices. As a bonus, I'm resharing my post highlighting a guide from the SIOP Foundation and CHRO Association with 13 questions for evaluating AI-based hiring tools, since bias can live in the tools we use to hire, not just in how we personally evaluate candidates.

Access HBR article

JOB CUTS TRACKER

Here is my tracker, which includes announcements from a segment of organizations that have announced job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few announcements from July:.

• BMW AG (OTCMKTS: BMWYY). The German luxury automaker plans to cut about 8,000 jobs, roughly 5% of its workforce, primarily in Germany through a voluntary severance program running from October 2026 through the end of 2027. The cuts target administrative and R&D roles.

• Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). The software and cloud giant is eliminating about 4,800 roles, or 2.1% of its global workforce, in a restructuring of its sales and consulting operations alongside what it called the most significant overhaul in Xbox's history.

• Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ: TRI). The content and technology company is cutting up to 500 engineering roles, or about 1.8% of its workforce, as it deploys AI across legal, tax, and regulatory workflows. The company said it expects to add more than 250 net-new, AI-native engineering roles over the next two years.

• Verizon (NYSE: VZ). The wireless carrier is laying off about 500 corporate employees, its third round of cuts since November 2025. The move is part of a broader plan to cut $5 billion in operating expenses in 2026 and accompanies the sale of 274 retail stores to franchise owners.

• Visa Inc. (NYSE: V). The payments giant is cutting about 2,600 jobs, or 7% of its workforce, primarily in its technology and product teams. The company cited a push toward greater efficiency and AI-driven changes to how work gets done, with freed-up capital to be reinvested in consumer payments and cross-border services.

Access all announcements

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVES

In July, I tracked 74 hires, promotions, and resignations in the Chief HR Officer (CHRO) role through CHROs on the Go, my subscription-based digital platform that monitors movement in the CHRO role.

A few headlines from July:

• Coty Inc. (NEW YORK) [NYSE: COTY] — a global beauty company with a portfolio of brands across fragrance, color cosmetics, and skin and body care — announced that Séverine Charbon will become Coty’s new Chief People and Purpose Officer, effective September 1, 2026, succeeding Priya Srinivasan, who has served in the role since April 2023. Charbon joins from Publicis Groupe, where she most recently served as Chief People Officer International. 

• The Kroger Co. (CINCINNATI, OHIO) [NYSE: KR] — America’s largest supermarket-only retailer — announced Emilee De Martino will serve as its next EVP and Chief People Officer. De Martino succeeds Tim Massa, who will retire September 18, 2026. De Martino joins Kroger from McDonald’s Corporation, where she most recently served as SVP and Chief People Officer for International Markets.

• Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA) [NASDAQ: WOOF] — a pet health and wellness company — announced that Chief HR Officer Holly May will be leaving the company. May is expected to remain in her role to support the transition of her responsibilities while Petco conducts a search for her successor. May joined Petco as CHRO in February 2024, previously serving as CHRO for Walgreens Boots Alliance. 

• Yum! Brands, Inc. (LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY) [NYSE: YUM] — franchisor and operator of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger & Grill — announced that Nai De Leon has been appointed Chief People & Culture Officer, effective November 1, 2026. De Leon succeeds Tracy Skeans, who is retiring. De Leon joined Yum! in August 2025 as Chief Talent & Centers of Excellence Officer, following 20 years at Bain & Company. 

Join CHROs on the Go to access all detailed announcements and +5,000 archived announcements. Monthly + annual subscriptions available.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

We’re now in August, and nearly 60% of 2026 is complete. With the fall season approaching quickly, the timeframe to make real progress on this year’s most critical talent priorities is shortening.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

PRESENTED BY

Welcome to the new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Laura Nardi, Sr. Manager Global Talent Management at Delta Airlines, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Laura, for your support of this newsletter!

👉️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY Talent Edge Circle

My private community for internal HR practitioners

If you’re part of my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, we have two upcoming discussions you won’t want to miss.

On Wed, July 22, Dave Ulrich will join us for a 90-min discussion on Actions for HR to Create More Stakeholder Value.

On Thurs, July 30, we have a practitioner discussion on AI’s Impact on Organization Design (and the talent practices that follow).

I’m looking forward to both of these discussions. See you then!

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• Building Expertise in The Age of AI: Who Trains the Next Generation? | McKinsey Quarterly | A new article explores how organizations are redesigning entry-level roles for the AI era, including hiring for judgment and using various tactics to develop it faster.

• Putting AI Into Career Coaching: The Effectiveness of A Career Coaching Intervention Conducted by A Chatbot | Journal of Vocational Behavior | A new study finds that a single AI chatbot coaching conversation can meaningfully reduce career-related anxiety and boost career optimism.

• Unlocking Internal Mobility Across the Organization | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet consolidates four of my individual cheat sheets on internal mobility (IM), helping identify opportunities for enabling IM within an organization.

• Are You Biased Toward Job Candidates Who Reply Quickly? | Harvard Business Review | A new study, published in Management Science and repurposed for HBR, finds that people regularly choose candidates who respond quickly, even when a higher-quality option is available.

• Reorganize or Fall Behind: The Real Race in The AI Decade | KPMG | A new 26-page report finds that while most organizations have invested in AI pilots and training, few have fundamentally changed how work is organized, and offers suggestions for closing that gap.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

AI & EARLY CAREER ROLES

Building Expertise in The Age of AI: Who Trains the Next Generation? | McKinsey Quarterly

A new article explores how organizations are redesigning entry-level roles for the AI era, including hiring for judgment and using various tactics to develop it faster.

AI's impact on entry-level and early-career roles continues to gain much attention. A few weeks ago, I shared a 42-page World Economic Forum report on redesigning, rather than eliminating, entry-level roles. And last week I shared PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer report, which found entry-level roles in highly AI-exposed occupations are being "seniorized" to require judgment and people-management skills once reserved for experienced workers, growing 35% since 2019. This new McKinsey article builds on both, and one tactic worth zooming in on is how organizations are placing greater weight, in hiring and development, on factors such as judgment. Bank of America is one example. The bank held its 2026 intern class steady at nearly 4,000, redesigning roles around AI and using simulation exercises to accelerate the development of skills, such as judgment, for early-career workers. Some organizations are also using the "answer-key model," where employees complete an assignment independently, then compare their reasoning against an AI-generated response with a manager. Tracking whether that gap narrows over time is one indicator of developing judgment. One other point I would add is that if organizations are hiring early-career talent with these prioritized criteria in mind, they will need to reevaluate the tools they use, ensuring that they are valid and reliable. And if managers are going to coach early-career workers on skills such as judgment, organizations need to ensure managers are adequately equipped to do so. Both need to be factored into an organization's broader early-career strategy.

Access article

AI-ENABLED COACHING

Putting AI Into Career Coaching: The Effectiveness of A Career Coaching Intervention Conducted by A Chatbot | Journal of Vocational Behavior

A new study finds that a single AI chatbot coaching conversation can meaningfully reduce career-related anxiety and boost career optimism.

I recently had the pleasure of having Dr. Anna Tavis, Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU and author of The Digital Coaching Revolution (2024), join my private community, Talent Edge Circle, for a 90-minute discussion on how AI-enabled and digital coaching are reshaping how organizations develop employees at scale. As this topic continues to generate strong interest among Talent Edge Weekly readers, I'm sharing this new research study. Researchers compared employees who used a career-coaching chatbot (just one small example of broader AI-enabled coaching capabilities) with a waitlist group that had not yet used it. The results found that a single conversation with a chatbot significantly reduced participants' negative affect (how anxious or distressed someone felt about their career situation) compared to the control group, and that this emotional relief was linked to greater clarity about their career goals and stronger career optimism. One implication is that a strength of this one capability is that it can help people feel less anxious about their careers, enabling them to think more clearly about their career options. While this is just one study, its randomized design still makes it a useful contribution that can help inform more research-backed evaluations of AI-based coaching technologies. For more on the topic of AI-enabled coaching, check out Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic's article, Does AI Coaching Work? And if you missed it, here is the 2026 Coaching Futures Report by the International Coaching Federation, which also covers AI-enabled coaching.

Access paper

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Unlocking Internal Mobility Across the Organization | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet consolidates four of my individual cheat sheets on internal mobility (IM), helping identify opportunities for enabling IM within an organization.

Internal mobility (IM), or the movement of employees across roles and opportunities within the same organization, is a critical component of talent management. As HR practitioners work to strengthen internal mobility in their organizations, here is my one-page cheat sheet that consolidates four individual cheat sheets I previously created on different aspects of IM. Together, they can help identify opportunities for unlocking mobility: 1) manager behaviors that get in the way of talent movement (helps pinpoint where managers may be hoarding talent, intentionally or not), 2) policies that unintentionally minimize talent sharing (helps surface rules or norms quietly discouraging movement), 3) organizational barriers that limit access and visibility to opportunities (helps identify where employees feel they lack access or awareness) and 4) internal mobility metrics that help track progress (helps measure whether mobility efforts are actually working). Regarding internal mobility metrics, one example included is Net Exporter of Talent, defined as the extent to which a leader develops more high-performing employees who move on to roles elsewhere in the organization. This metric is important because it highlights where a philosophy of talent sharing is truly practiced versus where talent hoarding may be occurring, helping organizations better target subsequent actions and strategies.

Access my cheat sheet

TALENT ACQUISITION

Are You Biased Toward Job Candidates Who Reply Quickly? | Harvard Business Review

A new study, published in Management Science and repurposed for HBR, finds that people regularly choose candidates who respond quickly, even when a higher-quality option is available.

A new study, published in Management Science and adapted for a broader audience in this new HBR article, explores how candidate response time, or how quickly someone replies to an employer's message, can influence hiring decisions. Researchers analyzed 11 million-plus Fiverr transactions (a global freelance marketplace) and conducted controlled experiments with over 8,600 participants. Response speed mattered: a one-hour delay made candidates 46% less likely to be hired, while a delay of more than 24 hours reduced the likelihood by 90%. In fact, people regularly chose candidates who replied quickly even when a higher-quality option was available. Faster replies were often interpreted as signs that candidates were competent, easy to work with, and likely to remain responsive. While the study is based on gig-work data, the research offers a useful prompt for examining where bias may quietly influence an organization's hiring decisions. Reflection for Hiring Managers: Think back to a candidate you considered a top hire at the time who ultimately underperformed and/or was not the right fit. What factors created that initial positive impression? Were those factors influenced by what personally impressed you more so than those factors that are more relevant and predictive of job performance? Reviewing these decisions can reveal hidden biases and help teams improve future hiring choices. As a bonus, I'm resharing my post highlighting a guide from the SIOP Foundation and CHRO Association with 13 questions for evaluating AI-based hiring tools, since bias can live in the tools we use to hire, not just in how we personally evaluate candidates.

Access HBR article

AI & RESKILLING

Reorganize or Fall Behind: The Real Race in The AI Decade | KPMG

A new 26-page report finds that while most organizations have invested in AI pilots and training, few have fundamentally changed how work is organized, and offers suggestions for closing that gap.

A new 26-page report from KPMG and Nasscom finds that while most organizations have invested in AI pilots, tools, and training, few have fundamentally changed how work is organized, decisions are made, or value is created. While there are various suggestions in this report for addressing this challenge, one section I want to highlight: redesign first, reskill second. It points to the issue that organizations often train people on AI tools before redesigning the work itself, when it should be the reverse. Here are a few questions I'd use to pressure-test any reskilling effort underway or in planning: What specific changes to how work is performed are driving this reskilling? What evidence supports these changes (data or speculation)? Are we reskilling people for roles/work as they exist today, or how they will be in the future? To help guide some of these discussions, I've previously shared a few related resources that might help: the World Economic Forum's report on redesigning core workflows around AI, HBS Working Knowledge's interactive tool for checking whether a specific occupation is more likely to be enhanced or eliminated by AI, OpenAI's AI Jobs Transition Framework for classifying how specific jobs are likely to change, and Anthropic's Labor Market Impacts of AI report on where AI usage is and isn't showing up yet. These are just a few of the many resources I have covered on my website at brianheger.com.

Access report

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance Management Needs New Metrics in the AI Era | Harvard Business Review

A new article explores how traditional performance metrics need to evolve in the context of AI-enabled performance. Proposes a three-layer framework.

Access article

BONUS RESOURCE

WORKFORCE PLANNING

Moving Talent Initiatives Forward: An Example of Workforce Planning | Brian Heger

Two of my slides to move workforce planning forward. Plus a bonus report.

Access slides

BONUS RESOURCE

SUCCESSION PLANNING

8 Succession Planning Scenarios and Questions to Guide Actions | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet with with eight succession scenarios, each requiring distinct talent actions to keep plans current, relevant, and actionable.

Access my cheat sheet

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT). The social media management software company is cutting about 260 jobs, or 20% of its workforce, to streamline its organizational structure and redirect investment toward its AI-powered social intelligence platform. The board approved the plan on July 8, with employee notifications beginning July 14.

• Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ: TRI). The content and technology company is cutting up to 500 engineering roles, or about 1.8% of its workforce, as it deploys AI across legal, tax, and regulatory workflows. The company said it expects to add more than 250 net-new, AI-native engineering roles over the next two years.

• WPP (LSE: WPP). The advertising holding company is preparing to cut several hundred jobs globally, roughly 1% of its workforce, at VML and in back-office functions as part of CEO Cindy Rose's Elevate28 turnaround strategy. The cuts, expected to be finalized by year-end, target £500 million in structural cost savings.
  

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• F5 (SEATTLE, WASHINGTON) [NASDAQ: FFIV] — the global leader in delivering and securing every app and API — announced the appointment of Cathy Peterman as EVP and Chief People Officer, effective immediately. Peterman joins from Wayfair, where she has served as Chief People Officer for the company's technology organization since 2022. She previously spent six years at Amazon driving talent strategy across Amazon Advertising, Amazon Devices, Prime Video & Studios, and Physical Stores. 

Cathy Peterman

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

As someone who has spent most of his career as an internal HR practitioner, I know firsthand how valuable it is to have a trusted, curated group of other internal HR practitioners who are in similar roles, navigating similar priorities, and working through similar talent challenges in other organizations.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF JUNE 2026

SPONSORED BY

Did you miss the “Best of June ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #354, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of June issue. Download Draup’s paper, What Boards Now Expect From AI Transformation.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to the new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Bonnie Levitt, Chief HR Officer at Citadel Credit Union, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Bonnie, for your support of this newsletter!

👉️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY i4cp

AI Is Transforming Work: Is Your HR Operating Model Ready?

AI isn't just changing HR's tools. It's forcing a redesign of how work gets done across every function. New i4cp research looks at where HR fits into that shift, and what separates the organizations where HR is already ahead of it from those where it isn't.

Download i4cp’s Executive Brief now to see how HR is architecting this shift.

P.S. Join i4cp on August 5 at 1pm ET for a deep dive into this exclusive research. Save your spot here. 

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• Two Futures for Jobs in an AI Era: 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer | PwC | A new report with a section on how AI is reshaping certain entry-level roles to require more senior-level skills, with implications for early-career strategy.

• The AI Value Levers: How Innovation-Focused Strategies Outperform — for Firms and Workers | Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs | A new report identifies seven levers companies use to create value with AI. I share a one-pager to map your own AI use cases against the framework.

• When High-Impact Development Roles May Signal a Need for Talent Movement | Brian Heger | My slides to help evaluate if key development roles are used effectively to support talent growth and leadership pipeline flow.

• Performance Management Needs New Metrics in the AI Era | Harvard Business Review | A new article explores how traditional performance metrics need to evolve in the context of AI-enabled performance. Proposes a three-layer framework.

• Designing for the Cognitive Cost of Change: Protecting the Capacity Teams Need for Their Best Thinking | McKinsey | A new article that views cognitive capacity as an organizational resource to manage strategically, outlining three research-backed practices to support it.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

EARLY-CAREER TALENT STRATEGY & AI

Two Futures for Jobs in an AI Era: 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer | PwC

A new report with a section on how AI is reshaping certain entry-level roles to require more senior-level skills, with implications for early-career strategy.

