HR Predictions

for 2021
What We
and make sure we take it forward, while taking advantage of
our newly found skills in remote work, wellbeing, empathy, and

Learned in 2020
productivity.

As I think back about all we’ve experienced, it’s very clear to

me that 2021 will be a transformational time. Let me give you
This year we learned a lot. We learned that we, as individuals, some perspectives for the year ahead.
are vulnerable to threats and also very resilient when facing

1
change. Most of us spent a lot of time working at home,
which has changed the way we live and helped us become There Is a New
comfortable with the digital world of work. The biggest word
of the year is “resilience.” We learned how to build a resilient
War for Talent
company, a resilient team, and a resilient personal life.
“War for talent” is a 20-year-old phrase, originally coined by
DDI’s new leadership research shows that employees have a consulting firm. I predict this year the war will again emerge
more confidence in leaders than they have in 20 years. This with a vengeance. New research from EMSI and LinkedIn
new level of confidence comes from a new mindset in business. shows that the number of open jobs is almost as high as it was
Company leaders have to listen, take care of people, and build 12 months ago, and economic productivity is at record levels.
a business that helps everyone be successful, regardless of What this means is that for key roles and geographies, there is
individual situations. huge demand for people, and you will be competing for talent
in every way.
We also learned to be agile with a lower case “a.” For years,
companies have been talking about Agile methodology Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, and other businesses have hired
practices such as flattening organizations and working in many people this year, including retail workers, logistics staff,
teams. This year, agile happened at scale. HR leaders have and delivery drivers. In fact, the number of delivery driver
told me their companies moved faster than they thought jobs is 140% higher than a year ago. If you’re a tech company,
possible. Things like digital transformation and the redesign of you’ve likely been hiring engineers, data scientists, and
performance management happened in months. We learned designers. Jobs in healthcare and home health are growing at
that a focus on helping employees be productive, safe, and the fastest pace of all.
included is really the core of a transformation.
Interestingly enough, it also appears that the pandemic has
And we also learned how to learn. Most of us didn’t know a changed the workforce itself. Baby boomers are retiring at a
lot about public health, viruses, workplace hygiene, or social record rate,1 with more than 3.2 million retiring this year alone.
issues such as Black Lives Matter or mask-wearing politics. Women and non-college educated workers have also left the
But this year we learned. This year has shown me that HR workforce, making it even harder to find people to fill the
professionals are learners at heart. In fact, the L&D market service, labor, and contract jobs now in high demand.
itself has exploded with growth. Most of you have seen more
Jobs for 2021 will be service roles – jobs that require technical
consumption of learning than you ever thought possible, and
skills and experience but are primarily driven by your
your employees are as engaged as they’ve ever been.
candidate’s ability to learn, collaborate, and relate to your
And with all this change people are a little tired. We went company’s purpose. Purpose was a big topic in 2020 (it is one
through a brutal election in the United States, we suffered
tremendous loss from racial injustices and pandemic failures,
and we worked a lot of hours and spent a lot of time on video.
1h
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As we go into 2021 it’s important to reflect on what we learned and-baby-boomers-11607022074

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 2

 way people work and then collect the fewest and best tools for
your needs and make them all work together. Hire a few people
who understand data and systems; develop an architecture
team that can look at how these things come together; and
work very closely with IT.

3 Employee Experience Is
Now a Corporate Strategy
We started the conversation about EX about five years
ago. Now, EX initiatives are company-wide projects that
Figure 1: Annual increase in the retired U.S. Baby Boomer population
(in millions) include HR, IT, legal, facilities, finance, and workplace safety.
Employee experience encompasses issues ranging such as
of the highest correlated dimensions in pandemic response2),
work protocols, management support, workplace design,
so you’ll want to communicate and clarify your company’s
rewards, development, careers, and culture. Our new EX
purpose when recruiting so you attract people who care.
framework, which we’ve developed in partnership with dozens
Talent acquisition remains one of the most complex parts of of companies, shows you how expansive the topic has become.
HR. In 2021, companies will begin to put more emphasis on job
In 2021, you will need a cross-functional EX team that looks at
sharing and internal talent mobility. For in-demand job roles,
employee segments, employee journeys, and the role of service
we'll see wages go up at last.
delivery centers responding to employee problems and needs.
I also think it’s important you communicate your role in While EX started as a design thinking exercise, it now goes well
society. Younger workers (74% of the workforce is now under beyond HR-related moments that matter. Comprehensive
the age of 50) are desperately looking for meaningful work. If employee experience requires thinking about every minute
you nail this well, you’ll hire the right people. in a workday and includes considering how to handle all types
of employee feedback and developing a strategy for “signal to

