Germany’s employment market is currently gripped by radical change. Top performers are scarce, and their demands are higher than ever before. Is this impairing productivity? The first panel of SHIFT Summer showcased experienced input from Hugo Boss, Zalando, and hartmann consultants and evolved into a debate over an intriguing and extremely challenging balancing act: how can companies keep their best people on board? Where should they draw the boundaries for freedom-loving Generation Zers? And how far should they go in adapting their corporate culture?
SHIFT’s overarching focus is constantly about scrutinizing individual adaptability and putting it to the test. In this situation, such an examination is more vital than ever, given that the issue here is not merely about selecting a product, but selecting the company itself.
“The war for talent is over – talent has won” was the title of this panel––but it originally ended with a hesitant question mark. So has talent won? In fact, the question simply never arose in the discussions between headhunter and co-host of SHIFT Simone Hartmann, former Head of People & Organization at Zalando Basma Geigenmüller, and Jochen Eckhold, Senior Vice President Global Human Resources at Hugo Boss. And why? Because it was so obvious that an exclamation point was needed, not a question-mark. Talent has won! This fait accompli turns the spotlight onto the adaptability of management board members and management executives. So what is the best way to handle Generation Z candidates, notorious for probing for details about workload right at the start of their interviews?
In Simone Hartmann’s view, modern employers need to ensure the field of Human Resources is firmly rooted in the company at board level, not sidelined somewhere lower down. She pointed out that an overarching stance on human resources needs to be drawn up and implemented not only the HR department, by the company as a whole. Hartmann believes that recruits are extremely alert to the areas in which companies invest, their prevalent HR mindset, and the quality of the heavyweight candidates that they stand to gain. These aspects have become vital criteria for top performers examining their options when choosing a new employer.
But Hartmann championed the situation, describing it as good news that is attracting much attention and as an indication that the focus is returning to companies’ people instead of their structure. Jochen Eckhold continued in the same vein, warning “You have to adapt. All in all, we simply have to offer more than we have in the past.” While cautioning companies against taking concessions too far, he compared the standard of requirements to “five-star HR, like a hotel.” Although deluxe human resources naturally involve higher costs, Eckhold estimated those costs as falling within a single-digit percentage range. He summed up by saying “The track record is basically fine, but more investments are needed to reach the same result.”
Hugo Boss may be “sexy,” admitted Eckhold, but pointed out that the brand has not yet encountered any major problems with this drastic change because its employees’ intrinsic motivation is so high. And yet Eckhold too noted, “People still want to work for Boss, but they now have new expectations and requirements.” He dismissed the idea of offering recruitment candidates a five-day week, rejecting this outdated work pattern as only suitable for companies in out-of-city locations whose candidates come from the next village and have probably already built their own home there.
Eckhold’s view that listening is crucial met with agreement from Basma Geigenmüller. Previously HR director at Zalando and now a coach and consultant, she has accordingly experienced the problem from varying angles. In concrete terms, she advised surveying employees several times a year to determine their attitude towards their work and their employer. In Geigenmüller’s view, the questions in these surveys need to become more concrete and more targeted––such as: “What can we do to create attractive personal perspectives for you at our company?” “This is no longer an employer’s market,” warned Geigenmüller. “Strong employer branding at internal level and a positive corporate culture are essential.”
Quite apart from the fact that in times where employee churn rates have hit around 30 percent, employers have little scope for acting differently, Geigenmüller affirmed that this approach delivers a host of benefits––particularly to those who are open to change. It can help to hone the company’s profile, to sharpen awareness of what the company actually stands for. “Define USPs!” was her response when asked about what companies can do to increase their attractiveness.
Eckhold fully agreed, believing that playing these ideas out to the end will result in a company that is different, but better: “We aim to create an ecosystem where people can up their performance,” he said, and pointed out that workforce motivation and activation had evolved from “soft” considerations to become “hard” issues that impacted on competitiveness.
And on the subject of “soft,” is the lax attitude to work that is currently so pervasive a sign of a mollycoddled generation? Moderator Marc Schumacher was convinced that it is. Eckhold noted that the demands imposed on companies by society have increased: “The duty to educate has shifted from parents to schools, and from there to employers. Now we need to give people resilience.” He warned this may also involve throwing them in at the deep end during a project, and that some would sink, not swim––but affirmed that there are still resilient candidates to be found.
Simone Hartmann described similar experiences, at least at management level in large-scale companies. She recalled many encounters with candidates whose ambition to rise to top management level was backed up by their absolute commitment. And on today’s management boards, the message has hit home that companies need to work on themselves if they want to employ good people. “That means improving on quality,” warned Hartmann. However, she had also observed greater hesitancy at middle management level, with people asking themselves: how much do I really want to take on? She urged companies to counteract this trend by bringing “clarity to their profile”: how innovative are they, what opportunities for development do they offer? Hartmann noted that the best companies take pride in working in an innovative environment, and that given this, all companies that can offer this advantage and portray their achievements authentically have relatively little to fear.
At SHIFT, Tom Junkersdorf––creator of “TOMorrow,” one of Germany’s most successful podcasts––provided a unique insight into the topic of personal branding. This media pro has left printing presses, the frazzle of PR interviews, and business constraints far behind him and focused on what he enjoys the most: communicating journalistic content.
Asked whether successful podcasts can also be made by companies or whether a face, an actual individual, is essential to front them, Junkersdorf replied, “CEOs need to understand that they too are brands, and need to fill their social media channels with relevant content.” By doing so, said Junkersdorf, they establish trust and become a key factor in generating success––and a linchpin of their human resource department.