A few weeks ago, I shared a 42-page report from the World Economic Forum that included a framework to help leaders understand the impact of AI on entry-level roles and potential responses. One component was redesigning entry-level roles to fit an AI-enabled world. I am now sharing a recently released 30-page PwC paper with a section specifically on entry-level roles and AI, that can help inform where job redesign in entry-level roles could have the greatest ROI. Analyzing over 1 billion job postings globally, the analysis identifies a phenomenon it calls "seniorization," where entry-level roles in highly AI-exposed occupations are rewritten to require skills typically reserved for experienced workers, such as judgment and people management. Entry-level roles that had been "seniorized," meaning they had added 10 or more of these traditionally senior skills, grew 35% between 2019 and 2025, while non-seniorized roles in the same category fell 10%. This is an opportunity for organizations to be intentional about early-career reinvention, so they can build the talent pipeline for the future rather then simply eliminate or reduce early-career roles. Which early-career roles and paths need to be reinvented for an AI-enabled world in your organization, and how will that change how you recruit, hire, and develop early-career talent? This is a topic we will discuss in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle.

Access report

AI & RETURN-ON-INVESTMENT

The AI Value Levers: How Innovation-Focused Strategies Outperform — for Firms and Workers | Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

A new report identifies seven levers companies use to create value with AI. I share a one-pager to map your own AI use cases against the framework.

As HR practitioners help their organizations implement AI across a growing number of use cases, clarity about the value each one is expected to create makes it easier to measure whether it delivered. This new report, based on interviews with 30 executives, speaks directly to this. While the report covers various aspects of AI, from the true pace of enterprise AI adoption to why survey-based ROI studies often contradict each other, one part to highlight is the section on the seven levers of how AI creates value, from reducing labor intensity to improving decision making. Interestingly, 91% of the AI use cases discussed centered on reducing labor intensity, suggesting opportunities to use AI to create value beyond any one lever. Also, although each of these seven levers is listed separately, they are not mutually exclusive (e.g., an application that reduces labor intensity may also reduce cycle time). To help put the framework into practice, I created a modified version, adding practical examples and space to list your own AI use cases and evaluate them against each lever. The resulting visual can help you spot whether your AI portfolio is spread broadly across the seven levers or leaning on just one, providing insight to evaluate and evolve your strategy. As a bonus, I’m resharing my slide, Framing Talent Initiatives Within the Business Context, which can be paired with the AI framework to articulate AI-based talent initiatives that can create stakeholder value.

Access report

TALENT MANAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT

When High-Impact Development Roles May Signal a Need for Talent Movement | Brian Heger

My slides to help evaluate if key development roles are used effectively to support talent growth and leadership pipeline flow.

In every organization, certain roles are accelerators of development, where the nature of the role and its challenges enable individuals to build critical skills and gain key experiences faster than in other roles. However, when an incumbent remains in one of these high-impact roles for too long, without the interest or potential to transition into larger, more complex roles, it can hinder both individual growth and organizational performance. To keep development and leadership pipelines flowing, it’s helpful to periodically assess whether these roles (often limited in supply) are being used to accelerate the development of others, including those on succession plans. To jumpstart your thinking, my attached slides provide some guiding questions for managers: Has the person been in the same development role for an extended period without progression? Are they open to new responsibilities or stretch opportunities? Is their continued presence in the role limiting access to valuable experiences for successors? While there are other ways to accelerate development, such as short-term assignments, roles remain a meaningful and powerful source of growth. This topic can also be integrated into talent review discussions to support more informed and deliberate talent planning and decisions. The slides are from a larger deck available in my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

Access slides

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance Management Needs New Metrics in the AI Era | Harvard Business Review

A new article explores how traditional performance metrics need to evolve in the context of AI-enabled performance. Proposes a three-layer framework.

As AI reshapes how organizations execute work, many HR practitioners are rethinking how performance management may need to evolve, including how performance is evaluated. This new HBR article notes that many organizations still evaluate employees with pre-AI metrics like productivity and goal completion, creating a performance paradox: employees who rely heavily on AI look highly productive, while those who slow down to verify or correct outputs can look less efficient, when they are adding the most value. For example, one field experiment (published in Organization Science) on 750 knowledge workers using GPT-4 found workers were 25% faster and 12% more likely to succeed on tasks within the AI's capability, with higher-quality output. But on a task just outside that capability, workers using AI were 19% less likely to produce a correct solution than those without it. The authors of the HBR article propose a three-layer measurement framework: 1) metrics for human contribution, 2) metrics for the AI system or AI agent, and 3) metrics for how well the two perform together, including a complementarity index measuring whether a person genuinely added value (e.g., catching an error or reframing a problem) beyond what AI produced. From my standpoint, the complementarity index is conceptually clear but would need to be operationalized, including how incremental value gets determined and defined, by whom, and at what standard. Is there a simplified version of this your organization could pilot? Regardless, the article offers various considerations for evolving performance management as AI itself continues to evolve.

Access article

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY & CHANGE

Designing for the Cognitive Cost of Change: Protecting the Capacity Teams Need for Their Best Thinking | McKinsey

A new article that views cognitive capacity as an organizational resource to manage strategically, outlining three research-backed practices to support it.

Organizations invest significant time and resources in attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent to enable business strategy execution. But two things can quietly work against that investment: 1) the sheer volume of change moving through the organization, which outstrips employees' capacity, and 2) additional work added throughout the year without considering capacity to deliver on it. Last year I shared my one-pager to help leaders better understand the full scope of changes happening simultaneously in their organizations, and more recently, my mid-year one-pager to address goal creep, where new goals get added without deciding what makes room for them. Both are meant to help leaders manage workforce capacity more deliberately. A new McKinsey article picks up where both leave off, treating cognitive capacity, the mental bandwidth people need for deep thinking and learning, as an organizational resource to manage strategically. Drawing on nine sources of research from publications such as Organization Science and Journal of Management Studies, the authors outline three practices for safeguarding cognitive capacity, including agreeing on what work stops before something new starts, a practice also shared in my mid-year one-pager. This article is an example of how HR practitioners can use scientific research to inform and strengthen their own recommendations.

Access article

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

TALENT MANAGEMENT

The 5i Model: A Strategic Framework for Talent Management | Holly Tyson in The Age of HR

A chapter from the eBook (The Age of HR) explores how organizations can apply the same ROI discipline to human capital that they apply to financial capital by mapping role criticality against talent caliber.

With many organizations getting ready to conduct talent reviews, of which critical roles and succession planning are part, I want to highlight chapter 25, beginning on page 120, by Chief People Officer, Holly Tyson, in the excellent, open access eBook, The Age of HR. Holly reinforces how organizations should manage human capital like financial capital, with targeted development, deployment, and measurement of ROI. Her 5i Model maps Role Criticality (core, critical, and differentiating) against Talent Caliber (core, key, and top talent), prescribing one of five actions (invest, improve, inspect, increase impact, or inject), based on where a role and its incumbent land on this matrix. For those in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, I’m looking forward to our upcoming discussion on the strategic talent management of critical roles. And as a bonus, here is one of my cheat sheets on managing talent risks in critical roles.

Access eBook and chapter

BONUS RESOURCE

TALENT IN CRITICAL ROLES

Are Your Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet offers five factors for evaluating whether a critical role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value.

Access my cheat sheet

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Genentech. The South San Francisco biotechnology company, a Roche subsidiary, is eliminating 103 positions tied to a restructuring of its Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED) unit, including the closure of two research teams. The cuts follow last year's reduction of nearly 500 employees and include the departure of three long-tenured vice presidents.

• Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). The software and cloud giant is eliminating about 4,800 roles, or 2.1% of its global workforce, in a restructuring of its sales and consulting operations alongside what it called the most significant overhaul in Xbox's history. Roughly 1,600 of the cuts hit the Xbox gaming division immediately, with total gaming-division reductions expected to reach about 3,200, or 20% of Xbox's workforce, by the end of fiscal 2027.

• Novartis (NYSE: NVS). The Swiss pharmaceutical company is cutting 322 jobs at its East Hanover, New Jersey headquarters, its fourth round of layoffs there in five months. The cuts, effective by October 2, mainly affect field sales, patient support and marketing roles as the drugmaker continues restructuring ahead of patent expirations for key medicines.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• Coty Inc. (NEW YORK) [NYSE: COTY] — a global beauty company with a portfolio of brands across fragrance, color cosmetics, and skin and body care — announced that Séverine Charbon will become Coty’s new Chief People and Purpose Officer, effective September 1, 2026, succeeding Priya Srinivasan, who has served in the role since April 2023. Charbon joins from Publicis Groupe, where she most recently served as Chief People Officer International. 

Séverine Charbon 

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

We are approaching the mid-point of July, and the first half of 2026 is behind us. For many HR practitioners, the window to make meaningful progress on this year's most critical priorities is getting shorter, not longer.

As someone who has spent most of his career as an internal HR practitioner, I know firsthand how valuable it is to have a trusted, curated group of other internal HR practitioners who are in similar roles, navigating similar priorities, and working through similar talent challenges in other organizations.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF JUNE 2026

Did you miss the “Best of June ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #354, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of June issue. Download Draup’s paper, What Boards Now Expect From AI Transformation.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to the new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Barb Hickey, Global Manager, Talent Management at HireRight, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Barb, for your support of this newsletter!

👉️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY 365Talents 
^{_{A Docebo Company}}

The 2026 Skills Toolkit

Your 2026 skills plan is not stalling because of strategy. It is stalling because of the work nobody has time to do.

The business case that keeps getting deferred. The RFP that never quite gets started. The rollout plan that lives only in your head.

Move past these bottlenecks. Here are 14 ready-to-use templates to build your skills strategy, covering business case, vendor selection, transformation and rollout. Browse by category, download what you need, customize for your organization.

P.S. - Want to see 365Talents’ AI-powered skills intelligence in action? Book a demo

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• The 5i Model: A Strategic Framework for Talent Management | Holly Tyson in The Age of HR | A chapter from the eBook (The Age of HR) explores how organizations can apply the same ROI discipline to human capital that they apply to financial capital by mapping role criticality against talent caliber.

• Your Talent Strategy Has to Keep Up with Your AI Transformation | Harvard Business Review | A new article introduces the concept of organizational "capability debt," the gap between the leadership judgment a company will need and what its shrinking early-career pipeline is actually building.

• Is Talent Hoarding Blocking Internal Mobility in Your Organization? A Self-Reflection for Managers | Brian Heger | My one-page diagnostic to help managers identify and address behaviors that may unintentionally limit internal mobility within the organization.

• AI in Incentive Plans: Opportunity, Risk, and the Role of the Compensation Committee | Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance | A new article argues that as AI reshapes how business value is created, existing incentive frameworks should be evaluated to ensure they still reflect actual performance drivers.

• The AI Jobs Transition Framework for the EU | OpenAI Economic Research | A new 17-page report extends OpenAI's recent US jobs-transition analysis to more than 2,600 EU occupations using ESCO and Eurostat data, providing a breakdown of insights by country-level.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

We are now in July, and the first half of 2026 is behind us. For many HR practitioners, the window to make meaningful progress on this year's most critical priorities is getting shorter, not longer.

As someone who has spent most of his career as an internal HR practitioner, I know firsthand how valuable it is to have a trusted, curated group of other internal HR practitioners who are in similar roles, navigating similar priorities, and working through similar talent challenges in other organizations.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

TALENT MANAGEMENT

The 5i Model: A Strategic Framework for Talent Management | Holly Tyson in The Age of HR

A chapter from the eBook (The Age of HR) explores how organizations can apply the same ROI discipline to human capital that they apply to financial capital by mapping role criticality against talent caliber.

Over the years, I have written several posts and shared my tools on talent management for critical roles: roles that have a disproportionate impact on an organization's strategy execution and competitive advantage. These tools range from frameworks for identifying which roles are truly critical, to assessing and managing risks in these roles, to ensuring that an organization's top talent occupies these roles so the organization can create stakeholder value faster. With many organizations getting ready to conduct talent reviews, of which critical roles and succession planning are part, I want to highlight chapter 25, beginning on page 120, by Chief People Officer, Holly Tyson, in the excellent, open access eBook, The Age of HR. Holly reinforces how organizations should manage human capital like financial capital, with targeted development, deployment, and measurement of ROI. Her 5i Model maps Role Criticality (core, critical, and differentiating) against Talent Caliber (core, key, and top talent), prescribing one of five actions (invest, improve, inspect, increase impact, or inject), based on where a role and its incumbent land on this matrix. The framework helps force conversations and decisions that talent reviews can easily miss: which roles matter most, whether incumbents perform at the level required, and where differentiated talent investment should be made. For those in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, I’m looking forward to our upcoming discussion on the strategic talent management of critical roles. And as a bonus, here is one of my cheat sheets on managing talent risks in critical roles.

Access eBook and chapter

AI & EARLY-CAREER TALENT

Your Talent Strategy Has to Keep Up with Your AI Transformation | Harvard Business Review

A new article introduces the concept of organizational "capability debt," the gap between the leadership judgment a company will need and what its shrinking early-career pipeline is actually building.

The impact of AI on entry-level roles continues to gain much attention. In the last few weeks alone, I have written several posts addressing different angles of this topic. This has included data from Stanford's 2026 AI Index Report showing meaningful employment declines among early-career workers in AI-exposed roles like software development and customer support. It has also included a World Economic Forum report, offering a framework for safeguarding and reinventing early-career pathways. And I have shared an article by Amy Edmondson and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, on redesigning entry-level jobs rather than eliminating them outright. A new HBR article by Jenny Fernandez builds on this topic by naming a key implication of a shrinking early-career pipeline: organizational "capability debt." This refers to the accumulating gap between the judgment and tacit skills a company will need in its future leaders and what its shrinking early-career pipeline is actually creating, often unknowingly or quietly. Her three recommended actions are 1) redesigning entry-level roles as capability-building cohorts, 2) building a distributed apprenticeship pipeline across the organization, and 3) auditing and repaying the capability debt that has already accumulated. To build on the third point, I would add that it is important to identify leading indicators that could suggest an organization is accumulating capability debt. The ability to detect this early provides an advantage, giving organizations time to adjust before capability debt surfaces in reduced business performance.

Access article

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Is Talent Hoarding Blocking Internal Mobility in Your Organization? A Self-Reflection for Managers | Brian Heger

My one-page diagnostic to help managers identify and address behaviors that may unintentionally limit internal mobility within the organization.

I previously shared my cheat sheet to help organizations evaluate whether their internal mobility policies and guidelines support or hinder internal talent movement. While some policies might be needed, others may create unintended barriers by over-regulating how and when internal moves occur. For example, some organizations require employees to remain in a role for a set period before applying for other internal opportunities. However, policies and guidelines aren’t the only thing that can unintentionally hinder internal talent movement. Some of the obstacles can be certain behaviors and mindsets, including a management practice sometimes referred to as talent hoarding. This happens when managers discourage high performers (either knowingly or unknowingly) from pursuing internal opportunities. Since many managers may not realize they’re exhibiting these behaviors, self-awareness is a critical first step. To support this, here’s my one-page diagnostic with 10 reflection statements to help managers assess their talent-sharing mindset. As many organizations prepare for talent reviews this time of year, when talent movement is often discussed, this cheat sheet can serve as a timely reference to help managers self-assess whether they are enabling or hindering internal mobility. This awareness could help promote greater talent sharing, resulting in shared benefits for both the organization and its individual employees.

Access my cheat sheet

AI’S IMPACT ON INCENTIVE PLANS

AI in Incentive Plans: Opportunity, Risk, and the Role of the Compensation Committee | Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance

A new article argues that as AI reshapes how business value is created, existing incentive frameworks should be evaluated to ensure they still reflect actual performance drivers.

