The Gartner Talent Angle

The rapid proliferation of HR technology has presented exciting opportunities while forcing HR leaders to make some difficult choices. Marcia Morales-Jaffe offers a path forward and shares insights from her experience as the former chief people officer of PayPal and World Fuel Services. Morales-Jaffe outlines how HR leaders can make the most of their technology investment and discusses the role that manager development, culture and change management play in the success of HR technology. Marcia Morales-Jaffe is a retired chief HR officer (CHRO) and emeritus member of the Gartner CHRO Global Leadership Board. She currently serves as senior advisor at McKinsey & Company’s People & Organizational Performance Practice. Until 2017, Marcia was SVP, chief people officer at PayPal, where she played an integral role in shaping culture and advancing its transformational business vision and social mission. Peter Aykens is chief of research in Gartner’s HR practice. He is responsible for defining research coverage within the practice and building and leading research teams addressing client’s key initiatives. In prior roles at the firm, he spent over 25 years leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channel, marketing, customer experience and product issues in financial services. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from St. Olaf College; an MSc.(Econ) degree in international politics from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth; and a Master of Arts and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

According to the 2020 Gartner Well-Being Benchmarking Survey, 70% of companies have introduced new well-being benefits or increased the amount of existing well-being benefits in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To sustain momentum in developing a healthy workforce, organizations must continue to create an environment where employees value well-being. Dr. Richard Safeer, author of “A Cure for the Common Company,” joins the Talent Angle to make the case that organizations should go beyond well-being programs to create a culture of well-being. He offers practical guidance to help HR leaders establish the norms and environment that supports workforce health. Dr. Richard Safeer, MD, currently serves as the Chief Medical Director of Employee Health and Well-Being for Johns Hopkins Medicine, where he leads the Healthy at Hopkins employee health and well-being strategy. Richard released “A Cure for the Common Company: A Well-Being Prescription for a Happier, Healthier, and More Resilient Workforce” in January 2023 with publisher Wiley. Previously, he was the medical director of preventive medicine for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield in Baltimore, Maryland. Jessica Knight is a vice president of research in the Gartner HR practice. She leads research teams to identify best practices and new opportunities for addressing HR executives’ most urgent challenges. Her areas of focus include employee experience, organizational culture, change management and the future of work.

As employees rethink the role that work has in their lives, organizations must similarly reimagine how they engage and retain employees. Author and commitment expert Joe Mull makes the case that employees do a great job when they believe they have a great job. Mull joins the Talent Angle to share insights from his book “Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work.” He discusses how key employment value proposition (EVP) aspects such as compensation, workload and flexibility help create a destination workplace. Joe Mull is the author of three books including “No More Team Drama” and “Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work.” He is the founder of the BossBetter Leadership Academy and hosts the popular podcast Boss Better Now. Joe has appeared as an expert in multiple media outlets, including Forbes, the International Business Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and Good Morning America. Brent Cassell is a vice president of advisory in Gartner’s HR practice, and he has spent the past 19 years in Gartner’s HR and CIO practices. His job is to help clients find the research they need, to help them understand that research, and to coach them through the implementation of those best practices in their own organizations. Brent is the contributing editor of the HR Leaders Monthly journal. In 2022, he won Gartner’s award for Outstanding Thought Leadership for his work on Redesigning Work for the Hybrid World.

