HRM is key to future viability - and belongs in management

Nearly 300 "HR professionals" learned about new trends in HRM and their impact on the future viability of companies at the 13th East Switzerland HR Day. The conference was opened by the president of the "Freie Erfa-Gruppe Personal Ostschweiz". Abdullah Redzepi from the University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen and member of the program advisory board led into the multifaceted topic. He presented some results of a recent study conducted by the FHS and showed that many HRM tasks are in fact the responsibility of line managers. In many companies, there is a discrepancy in the perception of this.

Manuela Broz, founder of Human Ethik Label, was the first speaker to point out the importance of an optimal corporate culture. It is this culture that promotes the achievement of economic goals. According to Broz, it is also possible to become a market leader through humanity. Unfortunately, ethics in dealing with people is still not a business discipline, the speaker regretted. Moreover, human resources instruments and methods are still used too little according to the principle of meaningfulness.

Flexibility, personality, social competence

Marcel Oertig, partner and founder of Avenir Consulting AG, Zurich, opened the round of HR professionals. He used the term "flexible workforce" to focus on the flexibilization of personnel deployment and employment relationships. In the age of digitalization, he said, HRM is becoming a key competence for the future viability of companies. Meanwhile, Hans C. Werner, Chief Human Resources Officer at Swisscom, was of the opinion that only those who understand their business will be accepted as trustworthy partners. He advocated in-depth training and further education, and was in favor of anything that would train and mature employees' personal and social skills. "HRM must have a place at the management table," was another of the speaker's comments. But on the other hand, HRM has meanwhile "acquired too many management tasks". Swisscom has therefore drawn the consequences. For example, separation discussions are management tasks that must be handled by the line and not primarily by HRM.

Artificial intelligence takes over routine

After the break, the competent and shrewd moderator Matthias Wipf welcomed the top HR manager of the Federal Customs Administration, Martin Weissleder, who used the example of the successful "Bien vue" project to show how innovative HR processes gain better internal acceptance and are successfully implemented. According to Weissleder, it is by creating added value and benefits that HRM becomes a game changer.

The exciting conclusion, before a competent summary by Rector Wörwag of the University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen, was made by futurologist Lars Thomsen. For the topic complex "work," he said, there are currently eight megatrends driving changes, upheavals and paradigm shifts in the next ten years: digitization, the battle for talent, new values and relationships, knowledge sharing, more teams and task forces, the end of the 40-hour week and attendance time, a clearer difference between management and leadership, and the redefinition of work. For Thomsen, we have reached the end of the last phase of the industrial age. Now, he says, we need to redefine work from the ground up at the political, societal and new economy levels. "Work will have to be reassessed," Thomsen said. He spoke of how, in ten years, there would probably no longer be a categorization between employer and employee, but rather one would have to speak of communities of values. In the future, companies will function more like "clubs" that people join because they share their common values. That is why it is an important task of HRM in particular to create values. All the more reason to conclude that - against the backdrop of the future viability of organizations - HRM must become an even more integral part of management.

More information: www.personaltag.ch