CAHRS Top 10 January 2024

1. DEI Working Group Notes
Navigating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Polarized World Working Group Notes - CAHRS
Participants in this session discussed how leaders are grappling with managing diverse perspectives in the workforce, impacting attitudes toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. Organizations are adopting varied approaches, considering internal and external stakeholders' input, and using a values-based approach to navigate challenges, emphasizing the importance of effective communication and change tactics to overcome psychological threats and build consensus around DEI initiatives.

For more information about this subject, be sure to read the “Systemic Shifts in Belonging & Inclusion Approaches” CAHRS Working Group Notes from the summer.

2. Hidden Cost of Layoffs
The Hidden Costs of Layoffs Podcast - Harvard Business Review
Examining the nuances of corporate layoffs, this podcast sheds light on the often-overlooked costs, such as diminished institutional knowledge, reduced employee engagement, increased turnover, and stifled innovation.

3. Strikes and Union Diversity
Diverse Workforce Reaps Benefits of Strikes as Contracts Kick In - Bloomberg Law
CAHRS Partner Company Bloomberg finds that the surge in strikes during 2023, with over half a million people participating and 4.5 million lost workdays in October, has resulted in diverse beneficiaries from new collective bargaining agreements, with women and people of color comprising nearly two-thirds of union-represented workers, marking a significant shift in the composition of the United States labor movement.

4. Addressing Mental Blocks
How Managers can Tackle the Most Common Employee Struggle - Fast Company
Addressing mental blocks, which impact the majority of workers, is crucial for leaders to enhance productivity and employee well-being by recognizing signs, fostering open conversations, encouraging collaboration, and providing support for ongoing training and skill development.

5. Boston Consulting Group
The Path to Generative AI Value Begins with a Workforce Diagnostic - Boston Consulting Group
To navigate the challenges of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) implementation, leaders should take a strategic approach anchored in a comprehensive diagnostic, involving the assessment of potential benefits based on the company's unique characteristics, evaluating GenAI's impact on workforce productivity, and addressing workforce roles and skills evolution. This approach allows for a clear roadmap from setting ambitions to orchestrating a transformative change, ensuring that the overall impact of GenAI activities is greater than incremental refinement.

Have a look at the key takeaways from the CAHRS Fall Partner Meeting - which centered around the impact of technology on the HR function.
https://cahrs.ilr.cornell.edu/Events/detail.aspx?eid=10557&sid=5576.

6. Eight CEO Priorities
What Matters Most? Eight CEO Priorities for 2024 - McKinsey & Company
Exploring eight CEO priorities for 2024, the focus includes scaling generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), restructuring organizations for digital transformation, navigating the energy transition, identifying company strengths, recognizing the significance of middle managers, building geopolitical resilience, devising growth strategies, and adopting a fresh perspective on the macroeconomy amid persistent uncertainty.
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/what-matters-most-eight-ceo-priorities-for-2024

7. “Ask Pickles” Chatbot
McDonald's Partners with Google Chatbots - Human Resources Director
CAHRS Partner company McDonald’s collaborates with Google to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot named "Ask Pickles," aiming to assist restaurant workers with quick answers and information, part of a broader partnership leveraging Google Cloud technology across McDonald’s global operations.

8. Post-Pandemic Rewards
Navigating Your Post-Pandemic Rewards Strategy - HR Dive
Organizations adapting to new work models use people-centric data and transparent compensation strategies to align with culture and navigate post-pandemic changes, emphasizing fairness, data-driven decisions, transparency, executive involvement, ongoing monitoring, and adaptability.

9. Six Well-Being Disconnects
Six Leader/Worker Disconnects Affecting Workplace Well-Being - Deloitte Insights Magazine
Despite being a key focus for organizations, well-being strategies face significant challenges due to substantial gaps between leaders' perceptions and workers' realities. Key gaps include discrepancies in perceptions, care, modeling of well-being by leadership, satisfaction with well-being benefits, prioritization of human sustainability, and actions taken by organizations to address well-being issues. Closing these gaps is essential for leaders to make informed decisions and improve employee well-being.

10. Flexible Work Implications
Flexible Work Models and their Cultural Implications CAHRScast - CAHRS
As organizations navigate the post-COVID landscape, maintaining and building a strong company culture within flexible work models has become increasingly important. In this webcast, CAHRS research assistants shared key insights from their research into the cultural implications of flexible work and will highlight best practices that companies can follow to strengthen and sustain their culture in this new environment.