As organizations continue to face fierce competition for talent, HR leaders have upheld internal mobility as a lever to retain talent, yet many employees remain unaware of the career opportunities in their organization. In this episode of the Talent Angle, Helen Tupper illustrates how championing squiggly careers — or nonlinear career paths — can deliver on the promise of internal mobility by giving employees relevant and engaging opportunities. By intentionally empowering talent to apply their skills across a diverse set of experiences, HR leaders can create meaningful careers for individuals while also serving the needs of the organization. Helen Tupper is the co-founder and CEO of Amazing If, a company with an ambition to make careers better for everyone. Together with her business partner Sarah Ellis, she is the author of two Sunday Times bestsellers: “The Squiggly Career” and “You Coach You.” Their “Squiggly Careers” podcast is the U.K.’s No. 1 careers podcast, and their TEDx talk “The Best Career Path Isn’t Always a Straight Line” has over 1.5 million downloads. Helen also works as a trustee for Working Families, a U.K. charity with a mission to support families and caregivers with their work and life commitments. Prior to Amazing If, she held leadership roles for Microsoft, Virgin and BP and was awarded The Financial Times and 30% Club’s Women in Leadership MBA Scholarship. She is mum to Henry and Madeleine and lives with her husband in Buckinghamshire. You can find her on Instagram @amazingif. Dion Love is a vice president of research and advisory services at Gartner. He’s a labor market expert, focusing on global labor market trends and what they mean for organizations’ talent and business strategies, as well as broader social and economic issues. In his work at Gartner, Dion advises clients on key aspects of talent acquisition, including talent acquisition function planning and management, talent needs definition and internal recruiting, employment branding and recruitment marketing, and talent sourcing and selection. He has co-authored more than 12 strategic research studies at Gartner. His work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review and industry publications, as well as Gartner HR Leaders Monthly and Smarter With Gartner.

As members of Gartner’s CHRO Global Leadership Board, Medtronic’s Carol Surface and GE’s Kevin Cox were both involved in creating the original Model of the World-Class CHRO in 2017. They join host Peter Aykens on the Talent Angle to discuss what’s changed in the recent update. They reflect on what originally inspired them to create the model, its legacy to date, and why it was due for a revision. In breaking down Chapter 2 of the model, Carol and Kevin share what’s remained the same for the chief HR officer (CHRO) role alongside what must be added to address today’s realities. The CHRO Global Leadership Board, convened by Gartner, is composed of CHROs from the world’s top companies with deep expertise in HR, talent management and executive leadership. Carol Surface was recently appointed chief people officer at Apple, a role she will start in March 2023. Since 2013, she has served as executive vice president and CHRO at Medtronic, a global healthcare technology leader with 95,000-plus employees. Previously, Carol was executive vice president and CHRO at Best Buy and held a series of human resources leadership roles at PepsiCo, including chief personnel officer for PepsiCo International. In 2020, Carol was elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources (NAHR). She earned a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from Central Michigan University. Kevin Cox is the CHRO for General Electric. Kevin leads GE’s global HR organization, including talent management, leadership development, total rewards and employee relations. Prior to GE, Kevin served as the CHRO at American Express for 14 years. Previously, he spent 16 years at PepsiCo and the Pepsi Bottling Group, where he held positions leading strategy, business development, technology and HR. In 2009, Kevin was elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources (NAHR). He holds a master’s degree in labor and industrial relations from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Arts from Marshall University.

The 4-day work week has gained momentum in recent years, but has not yet entered the mainstream. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Global Programs Director at 4 Day Week Global, joins the Talent Angle to explain why organizations should consider experimenting with new ways of working. He highlights the importance of rest for human creativity and problem solving, and outlines how a shortened work week can unlock human potential to benefit both employers and employees. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang a leading voice in reduced hours working. He is the author of three books exploring how companies and individuals can better integrate rest, creativity, and focus into digital-age lives and work. Before joining 4 Day Week Global, Alex was a research director at the Institute for the Future and senior consultant at Strategic Business Insights, and lectured at Oxford University, Stanford University, and UC Berkeley. Alex received a Ph.D. in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania. Brent Cassell is a VP, Advisory at Gartner, where he has worked for the past 18 years in both the HR and CIO Research Groups. His job is to help clients find the research they need, to help them understand that research, and to coach them through the implementation of those best practices in their own organizations. Currently, his research focuses on the Future of Work and Total Rewards. In 2022, he won Gartner's award for Outstanding Thought Leadership for his work on Redesigning Work for the Hybrid World. He is also the Contributing Editor of HR Leaders Monthly and the Co-Host of the Talent Angle podcast.

