Latest HR Trends: Exaggerated feedback, Data skills, benefits most valued, Redeployment strategies, Quiet Vacationing, hybrid outcomes

👋 Hello Everyone and Happy Sunday !

💥 Welcome back to the 63th edition of Weekly People Research! 📚

Last week provided a treasure trove of HR insights, covering topics from hybrid work to quiet vacationing. It has been a fascinating journey! 🙏 A heartfelt thank you!

☕ Some of you have coffee while reading this newsletter, some have lunch,... in short, enjoy reading as always!

Last week, we engaged in a discussion on the following exciting HR topics:

💡 In the latest edition, you will discover more about 📊:

✔️What strategies can organizations implement to bridge the data skills gap and recover the nearly month-long loss in annual productivity? Multiverse researchers found that half of workers report they lack the skills to make data analysis more efficient or to automate processes.

✔️Why do high performers receive exaggerated feedback? Textio researchers discovered that when high-performers get low-quality feedback, they quit.

✔️What types of benefits are most valued by employees? Grant Thornton (US) researchers uncovered that attracting and retaining top talent is the primary challenge faced by human resources professionals in 2024.

✔️ Why aren’t companies prioritizing redeployment strategies over layoffs in 2024? LHH researchers noted that HR leaders expect layoffs to affect 16% of their workforces.

✔️ How has remote work facilitated the phenomenon of ‘Quiet Vacationing,’ and what impact does this trend have on different generations, including Gen Z? Monster researchers revealed that half of workers have or have considered taking a quiet vacation from work.

✔️ How can adopting Employee Choice improve outcomes in a hybrid work setting compared to traditional full-time on-site work? The Conference Board researchers noticed that hybrid and remote workers are more satisfied than fully on-site workers, both overall and across 24 of 26 job subcomponents.

Dave Ulrich believes that as we continue to learn, these insights will keep evolving. He has expertly categorized these ideas into the following four domains of the Human Capability Taxonomy:

*Talent: data skills gap, attracting and retaining talent

*Leadership: Quiet vacationing

*Organization: Redeployment strategies

*HR function: low-quality feedback

🔥 Now, let's do a recap of the week on published research:

Employees are losing nearly a month's worth of annual productivity due to the data skills gap !

💡 Findings of researchers:

There are significant paradoxes in the discussions about the impact of General AI and AI tools at work, while employees still face challenges working with basic data and Excel in their companies.

📈 Businesses are generating more data than ever before, and the rate is growing: the 147 billion terabytes created this year will rise to 181 billion by 2025.

⏰ Employees are spending 14.31 hours a week working with data - 36% of their total working week, according to a new interesting research published by Multiverse using data 📊 from over 12,000 employees, across 18 major industries in the US and UK.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers are now advising organizations to invest in:

✔️ Upskilling and reskilling programs, which are becoming an essential pathway for organizations to cultivate data skills and create teams proficient in data.

✔️ Organizations require insights to precisely identify their data skills gaps – understanding where upskilling can catalyze significant business growth.

👉My personal View:

This interesting research highlights that in the AI era, employees often lack essential data management skills, leading to significant losses in productivity. Organizations are forfeiting valuable hours and even days due to talent deficits and inefficient handling of data-related tasks. However, the expansion of the data talent pool is contingent upon leaders taking active steps to cultivate it.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich I really like this research because it provides the granular skills of how to access information. Data management lies the heart of a knowledge economy. If employees lack the basic skills of how to access data, visualize data so that it can be interpreted, and use data for improved decision making, the promises of information won't happen. AI becomes one way to access data, but without the skills to do so, progress is not made. This means that organizations might do more training on data management, statistics, research design, evidence based decision making, and visualization. Very helpful research about a basic challenge. Thanks for sharing.

Lars Vonheim Exciting research. A couple of reflections:1. If we connect this to your posts regarding increased recruitment and lack of focus on retention, what a challenge companies have within this area. The challenge may be easier because of AI will do a lot of the work BUT I believe there still will be a high need of competence either as upskilling, re-skilling or recruiting to "support" and provide AI with the right input an ensuring quality of output. 2. "Critical thinking" regarding data quality, relevance and validity. When reading your post I don't feel ensured that this have enough attention before leaving work to AI. More upskilling, re-skilling or recruiting needed... And a higher attention to this as part of leadership and culture. Even though AI will help us a lot and be a gamechanger, I don't think data management will or should stop worry us. Maybe less hard work but even more "quality" work.

