This week the economic environment changed, with new US reciprocal tariffs launched on 180 countries. The net impact, which is hard to predict, is lots of strategy discussions about manufacturing, redeployment of resources, price increases, and possible economic slowdown. In today’s podcast I explain what this means to you, as an HR leader or HR professional.

Additional Information

The White Collar Recession Is Real: What Should We Do About It?

The Rise of the Superworker: Reinventing Jobs, Careers, and Organizations

The Organization Design SuperClass (Certificate Program)

Systemic HR: The Lean, Mean HR Department

Jörg Dersch, CHRO at XPAY, joins Kathi Enderes to discusses innovation in HR and how CHRO’s can stay ahead. He also shares advice to CEOs about their role in HR issues.

He shares his journey into HR leadership and how HR leaders can become true strategic partners in their organizations. From navigating digital transformation to building business acumen, Jörg offers valuable insights into what it takes to succeed in today’s highly-innovative, tech-enabled HR landscape.

Jörg’s advice – “You own the company. Operate as if the company is your company” 

XPay is a fintech company that offers various payment solutions, including international payments APIs, embedded payment solutions, and white-label payment card solutions, aiming to simplify and streamline payment processing for businesses.

Additional Information

New Research: Secrets Of The High Performing CHRO

CHRO Insights Research Report

CHRO Insights Benchmarking Survey

CHRO Insights Video (Youtube)

CHRO Insights Program Overview

What’s the solution to political, economic, and global conflict? It’s not more anger and competition, it’s kindness. In this podcast I try to convince you that Kindness, the act of listening, caring, and helping, is a real secret weapon.

Additional Information

The World Happiness Report (which proves that trust and social connections matter more than money)

Edelman Trust Barometer 2025: Crisis of Grievance

Kindness at Work: Our Research and UC Berkeley Research

Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations (my book)

The Atlantic Article I mention

Today I wanted to briefly discuss the impact of US Tariffs on manufacturing talent. As many of you know, decisions about where to locate manufacturing are very big and very important. As you’ll hear, much of your company’s response may come down to talent and skills issues, since manufacturing skills are in short supply. I hope this conversation helps you think through the fast-changing economic issues our companies face.

Additional Information

New Certificate Program: Building A Skills Strategy That Works

Job Redesign Around AI: Work Intelligence Tools Arrive

Understanding Talent Intelligence: A Primer

How To Take A Pragmatic (and winning) Approach To Skills

Today I talk with Vijay Swaminathan, the CEO and co-founder of Draup, one of the most amazing data and insights providers in HR.

Vijay and his partner Vamsee Tirukkala were the original founders of Talent Neuron, a pioneer in talent planning. Now, with Draup, they’ve gone an order of magnitude beyond to build a data platform that identifies skills, technologies, competitors, labor market trends, and a myriad of financial and organizational data to help companies benchmark themselves, plan, hire, and prepare for AI transformation.

You’ll learn a lot about skills inference, workloads, and much more about the role of data and talent intelligence in all areas of HR.  For more information on AI transformation, read some of the links below and sign up for our new Josh Bersin Academy course “Building a Skills Strategy That Works.”

Additional Information

New Certificate Program: Building A Skills Strategy That Works

Job Redesign Around AI: Work Intelligence Tools Arrive

Understanding Talent Intelligence: A Primer

How To Take A Pragmatic (and winning) Approach To Skills

In this podcast I describe the massive AI-powered revolution starting in corporate L&D, and give you some history, context, and a mandate for the future. This is based on a massive research program we’ve been doing for the last year and I’m now convinced that this entire $360 Billion market is going to reinvent itself.

Vendors mentioned include Sana, Uplimit, Docebo, Arist, CodeSignal, 360Learning, Cornerstone, LinkedIn, Microsoft, as well as Workday, SAP, and Oracle. This is a huge space so I can’t cover them all but we will be launching much more on the Corporate Learning Revolution in the coming months.

