Daniel's story: The HR expert's daily balancing act

Daniel's daily balancing act

Daniel is a human resources developer with heart and soul. He wants to be there for people and create meaningful development paths with them. The kind that benefits both sides. Employees should be able to increase their own employability and the organization should have a fit workforce that helps companies move forward. It was with this Mindset in mind that he moved from the HR department of a food manufacturer to banking sector around four years ago. He was particularly impressed by his new employer's attitude towards employee development. For some time now, the focus there has not only been on the development of Professional skills and the achievement of performance targets, but also on the training of interdisciplinary skills. In Daniel's eyes, this approach also makes the most sense in order to be equipped for future business requirements, but it does pose some major and minor challenges in terms of implementation.

Challenge 1: Taking those "at the top" with you

Although Daniel's employer is already pretty well positioned in terms of employee development, he often struggles to reconcile management interests with the development perspective. For example, it is difficult to measure the success of interdisciplinary skills training using concrete figures. And the budget issue, especially in terms of time, also gives rise to discussions from time to time. New learning and development models often provide for the team to set recurring time windows in which learning impulses or development stories are shared. This often does not sound attractive to management at first and is perceived as a "productivity killer".

Best practice and solutions

• Spend enough time to create an awareness of what HR development really means in today's world: investing time in the development of interdisciplinary skills is not a contradiction to the company's goals. On the contrary: in the long term, this can ensure performance, innovation and competitiveness.
• Daniel has written a simple factsheet with the most important keywords.

Challenge 2: The mammoth task of "mind-setting"

Even if this is desirable, not all employees or managers are change enthusiasts. Not everyone is up to date with the latest development trends either. And you can't expect them to be. Many employees, across all sectors, see development and further training as inextricably linked to building up knowledge and expanding their professional skills. Daniel therefore first had to crack this perspective and "sow the new seed". That took a while. Today, almost everyone in his organization, from IT specialists, marketing and the compliance unit to the Front, mid and back office, knows that pure technical expertise is no longer enough and that, above all, interdisciplinary skills needs to be trained. He is very proud of this.

Best practice and solutions

• Don't run people over. Too much motivation and enthusiasm can also be off-putting at first. Especially when the workload in day-to-day business reaches its peak.
• Daniel therefore first approached employees and managers who he knew were open to the topic and already had a certain level of knowledge. This allowed him to take advantage of the "domino effect".
• As an initial point of orientation, Daniel, in consultation with the managers, made the skillaware self-reflection available to everyone on the intranet. This enabled everyone across the company to gain their first points of contact with interdisciplinary skills.
• He has also started a special page on the intranet dedicated to competence development, employability and lifelong learning . He also regularly shares factsheets and Podcast episodes of skillaware there. He receives these free of charge. To get started, he shared this factsheet and this Podcast .

Challenge 3: Responding to wishes

Of course, it would be great if Daniel could respond comprehensively to the individual development wishes of each employee. But these must also be in line with the company's goals. In the beginning, this was a big dilemma for Daniel. He didn't want to disappoint either side or raise false expectations that would then lead to frustration.

Best practice and solutions

• Provide channels through which employees can express their wishes.
• Then enter into an open dialog and explore together what is possible in terms of development.
• Daniel also realized how important it is to get managers on board. They have a different perspective and still have an eye on the business. He always includes them in the development dialog so that all parties benefit from the development plans.

Challenge 4: Keeping everyone in line

We are only too happy to fall into old patterns. That is absolutely human. It is also simply more comfortable and feels better at first if you do something that you already know how to do or that has proven itself. The disadvantage of this is that we tend not to make any leaps in development. Daniel has also noticed this. At the beginning, many people are motivated and full of drive. They enjoy a change and are happy to implement new approaches to Learning & Development. But it also happens time and again that you end up doing everything the same as before. You go back to the tried-and-tested courses or don't follow the new learning routines, such as team learning sessions, as consistently after all. We know this all too well from New Year's resolutions. While fitness centers are bursting at the seams in January and February, the stage is already clearing as spring approaches.

Best practice and solutions

• Address the topic of "relapsing into old patterns" openly and transparently.
• to pick up on the development needs of the teams and introduce appropriate impulses and suggestions.
• Establish yourself, or if available, the HR business partners as reliable sparring partners in the L&D area.
• Daniel keeps reminding himself that this is a Mindset change that takes time and simply doesn't happen overnight. It takes a little patience for new routines and behaviors to become established.

Challenge 5: Recognize trends and implement them promptly

Now changes not only brings new challenges for organizations and employees. Daniel himself also has to make sure he stays on the ball. He needs to understand how world of work 4.0 is developing. He has to identify trends, separate "good" from "bad" expert tips, distinguish sensible from "overhyped" learning concepts and fight his way through the jungle of buzzwords.

Best practice and solutions

• Stay away from one-size-fits-all solutions.
• Only extract what is suitable for your own companies and appropriate to your level of knowledge.
• Hot tip from Daniel: Subscribe to skillaware Podcast and never miss a trend topic again!