As AI continues to reshape how organizations operate, one important topic in the AI discussion that seems to receive less attention is how compensation and incentive plans will need to evolve to reflect actual performance drivers. For example, one of several questions that begin to emerge: When an executive's team uses AI to hit a target faster or cheaper, has that executive (and team) actually performed better, or has the technology simply lowered the bar for what "better" looks like? A new memorandum on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance suggests most companies have not seriously addressed this question. Based on a review of roughly 2,500 proxy statements filed in 2026, the analysis identified only 58 companies, about 2%, that incorporate AI into executive incentive programs through formal metrics or strategic objectives, and of those, only 12% use an explicit AI metric. Most organizations instead embed AI within broader transformation or workforce objectives rather than naming it directly. The authors note that this gap matters because as AI increasingly drives measurable outcomes, compensation committees and HR leaders will need a clear philosophy and aligned practices. As CHROs and compensation committees evaluate how AI fits into incentive plans, the article offers seven guiding questions. As a bonus, here is a June 2026 Corporate Board Member article on how a few companies, including Salesforce, are beginning to quantify AI's contribution in executive pay design.

Access article

AI’s IMPACT ON JOBS

The AI Jobs Transition Framework for the EU | OpenAI Economic Research

A new 17-page report extends OpenAI's recent US jobs-transition analysis to more than 2,600 EU occupations using ESCO and Eurostat data, providing a breakdown of insights by country-level.

A few weeks ago, I shared OpenAI's AI Jobs Transition Framework for the US, a 32-page report which offered a way to classify jobs by how AI is likely to affect them, sorting occupations into those likely to be automated, likely to reorganize, likely to grow with AI, or facing less near-term change. OpenAI's Economic Research team has just published a report extending that same framework to Europe, mapping AI's near-term impact across more than 2,600 EU occupations using ESCO taxonomy and Eurostat employment data. One headline finding is that Europe has a smaller share of jobs facing high automation potential than the US (14% versus 18%), but a larger share facing reorganization (27% versus 24%), a difference attributed to Europe's heavier weighting toward manufacturing, care, and public-service work rather than any difference in AI readiness. What I find helpful about this report is the country-level breakdown: Luxembourg, Sweden, and the Netherlands show the largest AI-growth potential, while Germany, Greece, and Italy carry the largest automation-risk shares. These types of data breakdowns are a reminder that there are nuances and differences across various locations that must be considered when understanding AI's implications on workforce planning and talent strategy. Both reports, the original US version and this newly released EU extension, provide an occupation-level starting point for country-specific workforce planning rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Access report

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

AI-ENABLED COACHING

2026 ICF Coaching Futures Report: Envisioning Coaching’s Next Horizon | International Coaching Federation

The inaugural ICF report explores how coaching might evolve by 2036 across four scenarios, ranging from AI-dominant delivery to community-centered human connection.

I recently had the pleasure of having Dr. Anna Tavis — Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU and co-author of The Digital Coaching Revolution— join my private community, Talent Edge Circle, as a guest for a discussion on how AI-enabled and digital coaching are reshaping how organizations develop employees at scale. As this topic continues to generate strong interest among Talent Edge Weekly readers, I want to share this 76-page report by the International Coaching Federation. While published earlier this year, it remains highly relevant for HR, learning, and talent leaders thinking through how coaching strategy and tactics may need to evolve, including the role AI-enabled coaching might play.

Access report

BONUS RESOURCE

SUCCESSION PLANNING

Succession Planning: Tackling 3 Critical Challenges | Brian

My infographic with tips for addressing three challenges in succession.

Access my cheat sheet

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX). The rare-disease biotech will discontinue its internal discovery programs and close its Discovery Center of Excellence facility in Birmingham, Alabama, by the end of 2026. The company did not disclose the number of affected employees, framing the move as a strategic shift toward external innovation and partnerships to build its rare-disease pipeline.

• British American Tobacco (NYSE: BTI). The tobacco company will cut 5,500 jobs directly and outsource another 3,500 roles to third-party firms including Accenture, affecting about 9,000 employees, or roughly a fifth of its workforce. The restructuring excludes the U.S., BAT's largest market, and is expected to deliver £600 million in annual savings by 2028 as the company shifts toward AI-driven operations and smokeless products.

• Elementor. The WordPress website-building platform is laying off about 100 employees, roughly 30% of its workforce, in a restructuring aimed at adapting to AI-driven changes in web development. Most of the affected roles are in Israel, and the company said the move will shift it to a flatter, leaner organizational structure.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• The Kroger Co. (CINCINNATI, OHIO) [NYSE: KR] — America’s largest supermarket-only retailer, operating more than 400,000 associates who serve over 11 million customers daily — announced Emilee De Martino will serve as its next EVP and Chief People Officer. De Martino succeeds Tim Massa, who will retire September 18, 2026. De Martino joins Kroger from McDonald’s Corporation, where she most recently served as SVP and Chief People Officer for International Markets, leading people strategy across 19 countries.

Emilee De Martino 

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

We are now in July, and the first half of 2026 is behind us. For many HR practitioners, the window to make meaningful progress on this year's most critical priorities is getting shorter, not longer.

As someone who has spent most of his career as an internal HR practitioner, I know firsthand how valuable it is to have a trusted, curated group of other internal HR practitioners who are in similar roles, navigating similar priorities, and working through similar talent challenges in other organizations.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF JUNE 2026

Did you miss the “Best of June ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #354, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of June issue. Download Draup’s paper, What Boards Now Expect From AI Transformation.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to this special Best of June issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Bridget Penney, Chief People Officer at Applied Systems, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Bridget, for your support of this newsletter!

🗞️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly?

And immediately get 5 of my PDF cheat sheets!

PRESENTED BY Draup

What Boards Now Expect From AI Transformation

Boards are no longer impressed by AI initiatives or pilot counts. They want to know whether management can turn AI into real enterprise value.

Draup's latest boardroom briefing shows CEOs, CHROs, and executive teams what directors actually want to see.

1. The questions directors now lead with, answered with evidence

2. Why workforce readiness, not technology, is the real constraint

3. What AI buys at constant headcount

4. How to benchmark against peers on talent

5. The scorecard that ties AI spend to enterprise value

Grounded in real enterprise examples, this paper helps executive teams turn AI activity into evidence of real business value.

THIS MONTH’S CONTENT

This Best of June issue includes the 20 most popular resources from the June issues of Talent Edge Weekly. They span three sections:

• AI & The Future of Work. Explores AI and the future of work, including AI-human collaboration, AI adoption strategy, the impact of AI on early-career pathways, AI's erosion of critical human skills, AI's burden on middle managers, and the impact of AI on the future of coaching.

• HR Impact and HR Function. Covers HR impact and function, including communicating the human capital narrative to stakeholders, HR's overall perception and sentiments of the HR function, and leading employees through organizational change.

• Talent Practices. Addresses talent practices, including critical role identification, critical role talent placement assessment, performance goal recalibration, workforce and scenario planning, succession planning, leadership transitions from manager to leader, internal mobility, mid-career talent mobility, develop-in-place tactics, and employee reskilling.

There are bonus resources, such as information about company layoffs and movement in and out of the Chief HR Officer role.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

As we enter July, the first half of 2026 is behind us. For many HR practitioners, the window to make meaningful progress on this year's most critical priorities is getting shorter, not longer.

And as someone who has spent most of his career as an internal HR practitioner with organizations such as AT&T, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bristol Myers Squibb, I know firsthand how valuable it is to have a trusted, curated group of other internal HR practitioners who are in similar roles, navigating similar priorities, and working through similar talent challenges in other organizations.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

I. AI & THE FUTURE OF WORK

Explores AI and the future of work, including AI-human collaboration, AI adoption strategy, the impact of AI on early-career pathways, AI's erosion of critical human skills, AI's burden on middle managers, and the impact of AI on the future of coaching.

AI & HUMAN COLLABORATION

HR Monitor 2026 | McKinsey

A 44-page report identifies five priority changes that leaders will need to embrace in the age of human–AI collaboration. I expand on building proactive external talent pipelines.

McKinsey released its HR Monitor, an annual benchmark survey on the biggest global workforce and HR trends. This year, the report focuses on five priority changes that leaders will need to embrace in the age of human–AI collaboration. The 44-page report covers topics such as workforce planning, talent acquisition, employee development, and employee experience. One section I want to zoom in on is the talent acquisition chapter, which emphasizes building proactive pipelines through active relationship management with passive candidates, strong referral programs, and reengaging prior "runner-up" candidates. An often-overlooked pipeline source I would add is former employees. Although not every former employee makes sense to re-recruit, some high performers who voluntarily left may want to return after realizing their new role and/or culture was not the right fit. And research supports the case for rehiring. A study in the Academy of Management Journal found former employees often outperform new hires in roles requiring relational skills and coordination, while research in Organization Science shows returning employees tend to help colleagues more than external hires. Is rehiring part of your talent strategy? As you think through your strategy, consider a Visier analysis that found the average time away before returning is 13 months (up to 36), but likelihood drops sharply after 16, making 13 to 16 months the critical window. Don't let that window close. These are the types of strategic discussions we have in my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

Access report

AI IMPACT

AI at Work: Strategy Matters More Than Tools | BCG

A new 29-page report with findings from BCG’s fourth annual AI at Work survey, including how AI use and time savings are rising, but translating it into value remains a struggle.

BCG released the findings from its fourth annual AI at Work report, based on responses from 11,749 workers across 14 markets. One headline: 74% of frontline white-collar workers now regularly use AI, up 23 percentage points in one year, with 42% reporting a full workday or more saved per week. Time savings are even higher in functions such as marketing (60%), IT (53%), and human resources (50%). Yet, most organizations have not yet learned to convert that time into value. In fact, 66% of frontline employees who reported time savings say they receive limited or no guidance on what to do with it, and more than half are not reinvesting it into more strategic work. A few other stats I pulled from the report that might help to explain what is blocking that conversion: nearly half are spending more time directing AI than doing the work itself, with 72% saying AI has changed the skills expected of them. And 60% say the bar for what counts as good enough is rising. Add to this what BCG calls the joy paradox, where regular AI users report higher job satisfaction and greater cognitive load simultaneously, and these factors compound making it harder to translate “time savings” into true value. A good starting point for HR leaders: where is the greatest AI-driven time savings taking place in your organization, what is preventing it from being converted into value, and what is the plan for closing that gap?

Access slides

IMPACT OF AI ON ENTRY-LEVEL ROLES

AI and the Future of Entry-Level Work: A Framework for Safeguarding and Reinventing Early Career Pathways | World Economic Forum

A new 42-page report shares a four-component framework for reinventing early-career pathways in an AI era.

Entry-level roles have long served as a foundation for building the institutional knowledge, judgment, and tacit skills that underpin long-term organizational capability. But as AI reshapes how work is performed, early-career workers are feeling the effects directly. This new report indicates that 37% of young workers globally are employed in occupations with medium to high exposure to AI-driven task change. The report offers a four-component framework for identifying where risk is emerging and what deliberate action is needed: job access (how organizations hire and onboard early-career talent as AI shifts role requirements); job design (how roles are restructured to develop capability rather than just execute tasks); talent pipelines (how organizations continue building future managers, specialists, and leaders); and education system alignment (how learning systems keep pace with rapidly changing workforce needs). Regarding job redesign, rather than simply automating entry-level tasks, some organizations are redesigning early-career roles so they continue building capability, judgment, and future leadership pipelines. In April, I made this post on how IBM is tripling its U.S. entry-level hiring in 2026 while redesigning junior roles around judgment, oversight, and customer engagement. Last month, I shared this post on how one banking organization is redesigning entry-level roles so junior analysts challenge AI outputs for incorrect assumptions, missing data, and logical flaws. How is AI changing early-career roles in your organization? Do you have a strategy for redefining them before the gap shows up in your leadership bench?

Access report

AI AND SKILLS

When Everyone Uses AI, Companies Risk Losing Critical Skills | BCG

A new BCG article argues that over-reliance on AI erodes critical human skills such as judgment and creative thinking, and offers six strategies to address it

Layoffs and job cuts have dominated much of the recent headlines about AI and its impact. The Challenger Job Cuts Report, a monthly tracker of U.S.-based corporate layoff announcements, reported that AI led cited reasons for job cuts for the third month in a row. Separate from the job cuts narrative, a less visible risk is quietly compounding: organizations leaning too heavily on AI may be weakening the human capabilities they need most. A new BCG article argues that without deliberate design, widespread AI adoption leads to distributed de-skilling: the collective erosion of critical thinking, judgment, and problem framing across an organization. Half of the leaders surveyed say they are already seeing this, and more than 60% expect it to become a real threat within three to five years. The skills most at risk, such as judgment, problem framing, and creative thinking, are the same ones considered most essential to long-term performance. The article offers six strategies. Two stood out: redesigning work so humans retain ownership of judgment (Shell requires early-career employees to frame problems and build a baseline before using AI); and making human skill development visible in performance management (at CNIL, managers assess employees on their ability to challenge AI outputs, not just use them). As organizations identify the human skills most essential to their strategy, I am resharing a 39-page World Economic Forum report, New Economy Skills: Unlocking the Human Advantage.

Access article

IMPACT OF AI ON MIDDLE MANAGERS

AI Adoption Is Overloading Your Middle Managers | Harvard Business Review

A new article examines how AI adoption could be creating an uneven distribution of burden across organizational levels, with middle managers absorbing most of it.

Much of the discussion around AI has focused on how efficiency gains will help employees create new forms of value. But does this hold true in all cases? A new HBR article explores who captures AI’s upside and who absorbs its costs. Based on 18 interviews across two major consulting firms, it finds AI is enabling role elevation at the junior and senior levels, but not in the middle. Junior consultants are moving into work they may not have done as early before, such as joining strategy conversations that were once more likely handled by senior staff. Senior leaders are also expanding the scope of work they can take on. But the middle manager layer is where the pressure seems to be building. Managers are now expected to validate AI outputs, catch what the authors call workslop (AI-generated content that looks professional but lacks substance), coach teams on AI use, and maintain quality standards, while still facing the same delivery pressure and limited formal support. This adds to an existing middle-manager burnout problem, already shaped by leaner structures, layoffs, and broader spans of control. It also raises a longer-term concern: if managers spend more time checking AI-generated work, they may have less capacity for the coaching and apprenticeship that help develop future leaders. While based on a small sample of consultants, the article usefully challenges the simplistic “AI frees everyone up for higher-value work” narrative. Question: When your organization measures AI adoption success, are you tracking what is happening to manager workload and capacity, and the unintended consequences on other important outcomes?

Access article

AI-ENABLED COACHING

2026 ICF Coaching Futures Report: Envisioning Coaching’s Next Horizon | International Coaching Federation

The inaugural ICF report explores how coaching might evolve by 2036 across four scenarios, ranging from AI-dominant delivery to community-centered human connection.

Last month, I had the pleasure of having Dr. Anna Tavis — Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU and author of The Digital Coaching Revolution (2024) — join my private community, Talent Edge Circle, as a guest for a discussion on how AI-enabled and digital coaching are reshaping how organizations develop employees at scale. We covered everything from the democratization of coaching and the emergence of fully AI-powered coaches to privacy and data ownership, to name a few. As this topic continues to generate strong interest among Talent Edge Weekly readers, I want to share this 76-page report by the International Coaching Federation. While published earlier this year, it remains highly relevant for HR, learning, and talent leaders thinking through how coaching strategy and tactics may need to evolve, including the role AI-enabled coaching might play. It provides a glimpse into five drivers of change shaping the future of coaching and four plausible scenarios for what coaching could look like by 2036, from a high-tech, high-collaboration future where AI expands access broadly, to scenarios marked by digital divides or a return to locally rooted, human-centered models. The report provides a useful starting point as you begin to think through how AI-enabled coaching might fit into your organization's overall coaching strategy. For those already in Talent Edge Circle, the replay and discussion notes from our conversation with Anna are also available in the community.

Access report

II. HR IMPACT & FUNCTION

Covers HR impact and function, including communicating the human capital narrative to stakeholders, HR's overall perception and sentiments of the HR function, and leading employees through organizational change.

HR CREATING STAKEHOLDER VALUE

Telling the Human Capital Narrative | Rebecca L. Ray and Patti P. Phillips in The Age of HR

A chapter from the recently released open-access eBook (Age of HR) examines how organizations can tailor their human capital narrative to different stakeholder groups, including the metrics that can support it.