The hybrid world has upended traditional norms around the role of the office. Author Julia Hobsbawm joins the Talent Angle to discuss how talent management leaders can apply the insights from her book, “The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future,” to take advantage of the emerging opportunities created by hybrid ways of working. Hobsbawm argues we are in a new era of work — marked by unclear boundaries and changing attitudes — and she shares advice on what organizations should do as they continue to shape the role of the office in this new era. She looks to the past at how earlier innovations in knowledge work changed offices and to the future at how physical spaces will support employees in sustained performance. Julia Hobsbawm is an award-winning business author and futurist of work who writes the “Working Assumptions” column for Bloomberg’s Work Shift. The author of the acclaimed book “The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future,” she was a founder of the U.S.-led Workforce Institute, was chair of the inaugural U.K. Demos Workshift Commission, and now co-hosts the popular podcast, “The Nowhere Office.” Julia is the author of six books, including the award-winning “The Simplicity Principle,” and she was awarded an OBE in the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours List in 2015 for services to business. She regularly consults for and speaks to corporations, governments and changemakers around the world. Jessica Knight is a vice president of research in the Gartner HR practice. She leads research teams to identify best practices and new opportunities for addressing HR executives’ most urgent challenges. Her areas of focus include employee experience, organizational culture, change management and the future of work.

Technology is advancing at a breakneck speed, presenting both new opportunities and challenges for organizations. Ismat Duckson Aziz, Kemper CHRO and Chief Administrative Officer, joins the Talent Angle to discuss how CHROs can shape the technology strategy of their organization. She explains how CHROs can overcome the anxiety that comes with diving into the rapidly changing environment of technology, and assert themselves as drivers of enterprise innovation. Ismat Duckson Aziz is the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Chief Administrative Officer of Kemper. Ismat has more than 25 years of HR experience, most recently serving at U.S. Bank as Chief Advocacy Officer. Previous roles include CHRO for Sprint, CHRO for Sam’s Club, and senior HR roles at Sears Canada and MDS Pharma Services. Ismat earned a master’s of business administration from Ivey Business School at Western University in Canada and completed her undergraduate work at the University of Toronto. Ismat holds certifications in board governance and HR internationally. Jessica Knight is a vice president of research in the Gartner HR practice. She leads research teams to identify best practices and new opportunities to address HR executives’ most urgent challenges. Her areas of focus include employee experience, organizational culture, change management and the future of work.

As the global workforce continues to age, it is increasingly vital for organizations to have both efficient succession plans and effective knowledge sharing between their employees. Julie Berko, Director of the Office of Human Resources at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), joins the Talent Angle to discuss how organizations can leverage data to enable knowledge sharing and simplify succession planning. She also explains how organizations can identify future skills needs and build strategies to develop them. Julie Berko boasts more than 30 years of human resources experience, honored with the 2022 Presidential Rank Award. A Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor, she champions workplace flexibilities and employee well-being. Julie pioneered the FAA's Work/Life program and geriatric care management. At NIH, she instituted the Leave Bank program, Maxiflex, and telework expansion, meeting 100% employee needs. Her initiatives fostered diversity, inclusion, and swift response to COVID-19, enabling quick transition to maximum telework for 75% of the workforce. Julie served on the NIH Child Care Board, Health and Wellness Council, and co-chaired the 2023 Federal Human Capital Collaborative Forum. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from American University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Howard University. Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. Peter is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth) and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