Ahlam Bakkal The disconnect between the data explosion. And employee capabilities is a significant roadblock. Investing in upskilling is crucial to harness the full potential of data and drive business growth

High performers receive 1.8 times more exaggerated feedback than their peers and despise low-quality feedback !

💡 Findings of researchers:

📈 High performers are the fastest growers within their organizations and they get 1.5x more feedback than their peers but when they get low-quality feedback, they quit.

💡 Unfortunately, gender and racial biases in performance reviews are not new. However, recent findings indicate that the stronger an employee's performance, the more pronounced the feedback tends to be from their manager.

♻️ The frequency of fixed-mindset feedback increases as employee performance level increases,

⚠️Employees who low-quality feedback in annual performance reviews are 63% more likely to quit their jobs within a year, according to a new interesting research published by Textio using data 📊 from performance reviews for more than 23,000 people at 253 different organizations.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers offer the following recommendations for leaders:

✔️ Avoid cliché feedback for high performers

✔️ Provide actionable, specific, and clear feedback to all employees

👉My personal View:

This interesting research presents intriguing insights into the bias present in performance reviews of high achievers. It's commonly believed that top performers should receive the most positive feedback from their managers to avoid attrition. However, I strongly disagree. Even if I were to consider myself a high achiever—which I assure you, I have never been in any of my previous companies—I would prefer to receive feedback on areas I can improve. This would help me maintain high performance rather than simply being told I'm the best. As the researchers suggest, providing honest, actionable, and clear feedback is beneficial for all employees.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Again, interesting research. I wonder what is causation? Does more and better feedback lead to becoming a high performer or do high performers get more attention (feedback) because of their increased contribution? Regardless, feedback matters and as you suggest, honest, actionable, and clear feedback matters for everyone. In our reflections on performance management, we recognized the steps of setting goals, measuring actions, and ensuring consequences, but advocate that what matters most is the conversation between manager and employee. Feedback is part of this positive conversation. And, as my colleagues have shared with me, "feedback" is gift that leads to improved performance. Thanks again for sharing this confirming research.

Jose Santiago Question to consider, when moving to a continuous re use process how does/will this affect the outcomes ? Will there be a bias towards the high performers and will it be always a positive one. Are managers trained and capable of providing both feedback and coaching and are hi-pers coachable and of course others.?

Lars Vonheim My advice to organizations. Do the calculations and compare these business costs: Costs spent on training end expressing feedback to reach high level score on growth mindset feedback scores. vs. Costs of losing your high performers (who will talk badly about your organization and leadership).I wonder how leaders can be too lazy or lack the guts to give more specific and growth mindset feedback. Organizations seem to have a huge job to make this a part of CULTURE by training leaders on giving feedback FOLLOWED UP BY clear expectations and measurement on how well the leaders do (remember to give leaders growth mindset feedback, too). Thanks for sharing

Alessandro Antonini In some countries we still have a significant problem consisting of the lack of use of data in the performance appraisal and review process. Often, it's based on perception and managerial intuition (subjectivity), thus making the performance management system fallible and recursive ("evaluation <> interpretation" instead of "data > evaluation > feedback"). In this way, the better-regarded subjects (for various reasons) are also those who generally obtain more favorable evaluations that are not well-founded on data.

Andrew Lang Compelling analysis! The tendency to provide exaggerated or low-quality feedback to top performers is indeed concerning. Constructive, actionable feedback is essential for growth, regardless of performance level/

The primary reasons employees choose to remain with an organization are the demand for Flexibility and Benefits, rather than Compensation alone !

💡 Findings of researchers:

📈 Attracting and retaining top talent is the primary challenge faced by human resources professionals in 2024.

💡 During this period of Return-to-Office (RTO) mandates in many companies, the main factors that encourage employees to remain with their company are benefits and flexibility.

➡️ In the current environment, the development of workforce skills continues to be a primary reason why employees choose to join a company.

📝 Transparency regarding career paths, deemed a crucial quality for employee engagement, is provided by a vast majority of organizations, according to a new interesting research published by Grant Thornton (US) using data 📊 from 620 HR leaders — CHROs, chief people officers, chief talent officers, vice presidents and directors.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers have concluded that the successful organizations of the future will be those whose HR functions proactively address workforce challenges and ensure their employees are well-prepared to meet business goals.

👉My personal View:

This research clearly indicates that organizations should focus on retaining top talent through appropriate measures, such as offering benefits and greater flexibility in hybrid work arrangements.