A few weeks ago, I shared a new open-access eBook, The Age of HR, edited by Anthony Nyberg, Rebecca Kehoe, Dave Ulrich, and Patrick Wright. This excellent 332-page resource brings together 85 global thought leaders across 62 chapters organized around four human capability domains: talent, organization, leadership, and HR. Given the depth and breadth of topics covered, I will highlight one chapter each week over the next few issues. This week, I want to draw attention to Chapter 56, Telling the Human Capital Narrative, by Patti Phillips and Rebecca Ray, beginning on page 262. They share how different stakeholder groups, such as investors, current and prospective employees, customers, and strategic partners, are each likely to be most interested in different parts of an organization's human capital narrative. Their guidance covers how to start with the business-related challenge or opportunity that has the attention of key stakeholders, a topic on which I have shared many of my own resources, including Framing Talent Initiatives Within the Business Context, through to the metrics that can help support the narrative shared with each group. As CHROs and their teams work to tailor their human capital narrative to key audiences while drawing from a single source of truth, this chapter provides practical and actionable guidance. For those in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, I look forward to Patti joining us in August for a discussion on demonstrating the ROI of HR, and to Dave Ulrich joining us next month for a discussion on how HR practitioners can deliver more stakeholder value through human capability (talent, organization, leadership and HR).

Access eBook and chapter

HR SENTIMENT

2026 Global Human Resources Report | The Talent Strategy Group

A new 38-page report examines the perceptions of HR professionals about various aspects of the HR function.

There is no shortage of survey reports on how HR is thinking about the priorities it will focus on for any given year. However, this recently published report by The Talent Strategy Group takes a different angle by gaining insights on the perceptions that HR professionals have about the function itself, from how engaged HR is to where the profession is stalling. While there are several insights across this 38-page report — based on a census of 500+ HR professionals across levels, functions, and geographies — one that stood out is the recommendation to make commercial fluency and interest a hiring and promotion criterion for HR roles. The report finds that HR professionals who are in the function primarily to help their organization succeed financially, and who genuinely believe in the mission of the companies they work for, are more likely to reach senior levels, and that this orientation appears to be a condition of advancement rather than something that develops once people arrive. The report draws a pointed distinction: business acumen is a skill, meaning the ability to present HR in business terms. Commercial orientation is something different: it is whether someone is fundamentally in HR because they want their company to win. One practical implication for Chief HR Officers is to audit HR hiring and promotion criteria and ask whether it screens for commercial orientation, not just business acumen. There are many other insights in the report, so you will want to be sure to dig through it. Thanks to Marc Effron and The Talent Strategy Group for bringing us these insights.

Access report

CHANGE ENABLEMENT

When Employees Are Drowning in Change | MIT Sloan Management Review

Outlines three suggestions for managing change more effectively. I build on the one related to sequencing change based on employees’ capacity.

As organizations implement new technologies, AI tools, team restructurings, and other organizational changes, change fatigue has become a growing concern for HR and business leaders. Change fatigue happens when the volume and pace of change outpaces what employees can realistically absorb. Prosci's 2023 Best Practices in Change Management Report found that the average organization is managing five major change initiatives at any given time. Many are juggling 10 or more once smaller projects and process changes are factored in. A new MIT Sloan Management Review article adds important context: research cited in the piece finds that employees can realistically absorb only one or two major changes per year, yet leaders are planning three or four by 2027. Most organizations don't fail at change because they are doing too much. They fail because they are not intentional about the cumulative changes occurring at the same time. The article outlines three suggestions for managing change more effectively, including sequencing change with people's capacity in mind. With this as the backdrop, I am resharing my one-page template that provides space to capture current and proposed changes, priority level, degree of impact, timing, risks, and recommended action. It gives leaders a practical starting point for aligning the pace of change with what employees can realistically handle.

Access article

III. TALENT PRACTICES

Addresses talent practices, including critical role identification, critical role talent placement assessment, performance goal recalibration, workforce and scenario planning, succession planning, leadership transitions from manager to leader, internal mobility, mid-career talent mobility, develop-in-place tactics, and employee reskilling.

CRITICAL ROLE RISK

Critical Role Identification Without Action Is Just a List | Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet to evaluate six risk factors in your critical roles and prioritize actions accordingly.

In every organization, a segment of roles (~20%) have a disproportionately large impact on strategy execution and business performance. These are often referred to as critical or pivotal roles. But simply knowing which roles are critical isn't enough. The real value comes from strategically and proactively managing talent investments in these roles. A good starting point is knowing where risks exist in critical roles and how to convert these risks into a talent advantage. My cheat sheet helps you evaluate your critical roles across six risk factors: Top Talent Risk (the best talent is not in the role), Incumbent Risk (high risk of the incumbent leaving the role in the near future), Internal Bench Risk (weak internal pipeline for backfilling this role), Development Risk (challenging to develop internal talent within a reasonable timeframe and cost), External Talent Risk (hiring externally would take considerable time and cost), and Role Change Sensitivity Risk (the requirements and skills for this role are highly susceptible to rapid shifts from AI, automation, or changing business conditions). Input your critical roles (assuming you have a process for role identification) and click a box to indicate which risks apply. Upon completion, the visual will highlight where the greatest risks exist, helping you prioritize actions. This exercise is not about filling out a template. It is about jumpstarting a thought process and discussions that lead to more informed talent decisions in the roles that have an outsized impact on business performance.

Access my cheat sheet

TALENT IN CRITICAL ROLES

Are Your Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet offers five factors for evaluating whether a critical role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value.

In recently shared my cheat sheet for evaluating six factors that can signal risk in an organization’s critical roles. These roles, which may represent roughly 20% of total roles, have a disproportionate impact on business strategy execution. The intent is to jumpstart discussions that help organizations proactively identify risks and turn those insights into actions that protect performance and strengthen talent advantage. One factor I presented is top talent risk, where a critical role is not occupied by the best available talent. This risk can signal an opportunity to strengthen organizational performance by ensuring the role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value. To help make this determination, I’m sharing another cheat sheet that considers five factors, including performance results, such as whether the person is delivering what the role requires, and internal benchmarking, such as whether someone internal could perform the role significantly better. The cheat sheet also includes why each factor matters, probing questions, and indicators. These are examples, and you can use your judgment to determine the criteria that best fit your organization. As a bonus, here is another one of my cheat sheets on talent reviews, of which critical roles are often a part.

Access my cheat sheet

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

CRITICAL ROLES AND AI

Rewiring Talent to Value in the Age of AI | McKinsey

A new McKinsey article revisits the firm's Talent to Value framework, arguing that in an AI era, value is no longer created by critical roles alone.

Identifying and managing critical roles remains an important talent strategy for creating organizational stakeholder value. These roles often make up a small share of total roles, sometimes around 20%, but they have a much larger impact on strategy execution. I've shared many of my tools on critical roles, including two recent cheat sheets on identifying risks in these roles and determining if they are staffed with top talent. As AI reshapes how work gets done, a key question is emerging: how does the concept of a critical role and who occupies it need to evolve? A new McKinsey article this week explores that question, updating its Talent to Value Framework for an era in which value is no longer created by roles alone, but by humans and AI agents working together. It covers five steps, and I highlight two. Step 2 asks: where can people and AI agents work together in ways that create the most value? The third step reframes who should occupy those roles, suggesting the goal is no longer simply matching the best person to a critical role, but assessing how much that person can amplify value with AI. One implication for determining who occupies a critical role is: prioritizing individuals who build AI fluency, reimagine workflows through AI, and know when to use AI versus when human judgment is needed. With this in mind, how might you need to redefine your approach to managing critical roles?

Access article

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Recalibrating Performance Goals, Priorities, and Capacity: A Midyear Tool for Preventing Goal Creep | Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet provides six questions to help teams recalibrate performance goals, priorities, and capacity when new work is added midyear.

As we enter the second half of the calendar year, it is a natural time to pause, assess progress against performance goals set at the start, and determine what adjustments may be needed. It is even a time when new goals are added. If these additions are not managed intentionally, they can create competing priorities that outpace capacity, putting both original and new objectives at risk. This is often referred to as goal creep: goals gradually expand without recalibrating priorities and resources. To help teams address this, here is my one-page cheat sheet for evaluating any new goal and clarifying what will change to make room. It starts with a simple premise: when a new goal is added, either resources should be added, or an existing goal should be deprioritized. It also includes questions such as: What changed in business priorities that justifies adding this goal now? What are we willing to deprioritize? What minimum viable version can we commit to this cycle? Rather than being prescriptive, it is a strategic exercise to help teams stay intentional about what work is taken on in the second half, protect critical priorities, and increase the likelihood that goals translate into outcomes. As a bonus, I am also sharing another one of my cheat sheets to identify ways of working that can get in the way of execution, such as slow decisions, unclear ownership, or approval layers. Together, both cheat sheets can help teams recalibrate goals and ways of working for the second half of the year.

Access cheat sheet

WORKFORCE AND SCENARIO PLANNING

Strategic Workforce Planning and Scenario Planning Worksheet | Brian Heger

My one-page worksheet for thinking through workforce planning responses to different scenarios.

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) consistently ranks among the talent practices with the largest gap between importance and capability. One contributing factor is that workforce plans are often built on a single expected scenario, which can make it harder to respond when business conditions shift. Scenario planning (SP), the practice of anticipating and preparing for plausible future business conditions, can help close this gap. While SP is best enabled by technology, data, and analytics, even a high-level discussion is a strong starting point. My worksheet covers three elements: 1) a Base Scenario, the scenario your organization expects and its workforce implications; 2) at least one Alternative Scenario, a plausible different scenario informed by your organization’s strategic business planning process; and 3) the Triggers that signal the alternative scenario is more likely to happen, along with the workforce plan changes you would make. As I noted in a 2019 People + Strategy article, one reason the SWP gap persists is that organizations wait for perfect technology and analytics before acting. This cheat sheet helps you get started. Even directional insights put you in a better position than having no view at all. For members of my Talent Edge Circle community, you can catch the replay of our 6/17 discussion with thought leader Adam Gibson on agile workforce planning. The replay is in our Zoom library in our private platform.

Access worksheet

SUCCESSION PLANNING

Succession Planning Cheat Sheet | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet consolidates four of my SP resources into into one view, including SP questions, metrics, development role audit, and triggers that prompt SP reevaluation.

Succession planning (SP) continues to get more attention from CEOs, boards, and investors. A recent report by The Conference Board and Heidrick & Struggles found that 61% of CEOs and boards expect SP effectiveness to have a greater influence on company valuation over the next five years, especially as investors look more closely at succession depth and planned leadership transitions. In response to frequent requests for SP resources, here’s my one-page cheat sheet consolidating elements from other cheat sheets I've previously shared. It includes four components: 1) SP Questions: Ten questions to clarify an organization's approach, such as determining which roles to focus on and how to assess successor readiness; 2) SP Metrics: Twelve sample metrics that can help evaluate SP effectiveness. 3) Development Role Audit: Four starter questions to help determine when to redeploy talent from a high-impact development role, particularly when their continued placement in the role limits opportunities for developing successors; and 4) Trigger Events for Reassessment: Nine examples of events that may warrant an off-cycle reassessment, such as shifts in business strategy. To build on the last component, SP can become less relevant when not updated as circumstances change. While a regular SP process cadence can help, identifying trigger events that necessitate a more immediate reassessment outside that cadence can ensure plans stay relevant between review cycles.

Access my cheat sheet

LEADERSHIP AND TRANSITIONS

3 Forces Are Redefining the Transition from Manager to Leader | Harvard Business Review

A new article by Michael Watkins updates his seven-shift framework for making transitions, including functional to enterprise leadership.

The ability to prepare employees for successful transitions into new and more complex roles has long been a cornerstone of development planning, leadership development, and succession planning for many organizations. While several frameworks guide these transitions, one widely used is Michael Watkins' (author of The First 90 Days) seven-shift model from his 2012 HBR article, which identifies key changes leaders must navigate, including moving from functional to enterprise leadership. In a new HBR article, Watkins revisits that framework, noting the seven shifts still apply but that three forces have changed what each requires: generative AI (shifting the leader from producing insight to governing human-AI decision systems), geopolitical instability (making external complexity a first-order leadership concern), and a compressed leadership pipeline (removing stepping stones that once prepared leaders for enterprise roles). While each force has meaningful implications, one I want to highlight is AI. Watkins reinforces that high-potentials need hands-on AI governance experience before stepping into enterprise roles, raising a practical question: how do we prepare people to lead in an AI-enabled workplace? With this as the backdrop, I am resharing my post about Zapier's AI Fluency Framework, which covers how the company defines and assesses AI fluency across its workforce. While still evolving, the approach might provide others with ideas for articulating expectations and integrating them into various talent practices, including development planning.

Access article

WORKFORCE PLANNING + DEVELOPMENT

Future of Inclusion Lighthouses 2026 | World Economic Forum

A new 41-page report highlighting corporate inclusion practices, including Schneider Electric’s workforce planning approach that helps manage retirement risks.

An important factor in workforce planning is analyzing demographic data, including aging workforce trends and retirement projections, to understand how demographic shifts may affect the supply of available talent. These data can surface risks that are easy to overlook until they become urgent, such as the loss of critical knowledge when experienced employees retire. However, knowing retirement eligibility alone is insufficient since it does not mean an employee wants to retire or would not continue contributing in some form. Schneider Electric (SE) is one organization that has approached this topic with intention. Facing a projected shortage of 85 million skilled workers by 2030, with 20 to 25% of its workforce expected to retire within the next decade and 56% having over 30 years of tenure, SE launched its Senior Talent Program. The program uses four profiles to represent the career aspirations and needs of experienced employees age 51+: 1) Continue (remain in current role), 2) Pivot (shift to different work), 3) Accelerate (take on more responsibility), and 4) Transition (move toward retirement). Career conversation toolkits support managers and employees in using these profiles to plan unique career paths and inform workforce planning. SE’s case is in the WEF’s newly published Future of Inclusion Lighthouses 2026. I am also sharing a white paper with more on SE’s approach. 

Access report

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Sidetracked: The Hidden Crisis in Mid-Career Mobility | Burning Glass Institute & NYU School of Professional Studies

A new 41-page report finding that 24.2% of mid-career professionals are stalled— 5 or more years with no meaningful promotion. I zoom in on how lateral moves can help.

Internal mobility (IM) is a critical talent management strategy. However, IM is often viewed though a narrow lens of upward movement, such as job promotions and hierarchical progression. Lateral moves, or transitions into roles at a similar level across functions, teams, or disciplines, are often seen differently. Employees may view them as a career setback, while managers may treat them as a fallback when promotion opportunities are limited. A new report from the Burning Glass Institute and NYU School of Professional Studies challenges that view. Drawing on over 1.3 million career histories, it finds that 24.2% of mid-career professionals are “stalled,” defined as five or more years with no meaningful promotion and negligible wage growth. The report notes that warning signs of a stall are often visible as early as the 10-year career mark. For HR and talent practitioners, this creates an opportunity to utilize data and analytics to identify employees showing early signs of a career stall and offer lateral development moves (which also helps supply work demand) before disengagement and attrition sets in. One example in the report: a stalled IT worker who pivots into an adjacent, lateral data science role can see their stall risk drop by 86%. My takeaway: organizations need to better position and market lateral moves as a deliberate and valuable development strategy that have significant benefits to employees, managers, and leaders. This report provides a useful starting point for beginning to craft that message.

Access report

DEVELOPMENT

Develop-in-Place: An Underutilized Tactic for Developing People and Organizational Capability at the Same Time | Brian Heger

My quick take on how develop-in-place tactics (in one’s current role) can be effective when organizations actively signal which skills matter most to their strategy.

Internal job movement—where employees transition into new roles within the same organization—is a valuable source of development and internal mobility. While an effective tactic, these moves are inherently limited in supply and must be augmented with other talent strategies. And as work increasingly gets organized beyond the boundaries of the job itself, organizations need approaches that develop people without relying solely on role changes. One underutilized approach is "develop in place," where managers and employees identify ways to use the current role to broaden development—not just for the individual, but in areas that build organizational capabilities where it matters most. This requires organizations to signal which skills matter most to their strategy, so develop-in-place opportunities reflect what the business needs, not just what feels like growth to the employee or manager. For employees, this strengthens candidacy for future opportunities; for the organization, it builds capacity to execute. Three questions to consider: What is our philosophy on employee development: to develop for performance in current role, building capabilities the organization needs, both, or something else? Have we identified the skills most critical to executing our strategy and made those visible to managers and employees? Are development plans connected to organizational capability gaps, or driven only by personal growth goals? I'll be sharing more on this, including tools to help, but wanted to put the idea out there first so you can begin to think this through for your organization. In the meantime, here is a one-pager with examples of 10 ways to develop in place.

