Episodes
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Lloyds Banking Group, the largest bank in the UK, is undergoing a ÂŁ3 Billion business transformation focused on enhancing customer experiences, integrating products and services, and leveraging technology to improve service delivery.
Holly Quincey, Chief Talent Officer, describes the companyâs accompanying talent transformation, particularly its skills-based hiring strategy.
Talent Acquisition: This includes bringing executive hiring and leadership development in-house, saving millions. A program called âPrescientâ was developed for the top 340 leaders, incorporating tools like Hogan and Raven assessments, 360 feedback, and external benchmarking to build leadership capabilities and align with future skills needs.
Cultural Transformation: Lloyds is shifting from siloed thinking to a more collaborative, customer-obsessed, and growth-oriented culture. This involves fostering a mindset where the bank sees itself as a tech company that does banking, rather than a traditional bank with good technology.
Recruitment and Workforce Planning: The recruitment function was remodeled in 2024, with a focus on reducing agency dependency and aligning talent acquisition with strategic workforce planning. This included hiring leaders with experience in campaign hiring and demand planning.
Financial and Operational Impact: The transformation has already generated significant financial savings, including ÂŁ20 million in 2024 alone from in-house initiatives like talent acquisition and leadership development. The organization continues to hire thousands annually while embedding innovation and efficiency across its operations.
This WhatWorks interview will give listeners the inspiration to âthink bigâ in your end-to-end talent transformation strategy.
Additional Information
Leadership Development Insights,
Human-Centered Leadership, Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy
Why Are Some Companies More Dynamic than Others?
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Change and transformation is the theme for 2025. 53% of CEOs believe their company will not exist in ten years, with iconic brands like Starbucks, Boeing, Nike, Intel, Southwest, and Target going through turnarounds. And 93% of CEOs believe AI will totally transform their operating model. (PwC CEO Survey.)
At the same time weâre witnessing a massive âchange managementâ push in the US Federal Government, driven by 200+ executive orders and other communications. The big issue i discuss is âwill this form of change even work?â Do âExecutive Ordersâ help people understand and embrace mandates for change?
While political change is not the right model for business, I want to point out how risky this approach may be. Putting aside political issues themselves, I think weâre about to learn a big lesson on âhow to create enduring change.â Yes, sometimes things have to happen fast, but in most cases culture is built over years and individuals must be included in the process.
And that goes for AI transformation too, as I discuss in the podcast.
If you want to learn more about the topic of change, I encourage you to check out our Josh Bersin Academy program âChange Agility.â
And please read my book Irresistible, which is now one of the highest rated business books on Amazon.
Additional Information
Despite Political Firestorm, Diversity Investments Are Alive And Well
The Rise Of The Superworker: Delivering On The Promise of AI
Elevating Equity: Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy
Get GalileoÂź, The Essential AI Assistant For Everything HR
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Missing episodes?
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Jim Hemgen, Director of Talent Development at Booz Allen Hamilton, talks with Kathi Enderes about how the company creates validated skills across hundreds of domains, including AI.
This success story defines the journey for every company. Using skills validation provided by Workera, and content from Udemy and HackerRank, Booz Allen has created a highly trusted, validated skills process that credentials employees in a trusted and verified manner. And Jim explains how he works with these vendors to put together a powerful, working solution.
As youâll hear, the key to success is engaging managers (and employees) to encourage learning and focus on the most important new skills. Jim also describes how story-telling and rewards contribute to the companyâs success in ongoing skills development. Today more than one third of Booz Allen staff have completed validated credentials for their career.
Sign up today for our newest course âBuilding a Skills Strategy that Works,â filled with case studies and a step-by-step guide to skills-based learning, recruiting, development, and career management.
Additional Information
How To Take A Pragmatic (and winning) Approach To Skills
The Rise of the Superworker: Delivering On The Promise Of AI
AI in HR: Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy
Galileo Professional, The Essential AI Assistant for Everything HR
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In this conversation, I discuss the DEI firestorm, the evolution and current state of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the corporate world, the alarming decline in trust towards businesses, and the necessity for companies to reinvent themselves in the face of changing market dynamics and the rise of the âsuper workerâ. I also explain how much of our HR research is now clearly playing out in the PwC CEO Survey, which puts a financial picture on much of our HR and workplace research.
