How to Use Talent Resources More Effectively in a Constrained Environment | Gartner

As many organizations face talent and budget constraints, they are finding opportunities to deliver effective talent solutions in more adaptive, iterative, and creative ways. One approach organizations continue to experiment with is organizing work beyond jobs—where tasks are decoupled from jobs and used as the basis for resourcing talent needs. This approach of deconstructing jobs into tasks has been covered heavily by John Boudreau and Ravin Jesuthasan in their book Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System. This new Gartner article provides insights into how work can be organized by tasks and then resourced through talent solutions that go beyond build/buy tactics. As shown in Figure 1, resourcing solutions organizations engage in when taking a “task” approach fall on a spectrum, ranging from less disruptive (a good strategy is to group a set of tasks into a new role) to more disruptive (list all internal work in task form for employees to choose work). The article provides examples from a few companies on how they are using tasks to determine resourcing solutions, including automation and AI. White Castle, for example, has been experimenting with using robots to flip burgers in its restaurants. The intention is to alleviate some of the pressure on employees and allow them more time to focus on customers. By automating this routine, monotonous task, White Castle can create a less stressful, more engaging experience for its frontline workforce. As a bonus, I am resharing this additional article by Gartner that provides four steps to break down roles into a group of tasks and then analyze those tasks to determine the best workforce strategies.