Read post on BrianHeger.com

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Want Workers to Reskill? Show Them Who They Can Become | HBS Working Knowledge

A new article and underlying research highlight how occupational identity can become a barrier to internal mobility, even when employees have the capability to move into new and unfamiliar roles.

Internal mobility, or the movement of employees across roles and opportunities within the same organization, is a critical component of talent management. However, several factors can limit internal mobility, such as manager talent hoarding, restrictive policies, and other reasons I've shared previously in my one-pager on the topic. Another factor than can turn into a barrier and which is highlighted in this new article and the underlying research it references is occupational identity: the degree to which workers see their current role as part of who they are, not just what they do. For some, especially when a role, field, or career path feels unfamiliar or is not an obvious match, the reluctance to pursue it may have less to do with capability and more to do with identity. The article points to research where only a third of job seekers were willing to take a reskilling course leading to new opportunities, and some required a stipend just to consider a career switch. While the research is based on a small segment of job seekers, one practical implication is that offering reskilling and job opportunities alone is not enough. Organizations need to help employees envision themselves in new and unfamiliar roles, which is really a positioning and marketing opportunity. This connects to the previous resource I shared, Sidetracked: The Hidden Crisis in Mid-Career Mobility report (Burning Glass Institute and NYU SPS): better positioning and marketing of lateral moves can open up renewed interest in them as a way to grow and develop one’s career.

Access article

JOB CUTS TRACKER

Here is my tracker, which includes announcements from a segment of organizations that have announced job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few announcements from June:

• Bell Canada / BCE (TSX: BCE). The Canadian telecommunications company confirmed the elimination of approximately 690 positions across Canada, representing about 1% of its workforce. The cuts, which include roughly 230 unionized roles, with most affected employees offered voluntary separation packages, are part of an ongoing multi-year transformation plan focused on network modernization and operating efficiency.

• Diageo (NYSE: DEO). The global spirits company has begun cutting jobs across its North American operations as part of a cost-reduction effort led by new CEO Dave Lewis, with reports indicating approximately 200 roles eliminated on its North American team and roughly 150 more at risk in Ireland. The cuts follow a period of declining sales, and Lewis has set cost-reduction targets for department heads rather than specifying a fixed headcount number.

• Uber (NYSE: UBER). The ride-hailing and delivery company cut 23% of its People and Places division, which covers human resources, recruitment, workplace facilities, and culture. The affected headcount represents less than 1% of Uber's 34,000-person global workforce; the company ruled out AI as a factor, attributing the cuts to overlapping responsibilities and organizational complexity following a recent leadership reorganization.

• Volkswagen (OTCMKTS: VWAGY). The German automaker confirmed it will reduce its German workforce by 19,000 positions by the end of 2026, with a binding target of more than 28,000 job cuts at the core Volkswagen brand by 2030. CEO Oliver Blume is set to deliver the update at the company's annual general meeting on June 18, citing a 20% reduction in German factory costs already achieved through 2025 and ongoing pressure from Chinese competition, high production costs, and slowing electric vehicle demand.

Access all announcements

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVES

In June, I tracked 68 hires, promotions, and resignations in the Chief HR Officer (CHRO) role through CHROs on the Go, my subscription-based digital platform that monitors movement in the CHRO role.

A few headlines from June:

• BD (FRANKLIN LAKES, NEW JERSEY) [NYSE: BDX] — a leading global pure-play medical technology company — promoted Manish Sinha to Chief People Officer. Sinha brings 15 years of HR leadership at BD across the company's global business segments, regions, and functions, supporting transformative mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Prior to this promotion, he served as SVP, HR covering the Interventional Segment, US and Canada, Innovation, and HR Technology. 

• Cencora (CONSHOHOCKEN, PENNSYLVANIA) [NYSE: COR] — a leading global pharmaceutical solutions organization — announced that Silvana Battaglia, EVP & Chief HR Officer, will retire following a distinguished seven-year tenure. She will be succeeded by Samantha Hammock, who will join Cencora as EVP and Chief HR Officer, effective July 13, 2026. Hammock joins from Verizon Communications, where she most recently served as EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer.

• ​Dana Incorporated (MAUMEE, OHIO) [NYSE: DAN] — a global powertrain systems manufacturer serving commercial and light vehicle markets — announced that Erin Rowse, currently SVP HR, Industrial at Eaton (NYSE: ETN), will serve as Chief HR Officer of the combined Dana/Eaton Mobility company upon closing of the companies' definitive merger agreement. The combined company will operate under the Dana Incorporated name and retain its NYSE listing. ​

• Yum! Brands (LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY) [NYSE: YUM] — a global restaurant company franchising and operating more than 63,000 restaurants in 155 countries and territories under KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger & Grill — announced the retirement of Tracy Skeans, COO and Chief People & Culture Officer, after more than 25 years with the company. Skeans will remain in her current role through late 2026 before transitioning to a senior advisory position; her expected retirement is March 1, 2028. Yum! is working to fill both the Chief People & Culture Officer and Chief Scale Officer roles, into which her responsibilities will be divided.

Join CHROs on the Go to access all detailed announcements and +4,800 archived announcements. Monthly + annual subscriptions available.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

As we enter July, the first half of 2026 is behind us. For many HR practitioners, the window to make meaningful progress on this year's most critical priorities is getting shorter, not longer.

And as someone who has spent most of his career as an internal HR practitioner with organizations such as AT&T, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bristol Myers Squibb, I know firsthand how valuable it is to have a trusted, curated group of other internal HR practitioners who are in similar roles, navigating similar priorities, and working through similar talent challenges in other organizations.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to the new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Anh Thu Nguyen, Director of Organizational and Talent Effectiveness at Trimble, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Anh Thu, for your support of this newsletter!

👉️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY i4cp

Which agility profile fits your organization? And is it the one that actually outperforms?

There are four ways organizations manifest agility and resilience. Only one drives sustained performance, yet most don't know which one they are.

i4cp's global research across 866 leaders in 57 countries identified two major findings worth paying attention to:

1. Being agile alone doesn’t guarantee high performance 

2. Your organization’s agility profile predicts everything from employee engagement to burnout.

Download i4cp’s Executive Brief—Designed for Disruption— and identify your organization’s profile so you can turn it into a performance advantage.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• Telling the Human Capital Narrative | Rebecca L. Ray and Patti P. Phillips in The Age of HR | A chapter from the recently released open-access eBook (Age of HR) examines how organizations can tailor their human capital narrative to different stakeholder groups, including the metrics that can support it.

• AI and the Future of Entry-Level Work: A Framework for Safeguarding and Reinventing Early Career Pathways | World Economic Forum | A new 42-page report shares a four-component framework for reinventing early-career pathways in an AI era.

• 2026 ICF Coaching Futures Report: Envisioning Coaching’s Next Horizon | International Coaching Federation | The inaugural ICF report explores how coaching might evolve by 2036 across four scenarios, ranging from AI-dominant delivery to community-centered human connection.

• AI Adoption Is Overloading Your Middle Managers | Harvard Business Review | A new article examines how AI adoption could be creating an uneven distribution of burden across organizational levels, with middle managers absorbing most of it.

• Recalibrating Performance Goals, Priorities, and Capacity: A Midyear Tool for Preventing Goal Creep | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet provides six questions to help teams recalibrate performance goals, priorities, and capacity when new work is added midyear.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

My Private Community for Internal HR

Talent Edge Circle

As we enter July, the first half of 2026 is behind us. For many HR practitioners, the window to make meaningful progress on this year's most critical priorities is getting shorter, not longer.

And as someone who has spent most of his career as an internal HR practitioner with organizations such as AT&T, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bristol Myers Squibb, I know firsthand how valuable it is to have a trusted, curated group of other internal HR practitioners who are in similar roles, navigating similar priorities, and working through similar talent challenges in other organizations.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

HR CREATING STAKEHOLDER VALUE

Telling the Human Capital Narrative | Rebecca L. Ray and Patti P. Phillips in The Age of HR

A chapter from the recently released open-access eBook (Age of HR) examines how organizations can tailor their human capital narrative to different stakeholder groups, including the metrics that can support it.

A few weeks ago, I shared a new open-access eBook, The Age of HR, edited by Anthony Nyberg, Rebecca Kehoe, Dave Ulrich, and Patrick Wright. This excellent 332-page resource brings together 85 global thought leaders across 62 chapters organized around four human capability domains: talent, organization, leadership, and HR. Given the depth and breadth of topics covered, I will highlight one chapter each week over the next few issues. This week, I want to draw attention to Chapter 56, Telling the Human Capital Narrative, by Patti Phillips and Rebecca Ray, beginning on page 262. They share how different stakeholder groups, such as investors, current and prospective employees, customers, and strategic partners, are each likely to be most interested in different parts of an organization's human capital narrative. Their guidance covers how to start with the business-related challenge or opportunity that has the attention of key stakeholders, a topic on which I have shared many of my own resources, including Framing Talent Initiatives Within the Business Context, through to the metrics that can help support the narrative shared with each group. As CHROs and their teams work to tailor their human capital narrative to key audiences while drawing from a single source of truth, this chapter provides practical and actionable guidance. For those in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, I look forward to Patti joining us in August for a discussion on demonstrating the ROI of HR, and to Dave Ulrich joining us next month for a discussion on how HR practitioners can deliver more stakeholder value through human capability (talent, organization, leadership and HR).

Access eBook and chapter

IMPACT OF AI ON ENTRY-LEVEL ROLES

AI and the Future of Entry-Level Work: A Framework for Safeguarding and Reinventing Early Career Pathways | World Economic Forum

A new 42-page report shares a four-component framework for reinventing early-career pathways in an AI era.

Entry-level roles have long served as a foundation for building the institutional knowledge, judgment, and tacit skills that underpin long-term organizational capability. But as AI reshapes how work is performed, early-career workers are feeling the effects directly. This new report indicates that 37% of young workers globally are employed in occupations with medium to high exposure to AI-driven task change. The report offers a four-component framework for identifying where risk is emerging and what deliberate action is needed: job access (how organizations hire and onboard early-career talent as AI shifts role requirements); job design (how roles are restructured to develop capability rather than just execute tasks); talent pipelines (how organizations continue building future managers, specialists, and leaders); and education system alignment (how learning systems keep pace with rapidly changing workforce needs). Regarding job redesign, rather than simply automating entry-level tasks, some organizations are redesigning early-career roles so they continue building capability, judgment, and future leadership pipelines. In April, I made this post on how IBM is tripling its U.S. entry-level hiring in 2026 while redesigning junior roles around judgment, oversight, and customer engagement. Last month, I shared this post on how one banking organization is redesigning entry-level roles so junior analysts challenge AI outputs for incorrect assumptions, missing data, and logical flaws. How is AI changing early-career roles in your organization? Do you have a strategy for redefining them before the gap shows up in your leadership bench?

Access report

AI-ENABLED COACHING

2026 ICF Coaching Futures Report: Envisioning Coaching’s Next Horizon | International Coaching Federation

The inaugural ICF report explores how coaching might evolve by 2036 across four scenarios, ranging from AI-dominant delivery to community-centered human connection.

Last month, I had the pleasure of having Dr. Anna Tavis — Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU and author of The Digital Coaching Revolution (2024) — join my private community, Talent Edge Circle, as a guest for a discussion on how AI-enabled and digital coaching are reshaping how organizations develop employees at scale. We covered everything from the democratization of coaching and the emergence of fully AI-powered coaches to privacy and data ownership, to name a few. As this topic continues to generate strong interest among Talent Edge Weekly readers, I want to share this 76-page report by the International Coaching Federation. While published earlier this year, it remains highly relevant for HR, learning, and talent leaders thinking through how coaching strategy and tactics may need to evolve, including the role AI-enabled coaching might play. It provides a glimpse into five drivers of change shaping the future of coaching and four plausible scenarios for what coaching could look like by 2036, from a high-tech, high-collaboration future where AI expands access broadly, to scenarios marked by digital divides or a return to locally rooted, human-centered models. The report provides a useful starting point as you begin to think through how AI-enabled coaching might fit into your organization's overall coaching strategy. For those already in Talent Edge Circle, the replay and discussion notes from our conversation with Anna are also available in the community.

Access report

IMPACT OF AI ON MIDDLE MANAGERS

AI Adoption Is Overloading Your Middle Managers | Harvard Business Review

A new article examines how AI adoption could be creating an uneven distribution of burden across organizational levels, with middle managers absorbing most of it.

Much of the discussion around AI has focused on how efficiency gains will help employees create new forms of value. But does this hold true in all cases? A new HBR article explores who captures AI’s upside and who absorbs its costs. Based on 18 interviews across two major consulting firms, it finds AI is enabling role elevation at the junior and senior levels, but not in the middle. Junior consultants are moving into work they may not have done as early before, such as joining strategy conversations that were once more likely handled by senior staff. Senior leaders are also expanding the scope of work they can take on. But the middle manager layer is where the pressure seems to be building. Managers are now expected to validate AI outputs, catch what the authors call workslop (AI-generated content that looks professional but lacks substance), coach teams on AI use, and maintain quality standards, while still facing the same delivery pressure and limited formal support. This adds to an existing middle-manager burnout problem, already shaped by leaner structures, layoffs, and broader spans of control. It also raises a longer-term concern: if managers spend more time checking AI-generated work, they may have less capacity for the coaching and apprenticeship that help develop future leaders. While based on a small sample of consultants, the article usefully challenges the simplistic “AI frees everyone up for higher-value work” narrative. Question: When your organization measures AI adoption success, are you tracking what is happening to manager workload and capacity, and the unintended consequences on other important outcomes?

Access article

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Recalibrating Performance Goals, Priorities, and Capacity: A Midyear Tool for Preventing Goal Creep | Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet provides six questions to help teams recalibrate performance goals, priorities, and capacity when new work is added midyear.

As we enter the second half of the calendar year, it is a natural time to pause, assess progress against performance goals set at the start, and determine what adjustments may be needed. It is even a time when new goals are added. If these additions are not managed intentionally, they can create competing priorities that outpace capacity, putting both original and new objectives at risk. This is often referred to as goal creep: goals gradually expand without recalibrating priorities and resources. To help teams address this, here is my one-page cheat sheet for evaluating any new goal and clarifying what will change to make room. It starts with a simple premise: when a new goal is added, either resources should be added, or an existing goal should be deprioritized. It also includes questions such as: What changed in business priorities that justifies adding this goal now? What are we willing to deprioritize? What minimum viable version can we commit to this cycle? Rather than being prescriptive, it is a strategic exercise to help teams stay intentional about what work is taken on in the second half, protect critical priorities, and increase the likelihood that goals translate into outcomes. As a bonus, I am also sharing another one of my cheat sheets to identify ways of working that can get in the way of execution, such as slow decisions, unclear ownership, or approval layers. Together, both cheat sheets can help teams recalibrate goals and ways of working for the second half of the year.

Access cheat sheet

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

CRITICAL ROLES AND AI

Rewiring Talent to Value in the Age of AI | McKinsey

A new McKinsey article revisits the firm's Talent to Value framework, arguing that in an AI era, value is no longer created by critical roles alone.

Identifying and managing critical roles remains an important talent strategy for creating organizational stakeholder value. These roles often make up a small share of total roles, sometimes around 20%, but they have a much larger impact on strategy execution. I've shared many of my tools on critical roles, including two recent cheat sheets on identifying risks in these roles and determining if they are staffed with top talent. As AI reshapes how work gets done, a key question is emerging: how does the concept of a critical role and who occupies it need to evolve? A new McKinsey article this week explores that question, updating its Talent to Value Framework for an era in which value is no longer created by roles alone, but by humans and AI agents working together.