Takeaways
DEI programs have historical roots and are essential for business.The political climate has influenced DEI initiatives significantly.Trust in business has seen a significant decline recently.Many employees feel disillusioned with the American dream.Reinvention is crucial for companies to thrive in the future.Companies that redeploy talent see better financial outcomes.The Edelman Trust Barometer reveals alarming trends in public trust.Diverse and inclusive workplaces lead to better performance.The rise of AI is transforming business operations.Engagement in DEI is a business necessity, not just a social agenda.Important Resources
The Rise Of The Superworker: Delivering On The Promise of AI
January 28 Predictions Webinar
Edelman Trust Barometer 2025
PwC 2025 CEO Survey
Get GalileoÂź, The Essential AI Assistant For Everything HR
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In this podcast I explain the four-stages of AI transformation and detail why and how âAI Pacesettersâ will far outperform others in their AI business transformations. The Rise of the Superworker research explains this in more detail.
The Rise of the Superworker predictions report is available to all users of Galileo, The Josh Bersin Academy, or Corporate Members. (A Galileo Pro membership is only $39 per month, and JBA membership is $49 per month.)
If you want to learn more and follow our ongoing case studies, briefs, and AI tools, download the Rise of the Superworker Overview today. You will be registered for regular updates. And please register for our launch webinar where I will detail this entire story.
Chapters
00:00 The Super Worker Effect and AI Transformation06:54 Re-engineering Work with AI13:14 Change Management and Training for AI Adoption17:14 The Future of Work in an AI-Driven World
Additional Information
Digital Twins, Digital Employees, And Agents Everywhere
AI in HR: Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy
Galileo Professional, The Essential AI Assistant for Everything HR
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How do you deliver on the promise of AI in your team, your company, and your career? Welcome to The Rise of the Superworker, our new research on the organizational adoption of AI. This research explains how organizations and leaders can redesign work, jobs, and customer experiences to deliver on the promise of AI.
And as youâll hear, job opportunities will expand for everyone. AI is not a technology to eliminate jobs, rather its a platform to empower every role. And the result will be orders of magnitude improvements in revenue, productivity, service, and creativity.
Download the Infographic overview here.
You can get the detailed report by subscribing to our AI platform Galileo, joining The Josh Bersin Academy, or our joining our Corporate Membership.
Additional Information
The Rise of the Superworker: In-Depth Article
AI in HR: Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy
Galileo Professional, The AI Assistant for Everything HR
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How do you build precision leadership skills at scale? Kendra Goldbas, Global Head of Learning & Development at PayPal, describes the world-class new manager development program at PayPal, MAPS (Managing at PayPal Successfully).
During the pandemic PayPal grew rapidly and needed a world-class leadership development program for remote leaders. The MAPS program, which is based on âlearn | practice | teach,â builds managerial skills quickly.
The program starts with a 6-week cohort based learning experience covering technical and leadership topics, and then encourages leaders to focus on a six-month precision development journey. By encouraging leaders to focus on âone major skill,â the company creates a high level of accountability and continuous growth.
The company uses Growthspaceâs precision development platform to personalize leadership skills across the entire company.
Additional Information
The Surprising Facts About Leadership Development, Human-Centered Leadership,
Why Are Some Companies More Dynamic Than Others?
Leading with impact: How PayPal is shaping its new managers with Growthspace
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Welcome to 2025, where I discuss the five big challenges ahead. These include (1) economic uncertainties, bifurcated labor market, (2) the impact of AI on the workforce and the Rise of Superworkers, (3) the new âsoupâ of issues in employee experience, which lands in HRâs lap, (4) the changing nature of leadership and leadership development, and (5) the urgent need to HR transformation from the inside out.
Every CEO, CHRO, and individual HR professional is going to deal with these five challenges, and I hope this roadmap helps you prioritize your time in the year ahead. Remember that Galileo, The Josh Bersin Academy, and our corporate membership services are here to help!
Additional Resources
A Tumultuous Year Behind: A Challenging, Important 2025 (the 2025 article in detail)
Introducing The AI Trailblazers! HR Technology Outlook 2025.
AI in HR: Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy
Introducing Systemic HRÂź
The Road to AI-Powered Productivity: Four Stages of Transformation
Galileo Professional, The AI Assistant for Everything HR
Systemic HR and Galileo are registered trademarks of The Josh Bersin Company.
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Welcome to 2025. Today I give you a sneak preview of Galileo as a voice assistant, powered by our upcoming mobile app. And I give you a preview of your enormous 2025 role in embracing, adopting, and optimizing the use of AI in your company.
I highlight three major themes for the year. First, the use of intelligent agents in your own work throughout HR; second, the new world of âproductivity-based job design,â which will create enormous changes in job titles, roles, structures, and skills; third, the exciting new dynamic cultural shifts required in organizations to facilitate this transformation.