Drawing on their professional and academic experience, Ravin Jesuthasan and John Boudreau argue the current work “operating system” is increasingly unable to meet the needs of employees and employers. They join the Talent Angle to discuss their new book, Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System, and the opportunities for HR to shape a new vision for the future of work. Jesuthasan and Boudreau propose a new work “operating system” based on deconstructed work and deconstructed talent that would ultimately lead to a more human-centric approach to work. In their new vision for the future of work, they emphasize the importance of developing capabilities that will enable organizations to redesign and reinvent work and the employee experience. Ravin Jesuthasan is the global leader of Mercer’s Transformation Services business. He has led multiple research efforts on the global workforce, the emerging digital economy, the rise of artificial intelligence and the transformation of work. Ravin has led numerous research projects for the World Economic Forum including many of its ground-breaking studies on the transformation of work and the global workforce. He is a regular participant and presenter at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos and is a member of the forum’s Steering Committee on Work and Employment. He is the author of the books Transformative HR (Wiley, 2012), Lead The Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment (Wiley 2015), Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach to Applying Automation to Work (HBR Press, 2018) and the Wall Street Journal bestseller; Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System (MIT Press, 2022). Dr. John Boudreau is recognized worldwide as a leading evidence-based visionary on the future of work and organization. Dr. Boudreau is Professor Emeritus of Management and Organization and a Senior Research Scientist with the Center for Effective Organizations, at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. For 40 years, he has conducted breakthrough research on the bridge between work, superior human capital, leadership and sustainable competitive advantage. His research addresses the future of work and the global HR profession, work automation, HR measurement and analytics, decision-based HR, executive mobility, HR information systems and organizational staffing and development. Dr. Boudreau helped to establish and then directed the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) at Cornell University, where he was a professor for more than 20 years Peter Aykens is chief of research in Gartner’s human resources practice. He is responsible for defining research coverage within the practice and building and leading research teams that address clients’ key initiatives. In prior roles at the firm, he spent over 25 years leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product issues in financial services. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College; a master’s degree in international politics from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (now known as Aberystwyth University); and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

Dart Lindsley, the head of global process excellence for people operations at Google, joins the Gartner Talent Angle to share why he thinks work is one of the least designed products on the market today. Dart argues that if HR leaders applied design principles to work they would view employees not as inputs to production but rather as customers buying the experience of work. This reframing of the relationship between the organization and the employee can help managers rethink how to approach their roles and help HR more precisely shape the employee experience. Dart Lindsley leads Global Process Excellence for People Operations at Google. Before joining Google, Dart led the Human Resources Transformation Planning and Analysis organization for Cisco Systems. While at Cisco, Dart founded the business architecture and experience design teams. By focusing these two very different disciplines on questions of talent, Dart and his team came to an important insight: employees can be framed as customers of work, and employers therefore must sell work as a product. Ever since, Dart has been using tools from marketing and product design to delve into what people really want from work and ways in which companies can build and deliver an extraordinary work-experience product. Aaron McEwan is a behavioral scientist, psychologist and futurist. As vice president of research and advisory for Gartner’s HR practice, Aaron provides strategic advice to the world’s leading companies on the future of work and talent and helps leaders manage their most critical relationships across the c-suite and board. Alongside his current role, Aaron is a Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute, serves on the national committee for the Australian Psychological Society’s Interest Group in Coaching Psychology and is an Associate of Macquarie University’s Centre for Workforce Futures. He was recently named a Top 100 Global HR Influencer and one of 5 HR Leaders to Follow in 2022. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Mark C. Crowley joins the Gartner Talent Angle to discuss why today’s unparalleled workplace challenges prompted him to release a second edition of his book, “Lead from the Heart: Transformational Leadership for the 21st Century” more than a decade after it was first published. Backed by scientific findings on employee motivation, Crowley outlines common misconceptions about leading from the heart. And drawing on examples from his own experience, he shares practical advice for how to effectively implement this type of leadership at an organization. Mark C. Crowley is the author of “Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century.” The second edition debuted in August 2022 as an “Amazon #1 Release,” and his book has been taught in nine American universities. Mark is a regular columnist for Fast Company Magazine and has been published in USA Today, Reuters, Forbes, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Huffington Post, Gallup & the Seattle Times. Mark spent over 20 years in the world of Financial Services. He held two national level positions at one of America’s largest financial institutions where he was named “leader of the year”. Mark proved that deeply caring about and supporting people, and thereby positively affecting employee’s hearts had a profound effect on motivating their sustained engagement, loyalty and productivity. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