Access article

BONUS RESOURCES

SUCCESSION PLANNING

5 Succession Planning Resources Organized by the Questions They Help Answer | Brian Heger

A curated set of five of my succession planning cheat sheets, each anchored in a practical question the resource helps you address in your organization..

Access my cheat sheets

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Diageo (NYSE: DEO). The global spirits company has begun cutting jobs across its North American operations as part of a cost-reduction effort led by new CEO Dave Lewis, with reports indicating approximately 200 roles eliminated on its North American team and roughly 150 more at risk in Ireland. The cuts follow a period of declining sales, and Lewis has set cost-reduction targets for department heads rather than specifying a fixed headcount number.

• Elastic (NYSE: ESTC). The AI-search and data analytics software company is reducing its workforce by approximately 7% — roughly 280 to 300 employees — as it reorganizes to align with the AI automation era, simplifying team structures and reducing management layers. The company expects the restructuring to be complete by the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2027, though it still plans overall headcount growth this fiscal year.

• Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA). The video game publisher has begun a new round of layoffs affecting its recruitment, customer support, trust and safety, and IT teams, with impacted employees in the U.S. and at its Hyderabad, India office. The total number of affected employees was not disclosed; the cuts are the third wave of reductions at EA in 2026 and come as the company awaits the close of a $55 billion acquisition by a consortium including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• BD (FRANKLIN LAKES, NEW JERSEY) [NYSE: BDX] — a leading global pure-play medical technology company — promoted Manish Sinha to Chief People Officer. Sinha brings 15 years of HR leadership at BD across the company's global business segments, regions, and functions, supporting transformative mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Prior to this promotion, he served as SVP, HR covering the Interventional Segment, US and Canada, Innovation, and HR Technology. 

Manish Sinha

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community

Talent Edge Circle

As we enter July, the first half of 2026 is behind us. For many HR practitioners, the window to make meaningful progress on this year's most critical priorities is getting shorter, not longer.

And as someone who has spent most of his career as an internal HR practitioner with organizations such as AT&T, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bristol Myers Squibb, I know firsthand how valuable it is to have a trusted, curated group of other internal HR practitioners who are in similar roles, navigating similar priorities, and working through similar talent challenges in other organizations.

If you want to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, I invite you to learn more about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

The goal is simple: to help you cut through the noise and complexity so you can accelerate the execution of your critical talent priorities.

Don't let the rest of the year pass by without the right support and community around you. Apply today.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF MAY 2026

Did you miss the “Best of May ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #349, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of May issue. Download Draup’s paper, 10 Operating Principles of Skills-based Organizations.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to this new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Laura Logan, Sr. Director of Talent & OD at Dairy Farmers of America, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Laura, for your support of this newsletter!

👉️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY Draup

Workforce Planning Beyond the Latest Job Title

Most workforce planning is reactive: teams chase whatever job title trended last quarter, then re-hire for the same skills under a new name. The companies pulling ahead are doing something different: investing in the capability itself.

Draup's latest paper identifies the five capabilities that pay off regardless of which title trends next. And it provides actions you can take now with your organization.

Learn how to stack these five capabilities to elevate the impact of your workforce planning.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• Rewiring Talent to Value in the Age of AI | McKinsey | A new McKinsey article revisits the firm's Talent to Value framework, arguing that in an AI era, value is no longer created by critical roles alone.

• When Everyone Uses AI, Companies Risk Losing Critical Skills | BCG | A new article argues that over-reliance on AI erodes critical human skills such as judgment and creative thinking, and offers six strategies to address it.

• Succession Planning Cheat Sheet | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet consolidates four of my SP resources into into one view, including SP questions, metrics, development role audit, and triggers that prompt SP reevaluation.

• 3 Forces Are Redefining the Transition from Manager to Leader | Harvard Business Review | A new article by Michael Watkins updates his seven-shift framework for making transitions, including functional to enterprise leadership.

• Want Workers to Reskill? Show Them Who They Can Become | HBS Working Knowledge | A new article and underlying research highlight how occupational identity can become a barrier to internal mobility, even when employees have the capability to move into new and unfamiliar roles.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

TALENT EDGE CIRCLE - my private community 

👉️ If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

And a special thanks to Adam Gibson, Global Practice Director, Workforce Strategy & Skills at LHH, and author of Agile Workforce Planning, for joining me and the Talent Edge Circle, last week for a discussion on workforce planning!

Adam Gibson

We covered everything from how to get started when the capability is still being built, to planning horizons, scenario planning, the role of skills- versus role-based planning, technology selection, getting executive buy-in, and more.

If you’re looking for someone to support your workforce planning strategy and approach, I recommend connecting with Adam to see how he can help. And be sure to pick up a copy of his book on agile workforce planning!

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

CRITICAL ROLES AND AI

Rewiring Talent to Value in the Age of AI | McKinsey

A new McKinsey article revisits the firm's Talent to Value framework, arguing that in an AI era, value is no longer created by critical roles alone.

Identifying and managing critical roles remains an important talent strategy for creating organizational stakeholder value. These roles often make up a small share of total roles, sometimes around 20%, but they have a much larger impact on strategy execution. I've shared many of my tools on critical roles, including two recent cheat sheets on identifying risks in these roles and determining if they are staffed with top talent. As AI reshapes how work gets done, a key question is emerging: how does the concept of a critical role and who occupies it need to evolve? A new McKinsey article this week explores that question, updating its Talent to Value Framework for an era in which value is no longer created by roles alone, but by humans and AI agents working together. It covers five steps, and I highlight two. Step 2 asks: where can people and AI agents work together in ways that create the most value? The third step reframes who should occupy those roles, suggesting the goal is no longer simply matching the best person to a critical role, but assessing how much that person can amplify value with AI. One implication for determining who occupies a critical role is: prioritizing individuals who build AI fluency, reimagine workflows through AI, and know when to use AI versus when human judgment is needed. With this in mind, how might you need to redefine your approach to managing critical roles?

Access article

AI AND SKILLS

When Everyone Uses AI, Companies Risk Losing Critical Skills | BCG

A new BCG article argues that over-reliance on AI erodes critical human skills such as judgment and creative thinking, and offers six strategies to address it

Layoffs and job cuts have dominated much of the recent headlines about AI and its impact. The Challenger Job Cuts Report, a monthly tracker of U.S.-based corporate layoff announcements, reported that AI led cited reasons for job cuts for the third month in a row. Separate from the job cuts narrative, a less visible risk is quietly compounding: organizations leaning too heavily on AI may be weakening the human capabilities they need most. A new BCG article argues that without deliberate design, widespread AI adoption leads to distributed de-skilling: the collective erosion of critical thinking, judgment, and problem framing across an organization. Half of the leaders surveyed say they are already seeing this, and more than 60% expect it to become a real threat within three to five years. The skills most at risk, such as judgment, problem framing, and creative thinking, are the same ones considered most essential to long-term performance. The article offers six strategies. Two stood out: redesigning work so humans retain ownership of judgment (Shell requires early-career employees to frame problems and build a baseline before using AI); and making human skill development visible in performance management (at CNIL, managers assess employees on their ability to challenge AI outputs, not just use them). As organizations identify the human skills most essential to their strategy, I am resharing a 39-page World Economic Forum report, New Economy Skills: Unlocking the Human Advantage.

Access article

SUCCESSION PLANNING

Succession Planning Cheat Sheet | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet consolidates four of my SP resources into into one view, including SP questions, metrics, development role audit, and triggers that prompt SP reevaluation.

Succession planning (SP) continues to get more attention from CEOs, boards, and investors. A recent report by The Conference Board and Heidrick & Struggles found that 61% of CEOs and boards expect SP effectiveness to have a greater influence on company valuation over the next five years, especially as investors look more closely at succession depth and planned leadership transitions. In response to frequent requests for SP resources, here’s my one-page cheat sheet consolidating elements from other cheat sheets I've previously shared. It includes four components: 1) SP Questions: Ten questions to clarify an organization's approach, such as determining which roles to focus on and how to assess successor readiness; 2) SP Metrics: Twelve sample metrics that can help evaluate SP effectiveness. 3) Development Role Audit: Four starter questions to help determine when to redeploy talent from a high-impact development role, particularly when their continued placement in the role limits opportunities for developing successors; and 4) Trigger Events for Reassessment: Nine examples of events that may warrant an off-cycle reassessment, such as shifts in business strategy. To build on the last component, SP can become less relevant when not updated as circumstances change. While a regular SP process cadence can help, identifying trigger events that necessitate a more immediate reassessment outside that cadence can ensure plans stay relevant between review cycles.

Access my cheat sheet

LEADERSHIP AND TRANSITIONS

3 Forces Are Redefining the Transition from Manager to Leader | Harvard Business Review

A new article by Michael Watkins updates his seven-shift framework for making transitions, including functional to enterprise leadership.

The ability to prepare employees for successful transitions into new and more complex roles has long been a cornerstone of development planning, leadership development, and succession planning for many organizations. While several frameworks guide these transitions, one widely used is Michael Watkins' (author of The First 90 Days) seven-shift model from his 2012 HBR article, which identifies key changes leaders must navigate, including moving from functional to enterprise leadership. In a new HBR article, Watkins revisits that framework, noting the seven shifts still apply but that three forces have changed what each requires: generative AI (shifting the leader from producing insight to governing human-AI decision systems), geopolitical instability (making external complexity a first-order leadership concern), and a compressed leadership pipeline (removing stepping stones that once prepared leaders for enterprise roles). While each force has meaningful implications, one I want to highlight is AI. Watkins reinforces that high-potentials need hands-on AI governance experience before stepping into enterprise roles, raising a practical question: how do we prepare people to lead in an AI-enabled workplace? With this as the backdrop, I am resharing my post about Zapier's AI Fluency Framework, which covers how the company defines and assesses AI fluency across its workforce. While still evolving, the approach might provide others with ideas for articulating expectations and integrating them into various talent practices, including development planning.

Access article

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Want Workers to Reskill? Show Them Who They Can Become | HBS Working Knowledge

A new article and underlying research highlight how occupational identity can become a barrier to internal mobility, even when employees have the capability to move into new and unfamiliar roles.

Internal mobility, or the movement of employees across roles and opportunities within the same organization, is a critical component of talent management. However, several factors can limit internal mobility, such as manager talent hoarding, restrictive policies, and other reasons I've shared previously in my one-pager on the topic. Another factor than can turn into a barrier and which is highlighted in this new article and the underlying research it references is occupational identity: the degree to which workers see their current role as part of who they are, not just what they do. For some, especially when a role, field, or career path feels unfamiliar or is not an obvious match, the reluctance to pursue it may have less to do with capability and more to do with identity. The article points to research where only a third of job seekers were willing to take a reskilling course leading to new opportunities, and some required a stipend just to consider a career switch. While the research is based on a small segment of job seekers, one practical implication is that offering reskilling and job opportunities alone is not enough. Organizations need to help employees envision themselves in new and unfamiliar roles, which is really a positioning and marketing opportunity. This connects to a point I made last week covering the Sidetracked: The Hidden Crisis in Mid-Career Mobility report (Burning Glass Institute and NYU SPS): better positioning and marketing of lateral moves can open up renewed interest in them as a way to grow and develop one’s career.

Access article

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

TALENT TRENDS

HR Monitor 2026 | McKinsey

A new 44-page report with benchmark insights on workforce planning, employee development, and talent acquisition, among other topics. I expand on building proactive external talent pipelines.

Access report

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Bell Canada / BCE (TSX: BCE). The Canadian telecommunications company confirmed the elimination of approximately 690 positions across Canada, representing about 1% of its workforce. The cuts, which include roughly 230 unionized roles, with most affected employees offered voluntary separation packages, are part of an ongoing multi-year transformation plan focused on network modernization and operating efficiency.

• enGene Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ENGN). The clinical-stage biotech developing a gene therapy for bladder cancer announced a roughly 50% reduction in its workforce to preserve cash while advancing toward an FDA Biologics License Application filing for its lead candidate, detalimogene. The company said it has retained the workforce needed to complete key trial milestones and initiate the BLA process in the second half of 2026.

• Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD). The financial services and stock trading platform announced a 10% reduction in its full-time workforce, cutting approximately 290 jobs to flatten its organizational structure and sharpen performance culture. The company framed the move as coming from a position of business strength, noting record average daily trading volumes across equities, options, and prediction markets in June; the restructuring will incur approximately $28 million in total charges.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• Cencora (CONSHOHOCKEN, PENNSYLVANIA) [NYSE: COR] — a leading global pharmaceutical solutions organization — announced that Silvana Battaglia, EVP & Chief HR Officer, will retire following a distinguished seven-year tenure. She will be succeeded by Samantha Hammock, who will join Cencora as EVP and Chief HR Officer, effective July 13, 2026. Hammock joins from Verizon Communications, where she most recently served as EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer. Prior to Verizon, she held various executive roles across HR at American Express, including serving as their Head of Global Talent and Learning. Battaglia will transition to a special advisor role effective July 13, 2026, working closely with Hammock through the end of the calendar year to ensure a successful transition. 

Samantha Hammock

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

My Private Community

Talent Edge Circle

If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

Accelerate the execution of your priorities:

🔥 Private hot seats to get feedback
🧠 Access to HR thought leaders
🔑 Priority access to Brian Heger
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Vetted internal HR practitioners
💬 Private online forum (asynchronous)
🔓️ Exclusive resources by Brian Heger

….and more

Screenshot from discussion with Marc Effron on performance management

🗓️ July 22, Dave Ulrich, professor at the Ross School of Business (University of Michigan) and co-founder of The RBL Group, will join Talent Edge Circle for a discussion on creating stakeholder value through HR.

🗓️ Aug 20, Patti Phillips, CEO of the ROI Institute, will join Talent Edge Circle for a discussion on showing the ROI of HR and talent investments.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF MAY 2026

Did you miss the “Best of May ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #349, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of May issue. Download Draup’s paper, 10 Operating Principles of Skills-based Organizations.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to this new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Zoe Winsey-Thomas, Head of Talent Management at bp, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Zoe, for your support of this newsletter!

👉️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY Draup

How Leading Organizations are Redesigning for the AI Era

Most enterprises are running AI on an organizational structure it was never designed for. That is easy to overlook early on. Over time, it becomes one of the costliest problems a leadership team can inherit.

Draup's latest research gives HR, strategy, and operations leaders a clear framework for getting ahead of it:

1. What AI actually does to organizational structure and reporting lines

2. How leading enterprises are sourcing capability beyond the traditional build-buy-borrow model

3. Where to place AI leadership so it drives real strategic value

4. How to keep humans in the loop without slowing the organization down

5. What the financial return on getting organizational design right actually looks like

The findings draw on research from IBM, PwC, Deloitte, Gartner, and McKinsey, mapped to decisions you can act on today.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• HR Monitor 2026 | McKinsey | A new 44-page report with benchmark insights on workforce planning, employee development, and talent acquisition, among other topics. I expand on building proactive external talent pipelines.

• Are Your Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger | My cheat sheet offers five factors for evaluating whether a critical role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value.

• Sidetracked: The Hidden Crisis in Mid-Career Mobility | Burning Glass Institute & NYU School of Professional Studies | A new 41-page report finding that 24.2% of mid-career professionals are stalled— 5 or more years with no meaningful promotion. I zoom in on how lateral moves can help.

• Strategic Workforce Planning and Scenario Planning Worksheet | Brian Heger | My one-page worksheet for thinking through workforce planning responses to different scenarios.

• When Employees Are Drowning in Change | MIT Sloan Management Review | Outlines three suggestions for managing change more effectively. I build on the one related to sequencing change based on employees’ capacity.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

👉️ P.S. - If you are part of my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, this is a reminder that thought leader Adam Gibson will be joining us on Wed, 6/17 for a 90-minute discussion on agile workforce planning. See you then!

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

TALENT TRENDS

HR Monitor 2026 | McKinsey

A new 44-page report with benchmark insights on workforce planning, employee development, and talent acquisition, among other topics. I expand on building proactive external talent pipelines.