Throughout this conversation I discuss many of the â100 Use Cases for Galileo in HRâ which details many of the exciting innovations you can bring to your company this year.
And at the end I share a brief conversation I had with Galileo, the AI-Powered Assistant for Everything HR.
Additional Resources
How AI Will Revolutionize The HR Department, In Detail. E205 (Podcast)
Digital Twins, Digital Employees, And Agents Everywhere
Introducing The AI Trailblazers! HR Technology Outlook 2025.
Can AI Do Performance Reviews? Rippling Says Yes.
AI in HR: Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy
Galileo Professional, The Essential AI Assistant for Everything HR
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In this discussion I reflect on the significant events and trends of 2024, highlighting the impact of global conflicts, economic change, labor market dynamics, and the transformative role of AI in organizations.
What has changed? I discuss the evolving nature of DEI, the new model of leadership which emerged, and the transformation of HR into a more integrated and essential function within businesses.
I also describe the two-edged labor market, with severe labor shortages in hourly and blue collar work yet a lack of opportunities in white collar jobs. In fact I argue that our employment situation is not as happy as one may believe: the hyper low unemployment at the low end is masking unemployment fears among white collar workers. And as I discuss, 77% of employees are now fearful that AI could negatively impact their jobs and careers.
I also point out the enormous opportunity for AI-driven change in 2025, which will not be easy or simple for companies to adopt. And I celebrate the central role of HR, moving to the Systemic HR© model ahead.
To all our listeners: stay tuned for our major report on âThe Rise of the Superworkerâ coming in January, an in-depth discussion about the 15 imperatives for change and AI transformation in 2025.
This groundbreaking report and related tools will be available to Galileo users and our corporate members. Sign up for Galileo today.
Key Points
2024 was marked by global conflicts affecting employees around the worldEconomic growth has been uneven, despite inflationâs impactLabor shortages continue, particularly in hourly jobs, while white-collar jobs are hard to findThe low unemployment rate is misleading: many workers cannot find jobsAI is barely beginning to revolutionize work processes and organizational structures.DEI initiatives are being reframed as business priorities rather than social agendas.Leadership has become a responsibility for every employee, not just management.HR is evolving from a support function to a strategic partner in business.Organizations must focus on data management and governance as AI grows.Well-being in the workplace has plummeted, yet it remains essential for business success.HR is now taking on a very different role in our companies.Chapters
00:00 Reflections on 2024: A Year of Conflict and Change03:32 Economic Landscape: Growth Amidst Challenges07:32 Labor Market Dynamics: Shortages and Opportunities12:05 AI Revolution: Transforming Work and Organizations16:14 DEI and HR Tech: Evolving Strategies for Inclusion20:35 Well-being and Leadership: Cultivating Healthy Organizations24:52 The Future of HR: Strategic Integration and TransformationAdditional Resources
100 Amazing Use-Cases for Galileo, The AI-Powered Assistant For Everything HR
AI in HR: Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy
The Road to AI-Powered Productivity: Four Stages of Transformation
Digital Twins, Digital Employees, And Agents Everywhere
Adecco: Adapting to an AI-Driven World of Work
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How has Deel grown from zero to 4,500 employees in 100 countries in less than five years? Itâs an amazing story of hyperscale growth and passionate customer focus. In todayâs podcast Alex Bouaziz, CEO of Deel, talks with Kathi Enderes about his own journey from environmental engineer to founder of an HR tech company.
Alex explains how he started Deel as an EOR (Employer of Record) company, and how the company has expanded into HCM and payroll around the world. He explains the EOR market and what global employment providers do, and also discusses their AI assistant, Deel AI, which can help answer any question by pulling from Deelâs knowledge base.
Additional Information
EOR Provider Deel Expands into HCM
HR Tech Workshop Certificate Program | Josh Bersin Academy
AI HR Tech Trailblazers, 2025 HR Tech Outlook
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In this conversation I share insights from my recent trip to Europe, focusing on the Workday Rising event, the current state of talent acquisition, and the evolving role of CHROs in strategic workforce planning.
I discuss the importance of systemic talent acquisition, the emergence of âPrecision Talent Acquisitionâ and the entire redefinition of this function. And I also explain why the term âHiring Managerâ is such a terrible concept.
Finally I share my amazing conversation with one of the most high-powered, inspiring CHROs Iâve ever met.
