The shortage of skilled workers continues to intensify. Across every industry, new employees are being sought desperately, and it has never been more important for companies to keep the people they have. At the same time, many transformation processes are changing the demands placed on employees, on working models and on company processes.
How difficult the conditions currently are for HR is well known.
Those responsible are responding to all these hurdles by rethinking and reshaping people management. An appreciative working culture among employees and a positive way of working together are decisive for success and come first for contemporary HR leaders. Because only companies that stand out from the competition with particularly attractive working conditions and a positive employer image, that implement important transformation processes successfully and that establish future ready HR models and new ways of working stand a chance of finding good staff.
People and organisation: the new self image of HR
People, as a valuable part of the organisation, are at the centre, and that should be communicated clearly to the outside world as well. That is why more and more companies are deciding to rename the human resources area people and organisation or people and culture.
This new self image and the focus on employee satisfaction go hand in hand with a series of processes that change the reality of work in the company and make the organisation fit for the future. HR is always part of the overall strategy and, as such, indispensable when it comes to changing the organisation. Strategic workforce planning, closely linked to the company goals and strategic decisions, takes on a central role here. Goals can only be reached with the right team. But how do you win the right people? How can people management be set up in a future ready way? Various trends and priorities are emerging here:
HR takes the lead
Even though the results of the human resources function are hard to measure, successful HR work has a significant influence on business success. That insight is not new. But in many companies HR is still not sufficiently interlocked with the leadership level. People management should be anchored right at managing director level and should exercise its governance function in full, in order to push through the changes that make an organisation effective and fit for the future. In one place or another that requires a new understanding of leadership, in order to set leadership up more broadly and define responsibilities more widely.
The employee experience carries more weight
It is no longer only the customer experience that matters, but the employee experience too: it influences employee satisfaction and covers every point of contact between an employee and their employer, from reading a job advert to offboarding. Building an attractive employer brand and professional employee experience management takes agile strategies and processes, so that changed expectations among potential applicants and staff can be met quickly. The aim is to position yourself as an attractive employer and stay ahead of the competition, and to do so for the long term.
Redesigning working environments
An important aspect of the employee experience is how attractively the working environment is designed, something currently shaped above all by millennials. Alongside monetary aspects, this can be put into practice with high quality food in the company canteen and various instruments that allow employees to arrange their workplace flexibly. Whether this redesign is called new work or better work: ultimately it is about employees feeling comfortable at work, experiencing appreciation, finding meaning in their activity, combining family and career well, having enough freedom for self realisation, being able to work on their own initiative, independently and creatively, identifying with the company and ideally feeling part of a family. There is a broad spectrum of excellent working and starting conditions here for successful recruiting, onboarding, high satisfaction and therefore long term retention.
The digitalisation of HR processes
One of the most important tasks of people management is to create ideal conditions so that people can work together as well as possible. Digitalisation plays an important part here. What can digitalising HR processes achieve? For one thing, automating many administrative processes gives those responsible for HR more time and space for the people themselves. They can look after the team, individual concerns and employee training more intensively. And the right digital tools contribute significantly to people in a team being able to work together effectively. Digitalised processes allow work independent of time and place, vertical communication and an interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge.
The development from human resources towards people and organisation is therefore about more than swapping labels. It is about fundamental changes throughout the organisation. Changing an organisation as a whole is of course not a routine activity but the challenge par excellence. To implement all these changes successfully, what matters above all is handling those change processes properly. That takes active leadership and structured processes. Whether designing attractive working environments in the context of organisational models or digitalising HR processes: THE MAK'ED TEAM has a great deal of experience in all the relevant HR areas and develops successful HR strategies and practical approaches for mid sized companies.
Further information on our portfolio in HR management: HR management
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