2
action” as I describe in our new EX research3.
Digital Has Become Where and how should you start with employee experience?
a Way of Life First, make sure your EX team has an expansive mission.
Focusing only on HR is not sufficient. EX touches on work,
Digital transformation is here. There’s no more reason to
career, and life journeys. You need to think of EX as a company-
debate whether people are allowed to work at home; they’re
wide initiative and leverage as much technology as you can.
now working everywhere. In fact, the big trend to me is that
work comes to you rather than you going to work. One of our clients spent the last two years implementing a
series of chatbot services for their employees. As the system
In HR, this means we have to push forward with the
got better over time, the HR service delivery team began to get
simplification, integration, and design thinking of the digital
smarter and smarter about employee needs and now can see
work experience. Products like Microsoft Teams are sweeping
trends in employee engagement in real time. Another company
across the world, enabling HR teams to create a single
connected its service delivery applications to Workplace by
platform experience for employees. I know there are hundreds
Facebook so employees can chat and interact with every HR
of HR tech tools to consider. We must accept that digital is the

2 https://joshbersin.com/business-resilience-the-global-covid-19-pandemic-response- 3h
 ttps://joshbersin.com/2020/11/employee-experience-4-0-closing-the-loop-from-
study/ signal-to-action/

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 3

 MEANINGFUL WORK HANDS-ON PRODUCTIVE HEALTH & WELLBEING GROWTH OPPORTUNITY TRUST IN LEADERSHIP
MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT

Autonomy and Clear goals with Tools and systems to Safety and security in Open, facilitated job Mission and purpose
agency stretch opportunity get work done all aspects of work and role mobility beyond financial
goals
Job and team fit Regular coaching and Appreciation, Personal fitness, Career growth in Trust, transparency,
feedback recognition, and health, and wellbeing multiple paths and empathy
rewards
Small, agile teams Capable, empowering Flexible hours, Psychological and Formal and informal Continuous
leadership workspace, and mental health and learning investment in people
workplace support
Time to focus, rest, Transparent, simple Inclusive, diverse, and Family and financial Culture of learning at Focus on society,
and recover performance culture of belonging support all levels and all times environment, and
management community

Figure 2: The Irresistible Organization: A Complete Employee Experience

system without ever logging on. This kind of digital thinking has In our 2020 research, we found that communication, listening,
to be part of your paradigm. authentic feedback, and taking action on employee issues are
perhaps the most important leadership and HR practices of
Employee experience also includes building the new
all. We are finishing a massive study of diversity, equity, and
workplace. While many people will continue to work remotely,
inclusion and believe it or not, the ability to listen, hear, and act
there is a massive focus on making the office workplace more
on employee concerns is by far the top driver of success. Even
hygienic, productive, and enjoyable. I don’t think we’ll throw
employee resource groups, which companies are often unsure
away all the cubicles yet, but the days of crowding people next
about, are incredibly important ways to learn about what’s on
to each other are over. I used to laugh at well-funded tech
employees’ minds.
companies that had 50 people sitting in a single room so close
to each other that everyone wears headphones. HR now must Many years ago, I wrote an article called “Feedback Is the Killer
work with facilities to design a better physical experience. App4” and tried to explain why employees’ “Yelping” about
Word on the street is that the design of the future is the hybrid their workplaces was so important. Now it’s well understood
workplace, with a variety of spaces to collaborate and to do that employees are the most valuable source of information a
individual work as needed. company has. Of course, customers and business partners are
important sources too, but employees are the ones who “vote

4
with their lives” when they come to work for you. So, leaders
 mployee Listening,
E should treat their suggestions, concerns, and feedback as gold.