The three factors identified in this study—key retention elements, reasons for leaving, and talent attraction—are valuable data points for any company looking to refine their recruitment and talent management strategies.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Thanks for sharing this research on an important topic: why do employees join, stay, or go from their organization? My sense is that there is not a easy solution to this simple question. There are a host of reasons for how employees engage with a firm. I like to think of this as a rather large menu of employee expectations for joining, staying, or leaving. Lots of work has been done on employee value proposition... motivation, satisfaction, commitment, engagement, experience, well being, and hope. From this large menu of inducements, employees personalize what works best for them. So, I like the research that helps create a larger menu of options, but also that helps highlight personalization of choice among those options.

Atlassian Time is our most valuable asset. People are done wasting 6-10hrs a week commuting to a job to just sit on their computer all-day long. That time adds up, and is nearly 2 weeks out of the year that could be spent living and enjoying life. Employees are finally realizing they have a voice, and employers need to start listening if they want to keep their top-talent (and attract more).

Danuta Yefimchyk Being heard is important to everyone. When interviewing, ask questions to understand what the person anticipates and what is important to them in this company and role. Conduct stay-interviews with your staff and surveys to gather data that "does not quite satisfy" the staff. In my view, the company should listen to and hear from its employees and potential employees.

Liz Rider One company asked me to find out why their talent were leaving and many of these points came up e.g flexible working, lack of career development, limited learning, no recognition. When I presented this to the senior team, they said; "Why are they leaving?" They could not comprehend that these were the reasons, as their mindset was all about salary, bonus and overall compensation package. As one GenZ I interviewed said to me "I don't care about the bonus, I'd rather have time off. They need to think differently about reward and recognition, as money isn't everything to everyone"

Purity Kajuju Not surprised that employees continue to value flexibility in the post pandemic era, and benefits, over and above the standard compensation. Each organization would need to understand more specifically what this means for its employees. Employee listening is therefore critical for organizations to integrate into its employee lifecycle processes to facilitate this.

Maritsa Inglessis They can do this by putting their people first: - Prioritizing a positive experience through the whole employee life cycle (treating employees like customers) - Providing a great reward package (not just high pay and expensive benefits) - Educating and developing managers and leaders on how to be successful (not just the technical parts of their role) If these are done well and consistently, your reputation and employees will become advocates and help to attract talent. Great question.

In 2024, the primary cause of Layoffs is the low performance of employees rather than over-hiring ! Why not opt for Redeployment rather than Layoffs?

💡 Findings of researchers:

📈 HR leaders expect layoffs to affect 16% of their workforces

💡 Layoffs were often driven by a range of factors but led by over-hiring in previous years, the need to cut costs, and restructuring.

📉 Fewer HR leaders are citing over-hiring as the primary reason behind layoffs, instead pointing to performance issues, a misalignment in employee skills, and financial pressures.

📌 25% of HR leaders are worried about burnout as a result of layoffs.

📣 Any hiring freeze ignoring the skills cost risks depriving the organization of fresh talent with hard-to-find skills.

82% of HR leaders said they considered redeploying workers as a layoff alternative, according to a new interesting research published by LHH using data from a survey of 3,011 HR leaders and 8,101 white-collar workers across nine countries.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers advise that leaders, managers, and employees each experience stress differently, and they advocate for organizations to provide support to individuals at every level during challenging times:

✔️ Don’t get stuck - use skilling and mobility to keep moving forward:

✔️ Tackle burnout head-on

✔️Expand support for layoff workers – and tell them about it

👉My personal View:

This insightful research indicates that layoffs are a stressful and emotional period for all members of an organization, including those not directly affected. Alternatives such as hiring freezes and redeployment exist, but the key is to effectively communicate the array of support options available to laid-off workers. The researchers' recommendations are motivating, suggesting that employers should reskill, upskill, and redeploy workers when it is appropriate and feasible.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Thanks for sharing the reasons behind layoffs or downsizing. Many of the 5 reasons deal with either marketplace (cost, strategic shift, new skills) and/or performance (personal or organizational costs). Managing downsizing or layoffs is not new. We identified 7 actions companies have taken in the past that they adapt for today. This "spiral of learning" can help leaders continue to resize or rightsized their organization. thanks for sharing that the flow of talent through an organization will inevitably increase and decrease, but treating all people with dignity and respect should be foremost forever.