This past week, McKinsey released its HR Monitor, an annual benchmark survey on the biggest global workforce and HR trends. The 44-page report covers topics such as workforce planning, talent acquisition, employee development, and employee experience. One section I want to zoom in on is the talent acquisition chapter, which emphasizes building proactive pipelines through active relationship management with passive candidates, strong referral programs, and reengaging prior "runner-up" candidates. An often-overlooked pipeline source I would add is former employees. Although not every former employee makes sense to re-recruit, some high performers who voluntarily left may want to return after realizing their new role and/or culture was not the right fit. And research supports the case for rehiring. A study in the Academy of Management Journal found former employees often outperform new hires in roles requiring relational skills and coordination, while research in Organization Science shows returning employees tend to help colleagues more than external hires. Is rehiring part of your talent strategy? As you think through your strategy, consider a Visier analysis that found the average time away before returning is 13 months (up to 36), but likelihood drops sharply after 16, making 13 to 16 months the critical window. Don't let that window close. These are the types of strategic discussions we have in my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

Access report

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Are Your Critical Roles Occupied by Your Top Talent? | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet offers five factors for evaluating whether a critical role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value.

In last week's issue of Talent Edge Weekly, I shared my cheat sheet for evaluating six factors that can signal risk in an organization’s critical roles. These roles, which may represent roughly 20% of total roles, have a disproportionate impact on business strategy execution. The intent is to jumpstart discussions that help organizations proactively identify risks and turn those insights into actions that protect performance and strengthen talent advantage. One factor I presented is top talent risk, where a critical role is not occupied by the best available talent. This risk can signal an opportunity to strengthen organizational performance by ensuring the role is staffed with the talent needed to deliver its full value. To help make this determination, I’m sharing another cheat sheet that considers five factors, including performance results, such as whether the person is delivering what the role requires, and internal benchmarking, such as whether someone internal could perform the role significantly better. The cheat sheet also includes why each factor matters, probing questions, and indicators. These are examples, and you can use your judgment to determine the criteria that best fit your organization.

Access my cheat sheet

INTERNAL MOBILITY

Sidetracked: The Hidden Crisis in Mid-Career Mobility | Burning Glass Institute & NYU School of Professional Studies

A new 41-page report finding that 24.2% of mid-career professionals are stalled— 5 or more years with no meaningful promotion. I zoom in on how lateral moves can help.

Internal mobility (IM) is a critical talent management strategy. However, IM is often viewed though a narrow lens of upward movement, such as job promotions and hierarchical progression. Lateral moves, or transitions into roles at a similar level across functions, teams, or disciplines, are often seen differently. Employees may view them as a career setback, while managers may treat them as a fallback when promotion opportunities are limited. A new report from the Burning Glass Institute and NYU School of Professional Studies challenges that view. Drawing on over 1.3 million career histories, it finds that 24.2% of mid-career professionals are “stalled,” defined as five or more years with no meaningful promotion and negligible wage growth. The report notes that warning signs of a stall are often visible as early as the 10-year career mark. For HR and talent practitioners, this creates an opportunity to utilize data and analytics to identify employees showing early signs of a career stall and offer lateral development moves (which also helps supply work demand) before disengagement and attrition sets in. One example in the report: a stalled IT worker who pivots into an adjacent, lateral data science role can see their stall risk drop by 86%. My takeaway: organizations need to better position and market lateral moves as a deliberate and valuable development strategy that have significant benefits to employees, managers, and leaders. This report provides a useful starting point for beginning to craft that message.

Access report

WORKFORCE AND SCENARIO PLANNING

Strategic Workforce Planning and Scenario Planning Worksheet | Brian Heger

My one-page worksheet for thinking through workforce planning responses to different scenarios.

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) consistently ranks among the talent practices with the largest gap between importance and capability. One contributing factor is that workforce plans are often built on a single expected scenario, which can make it harder to respond when business conditions shift. Scenario planning (SP), the practice of anticipating and preparing for plausible future business conditions, can help close this gap. While SP is best enabled by technology, data, and analytics, even a high-level discussion is a strong starting point. My worksheet covers three elements: 1) a Base Scenario, the scenario your organization expects and its workforce implications; 2) at least one Alternative Scenario, a plausible different scenario informed by your organization’s strategic business planning process; and 3) the Triggers that signal the alternative scenario is more likely to happen, along with the workforce plan changes you would make. As I noted in a 2019 People + Strategy article, one reason the SWP gap persists is that organizations wait for perfect technology and analytics before acting. This cheat sheet helps you get started. Even directional insights put you in a better position than having no view at all. For members of my Talent Edge Circle community, this will also be a timely lead-in to our 90-minute discussion this Wednesday, 6/17, with thought leader Adam Gibson on agile workforce planning.

Access worksheet

CHANGE ENABLEMENT

When Employees Are Drowning in Change | MIT Sloan Management Review

Outlines three suggestions for managing change more effectively. I build on the one related to sequencing change based on employees’ capacity.

As organizations implement new technologies, AI tools, team restructurings, and other organizational changes, change fatigue has become a growing concern for HR and business leaders. Change fatigue happens when the volume and pace of change outpaces what employees can realistically absorb. Prosci's 2023 Best Practices in Change Management Report found that the average organization is managing five major change initiatives at any given time. Many are juggling 10 or more once smaller projects and process changes are factored in. A new MIT Sloan Management Review article adds important context: research cited in the piece finds that employees can realistically absorb only one or two major changes per year, yet leaders are planning three or four by 2027. Most organizations don't fail at change because they are doing too much. They fail because they are not intentional about the cumulative changes occurring at the same time. The article outlines three suggestions for managing change more effectively, including sequencing change with people's capacity in mind. With this as the backdrop, I am resharing my one-page template that provides space to capture current and proposed changes, priority level, degree of impact, timing, risks, and recommended action. It gives leaders a practical starting point for aligning the pace of change with what employees can realistically handle.

Access article

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

SUCCESSION & TALENT MANAGEMENT

Critical Role Identification Without Action Is Just a List | Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet to evaluate six risk factors in your critical roles and prioritize actions accordingly.

Access my cheat sheet

BONUS RESOURCE

TALENT MANAGEMENT

7 Questions for Fast-Tracking Talent Decisions | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet with sample questions leaders can use to accelerate timely talent decisions into immediate action.

Access my cheat sheet

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Expeditors International (NYSE: EXPD). The global logistics and freight forwarding company cut approximately 230 technology-related jobs across five Washington state locations, representing about 15% of its information systems branch and 1.1% of its total workforce of roughly 20,000 employees. This marks the first layoffs in the company's 47-year history and ending a longstanding no-layoff policy. The cuts affect software developers, quality assurance engineers, project managers, and business analysts, with separations running from August 8 through December 31.

• Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TEVA). The global pharmaceutical company plans to cut approximately 250 jobs at its active pharmaceutical ingredients division,Teva Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (TAPI), over the next two years, primarily at its Neot Hovav site in Israel. The cuts come as Teva's search for a buyer for the TAPI unit  (which employs 4,100 people worldwide)  continues to drag on since the division was put up for sale in January 2024.

• Volkswagen (OTCMKTS: VWAGY). The German automaker confirmed it will reduce its German workforce by 19,000 positions by the end of 2026, with a binding target of more than 28,000 job cuts at the core Volkswagen brand by 2030. CEO Oliver Blume is set to deliver the update at the company's annual general meeting on June 18, citing a 20% reduction in German factory costs already achieved through 2025 and ongoing pressure from Chinese competition, high production costs, and slowing electric vehicle demand.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• ​Dana Incorporated (MAUMEE, OHIO) [NYSE: DAN] — a global powertrain systems manufacturer serving commercial and light vehicle markets — announced that Erin Rowse, currently SVP HR, Industrial at Eaton (NYSE: ETN), will serve as Chief Human Resources Officer of the combined Dana/Eaton Mobility company upon closing of the companies' definitive merger agreement. The transaction, structured as a Reverse Morris Trust, values Eaton Mobility at approximately $5.1 billion and is expected to close in Q1 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. The combined company will operate under the Dana Incorporated name and retain its NYSE listing.

Erin Rowse

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

Talent Edge Circle - my private community

If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

👉️ And if your a Chief HR Officer who has someone on your team who can benefit from and be a good fit with Talent Edge Circle, reply to this email, or have them apply here.  

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF MAY 2026

Did you miss the “Best of May ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #349, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of May issue. Download Draup’s paper 10 Operating Principles of Skills-based Organizations.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to this new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Alexander Toro Alvarez, Head of HR Business Partnering at SBK Siemens, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Alexander, for your support of this newsletter!

👉️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly? Sign up now and get 5 of my PDFs.

PRESENTED BY Lightcast

Skills-Based Hiring Toolkit

You’re losing talent you already have. Not just to competitors, but to your own blind spots. Externally, your job postings are screening out strong candidates before you ever see them. Internally, your best people are leaving because they can’t see a path forward, and you can’t see them clearly enough to offer one.

Skills-focused hiring closes both gaps. It brings the right external candidates into view, and keeps your best internal talent from walking away by making internal mobility a real, structured option rather than an afterthought.

Download the Skills-Based Hiring Toolkit, Lightcast’s free step-by-step guide for HR leaders who want to build a talent strategy that works from the inside out.

Inside, you’ll find:

• A maturity model to assess where your organization stands today, and define exactly where you want to go

• A 12-step action plan, from initial planning through to full optimization, covering external sourcing, internal mobility, career pathways, and beyond

• Free tools built in, including a Job Posting Optimizer and Disruptive Skills Matrix you can put to work immediately

• Guidance on connecting internal skills data to external labour market intelligence so every talent decision is grounded in reality

Your next great hire might already be on your payroll or hidden beyond the resumé. This toolkit helps you find them.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

• Critical Role Identification Without Action Is Just a List | Brian Heger | My one-page cheat sheet to evaluate six risk factors in your critical roles and prioritize actions accordingly.

• Future of Inclusion Lighthouses 2026 | World Economic Forum | A new 41-page report highlighting corporate inclusion practices, including Schneider Electric’s workforce planning approach that helps manage retirement risks.

• AI at Work: Strategy Matters More Than Tools | BCG | A new 29-page report with findings from BCG’s fourth annual AI at Work survey, including how AI use and time savings are rising, but translating it into value remains a struggle.

• 2026 Global Human Resources Report | The Talent Strategy Group | A new 38-page report examines the perceptions of HR professionals about various aspects of the HR function.

• Develop-in-Place: An Underutilized Tactic for Developing People and Organizational Capability at the Same Time | Brian Heger | My quick take on how develop-in-place tactics (in one’s current role) can be effective when organizations actively signal which skills matter most to their strategy.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

Talent Edge Circle - my private community

If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.    

Screenshot of discussion with Cole Napper on Data-driven HR

A few discussions coming up:

🗓️ June 17, Adam Gibson, author of Agile Workforce Planning, will join Talent Edge Circle for a discussion on strategic workforce planning.

🗓️ July 22, Dave Ulrich, professor at the Ross School of Business (University of Michigan) and co-founder of The RBL Group, will join Talent Edge Circle for a discussion on creating stakeholder value through HR.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

SUCCESSION & TALENT MANAGEMENT

Critical Role Identification Without Action Is Just a List | Brian Heger

My one-page cheat sheet to evaluate six risk factors in your critical roles and prioritize actions accordingly.

In every organization, a segment of roles (~20%) have a disproportionately large impact on strategy execution and business performance. These are often referred to as critical or pivotal roles. But simply knowing which roles are critical isn't enough. The real value comes from strategically and proactively managing talent investments in these roles. A good starting point is knowing where risks exist in critical roles and how to convert these risks into a talent advantage. My cheat sheet helps you evaluate your critical roles across six risk factors: Top Talent Risk (the best talent is not in the role), Incumbent Risk (high risk of the incumbent leaving the role in the near future), Internal Bench Risk (weak internal pipeline for backfilling this role), Development Risk (challenging to develop internal talent within a reasonable timeframe and cost), External Talent Risk (hiring externally would take considerable time and cost), and Role Change Sensitivity Risk (the requirements and skills for this role are highly susceptible to rapid shifts from AI, automation, or changing business conditions). Input your critical roles (assuming you have a process for role identification) and click a box to indicate which risks apply. Upon completion, the visual will highlight where the greatest risks exist, helping you prioritize actions. This exercise is not about filling out a template. It is about jumpstarting a thought process and discussions that lead to more informed talent decisions in the roles that have an outsized impact on business performance.

Access my cheat sheet

WORKFORCE PLANNING + INCLUSION

Future of Inclusion Lighthouses 2026 | World Economic Forum

A new 41-page report highlighting corporate inclusion practices, including Schneider Electric’s workforce planning approach that helps manage retirement risks.

An important factor in workforce planning is analyzing demographic data, including aging workforce trends and retirement projections, to understand how demographic shifts may affect the supply of available talent. These data can surface risks that are easy to overlook until they become urgent, such as the loss of critical knowledge when experienced employees retire. However, knowing retirement eligibility alone is insufficient since it does not mean an employee wants to retire or would not continue contributing in some form. Schneider Electric (SE) is one organization that has approached this topic with intention. Facing a projected shortage of 85 million skilled workers by 2030, with 20 to 25% of its workforce expected to retire within the next decade and 56% having over 30 years of tenure, SE launched its Senior Talent Program. The program uses four profiles to represent the career aspirations and needs of experienced employees age 51+: 1) Continue (remain in current role), 2) Pivot (shift to different work), 3) Accelerate (take on more responsibility), and 4) Transition (move toward retirement). Career conversation toolkits support managers and employees in using these profiles to plan unique career paths and inform workforce planning. SE’s case is in the WEF’s newly published Future of Inclusion Lighthouses 2026. I am also sharing a white paper with more on SE’s approach. For members of my private community, Talent Edge Circle, we are discussing workforce planning on 6/17 with thought leader Adam Gibson, author of Agile Workforce Planning.

Access report

AI

AI at Work: Strategy Matters More Than Tools | BCG

A new 29-page report with findings from BCG’s fourth annual AI at Work survey, including how AI use and time savings are rising, but translating it into value remains a struggle.

BCG just released the findings from its fourth annual AI at Work report, based on responses from 11,749 workers across 14 markets. One headline: 74% of frontline white-collar workers now regularly use AI, up 23 percentage points in one year, with 42% reporting a full workday or more saved per week. Time savings are even higher in functions such as marketing (60%), IT (53%), and human resources (50%). Yet, most organizations have not yet learned to convert that time into value. In fact, 66% of frontline employees who reported time savings say they receive limited or no guidance on what to do with it, and more than half are not reinvesting it into more strategic work. A few other stats I pulled from the report that might help to explain what is blocking that conversion: nearly half are spending more time directing AI than doing the work itself, with 72% saying AI has changed the skills expected of them. And 60% say the bar for what counts as good enough is rising. Add to this what BCG calls the joy paradox, where regular AI users report higher job satisfaction and greater cognitive load simultaneously, and these factors compound making it harder to translate “time savings” into true value. A good starting point for HR leaders: where is the greatest AI-driven time savings taking place in your organization, what is preventing it from being converted into value, and what is the plan for closing that gap?

Access slides

HR SENTIMENT

2026 Global Human Resources Report | The Talent Strategy Group

A new 38-page report examines the perceptions of HR professionals about various aspects of the HR function.

There is no shortage of survey reports on how HR is thinking about the priorities it will focus on for any given year. However, this recently published report by The Talent Strategy Group takes a different angle by gaining insights on the perceptions that HR professionals have about the function itself, from how engaged HR is to where the profession is stalling. While there are several insights across this 38-page report — based on a census of 500+ HR professionals across levels, functions, and geographies — one that stood out is the recommendation to make commercial fluency and interest a hiring and promotion criterion for HR roles. The report finds that HR professionals who are in the function primarily to help their organization succeed financially, and who genuinely believe in the mission of the companies they work for, are more likely to reach senior levels, and that this orientation appears to be a condition of advancement rather than something that develops once people arrive. The report draws a pointed distinction: business acumen is a skill, meaning the ability to present HR in business terms. Commercial orientation is something different: it is whether someone is fundamentally in HR because they want their company to win. One practical implication for Chief HR Officers is to audit HR hiring and promotion criteria and ask whether it screens for commercial orientation, not just business acumen. There are many other insights in the report, so you will want to be sure to dig through it. Thanks to Marc Effron and The Talent Strategy Group for bringing us these insights.