Hearing, and Over recent years, we’ve moved from annual surveys to pulse

Communications Go Big surveys to analytics platforms, and now we’re entering a new
world of action platforms. I suggest you read my new research,
“Shortening the Distance from Signal to Action,”5 and make
Probably the biggest of lesson of 2020 is the critical
sure employee listening is a focus for 2021.
importance of communication. All over the world, CEOs and
other senior leaders got on Zoom calls with hundreds to
thousands of employees and opened up channels to talk,
4h
 ttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employee-feedback-killer-app-new-market-
share, listen, and get feedback. We needed such frequent emerges-josh-bersin/
communications because the entire world was so uncertain. 5h
 ttps://joshbersin.com/2020/11/employee-experience-4-0-closing-the-loop-from-
signal-to-action/

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 4

 EX 1.0 EX 2.0 EX 3.0 EX 4.0
Annual engagement survey Pulse surveys with mobile access Intelligent dashboardsand action plans Continuous Responseaction platforms

Once per year. Agile surveys as needed. Many sources of data. Tied into internal systems with alerts, feed-
Focus on management. Pulse on regular basis. Dashboards recommend action, deliver back, cases and integration with CX systems.
Benchmarked annually. Feedback on mobile or apps. nudges, suggestions, and learning or action Now called EX, not Engagement
Rigid questions asked year after year. AI-based action plans. plans for individuals
Immediate feedback.
Focus on behavior change. Focus on action.
Focus on benchmarking Focus on feedback

Survey technology. Mobile, easy to use. Useful data & learning. Instrumented actions and alerts.

Figure 3: Employee Engagement Market (EX) Evolves

By the way, one of the things that’s really helped advance In 2021, HR leaders will grapple with questions such as those
employee listening is the explosion of growth in platforms below:
like Microsoft Teams, Workplace by Facebook, WebEx, Zoom,
• What tools and support do we provide for remote work?
ServiceNow, and other collaboration, video conferencing,
• When should you come to the office and when can you
and EX tools. Once viewed as part of a niche market, these
stay away?
platforms have proven themselves to be important platforms
• What public health protocols do we mandate?
for employee communications and collaboration – capable of
• How will we monitor employee travel, health, vaccine
reaching employees wherever they are working.
adoption, meetings, and attestation?
• How will we schedule office openings and manage issues

5  ellbeing and Safe

W such as appropriate distancing, commuting, and public
spaces?
Workplaces Land in • What are our policies for virus outbreak?

the Board Room •

•
Do we need a chief health officer?
Is the safety team involved in our EX program?

The corporate wellbeing market, over $45 billion in size, Let me add another important point. In 2021, I do also believe
exploded with growth in 2020. Today there are hundreds of citizenship, trust, and social responsibility will be a big focus.
vendors selling coaching, fitness, mindfulness, mental health, Cisco’s mission is now “Power the inclusive future for all.”
and psychological counseling tools for employees. And as Target’s mission statement is “Help all families discover the
we’ve talked with HR leaders all year, we hear the same thing joy of everyday life.” Such inclusive, socially-oriented mission
over and over: employee health, wellbeing, and safety are now statements are a new theme in business: we are here to help
embedded in corporate cultures. society and employees, not just shareholders.

Just as senior executives have become more focused on I want to remind you that giving to others, volunteering, and
empathy and employee support, so have every manager and taking care of the environment and community is also part
supervisor. Teaching leaders how to help their people stay of wellbeing. As I described in my article about Workday’s
healthy, resilient, and productive has emerged as a priority. wellbeing strategy6 – you should think about linking your
wellbeing strategy to your ESG or social responsibility strategy
The key to health and wellbeing is not just to give employees
because they’re strongly connected.
a portfolio of wellbeing-related benefits. We also need to
give employees clear direction, time to focus, and a work (Please read our Big Reset Playbooks7 to learn more about the entire
environment that is productive, supportive, and inclusive. topic of pandemic response.)
While wellbeing started as a benefit provided by the
6h
 ttps://joshbersin.com/2020/01/create-a-meaningful-employee-experience-
compensation and benefits manager, it is now central to your workdays-global-impact-employee-life-team/
entire company strategy. 7 https://www.joshbersin.com/bigreset

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 5

 Level 4: Wellbeing for Social Good
Value: organization as a force for good; sustainability, health, and value to community
Focus on contribution to society outside of work, communities, localities, political alignment

Level 3: Wellbeing for Business Performance

Value: reduce wasted time and energy at work, help people with schedule, travel, priorities, train managers
Focus on performance sustainability, attention, focus, education, career, and total performance at work

Level 2: Wellbeing for Personal Improvement

Value: make work life better, reduce stress, help employees with personal and financial wellbeing
Focus on personal, family, and financial support, education, job, and off the job tools and support

