What makes some companies more attractive to new employees than others? These have an HR department that does a lot of things right, says Johannes von Mikulicz-Radecki, Haufe Akademie. Here he gives 5 tips on how HR could position itself in the future. A culture of courage comes first.
These days, you often read about the shortage of skilled workers. But in my experience, this argument is often wrong. There are already skilled workers and attractive employers continue to find enough talent. But what makes these companies more attractive than others? My theory is that it’s not the fruit basket and the job bike. Instead, these companies have HR departments that do a lot of things right – because they do them differently than in the past and than they often still are. I see five ways in which HR should reposition itself to ensure its success and that of its company:
1. Individual needs demand new approaches
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In their work, HR managers deal with people of different ages and from a wide range of life situations. These individuals therefore also have individual professional attitudes, goals and challenges. For example, while an employee of Generation Z may place equal value on work-life balance and career, a colleague in her mid-40s may be striving for a management position, while yet another colleague may be taking care of children or sick relatives or yearning for partial retirement just before retirement.
The mistake here is that despite their individual needs, they are often treated the same. This can lead to dissatisfaction and resignations, which would not be necessary if HR consistently took a needs-oriented approach – a major issue for companies.
For HR to be able to implement this along the entire HR life cycle, it needs specific goals and regular exchanges on the relevant topics such as leadership, further development, benefits, etc.
2. Encouraging change with a culture of courage
Above all, a culture of courage is needed to change HR work towards more need orientation. The best ideas and strategies are worthless if there is a lack of courage to approach things differently. HR managers must dare to adapt their mindset – and with the advance of digitalization, they must. More and more tasks can be automated, even in HR departments. It takes courage to see this development as an opportunity and outsource routine requests to a chatbot, for example, but it raises the level of service and satisfaction with HR to a new level.
To ensure their survival and position the company as an attractive employer for qualified specialists, they must have the courage to continuously adapt to change. This also includes integrating this future-oriented thinking into the corporate culture, thus creating space for new ideas and ways of working.
3. Leveraging new potential
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To be successful with bold and new ideas for HR work, companies must also recognize potential where it has not been seen before. For example, in recruiting. Why are applicants who have been rejected in previous rounds of job advertising usually never contacted again? Just because someone was better suited to the vacant position at the time does not mean that the person would not be a good fit for the current job and company. So why not turn the “rejection pot” into a talent pool and benefit from the preparatory work of the last selection process? This increases efficiency and chances of success in recruiting in equal measure.
An additional way to shorten the recruiting process and retain qualified specialists in the company is early talent scouting. Companies can adopt this process from sports, where talented individuals are coached at a young age and thus tied to a club. Companies can, for example, provide students with mentors. This not only creates a sense of closeness to the company, but also enables the mentees to build up specific expertise even before they start their first job.
4. Throw old certainties overboard
We all know that what used to be true is usually already obsolete today. In my view, the topic of retention is also an example of such an old certainty. I believe it is illusory to think that you can keep every employee: While baby boomers usually have one or two employers in their lifetime, Gen Z has ten to twenty. And that’s understandable: sometimes their life situation changes, sometimes employees look for new challenges at other employers.
Since this often has little to do with the former employer, networks are of great importance here. If former employees have fond memories of the company and HR and managers maintain contact after the exit interview, they may possibly return in a new role in the future. This makes sense for companies and talented individuals, because employees can try things out and later bring new knowledge and ideas to their work.
5. A bold approach to the future of HR
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It is becoming increasingly clear that a culture of courage is crucial to the long-term success of a company in our VUCA world, providing the basis for a needs-oriented approach throughout the entire HR life cycle. HR managers must learn to question themselves, discard old certainties and dare to break new ground in line with the goals and needs of their employees.
Along the entire employee journey, HR will increasingly take on a coaching role in the future. This will help employees to develop individually and to realize their potential. In this way, future-oriented HR work leads to a win-win situation for employees and companies.
Dr. Johannes von Mikulicz-Radecki is head of Consulting Leadership, HR & Transformation at Haufe Akademie. He has been working as a consultant for corporations and medium-sized companies for more than 20 years.
