The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week

In a recent blog post, industry leader Josh Bersin writes that CEOs and CFOs are operating in an outdated model, where leaders are hiring during periods of growth and laying employees off when things slow down.

This model, he notes, isn’t sustainable. In a world where skills gaps and labor shortages are increasing, employees are feeling newly empowered, and AI is changing everything, it’s increasingly important to accept and adapt to a “new normal.” That new normal, Josh writes, means having to “‘hoard our talent, invest in productivity, and redevelop and redeploy people for growth.”

To adapt for 2024 and beyond, Josh suggests companies do the following:

Build what he calls a “high-retention model” for work. Among other things, this involves improving pay equity, doubling-down on hybrid work, and providing workers with new career opportunities within their current company.
Encourage CEOs to spend more time listening to the needs of their employees. Listening, in other words, needs to start and be modeled from the top.
Ditch the “hire-to-grow” model. If companies want to rise to the top, they need to think of growth being spurred from inside the company’s walls and not from periodic external hiring sprees.

To learn more about Josh’s research into this new world of work — including how companies can find a “productivity advantage” — be sure to check out the top spot in our list below of must-read articles for talent professionals. And further down the list, you can also learn why mentoring could be a key to learning and development; how you can upgrade your employee referral programs; and why, for some, the office just isn’t fun anymore.