Level 1: Wellbeing as a Healthcare Benefit

Value: reduced cost, reduced turnover, improved insurance expense
Focus on disease reduction, accident prevention, overall health of workforce

Figure 4: A Maturity Model for Wellbeing Strategy

6
needed to drive the business ahead. This is not an exercise of
 eavy Focus on Skills
H building a skills cloud of 5,000 important skills. Those types

Leads to Strategic Focus of systems are now available from almost every HR vendor.
Rather, your new challenge in 2021 is to put some of your
on Capabilities personal intellectual horsepower against this and build a
capability strategy for your company.
The reskilling, upskilling, and skilling craze has continued.
How do you do this? As Lockheed, Intermountain Healthcare,
In 2020 we realized that we have a lot to learn about public
Wal-Mart, P&G, and many others have shown, it takes a real
health, hygiene, and safety. There was also renewed emphasis
effort to build a team of employees who can help prioritize
on automation and AI, making every job in business one of
the business capabilities that drive success. No software tool
“continuous learning.”
can do this for you. And year after year, you should revisit the
Ongoing learning and development should be a strategic focus results and keep the list from getting out of control.
for the CEO. If a company does not have a learning culture
We are launching a capability building working group as part
that encourages and promotes individual learning, business
of our in Big Reset 2021 initiative, so if you’re a senior L&D or
performance will suffer. When you look at companies like
HR leader interested in doing this or have experience to share,
Nokia, Digital Equipment, and others that have lost their
please join us.
markets, a common factor is that leaders “just didn’t learn what
was going on.” A focus on capabilities will help you create deeper skills, bring
people together, create mentoring, and leverage the expertise
We are in the golden age of AI, technology, and data, so
within your company. In 2021, we need to move beyond
naturally everyone wants to develop skills in these areas. But
buying an LXP and expecting Workday or another tool to
my research shows that most of the jobs of the future are in
find and recommend all the skills everyone needs. It’s time to
services: designing, selling, communicating, helping, caring for
take this bull by the horns and make capability development a
others. These jobs need other skills, too -- the Power Skills of
strategic business strategy for the future.
listening, communicating, managing time well, prioritizing, and
of course, learning to lead, collaborate, and coach others. Such
skills are going to be even hotter in 2021, so you need to put a
strategy in place to develop and instill them.

What most companies now need to do is create a capability

taxonomy that documents the primary business capabilities

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 6

7
LMS is now starting to become a pretty big deal, making it
important to rationalize what data goes where.
L&D Will Be Disrupted • LRS platforms will become real. The real data engine of
learning is not the LMS or the LXP; it’s the learning record
I do love the L&D market; it’s the market I first studied when
store, where all the detailed learning data resides. These
I started as an analyst. Twenty years later, I’m seeing an
tools are going to become much more important in 2021,
incredible amount of disruption for this market ahead:
so start getting familiar with this market segment.
• First, talent marketplace products are taking off. The more
• The demand for content will continue to explode. The Josh
people start moving around and taking on different roles,
Bersin Academy more than tripled in size this year (we are
the more content and training they want. An essential
over 25,000 members) and nearly every other content
business decision you need to make is where the business
company is seeing similar growth. You’re going to be
rules for learning go. In the LMS? LXP? Marketplace?
flooded with new content offerings, so it’s very important
• Microsoft Teams will include a learning app. The MS to keep content providers and resources under control. By
Teams learning app will come out in 2021, and it will let the way, Skillsoft has transformed itself and is going public.
you deliver “learning in the flow of work” at scale. Of Between Skillsoft, LinkedIn, Pluralsight, Udemy, Coursera,
course, you’ll have to figure out how to use it within your and hundreds of other companies, the content market has
environment. We would be happy to help. never been so big, healthy, and confusing.

