Digitization and HRM: Continue to demand creativity, initiative and passion

The East Switzerland Personnel Day 2016, organized by the Freie Erfa-Gruppe Personal Ostschweiz and the FHS St.Gallen in collaboration with Freicom, featured an innovation: During the stand-up lunch, various "topic islands" were available so that visitors could discuss their questions with experts there. However, these would have been more popular, as Karin Egle, President of the Free Erfa Group Eastern Switzerland, regretted at the beginning of the "official part". Perhaps this idea simply needs some more time to develop.

"Work "Smart

But then the guests were soon in the midst of the actual conference topic: personnel management in the digital age. Petra Schmidhalter and Bianca Gatschet from Swisscom talked about what this "digital age" already means and what it will bring in the future. Bianca Gatschet, 19 years old and thus fully part of Generation Y, convincingly explained what has already happened in terms of "Work Smart": Anyone who regards e-mail as the ultimate in digitization is already part of the grandparents' generation... Today, knowledge is shared via open platforms, people are networked both internally and externally, they are spontaneous, independent and can work from anywhere, and the demands for security and balance in terms of work-life balance are high. For managers, this means no more "demand and control" but a transformational management style. Bianca Gatschet, although fully at home in the world of "smart work," admitted at the end that she, too, first had to learn how to deal with this great flexibility.

More marketing skills for HRM

The fact that the digital transformation has a direct influence on HRM then became clear from Jörg Buckmann's presentation. He showed a number of examples of how HRM is working "digitally" today - both in a negative and a positive sense. Above all, however, Buckmann would like to see a paradigm shift in recruitment: more creative marketing than rigid formalism and target group-oriented thinking. After all, applicants are nothing more than customers who want to be addressed in the right way. HR management therefore needs to relearn how to communicate, especially with regard to social media.

Management consultant and bestselling author Anja Förster could only agree with the comments of the previous speaker. She continued the thread accordingly: She regretted that the drivers of digitization come primarily from IT and engineering, but not from HRM. "HR managers are not driving the change in the world of work enough," she said, pointing to the danger that many opportunities are being missed here. Today, employees need initiative, creativity and passion - and this cannot be demanded with "normal" management. Rules and prohibitions are understandable, but they only create "followers. Anja Förster also advocates "tearing down fences" to create more freedom. This is what an effective leadership culture and HR work for the digital age looks like.

Human quality is becoming increasingly important 

Sibylle Olbert Bock from the University of Applied Sciences St.Gallen approached the topic from a quasi scientific perspective. She notes that the discussion surrounding Industry 4.0 is currently being conducted primarily at the technological level, but not with reference to human capital. Technological developments mean that the degree of networking and task diversification of the workforce is increasing. Even the so-called digital natives are sometimes overwhelmed here because they lack long-term experience in self-organization. Ultimately, the goal of every organization must be to ensure that strategy, technology and people remain on an equal footing.

Patrich D. Cowden, a pioneer in the field of leadership, concluded by teaching the audience the art of building trust. And once again, the terms often heard that afternoon were mentioned: People, creativity, passion. According to the speaker, these three concepts must be brought together, and only then can quality be achieved. And in the quality of togetherness there are no limits. By means of a small exercise with the audience, he was able to prove right away that this works. In just six minutes, it is possible for people who have never met before to establish a functioning collaboration - assuming communication and the will to cooperate.

Direct dialog with the speakers

All in all, this year's Personnel Day in Eastern Switzerland, which has long been able to attract audiences from other parts of the country to St.Gallen, was once again able to provide the visitors with practical impulses. The fact that the audience was able to enter into a direct dialogue with the speakers also contributed to the success of the event - the moderation by Marco Fritsche played its part. The next Personnel Day will take place on June 8, 2017, again in St.Gallen.

Text: Thomas Berner. Further information: www.personaltag.ch

Jörg Buckmann, Anja Förster, Sibylle Olbert-Bock, Patrick D. Cowden (Photos: thb)