Access report

DEVELOPMENT

Develop-in-Place: An Underutilized Tactic for Developing People and Organizational Capability at the Same Time | Brian Heger

My quick take on how develop-in-place tactics (in one’s current role) can be effective when organizations actively signal which skills matter most to their strategy.

Internal job movement—where employees transition into new roles within the same organization—is a valuable source of development and internal mobility. While an effective tactic, these moves are inherently limited in supply and must be augmented with other talent strategies. And as work increasingly gets organized beyond the boundaries of the job itself, organizations need approaches that develop people without relying solely on role changes. One underutilized approach is "develop in place," where managers and employees identify ways to use the current role to broaden development—not just for the individual, but in areas that build organizational capabilities where it matters most. This requires organizations to signal which skills matter most to their strategy, so develop-in-place opportunities reflect what the business needs, not just what feels like growth to the employee or manager. For employees, this strengthens candidacy for future opportunities; for the organization, it builds capacity to execute. Three questions to consider: What is our philosophy on employee development: to develop for performance in current role, building capabilities the organization needs, both, or something else? Have we identified the skills most critical to executing our strategy and made those visible to managers and employees? Are development plans connected to organizational capability gaps, or driven only by personal growth goals? I'll be sharing more on this, including tools to help, but wanted to put the idea out there first so you can begin to think this through for your organization.

Read post on BrianHeger.com

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

HR CREATING STAKEHOLDER VALUE

The Age of HR: Delivering Stakeholder Value Through Strategic Organizational Capability: Talent, Leadership, and Culture | Edited by Anthony Nyberg, Rebecca Kehoe, Dave Ulrich, and Patrick Wright

A new open-access 338-page ebook across 61 chapters featuring 85 global thought leaders on how HR can create stakeholder value.

This new open-access Ebook brings together 85 global thought leaders in the HR space and includes 61 chapters helping HR practitioners think more strategically about how HR creates value for employees, customers, investors, and communities. It covers everything from succession planning and workforce analytics to culture as competitive advantage, the CHRO as business leader, building organizations ready for agentic AI, and so much more. A special thanks to all contributors who helped bring this excellent resource to the field. And for those in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, I'm looking forward to Dave Ulrich joining us next month for a discussion on creating stakeholder value through talent, leadership, organization, and the HR function.

Access Ebook

🔓️ There is more content in this issue, but you must be subscribed to view it. Subscribe Now (it’s free) or sign in if you are already a subscriber!

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

• Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ: MANH). The supply chain and omnichannel commerce software company initiated plans to cut approximately 6% of its global workforce, or roughly 260 employees, effective June 1. The reductions primarily affect research and development and customer support roles tied to legacy product lines, with the company citing operational efficiency gains and a desire to redirect investment toward key strategic priorities.

• Minnesota Star Tribune. The Minneapolis-based newspaper and media company announced plans to cut approximately 15% of its workforce, or about 65 employees, through a combination of buyouts and layoffs affecting all departments including the newsroom. The company cited the need to adapt to a digital-first business model and simultaneously disclosed that it is exploring a nonprofit foundation ownership structure.

• Uber (NYSE: UBER). The ride-hailing and delivery company cut 23% of its People and Places division, which covers human resources, recruitment, workplace facilities, and culture. The affected headcount represents less than 1% of Uber's 34,000-person global workforce; the company ruled out AI as a factor, attributing the cuts to overlapping responsibilities and organizational complexity following a recent leadership reorganization.

Click here to access my tracker, which includes all announcements.

Bonus: Here’s the May 2026 Challenger Report. One highlight is that AI was cited as the leading reason for U.S. job cuts for the third consecutive month in May.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, several new CHRO announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my digital platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. 

This week’s highlight is:

• ​Yum! Brands (LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY) [NYSE: YUM] — a global restaurant company franchising and operating more than 63,000 restaurants in 155 countries and territories under KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger & Grill — announced the retirement of Tracy Skeans, COO and Chief People & Culture Officer, after more than 25 years with the company. Skeans will remain in her current role through late 2026 before transitioning to a senior advisory position; her expected retirement is March 1, 2028. Yum! is working to fill both the Chief People & Culture Officer and Chief Scale Officer roles, into which her responsibilities will be divided. Skeans joined Yum! in 2000 as a finance analyst, rose through Pizza Hut leadership to become President of Pizza Hut International, and joined the Yum! executive team in 2016 as Chief Transformation & People Officer. 

Tracy Skeans

 🔑 To access all detailed CHRO announcements from this past week and over 4,500 archived announcements, join CHROs on the Go. It’s the easiest way to stay informed about movement in and out of the Chief HR role.

If you are already a subscriber to CHROs on the Go, log in here.

Talent Edge Circle - my private community

If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

👉️ And if your a Chief HR Officer who has someone on your team who can benefit from and be a good fit with Talent Edge Circle, reply to this email, or have them apply here.  

Screenshot of discussion with Cole Napper on Data-driven HR

A few discussions coming up:

🗓️ June 17, Adam Gibson, author of Agile Workforce Planning, will join Talent Edge Circle for a discussion on strategic workforce planning.

🗓️ July 22, Dave Ulrich, professor at the Ross School of Business (University of Michigan) and co-founder of The RBL Group, will join Talent Edge Circle for a discussion on creating stakeholder value through HR.

FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

THE BEST OF MAY 2026

Did you miss the “Best of May ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #349, which includes the most popular resources from the month.

Special thanks to Draup for sponsoring the Best of May issue. Download Draup’s paper 10 Operating Principles of Skills-based Organizations.

🗣️ WANT MORE?

Want access to all my curated resources?
👉️ Visit my website, brianheger.com

Are you an internal HR practitioner?
👉️ Apply for my private, paid community, Talent Edge Circle

Are you a provider of HR-related services?
👉️ Become a sponsor of Talent Edge Weekly

Want to know who’s moving in and out of the CHRO role?
👉️ Join my CHROS on the Go subscription

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to this special Best of May issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

A shout-out to Kanika Bhatia, Talent Director at GSK, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Kanika, for your support of this newsletter!

🗞️ Not subscribed to Talent Edge Weekly?

And immediately get 5 of my PDF cheat sheets!

PRESENTED BY Draup

Most Skilling Programs Fail Before They Scale: 10 Operating Principles of Companies That Get It Right

Most enterprises treat skilling as a training initiative. The companies pulling ahead in the AI era have done something different. They have built skilling into the operating model itself.

Draup's latest paper breaks down exactly how leading companies—such as Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, and Schneider Electric—are making this shift, drawing from 10 interlocking principles.

The paper also includes a seven-point leadership agenda showing why shared ownership across the CEO, CHRO, CTO, and business unit heads is what unlocks skilling programs that actually scale.

THIS MONTH’S CONTENT

This Best of May issue includes the 15 most popular resources from the May issues of Talent Edge Weekly. They span three sections:

• HR Impact and Chief HR Outlook. How HR creates stakeholder value, linking HR results to business outcomes, and Chief People Officer sentiment on global labor market conditions.

• Talent Practices. Performance management and assessing potential, redesigning entry-level jobs, skills-based profiles for +30 roles, AI fluency as a skill, unlocking workforce capacity, and strategic workforce planning.

• AI and the Future of Work. Factors that unlock AI's business value, AI's reshaping of corporate functions, assessing AI's near-term impact on jobs, and research on AI's impact on the future of work.

There are bonus resources, such as information about company layoffs and movement in and out of the Chief HR Officer role.

Talent Edge Circle
My Private Community for Internal HR

If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.  

I. HR IMPACT & CHIEF HR OFFICER OUTLOOK

How HR creates stakeholder value, linking HR results to business outcomes, and Chief People Officer sentiment on global labor market conditions.

HR CREATING STAKEHOLDER VALUE

The Age of HR: Delivering Stakeholder Value Through Strategic Organizational Capability: Talent, Leadership, and Culture | Edited by Anthony Nyberg, Rebecca Kehoe, Dave Ulrich, and Patrick Wright

A new open-access 338-page ebook across 61 chapters featuring 85 global thought leaders on how HR can create stakeholder value.

The field of HR has grown immensely, not only in terms of the value it creates for stakeholders, but also in the sheer number of areas within its remit. That volume and complexity can make it challenging to connect HR's work in an integrated way, which is why frameworks that cluster the work around a few vital capability areas are so useful. This new open-access Ebook, edited by Anthony Nyberg, Rebecca Kehoe, Dave Ulrich, and Patrick Wright, does exactly that: helping HR practitioners think more strategically about how HR creates value for employees, customers, investors, and communities. Organized around four human capability domains (talent, leadership, organization, and the HR function), it brings together 85 global thought leaders in the HR space and includes 61 chapters spanning seven themes: business context, business agenda, talent, leadership and organization, culture, the HR function, and personal growth for HR leaders. It covers everything from succession planning and workforce analytics to culture as competitive advantage, the CHRO as business leader, building organizations ready for agentic AI, and so much more. A special thanks to all contributors who helped bring this excellent resource to the field. And for those in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, I'm looking forward to Dave Ulrich joining us in July for a discussion on creating stakeholder value through talent, leadership, organization, and the HR function.

Access Ebook

HR IMPACT

A Mid-Year Pause: Are Your HR-Related Results Driving Real Business Outcomes?

My slide that can help HR leaders and their teams reflect on mid-year accomplishments and assess whether the work underway is connected to the business outcomes that matter most.

As we enter June, HR teams may be reflecting on what they have accomplished so far this year and how those accomplishments are creating value for the organization and the stakeholders they serve. It is also a good time to reflect on the work ahead, where we are relative to achieving our objectives, and to determine any adjustments needed to set ourselves up for success in the second half. To help HR leaders and their teams pause and reflect at this point in the year, I am sharing a one-page slide I originally created for year-end to organize accomplishments by the business outcomes they enabled. While I tend to use it toward year-end, I also find it a useful ongoing tool for checking whether what we are working on is connecting to real business outcomes. I am sharing it here for those who want to reflect now, reset, and use it as a springboard for the work ahead. The slide shows an example of how HR results can be linked to five business outcomes (Revenue Growth, Profitability and Margin Improvement, Operational Efficiency, Customer Satisfaction and Experience, and Strategic Agility and Speed to Market) but you can easily adapt it to focus on the outcomes most relevant to your context. As a bonus, I am resharing my additional one-page slide, Framing Talent Initiatives in Business Context, which helps shift the narrative from "here is the HR initiative" to "here is the business problem we are solving/opportunity to unlock, why it matters, and what is at stake if we wait or do not act." Both slides are excerpts from additional resources in my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

Access slide

CHIEF HR OFFICER OUTLOOK

Chief People Officers’ Outlook Insight Report | World Economic Forum Centre for the New Economy and Society

A new 19-page report tracks Chief People Officer sentiment on global labor market conditions across three areas.

The World Economic Forum released its updated Chief People Officers' (CPO) Outlook, a report that tracks shifts in sentiment on global labor market conditions by regularly surveying short-term expectations around talent availability and job creation among CPOs. The May 2026 edition (based on a survey of more than 140 global CPOs between January and March 2026) covers three areas: 1) an appraisal of global and regional labor market sentiment, 2) current workforce strategy trends with a particular focus on AI deployment, and 3) the workforce impact of increased geopolitical and geoeconomic fragmentation. One finding is that while half of the surveyed CPOs expect talent availability in their industry to improve over the next 12 months, there is significant variation across geographic regions, with stronger talent availability expectations in East Asia, China, and Europe, and more cautious outlooks in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America. When CPOs were asked which workforce and talent planning actions they will prioritize in the next 6–12 months in response to geoeconomic disruption, strengthening local talent pools through internal mobility and rapid redeployment capabilities ranked first, cited by 50% of respondents; this is one signal that organizations are increasingly looking at ways to redeploy internal talent more effectively rather than depending on an uncertain and uneven external labor market. With this in mind, I am resharing three of my cheat sheets designed to strengthen internal mobility. You can get all three of them in the Best of April 2026 issue of Talent Edge Weekly. See resource 9.

Access report

II. TALENT PRACTICES

Performance management and assessing potential, redesigning entry-level jobs, skills-based profiles for +30 roles, AI fluency as a skill, unlocking workforce capacity, and strategic workforce planning.

PERFORMANCE AND POTENTIAL

The State of Performance and Potential: Where We Were, Are, and What You Should Do Now | The Talent Strategy Group

Marc Effron provides a review of performance management and assessing potential, along with specific actions to strengthen each.

Two talent practices that enable business strategy execution are performance management (PM) and organizational talent reviews (OTR). On one hand, PM ensures strategy gets translated into the right goals at the right levels and executed with accountability. On the other, OTR identifies those with the greatest potential to take on bigger or more complex roles and puts the right development in place to accelerate their readiness. A new article by Marc Effron offers a candid assessment of both. Among the various insights, two I want to highlight. First, while PM can serve many purposes (development, engagement, compensation decisions), it can only do one thing really well. When PM tries to solve multiple purposes at once, it tends to serve none of them well. Second, on assessing potential, decades of research show consistent findings about high-potentials demonstrated capabilities (e.g. cognitive ability, learning velocity), just grouped and expressed in slightly different language by different firms. As Marc notes, since the science on potential is well established, the bigger challenge for most organizations is often the execution (e.g., developing identified talent, holding managers accountable for their growth) rather than the potential model itself. For those in my private community, Talent Edge Circle, you can access two of our separate discussion replays in our resource library: one we had with with Marc on PM and one with Allan Church, Ph.D. on assessing potential. And as a bonus, here is one of my cheat sheets on talent reviews.

Access article

PERFORMANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

9 Scenarios When Performance Traps Can Emerge Along With Sample Actions to Address | Brian Heger

My cheat sheet with 9 scenarios that can undermine performance, along with tactics to identify and address each.

Recently, while backing my car out of a narrow parking space in a shopping center, I checked my mirrors and thought I had a clear view. But just as I began to move, someone walked behind my car. Fortunately, my vehicle's safety system alerted me in time. It was a reminder of how easily we can overlook something nearby, simply because we’re unaware it’s there, even when we think we’re paying attention. The same thing happens in organizations. We can miss critical issues or behaviors that are right in front of us simply because they fall outside our awareness. In the workplace, blind spots can undermine performance, relationships, and career growth if not recognized and addressed early. These scenarios can vary by context, such as being a first-time manager, being a new hire in an organization, shifting from an operational to a strategic role, or returning to a role after a career break. To help, here's my one-page cheat sheet with nine example scenarios where blind spots often emerge, early warning signs they may be present, and a sample tactic to address each. As you review it, consider asking a colleague, boss, or direct report: What's one thing you think I'm unaware of in how I work or lead that, if improved, could significantly and positively impact my own performance and that of my team? The answer may uncover a hidden opportunity to accelerate your growth, fuel team performance, and create stakeholder value.

Access cheat sheet

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND AI

Gen AI Could Fix Performance Reviews — or Make Them Even Worse | Harvard Business Review

A new article argues that most organizations are using AI to produce more polished versions of the same flawed performance reviews rather than to fix the underlying information quality problem.

AI continues to influence how organizations implement various talent practices, including performance management (PM). However, a new HBR article by Boston University professor Chris Dellarocas suggests many may be scaling the wrong application of AI in PM. While companies like Citi, JPMorgan, and BCG have deployed AI to streamline performance reviews (with some reportedly cutting review-writing time by 40%), the author argues these are writing-efficiency tools that produce faster versions of the same flawed evaluations. The better use of AI is to surface direct evidence of performance, including decisions, problems solved, collaborators influenced, and contributions to team outcomes. The article offers three suggestions for making this shift. As HR practitioners think through practical implementation and implications, a few questions to consider: Has our organization developed a clear strategy for how, if at all, AI will be used in PM? What traditional PM problems would an AI-based solution help solve? Where will AI not play a role in PM? What evidence are we using to make these decisions? What risks could emerge, and how will we mitigate them? These are just a few of many questions that will need to be considered. For those of you in my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, you can catch the replay of our recent discussion with Dr. Anna Tavis, Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU School of Professional Studies, and author of The Digital Coaching Revolution, where we discussed how organizations are using AI-enabled digital coaching to develop employees at scale.