• LXPs will grow up into LMSs. LXP vendors are suddenly • Workday, Oracle, and SAP are getting serious about
realizing they need business rules, e-commerce, resource learning. Workday Learning now has more than 800
management, and even talent marketplace features. So customers; Oracle has built a serious learning platform in
that “layer” of software you bought to sit on top of your Oracle HCM; and SAP is investing heavily in a new end-to-

JOB ROLE CAPABILITIES SKILLS

A Role
Goals
Activities
A Job Projects
Job Title Teams
Job Family Outputs
Description
Goals
Level A Role
Pay Goals
Activities
Projects
Teams

In the HRMS In the Work In Everyday Use Under the Covers

Figure 5: Understanding Jobs, Roles, Skills, and Capabilities

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 7

 Capability
Academies Digital
Data Science
Organized by functional
Area and strategic need Cyber Security
Cloud Engineering
Self-Directed Led by SMEsand business leaders
Sales
Learning External content and instructors Global Marketing
Product Management
Traditional Training LXP Interface and discovery
Recommended content
Mentoring and coaching
By design Organ Research
Anyone can author Logistics and Supply
L&D or HR-led Assessment and capability models
Open access Customer Service
Formal programs Talent mobility andproject assignments
Volume high, quality mixed Pateint Care
LMS catalog
“System-curated”
Certification Sponsored by business, HR
Individual-focused Constantly adapting
Role-based

Figure 6: The Next Steps: Capability Academies

end enterprise learning platform as well. Cornerstone- We started copying all these tools (nine-box grids, talent
Saba hasn’t gone away either, so the enterprise platform calibration, etc.) and went crazy with HR technology to create
market is becoming even more interesting. various forms of succession and career planning for lower
levels of the organization.
I predict the learning market will be a hot space in 2021,
and I encourage you to take some time and create a project At the same time this was going on, career planners and
to build a solid three- to five-year roadmap for your L&D recruiters were pushing for career models. Most companies
infrastructure, content, and organization strategy. (including IBM when I was there) had well-developed career
paths and most of us could lock into to one of these and ride

8
our way up over time. This approach worked extremely well
Talent Mobility Is Finally for a while.

a Highly Strategic Focus Somewhere in the early 2000s the internet upset this
applecart. Suddenly we had tools such as HotJobs, LinkedIn,
As an analyst, I’ve studied a lot of HR practices. Back in 2007, and Indeed, and employees could much more easily find a job
we did a big study of succession management and came to in another company if they wanted to move up. So rather than
the conclusion that succession management, one of the core wait for a promotion to move up the hierarchy, employees quit
practices in talent management, was totally out of date. In to snag a better job in another company.
2021, for the first time in decades, the area of strategic and
I remember being quite frightened about being laid off in the
facilitated internal mobility is moving into focus.
1980s because I knew how hard it would be to find another
Historically, most companies built succession models based on job. We had to type out our resumes, fax or mail them, and
replacement planning. Believe it or not, the history of nine-box wait weeks to hear back from a recruiter. All that is now quaint
grids and succession go back to World War I, when the army history.
had replacement charts to show squad leaders who could take
As the job market became transparent, companies got
a soldier’s place if he should be shot in the trenches. This idea
frenzied and started piling on benefits, career development
was copied in business; companies would replacement charts
opportunities, and better and better learning programs to help
for senior execs so they knew who was ready to take over if a
keep high performers around. We went from career models
senior leader had to leave or retire.
to facilitated mobility. Companies such as Cisco decided that
This then turned into the “secret locked room” where all the moving employees around in the company should be part
succession plans were stored, and companies like GE started of their strategy. At this time, company leaders began to
to turn this approach to succession planning into an institution. understand the importance of well-rounded general managers,

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 8

 SOURCING & RECRUITING
CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Planned Facilitated Agile

Skills and experience Needs of the business Changeable at any time

Tenure and reputation Developmental needs Based on interest and skills
Assessments, gated paths May be stretch assignment Skills models may help

