The shortage of skilled workers continues to worsen. New employees are desperately sought across all industries, and it has never been more important for companies to retain their employees. At the same time, many transformation processes are changing the demands on employees, work models and corporate processes.
It is well known how difficult the current framework conditions are for the HR sector.
Those responsible are responding to all these hurdles by rethinking HR management. An appreciative work culture among employees and positive interaction are crucial to success and are top priorities for contemporary HR managers. After all, only companies that stand out from the competition with particularly attractive working conditions and a positive employer image, that successfully implement important transformation processes and establish forward-looking HR models and new ways of working have a chance of attracting good personnel.
People & Organization: The new self-image of HR
People are at the center of attention as a valuable part of the organization – and this should also be clearly communicated to the outside world. That’s why more and more companies are deciding to rename their Human Resources department “People and Organization” or “People and Culture”.
This new self-image and the focus on employee satisfaction are accompanied by a series of processes that change the working reality in the company and make the organization fit for the future. HR is always part of the overall strategy and as such indispensable when it comes to changes in the organization. This is where strategic HR planning, which is closely linked to corporate goals and strategic decisions, plays a central role. Only with the right team can the goals be achieved. But how do you attract the right employees? How can HR management be positioned for the future? Various trends and focal points are emerging here:
HR puts on its hat
Even though it is difficult to measure the results of the Human Resources (HR) function, successful HR work has a significant influence on the success of a company. This insight is not new. But in many companies, the HR department is still not closely enough or only insufficiently interlinked with the management level. However, HR management should be anchored at the very top of the management level and play out its governance function to the full in order to implement the necessary changes that will make an organization effective and fit for the future. To achieve this, a new understanding of leadership is needed in one place or another, in order to give management a broader base and to define responsibilities more broadly.
The employee experience is becoming more important
Not only the customer experience, but also the employee experience is becoming increasingly important: it influences employee satisfaction and encompasses all points of contact between an employee and his or her employer, i.e., from reading a job ad to offboarding. Building an attractive employer brand through to professional employee experience management requires agile strategies and processes in order to be able to respond quickly to changing expectations of potential applicants and employees. The goal is to position the company as an attractive employer and to stay ahead of the competition – in the long term.
Redesigning the working environment
An important aspect of the employee experience is how attractively the working environment is designed – which is currently being shaped above all by millennials. In addition to monetary aspects, this can be implemented with a high-quality food offering in the company cafeteria and various tools that enable employees to flexibly design their workplace. Whether this transformation is called “New Work” or “Better Work”: Ultimately, the aim is for employees to feel comfortable at work, to experience appreciative interaction, to experience a sense of purpose in their work, to be able to balance family and career well, to have enough freedom for self-fulfillment, to be able to work on their own initiative, independently and creatively, to identify with the company and ideally to feel part of a family. Here, there is a broad spectrum of excellent working and starting conditions for successful recruiting, onboarding, a high level of satisfaction and thus for long-term employee retention.
The digitization of HR processes
One of the most important tasks of HR management is to create ideal conditions for people to work together in the best possible way. This is where digitization has an important part to play. What can the digitization of HR processes achieve? First of all, the automation of many administrative processes gives HR managers more time and space for the employees themselves. They can focus more intensively on the team, individual concerns and employee training. And the right digital tools play a key role in enabling people to work together effectively as a team. Digitized processes enable time- and location-independent work, vertical communication and an interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge.
The evolution from “Human Resources” to “People and Organization” is therefore about more than just changing names. It is about fundamental changes in the entire organization. Changing an organization as a whole is, of course, not a routine activity, but the challenge par excellence. In order to be able to implement all these changes successfully, it is above all a matter of dealing with these change processes in the right way. This requires active leadership and structured processes. Whether the design of attractive working environments in the context of organizational models or the digitalization of HR processes: THE MAK`ED TEAM has a lot of experience in all relevant HR areas and develops successful HR strategies and practice-oriented approaches for medium-sized companies.