Takeaways
Workday is integrating its products into a cohesive solution.The hiring cycle is slowing down due to economic factors.AI is increasing the value of existing workers, creating âsuper workersâTalent acquisition should be viewed as a growth function.Precision in hiring is essential in a tight labor market.Cultural fit is as important as technical skills in hiring.Strategic workforce planning should align with business goals.The role of CHRO is evolving to include strategic planning, not âworkforce planningâ alone.Additional Information
Klarna CEO Explains How AI-Driven Headcount Reduction Fuels Superworkers and Growth
How To Make Productivity Soar: Four Stages of AI Transformation
How AI Will Revolutionize The HR Department, In Detail.
Galileo Professional, The Essential AI Assistant for Everything HR
AI in HR Certificate Program: The Josh Bersin Academy
Irresistible 2025: Sign Up Early
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I know most of you have used ChatGPT, Galileo, or other AI tools in your job, but you havenât seen anything yet.
In this podcast I walk through a complete end-to-end scenario to show you precisely how AI agents will automate, scale, integrate, and vastly improve the process of hiring, onboarding, performance management, internal mobility, and more.
As youâll hear in this scenario, AI agents are going to revolutionize the talent process. Recruiters, HR Business Partners, and CHROs watch out.
And this is just the beginning.
Our upcoming â100 Use-Cases for Galileo in HRâ will explain this in greater detail (Galileo is designed for all these use-cases and more.)
Every HR professional should listen to this podcast to see the future of HR. Join our certificate program to learn more!
Additional Information
Become an AI Expert: AI in HR Certificate in The Josh Bersin Academy
How To Make Productivity Soar: Four Stages of AI Transformation
Digital Twins, Digital Employees, And Agents Everywhere
Introducing The AI Trailblazers! HR Technology Outlook 2025.
Galileo Professional, The Essential AI Assistant for Everything HR
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What do we do about the American Dream? This week I discuss the explosion of employee and citizen activation (NYC UHG CEO, for example) and how the US economy has not been delivering for 2/3 of the workforce.
And in that discussion I challenge HR and business leaders to re-engineer jobs and work around what we call Superworkers, all with a goal of using AI to increase customer service, scale, quality, and value. I try to warn and give examples of what happens when companies use technologies like AI to eliminate jobs and simply reduce labor costs.
Employees will give you feedback, they can ârage quit.âAutomation to reduce labor can backfire.Our job as leaders is to help build a company of Superworkers.Additional Research and Reading
Donald Trump Will Do Nothing to Bring Back Our Dying American Dream (NYT research column)
What Gives Poor Kids a Shot at Better Lives? Economists Find an Unexpected Answer (Raj Chettyâs research on lack of upward mobility in the US)
How To Make Productivity Soar: Four Stages of AI Transformation
Digital Twins, Digital Employees, And Agents Everywhere
Galileo Professional, The Essential AI Assistant for Everything HR
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Linda Kirchhevel, Director, Talent & Leadership Development at Sanford Health talks with Kathi Enderes about their leadership development program. Linda discusses how the organizationâs frequent mergers caused them to prioritize creating a unique leadership framework centered around the mission of the organization. (Sanford Health is the largest rural healthcare provider in the United States.)
The Sanford Leader Framework (âThe Sanford Leaderâ) is applicable to anybody in the organization, focused on developing behaviors and capabilities at scale for all 45,000 employees. Built in collaboration with FranklinCovey, the leadership development model, assessment, orientation, and development plan delivers a customized leadership program at all levels. (Leading self, leading others, leading mission.)
As Linda explains, this program has driven a 13 point increase in employee engagement measured through NetPromoter. And the program continues to drive high levels of employee engagement, retention, and alignment during a series of acquisitions. It exemplifies the âIrresistible Leadershipâ model we highlight in our research.
Additional Information
Human-Centered Leadership, Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy (Join today!)
Why Are Some Companies More Dynamic Than Others?
The Surprising Facts About Leadership Development (podcast)
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AI tools are rapidly sweeping across our companies in every job function, and most of us see them as âproductivity tools.â Well, thatâs a very limited view of the future. While AI may make you 15-20% more productive, the big payoff comes when we rethink work entirely and let AI systems take over as âautonomous agents,â albeit with our support.
In this podcast I discuss the four levels of AI adoption, and help you think about the important job-redesign work weâll do in 2025. And I would argue that âdoing existing work fasterâ is going to become a commodity quickly. And at levels 3 and 4 we will be re-engineering jobs and work, developing new skills, improving pay, and empowering people to do more!
You can read more about this in our upcoming 2025 Predictions report, but the best next step is get your hands on Galileo, the AI Expert Assistant for Everything HR. (And Join the Josh Bersin Academy!)