As many organizations struggle to keep pace with technological innovations, digital transformation is a top priority. Gerald Kane, professor of information systems at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, joins the Gartner Talent Angle to explore the opportunities these digital disruptions create and to inspire HR leaders to approach digital transformation with confidence. He explains how people and processes, not just technology, are crucial to successful digital transformation, and emphasizes the need for leaders to have growth mindsets and to continually learn while building adaptability in their organizations. Dr. Gerald C. Kane is a Professor and the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Chair in Business Administration at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. He researches and teaches about how companies can understand and respond to digital disruption to undergraduate, graduate, and executive education students worldwide; and he has published over 100 papers, articles, and reports on these topics. He has written two books for MIT Press: The Technology Fallacy: How People are the Real Key to Digital Transformation and the The Transformation Myth: Leading Your Organization Through Uncertain Times. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Author Caleb Gardner argues that while change has been constant for some time, organizations are still unprepared to address it. In his latest book, “No Point B: Rules for Leading Change in the New Hyper-Connected, Radically Conscious Economy,” Gardner lays out his vision for how organizations should approach change in the new environment. The founder of the consulting firm 18 Coffees joined the Gartner Talent Angle Podcast to share examples of organizations undergoing transformation, and he extols the virtues of effective communication, adaptive capability and revised assumptions. Caleb Gardner is the co-founder of innovation consulting firm 18 Coffees and author of the new book, “No Point B: Rules for Leading Change in the New Hyper-Connected, Radically Conscious Economy.” Caleb’s career has spanned from working at Edelman and Bain & Company to running U.S. President Barack Obama’s Twitter account. Caleb’s insights about building more ethical and effective companies have been featured in publications such as NBC News, Wired, Crain’s, BBC News and Cheddar News. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Entering 2024, executives face a volatile business environment, sustained talent shortages, rapid technological advancements and a workforce with intense change fatigue. As organizations seek to capitalize on new opportunities in the year ahead, CHROs must help navigate unforeseen challenges and difficult tradeoffs. In this episode of the Talent Angle, Gartner’s Peter Aykens and Emily Rose McRae share nine future of work trends that will shape HR in 2024. To access the full future of work trends research, see: https://gtnr.it/FOW24 Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. Mr. Aykens is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth) and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University. Emily Rose McRae advises CHROs and other c-suite executives on the future of work and workforce transformation. While Ms. McRae works across all issues that can lead to the future of work, her core areas of focus include emerging technologies (such as GenAI) and their impact on work and the workforce, new employment models, evolving employee expectations, flexibility for frontline workers, and the aging workforce. She also helps executives with workforce planning to anticipate and prepare for these changes, creating an enterprise-wide future of work strategy, and creating and iterating on hybrid work strategies and the role of the office. Caroline Walsh is a managing vice president in Gartner’s HR practice. Her teams help HR leaders build and execute talent, diversity, rewards, and learning strategies and programs. Caroline has also led Gartner research teams on commercial banking strategy and leadership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