If you want to experience this revolution, join The Josh Bersin Academy and get Galileo because we’ll be exposing you to all this soon. If you’re a vendor and you want us to know about your fantastic innovations, please reach out here and we’ll talk with you.

As you’ll hear in the podcast, I see this as one of the most exciting applications of AI in the coming years, so stay tuned and join us in the revolution!

Additional Information

Learning in the Age of AI Benchmarking Study

A Revolution In Corporate Learning Begins, Join Us On The Journey

Please join me at the L&D Technology Conference on April 23 in London

Irresistible: The Global Conference for HR Leaders And Their Teams

Tigran Sloyan, CEO of CodeSignal, talks with Kathi Enderes about his company’s mission to transform skills assessment and development with AI. He shares insights from his experience at Google, where he recognized flaws in hiring practices that prioritize resumes over actual skills.

Tigran explains how CodeSignal evolved from technical skills assessments to AI-driven personalized learning. He emphasizes the importance of a skills-based approach and using generative AI to make skills development more engaging. And as you’ll hear, it’s now possible to assess an employee’s skills through conversational AI.

Additional Information

Definitive Guide to Dynamic Organizations

Building a Skills Strategy That Works

Why Are Some Companies More Dynamic Than Others?

Assess and Develop Your Skills in HR: The Global Capability Assessment

Everyone is talking about productivity, layoffs, and job redesign. In this week’s podcast I share much of what we’re learning in AI-based job design, all with a focus on productivity.

I discuss the role of Reejig, Gloat, Draup and the shift from “skills-based organization” strategies to “task and activity” redesign. And I also share my experiences with the “chainsaw” model of layoffs.

Additional Information

Busting Bureaucracy: Are Layoffs The Only Way To Go?

How To Create Talent Density

The Road To AI-Driven Productivity: Four Stages of Transformation

Galileo Professional, The Essential AI Assistant for Everything HR

In this episode of the WhatWorks podcast, Caryn McGarry, CHRO of ICF, describes her journey to CHRO how she manages HR in a highly competitive professional services company. Caryn shares insights on the detailed nature of the C-suite partnership and how her unique career path contributes to her C-level business role today.

ICF is a large professional services company headquartered in Washington, DC with over 7,000 employees globally.

Additional Information

Why Is It So Hard To Be A Chief HR Officer (CHRO)?

New Research: Secrets Of The High Performing CHRO

Systemic HR Overview

How Systemic HR shapes TomTom’s Strategic HR Journey

After an intense week in Europe at an HR Technology conference, I want to share my deep perspectives on Trust, which is in very short supply these days. Not only do European leaders mistrust the US right now, the Edelman Trust Barometer shows that 2/3 of employees no longer trust the CEOs of their own companies.

In an effort to help you think this through, I share the three dimensions of trust and give you some important things to think about in your own career and in your role as an HR professional, leader, friend, or advisor to other leaders in your company.

Additional Information

2025 Edelman Trust Barometer: A Crisis of Grievance

Citizenship At Work: Dealing With Politics Inside and Outside The Company (podcast)

Corporate Citizenship Defined: Trust, Inclusion, and Responsibility

Giving Voice to Values: Certificate Program in The Josh Bersin Academy

After a long week of meetings about AI transformation with many companies, I want to highlight the big paradox we face. On one hand, AI is now seen as a proven, pragmatic solution to productivity, growth, and customer experience. So every company is pushing for AI transformations in every domain. But on the other hand, AI is also likely to eliminate many routine jobs, already leading to a white-collar recession. (White collar and college educated workers are having a hard time finding new jobs.)

How do we deal with this paradox? Listen in and I’ll tell you the story, and also explain how companies are redesigning their entire job architectures to accommodate the AI change.

Additional Information

First HR AI Success Metrics Beyond “Saving Time” Emerge from Josh Bersin Company Analysis

The Rise of the Superworker: AI Imperatives for 2025

Meet Galileo, your essential AI assistant for everything HR.