Alessandro Antonini Thanks for the insights. In my experience, I saw many times the so-called "cultural fit" used as a cause/reason, not better defined by HR/Line Managers...organizations don't realize that using the excuse of 'cultural fit' is essentially admitting the ineffectiveness of the recruiting process and the incompetence of HR/Line managers. Unfortunately, though, it's those who are fired who end up paying the biggest price...

Dr. Bhanukumar Parmar Its all about Economics BUT “At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” ― Maya Angelou. (after all employees are also customers) In India the IT firms (along with others) had frozen recruitment - AI and Slow growth (though India is growing by 7% GDP). Few Giants have had massive lay-off due to change in plans. Instead of Lay-offs Organizations can - Redeploy, Train for future, Furloughs, Try Resource Sharing (we did with Gulf Companies - Refineries), etc... Remember, every decision echoes beyond boardrooms & spreadsheets. It resonates in the lives of employees, their families, & the communities they belong to. - Let’s strive for a balance where Economics & Empathy coexist.

Diana Carolina Perez Cabas Thanks again for such a great data this week as well, always inspiring the HR community! Layoffs may hurt companies. Redeployment can help as an option. Instead of letting go of these valuable employees, you redeploy them in another part of the organization where their skills are needed and useful. In this way, you reduce the number of layoffs and retain employees that may have taken months or years to train, saving you money, time and reducing the morale impact of too many changes and chaos. Redeployment can be a valuable while managing human resources during a crisis.

Shiva Venkateswaran Its shocking to see that three of the 5 drivers of layoffs are totally preventable. When organizations don't have a talent management policy in place, no career progression path, no succession planning or capability development programs, this outcome is only to be expected. The irony is that the reason for letting people go (cost cutting) is actually adding to the cost to the organization in myriad ways.

Aytuna Oto, PMP® Thanks for sharing, an interesting yet not surprising study. Low performance seems to be the easiest way to name lay off. But there are some questions to answer - honestly and thoroughly:• Who is/are responsible for the performance? Only the employee? Or is it a joint effort between employee-line manager-HR, employee being the owner?• Have enough actions been taken before the decision comes to lay off level? This is a quite tricky situation and not a properly managed one in many companies. Ideally first hiring process should be optimized and improved based on the needs of the company. This would de-risk some of the potential lay offs in the future.

Remote work has facilitated the phenomenon of 'Quiet Vacationing' , which impacts not only Gen Z but other generations as well !

💡 Findings of researchers:

💡 Half of workers have or have considered taking a quiet vacation from work

☝️ Quiet vacationing is not just prevalent among Gen Z as earlier research indicated; it affects all generations.

❌ Approximately 30% of remote workers do not believe it is important to notify their direct manager or obtain the required approval for quiet vacation

✔️ A notable positive outcome of quiet vacationing is that approximately 30% of workers report a reduction in anxiety and an enhancement in their overall well-being, according to a new interesting research published by Monster using data from a survey conducted among workers in July 2024.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Workers cite several reasons that would prevent them from taking a quiet vacation:

• 51% wouldn’t want to jeopardize their job security or position at their company
• 27% feel too much guilt
• 22% wouldn’t want to let their coworkers down
• 21% wouldn’t want to risk losing pay
• 20% worry their manager would find out

The issues preventing quiet vacationing appear to be resolvable through robust engagement from leaders, guided by their immediate managers.

👉My personal View:

The emerging phenomenon of "Quiet vacationing" in the workplace due to the hybrid model is concerning for organizations. It signifies a broader mistrust between employees and employers and is a clear indicator of worker disengagement. While initial studies highlighted only Gen Z, further research indicates that it affects all generations, and the work-from-home phenomenon has exacerbated this troubling issue. Quiet vacationers may indeed affect employer productivity, similar to the concerns expressed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. He had stated that Google's position in the AI race was compromised due to the company's remote-work policy. I still believe that leaders must not neglect this phenomenon and find solutions because this demotivation can lead to burnout and disengagement of all employees.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich This is important work to help understand how to build a control system to govern employee behavior. One of my mentors, Bill Ouchi, built on Nobel Prize work by Oliver Williamson to suggest three control mechanisms for employee work 1. Market... pay an incentive to focus employee behavior on the right behaviors. 2. Bureaucracy / hierarchy... set rules to determine what employees should do 3. Clan / values... create shared values so employees work by common beliefs and goals. When doing hybrid (or other) work, markets and hierarchies often fail because of lack of information. But, getting to clan or values requires enormous investment in the right people and culture. Dysfunctional quiet vacationing means that employees are taking advantage of their work system because they don't share the values of their organization. When governance comes from shared values and purpose, employees may take periodic personal breaks, but they share a commitment to the organization goals. So, my guidance for governance is to move towards the clan or shared values idea and ideal. This requires building trust, shared goals, personalization, aligning person to position, communication, and ???Thanks for sharing.