In 2023, expert guests joined the Gartner Talent Angle to lay out their visions for the future of jobs, the office and HR. Marshall School of Business professor Dr. John Boudreau and Mercer’s Transformation Services global leader Ravin Jesuthasan propose a new work “operating system” based on deconstructed work and deconstructed talent. Author Julia Hobsbawm offers advice on how organizations should shape the role of the office in an era of work marked by unclear boundaries and changing attitudes. And Vail Resorts CHRO Lynanne Kunkel explains how the HR function can strive for excellence by developing capabilities like change leadership and human-centered experience design. Ravin Jesuthasan is the global leader of Mercer’s Transformation Services business. He has led multiple research efforts on the global workforce, the emerging digital economy, the rise of artificial intelligence, and the transformation of work. Ravin has led numerous research projects for the World Economic Forum on the transformation of work and the global workforce. He is a regular participant and presenter at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos and is a member of the forum’s Steering Committee on Work and Employment. He is the author of “Transformative HR”, “Lead the Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment,” “Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach to Applying Automation to Work”, and the Wall Street Journal bestseller “Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System”. Dr. John Boudreau is recognized worldwide as a leading evidence-based visionary on the future of work and organization. John is Professor Emeritus of Management and Organization and a Senior Research Scientist with the Center for Effective Organizations, at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. For 40 years, he has conducted breakthrough research on the bridge between work, superior human capital, leadership and sustainable competitive advantage. His research addresses the future of work and the global HR profession, work automation, HR measurement and analytics, decision-based HR, executive mobility, HR information systems and organizational staffing and development. John helped to establish and then directed the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) at Cornell University, where he was a professor for more than 20 years. Julia Hobsbawm is an award-winning business author and futurist of work who writes the “Working Assumptions” column for Bloomberg’s Work Shift. The author of the acclaimed book “The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future,” she was a founder of the U.S.-led Workforce Institute, was chair of the inaugural U.K. Demos Workshift Commission, and now co-hosts the popular podcast, “The Nowhere Office.” Julia is the author of six books, including the award-winning “The Simplicity Principle,” and she was awarded an OBE in the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours List in 2015 for services to business. She regularly consults for and speaks to corporations, governments and changemakers around the world. Lynanne Kunkel is the CHRO for Vail Resorts. Prior to joining Vail Resorts in 2017, Lynanne served in various executive positions for Whirlpool, most recently as senior vice president of global HR. Throughout her career, she has led all aspects of HR to deliver enhanced business performance in areas that include business HR, talent acquisition, talent management, leadership development, organizational effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, and talent analytics.

While hybrid work, new technologies and evolving skills needs are changing how work gets done, what motivates employees remains constant. Author and psychologist Ron Friedman joins the Gartner Talent Angle to share how the latest findings in behavioral psychology can be applied throughout organizations. Friedman shares insights from his books “Decoding Greatness” and “The Best Place to Work” along with examples and stories from his work as founder of ignite80. He explains how HR leaders can use the method of reverse engineering to achieve success, and he details how an intentional focus on the psychological needs of employees can unlock their highest potential. Ron Friedman is an award-winning social psychologist and the founder of ignite80, a learning and development company that teaches leaders science-based strategies for building high-performing teams. Friedman has served on the faculty of the University of Rochester, Nazareth College, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today, Fast Company, Forbes, and CNN. Popular accounts of his research have appeared on NPR and in major newspapers, including The New York Times, Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, Washington Post, The Guardian, as well as magazines such as Men’s Health, Entrepreneur, and Success. His first book, The Best Place to Work, was named an Inc. Magazine Best Business Book of the Year. His new book, Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success, was selected by Amazon's editors as one of 2021’s best books. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

In 2023, expert guests joined the Gartner Talent Angle to share their advice about key drivers of employee engagement, retention and performance: flexible work, wellbeing and internal mobility. Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom discusses the impact of flexible work on employee productivity and on organizations’ bottom lines. Siemens chief people and sustainability officer Judith Wiese shares how Siemens commits to well-being to drive talent outcomes and to position the organization for sustainable success. Author Helen Tupper makes the case for nonlinear career paths to deliver on the promise of internal mobility by giving employees relevant and engaging opportunities. Nicholas Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University. Nick’s research focuses on working from home, management practices and uncertainty. He previously worked at the U.K. Treasury, McKinsey & Company and the IFS. He has a BA from Cambridge, an MPhil from Oxford, and a PhD from University College London. Nick is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of the Guggenheim and Sloan Fellowships, the Frisch Medal and a National Science Foundation Career Award. He was elected to Bloomberg50 for his advice on working from home. Judith Wiese has been a member of the Managing Board of Siemens since 1 October 2020. She is the chief people and sustainability officer as well as labor director for Siemens. In addition, Judith is responsible for global business services (GBS) at Siemens. Judith has more than two decades of international experience in various HR fields. From 2017 to 2020, she was chief human resources officer at DSM, a Dutch company specializing in health, nutrition and sustainable living. Before that, she worked for the U.S. food company Mars, most recently as head of people and organization. Helen Tupper is the co-founder and CEO of Amazing If, a company with an ambition to make careers better for everyone. Together with her business partner Sarah Ellis, she is the author of two Sunday Times bestsellers: “The Squiggly Career” and “You Coach You.” Their “Squiggly Careers” podcast is the U.K.’s No. 1 careers podcast, and their TEDx talk “The Best Career Path Isn’t Always a Straight Line” has over 1.5 million downloads. Helen also works as a trustee for Working Families, a U.K. charity with a mission to support families and caregivers with their work and life commitments. Prior to Amazing If, she held leadership roles for Microsoft, Virgin and BP and was awarded The Financial Times and 30% Club’s Women in Leadership MBA Scholarship. She is mum to Henry and Madeleine and lives with her husband in Buckinghamshire. You can find her on Instagram @amazingif.