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Companies have been investing in People Analytics and Industrial Psychology since the late 1800s, going back to Fredrick Taylor (time and motion studies) and Carl Jung (psychological types). The original idea was to scientifically manage work, using data to measure labor, strength, motion, and later engagement, skills, and leadership.
All this effort resulted in thousands of books and tools to measure employee engagement, employee experience, productivity, and organization design.
Ultimately where we landed was a new domain we call People Analytics: using people-related data to monitor, improve, and optimize business outcomes. And this journey, which Iâve been a part of for 30 years, resulted in a massive investment in HR technology platforms, engagement surveys, sentiment analysis tools, and more and more models for trust, leadership, management, wellbeing, and employee growth.
All that energy, deep thinking, and investment now lands in a new world, one we call âSystemic Business Analytics.â We use this name because itâs time to stop isolating people data from business data and running this domain as âprojects,â rather think about it as an integrated analytics system.
In other words, as I explain in the podcast, letâs move forward and take all the people data we capture and embed it right into our existing business measurement systems. Instead of creating a âpeople data warehouseâ to run reports and analysis on HR information, we can use that valuable information and put it right in the hands of business leaders and managers.
Our new research, âThe Journey to Systemic Business Analytics,â details this journey and shows you our four level maturity model. (You can view the maturity model here.)
Today fewer than 10% of companies are doing this well, but thatâs still a large number. And as I describe in the podcast, AI is going to light a bonfire under this space and rapidly accelerate this direction.
Additional Information
People Analytics, A Complex Domain, Is About To Be Transformed by AI.
People Analytics Certificate Course in The Josh Bersin Academy
Systemic Analytics: A New Approach
Galileo, The AI Assistant for Everything HR
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This week I summarize my meetings and discussions with clients in NYC and you can see we covered many topics.
Hereâs the AI summary, which is pretty good.
In this conversation, Josh Bersin discusses the evolving landscape of AI platforms, particularly focusing on Microsoftâs positioning and the challenges of creating a universal AI agent. He delves into the complexities of government efficiency, emphasizing the institutional challenges faced in re-engineering government operations.
The conversation also highlights the automation of work tasks and the need for businesses to decompose job functions for better efficiency.
Bersin stresses the importance of expertise in HR, advocating for a shift towards full stack professionals who possess a broad understanding of various HR functions.
Finally, he addresses the impending disruption in Learning and Development (L&D) due to AI advancements, predicting a significant transformation in how L&D professionals will manage knowledge and skills.
Additional Information
Inside Microsoftâs struggles with Copilot (Business Insider Exclusive)
Hyper-Growth Through Efficiency: Theme For The New Era
Digital Twins, Digital Employees, And Agents Everywhere
Chatbot Architecture: MS Copilot, Joule, Galileo, and The Future of L&D
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In todayâs podcast I discuss the organizational, institutional, and societal impacts of AI. And Iâm not predicting what âcould happenâ but rather sharing âwhat is happening now.â As youâll hear, AI plays a role in our political issues but an even greater role in our careers, pay, rewards, organization structure, and culture.
A recent AI adoption study by McKinsey found that 74% of companies have at least one AI application in place, and 20% have 3 or more. So weâre already seeing the impact. As youâll hear, this is a technology that people are worried about at the moment, so we need to consider many levels of change management throughout our organizations.
Chapters
00:00 The Rapid Rise of AI and Automation05:13 Job Transformation and AI Impact08:56 Privacy Concerns in the Age of AI12:47 Organizational Design and Talent Density20:48 Leadership in the AI Era29:54 Embracing AI: The Path Forward
Additional Information
Hyper-Growth Through Efficiency: Theme For The New Era
How To Create Talent Density
Were These Layoffs Inevitable? Perhaps, But Hereâs How It Happened.
People as Competitive Advantage: Certificate Course In The Josh Bersin Academy
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After decades of effort and growth, only around 10% of People Analytics teams deliver strategic business value. Many are still focused on traditional analysis of engagement, retention, leadership pipelines, and other HR measures.
In this WhatWorks podcast I talk openly with Paul Rubenstein, the Chief Customer Officer at Visier, about how this market has evolved. And in the conversation you can learn about Visier and the role of integrated, AI-platforms for the important topic of managing corporate HR and work data.
Our newest research on People Analytics is coming out this month, stay tuned for much more detail on this topic.
Additional Information
People Analytics, Evolved: A Systemic Approach
Certificate Course in People Analytics from The Josh Bersin Company
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