Jos van Snippenberg I was a little bit surprised about the research topic of "quiet vacationing". Even so about the results of that about 30% of remote workers didn't report a vacation. This emphasizes that many companies, working with a lot of remote workers, have a weak connection with their employees. This will increase the vulnerability of every business, and needs full attention. Both HR and leadership have a job to do. One I see benefits when HR spend more time on the explanation of the business DNA; what's our purpose, why we are here as a company, what are our principles, what kind of behavior do we like to see and how to take responsibility and live them in daily work life. Secondly managers need to have contact on regular base, not to control but to shape the right conditions for the employees to flourish. This requires having genuine connections, ask the right questions, and guide people in their job. This all will avoid that people not only drop out, waste their potential but also have a "quiet vacationing".

George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL Interesting article- although I am not surprised at the outcome of the research, given that employers tend to try and measure productivity (not just in cases of remote employees - although it seems more prevalent) - hence the sending of emails out of normal work hours, jiggling their computer mouse, taking the phone off the hook to make it appear that they are busy is another that I have heard. By following my advice on the management of human performance the employer can actually set the rate of productivity through the tasks provided for the development of the employee.

.Rick Lochner. This makes me think we are still measuring productivity in outdated methods (activities versus results). I used to teach ROWE (results only work environment) and have since believed there was a lot of merit to the philosophy in a hybrid work environment.

Ahlam Bakkal This is a really interesting topic! Surprisingly, it's not just a Gen Z thing, but a widespread issue. Companies really need to address this, or they risk losing valuable employees to burnout.

Adopting Employee Choice could enhance outcomes in a Hybrid work setting compared to traditional full-time on-site work !

💡 Findings of researchers:

Compared to fully on-site work, hybrid work improves organizational outcomes in areas such as retention, work-life balance, and job satisfaction.

📈 Hybrid and remote workers are more satisfied than fully on-site workers, both overall and across 24 of 26 job subcomponents

➡️ Leaders must refine the hybrid work model to enhance organizational outcomes compared to working on-site.

Hybrid model has shown positive effects, but there is more value to be gained, according to a new interesting research published by The Conference Board using data 📊 from interviews with 15 large companies and a survey of over 200 HR leaders.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers suggest the following actions for the effective optimization of the hybrid working model:

✔️ Organizations must pinpoint their desired outcomes, evaluate the effects of their work model on these outcomes, and implement the required adjustments.

✔️ In addition to particular outcomes and methods, businesses should establish metrics to gauge the success of these methods.

✔️ It is crucial for organizations to periodically verify the relevance of these metrics and, if necessary, introduce new ones.

👉My personal View:

This interesting research reaffirms that a well-managed hybrid working model can yield positive outcomes, potentially surpassing those of on-site work. The key takeaway is the importance of embracing employee choice and personalization to foster a successful hybrid work environment, which is both inspiring and indicative of its potential.

However, like all studies, this one has its limitations, primarily because it compares the hybrid model mainly with on-site work and overlooks the intrinsic value of in-office work, such as fostering innovation.

The researchers conclude that hybrid work offers organizations and leaders a unique chance to rethink where, when, and how work is done to best achieve the desired results.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich As with other studies, hybrid work that gives employees choice (agency) increases their satisfaction and work life balance. This positive impact needs to be balanced with the risks of less social cohesion (teamwork), mentorship, and identity with the company by working in isolation. Someone may "like" their job because of the independence and flexibility, but not be as "committed" to the organization because of the social isolation. As with many things, personalization is required to tailor the specific work setting to the job and individual. Thanks again for sharing.

Marc Lawn I feel that there needs to be a ‘common agreement’ on how these things happen. It can’t be just one side or the other, because it circumstances do matter, I feel. What is clear - we should be treating all employees like ‘responsible adults’ not just cogs in a machine.

Namita Gopinathan,MBA Insightful! Balancing employee choice with organizational goals and team cohesion is crucial. While flexibility can enhance individual satisfaction, it may also inadvertently affect team dynamics or hinder collaboration if not managed properly. The challenge is to design a hybrid work model that harmonizes individual preferences with collective objectives. Organizations should implement flexible work policies that incorporate core collaboration times and key team milestones. While autonomy is valuable, it must be paired with clear expectations and mutual trust.

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