DEVELOPMENT PLANNING GIG WORK MANAGEMENT

Figure 7: Vendors Fit Different Modesl of Talent Mobility

the idea of a T-shaped career, and the focus on creating one’s One of our favorite clients (a big insurance company) spent two
own network. years building a massive internal mobility system that included
comprehensive job assessments for every job in the company
However, obstacles often stood in the way. Many managers
so anyone could identify and apply for any internal job. It was
were not incented to let employees move to other jobs.
well intentioned and highly strategic, but the overhead of
Hiring managers often preferred to hire external candidates
maintaining it was too much – so they shut it down after a few
rather than hiring from within. Employees were not aware
years.
of the internal positions available. If an employee who wasn’t
identified as a HIPO jumped to another role, he or she could be And Voila! Along comes the Talent Marketplace. Vendors like
taking a career risk. If an employee burned out in a new job, Gloat, Fuel50, Workday, and new vendors like Eightfold, Hitch,
there was no way to go back to a previous role. PhenomPeople, Tandemploy, 360Talents, and now Oracle,
PeopleFluent, SAP, and others are offering platforms to make
Anyway, this culminated in some research we did in 2016
this all work. I won’t bother you with the details here (read my
which found that 65% of respondents said, “It’s easier to find a
2021 HR Technology Market8 report), but let me just say that in
new job outside the company than it is to find a new job inside
2021 you must take this strategy seriously.
the company.” Kind of insane, but it was true.
The proof is now out: companies like Unilever, Schneider
I was visiting at a huge conglomerate in India who was
Electric, PepsiCo, Society Generale, and SAP are thriving
complaining about their leadership pipeline and I asked several
on internal mobility. And these new platforms are making it
leaders, “How much mobility do you have between the oil and
easier than ever. Talk to us if you want more information –
gas business and the telecommunications business?” They
but believe me, this is a transformational new strategy. And it
said, “Absolutely none; it just doesn’t happen here.” I paused
goes far beyond HR: I think making your company an internal
and waited. And then the HR leader said, “But it’s pretty easy
opportunity marketplace is really the management model for
to quit from one of our companies and get hired by one of the
the future.
others. That happens all the time.”

And I know many of you spent many years building internal

mobility tools, career models, and setting up career coaches.

8 https://www.joshbersin.com/hrtech2021

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 9

9 HR Transformation Is centers all the time. The big work for 2021 is to rationalize the
roles, cross train teams, and set up a focused team to crawl
on the Front Burner through all the employee experience issues one by one.

Given the enormous changes we have in work and the

I’ve been doing work on HR operating models for many years,
workplace, another 2021 goal should be to transform HR from
and we’ve now reached a point where almost 90% of the
the inside out. In other words, focus on training and reskilling
companies we talk with need a refresh or new operating model
your HR team.
for HR. Why? Because HR has become a center of innovation.
We need to reorganize HR so it can develop and deliver in an One more thing. People analytics is now becoming a mandate.
agile way, become data driven, and focus laser-like on employee Big companies like IBM and Cisco have entire data science
experiences. And we have to do this with an efficient model teams dedicated to HR. They are able to look at employee
that uses AI and self-service, well-defined service centers, and mobility, sentiment, pay, performance, and all other work-
strategic outsourcing where needed. related data and come up with highly innovative new ways to
manage and improve performance. People analytics is now one
Many organizations are “halfway there” with transforming
of the most in-demand capabilities, followed closely by DEI
their HR operating models. In 2021, we will likely see a growing
skills and experience.
economy at some point so the stress of not operating well
will hurt. I see 2021 as the year to complete the move to the The 2021 imperative for 2021 is to go broad and wide. Your
new op model for HR. This is much more than implementing HR team should work with IT to industrialize your data set
a cloud-based HRS. It also requires clarifying who does what. and make sure it can encompass more sources of data in the
Here is a high-level view of where you want to go. year ahead. And your team should feel more like a consulting
team and less like a data science team, because we need to use
How do you manage this transformation? Well, each company
all this data to advise and improve, not just to analyze what’s
comes from a different place, and the typical problem most
going on.
organizations have is lots of HR staff floating around doing
business partner work, COE work, and working in service

