Organizations that invest in their teams enjoy faster growth and outperform their competition. As an HR professional, you know that better than anyone. But that does not mean that you can arrange that just like that.
We put the eight biggest challenges for the HR professional of today at a glance. Of course we immediately offer you the first step towards a solution.
1. Leadership development
According to the Dutch employers' association AWVN, leadership development is increasing in importance every year: from a paltry 9% in 2014 to 32.9% in 2018-2021. Still, study shows that more than a third of companies do not perform well when it comes to implementing leadership development programs.
According to HR Practice, there are two important points for attention if you want to get started with stimulating leadership qualities in your organization.
First: Make sure everyone in your company can develop their leadership skills, not just the leaders at the top. Leadership is more than managing subordinates. Personal leadership is also about establishing relationships, working together and getting the most out of each other's talent.
Second: ensure that those who actually supervise others have sufficient substantive knowledge. Today's employee is looking for an equal sparring partner and not a manager who only directs the process.
2. Compliance with laws and regulations
Keeping up with changing employment legislation demands a lot from the HR professional. There are rules for everything from application procedures to salary payment and from maternity leave to safety in the workplace.
Fortunately, there are plenty of parties, such as Personeelsnet but also, for example, the FD, who keep up with the new rules. Stay tuned to avoid lawsuits and audits.
3. Organizational changes
As your business grows, your strategies, internal processes and structures grow with it. Not everyone finds it easy to deal with these changes. Reduced productivity and low work ethic are lurking.
It is important to communicate about the changes, and especially about them the advantages of changes for everyone. Regular staff meetings are a good start. When your team understands the why, how, and when of the change, they are more likely to embrace the change.
4. Development of your staff
Companies that have knowledge development at the top of the strategic agenda and continuously learn to embrace are demonstrably more successful than companies that don't. It is up to the HR professional to take the conversation about knowledge development further than just the content of the training courses.
It is important to ensure a good learning culture. What that looks like differs per company. Of course there are preconditions for implementing a good learning culture in your company. We discuss these preconditions extensively in this blog, but in short it boils down to the following: provide the right facilities, ensure appropriate remuneration, safeguard knowledge development in a structured way, make people aware of the why, and give it correct example.
5. Adaptation to innovation
Technology is constantly changing. As a company, you have to be able to adapt quickly or your competitors will overtake you. Before you know it, what your employees have learned is outdated. It is therefore important to ensure that your employees embrace innovation and participate in new technologies.
Here too it is about communication and knowledge development. With any change, make sure your team understands why, when, and how and have a training plan that works.
6. Recruit talented employees
The labor market is tighter than ever. Talent has it for figuring out. Certainly if you do not have a very large brand awareness, it can be a tough challenge to win that talent for you.
According to HR Practice, it is becoming increasingly important to offer a varied mix of tasks. In addition to variety, employees also want the feeling that they are making a difference, that their job matters.
Provide a vacancy text that really appeals to the applicant and also ensure that the interview becomes a substantively interesting conversation. Communicate the passion for your product or service. And yard on potential, not on experience. This offers ambitious people an interesting perspective.
7. Retaining talented employees
Once you have won over that talented employee, you have to keep him or her. Randstad gives three tips for this.
Have a good employer branding strategy. There is a strong link between a strong employer brand and the success of your company.
Provide real salary increases and tailor-made benefits. Switching to another company is a quick way to make more money. With a salary increase that matters, an employee will be less likely to take this step. And focus on tailor-made employment conditions. For some, personal development will be high on the agenda, for others flexibility and autonomy.
Here, too, training comes into play. Provides a clear development path, so that your employees can learn new skills and make progress within your organization.
8. Diversity in the workplace
Research from Accenture – Getting to Equal 2021 – shows that an equal and diverse culture in the workplace is a powerful multiplier for innovation and growth.
This means that building a culture of equality (measured by 40 specific factors that Accenture identified last year) is not only an ethical requirement, but also a business priority. If you want to do well as an organization, you have to ensure diversity and equality in the workplace.
Knowing more?
It is clear that knowledge development plays a major role. Need help to put continuous learning on the agenda and ensure that knowledge development takes an even more strategic role? We are happy to help you!