Business leaders today are struggling with managing their wellbeing, working with other leaders and mitigating their blind spots. Gartner analyst Rob O’Donohue joins the Talent Angle to discuss his research on how the most successful leaders succeed, despite rising employee burnout and employee-employer mistrust. Rob offers advice for how leaders can manage their workloads and take care of their own wellbeing. He also shares his insights on how leaders can build cohesion within their leadership teams and how they can better receive and implement challenging feedback from their teams and networks. Rob O'Donohue is a vice president analyst in Gartner's executive leadership research group focusing on C-suite dynamics, executive leadership development and transitions, organizational culture change, talent and DEI. He advises executives on the future of work, hybrid work design, culture change, solving talent challenges, advancing leadership effectiveness, creating high performing teams, and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the organization. Rob creates evidence-based actionable research to empower executive leaders to lead more effectively. Brent Cassell is a vice president of advisory in Gartner’s HR practice, and he has spent the past 19 years in Gartner’s HR and CIO practices. His job is to help clients find the research they need, to help them understand that research, and to coach them through the implementation of those best practices in their own organizations. Brent is the contributing editor of the HR Leaders Monthly journal. In 2022, he won Gartner’s award for Outstanding Thought Leadership for his work on Redesigning Work for the Hybrid World.

Ronald Schellekens, PepsiCo CHRO, and Ceree Eberly, former Coca-Cola Company chief people officer, join the Gartner Talent Angle to discuss how HR leaders can serve as role models for the business to manage through sustained uncertainty. Schellekens and Eberly share their perspectives for navigating ongoing changes to the talent landscape and preparing for long-term volatility. They draw on their experiences as HR leaders to share advice for attracting external candidates, developing a strong internal talent market and boosting employee engagement. Ronald Schellekens is Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of PepsiCo. Ronald joined PepsiCo in 2018 and oversees the company’s global HR function, which leads talent management and acquisition, leadership development, learning and capability building, compensation and benefits, organizational effectiveness, and HR operations. Ronald and his team also partner with PepsiCo’s Sectors and business units to advance culture, as well as diversity, inclusion and engagement. Prior to joining PepsiCo, Ronald served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Vodafone for 10 years. Ronald holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources and a Master’s degree in Management and Organization from TIAS Business School in the Netherlands and has completed the Program for Management Development (PMD) at Harvard Business School. Ceree Eberly serves as Chair for the CHRO Global Leadership Board, a network of HR executives working with Gartner to share best practices and influence cutting-edge thinking to guide the next generation of HR leaders. In March 2018, Ceree retired as SVP and Chief People Officer for Coca-Cola after 28 years with the company. She led significant improvements in Coca-Cola’s people and talent processes, leaving a lasting legacy at the organization Ceree is also a member of Women Corporate Directors global organization and has been involved with numerous Human Resources Global Leadership organizations. Ceree has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee, graduating with high honors. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.