Figure 8: A New HR Operating Model Has Emerged

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 10

10  itizenship,
C
Environment, and
Sustainability Will Grow
11 DEI Will Continue to
be a Major Imperative
We’ve finished a massive study of DEI practices in business,
and the results are pretty shocking. Not only is DEI an
Now that we’re working our way through the pandemic,
enormous topic on the minds of CEOs, but companies are
people are thinking about their role in society as well. I’ve just
hiring heads of DEI like never before. But are they moving the
finished reading a book called The Upswing by Robert Putnam9
needle? Not as much as you’d think.
(author of Bowling Alone) and he believes, as do I, that our self-
centered culture has peaked and we’re going to move to a more The problem is not one of training or employee resource
collective culture around the world. Problems like income groups, but rather that of truly creating an inclusive culture
inequality, health, global climate change, and racial justice loom within a company. As Ray Narine, one of our DEI gurus puts it,
large on the minds of younger people. New Deloitte research DEI is about “creating space for differences that people bring
shows that more than 70% of professionals under the age of 50 with them to work.”
want to spend significantly more time giving back in their lives.
Our study shows that the most effective practices include:
I look at issues such as income inequality, health access, listening to and acting on employee needs, giving employees
diversity, and environmental changes as part of citizenship. We an opportunity to speak up, holding HR teams accountable
should think about our companies as societies within larger for DEI metrics and programs, and driving transparency and
societies. People have to be good citizens within your company accountability into business leadership.
– taking care of each other, protecting company assets, acting
in an ethical way -- and also good citizens in the communities And let me point out some very important changes that are
you serve. People are hungry for this kind of focus right happening. The SEC and Nasdaq getting involved in diversity
now, so it’s time to bring together your DEI, sustainability, issues. Companies like Cisco, Target, Unilever, IBM, Accenture,
and environmental programs and think about them as an Lego, J&J, Merck, Capital One, Astra Zeneca, Sodexo, Hilton,
integrated strategy. and ADP are making significant headway in bringing about
change. As you’ll see in our research, these companies are all
In some way, you may not have much choice. Both the
focusing on DEI as a business strategy, not an HR initiative.
NASDAQ10 and the SEC11 are issuing rules about diversity
on boards and pay equity disclosures; the urgency to drive
My other point on DEI is that our own education is lacking.
inclusion, fairness, and transparency will get stronger. All
While some of us have been digging into the topic in great
evidence is that the Biden administration is heavily focused on
detail (we have about 40 chief diversity officers currently
these issues; just look at the makeup of the new White House
advising us), most HR professionals feel uncomfortable with
cabinet.
the topic. Our capability assessment shows that DEI skills and
expertise rank low across HR professionals around the world.
I don’t think this is a result of a lack of interest: DEI issues are
expansive, confusing, and intimidating. I encourage you to take
time to research and get yourself educated.

For more perspective, read my article about why the chief

9 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TFB4CTQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_
encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 diversity officer may be one of the toughest jobs in business12.
10 https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nasdaq-to-advance-diversity-through-
new-proposed-listing-requirements-2020-12-01

11 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/09/12/a-view-on-the-sec-rule-regarding- 12 https://joshbersin.com/2020/07/chief-diversity-officer-the-toughest-job-in-
human-capital-disclosures/ business/

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 11

12 HR Will Be a Center automation and digital change, and increasingly global
markets. You, as and HR professional, have to figure out what
of Innovation to do about all these things – and also be a good economist,
anthropologist, and politician as well.
My final prediction is something I’ve seen coming for years.
One of the reasons I love HR is that we get to worry about
You, as an HR leader, are now working in a center of innovation.
people issues, economics, society, technology, and culture
Every single people-related practice – from hiring to leading
all at once. In 2021, you will have the freedom to invent and
to performance management, succession, career models, job
experiment as we all deal with working in a whole new way. The
architecture – is an opportunity to innovate.
pandemic won’t be over for a while, but I know for a fact that
Every company must innovate its HR and leadership practices the old way of work is gone. Let’s invent the future the future
because the way we manage people is changing faster than together. 2021 will be an exciting and positive year. Please join
ever. Most of us are dealing with factors such as broad us on the journey.
employee demographics, multi-cultural teams, constant

HR PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 12

About Josh Bersin

Josh Bersin is an internationally recognized analyst, educator, and thought leader focusing on
the global talent market and the challenges impacting business workforces around the world. He
studies the world of work, HR and leadership practices, and the broad talent technology market.

He founded Bersin & Associates in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused on
corporate learning. Over the next ten years, he expanded the company’s coverage to encompass
HR, talent management, talent acquisition, and leadership. He sold the company to Deloitte in
2012, when it became known as Bersin™ by Deloitte. Bersin left Deloitte in June 2018.

In 2019, Bersin founded the Josh Bersin Academy, the world's first global development academy
for HR and talent professionals and a transformation agent for HR organizations. The Academy
offers content-rich online programs, a carefully curated library of tools and resources, and a
global community that helps HR and talent professionals stay current on the trends and practices
needed to drive organizational success in the modern world of work.

Bersin is frequently featured in talent and business publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, HR Executive, FastCompany, The
Wall Street Journal, and CLO Magazine. He is a regular keynote speaker at industry events around the world and a popular blogger with
more than 800,000 followers on LinkedIn.

His education includes a BS in engineering from Cornell University, an MS in engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the
Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

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