The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week

In a recent survey, consulting firm McKinsey & Company found that disengagement and attrition could cost a medium-size S&P 500 company up to a whopping $355 million per year in lost productivity. 

So what should leaders be doing to address this problem? McKinsey suggests grouping employees into what they call a “satisfaction spectrum,” which includes six archetypes based on their research:

1. Quitters
2. Disruptors
3. Mildly disengaged employees
4. Double-dippers (a small but growing cohort of full-time workers who hold more than one job, without their employers knowing)
5. Reliable and committed employees
6. Thriving stars

From there, leaders can tailor engagement and employee experience programs that can address the different reasons for disengagement within these specific groups — including dissatisfaction with compensation, a lack of workplace flexibility, a dearth of opportunities for career development and advancement, and other factors.

To learn more about McKinsey’s research — including what percentage of workers they estimate to be in each archetype — be sure to check out the top spot in our list below of must-read articles and posts for talent professionals. And further down our list, you can learn why employees may be lying about their AI skills; why recruiters shouldn’t forget about their “silver medalists”; and why it may be time to rethink the term “work-life balance.”

Here are the must-read articles from this week:

1. Some Employees Are Destroying Value. Others Are Building It. Do You Know the Difference? (McKinsey & Company)

2. The Need to Redefine Professionalism (Racial Equity at Work)

3. Contract Recruiter Vs. In-House Recruiter (Martin Poole on LinkedIn)

4. Employees Are Lying About Their AI Skills to Keep Their Jobs (EBN)

5. What Topics Don’t Get Talked About Enough at Talent Conferences and in Talent Blogs, Webinars, and Articles? (John Vlastelica on LinkedIn)

6. Recruiting Silver Medalists: A Winning Hiring Strategy (LinkedIn Talent Blog)

7. Emotional Labor at Work Is Work. It Should Be Compensated That Way (The Washington Post)

8. The Limits of Work-Life Balance (Bloomberg News) 

9. Findings from Textio’s Second Annual Language Bias in Performance Feedback Report (Jackye Clayton on LinkedIn)

10. The Boss Is Back in Charge (Business Insider)

Here is the must-listen podcast:

How Companies Can Recommit to Their DEI Goals (HBR IdeaCast)