Current trends and future issues in human resources

Digitalisation in human resources – also known, in modern parlance, as „Work 4.0“ – „Generation Y“ and its expectations of the world of work, as well as traditional HR topics – such as employment law, staff appraisals, payroll and the increasingly important field of health management – were the focus of this year’s „Personal Süd“ event.

At southern Germany’s largest HR trade fair in Stuttgart, over 5,000 HR professionals came together to learn about the latest topics in the field. 315 exhibitors presented their solutions and discussed the very latest developments in the world of work during presentations and panel discussions.

We weren’t just there as exhibitors; we also took the opportunity to explore interesting topics and trends, and have summarised our personal impressions and some ideas for you here.

Recruitment remains crucial for successful companies

The number of candidates available on the market is falling, and recruitment is becoming more complicated – exhibitors and visitors were largely in agreement on this point.

Consequently, traditional job boards also featured prominently at the fair – the „traditional“ job board with the widest reach, Stepstone, with around 12 million visitors per month, Jobware, yourfirm and others – representing around 2,500 job boards in Germany, some of which are highly specialised. A key factor in selecting the right platform – alongside the budget – to ensure the best value for money is a precise understanding of the target audience and comparing options with the numerous partner platforms of the major generalist sites. Should the vacancy also appear on the online jobs page of the *Badische Zeitung* in Freiburg, or would *ingenieur-jobs.com* be preferable? In that case, it makes sense to place the advert on the corresponding partner job board or, where appropriate, directly on the niche portal at a lower price and with a smaller reach.

Equally prominent was the neighbouring stand of the traditional job board, the job search engine „Indeed“ – Germany’s job portal with the widest reach and a proven market leader that HR professionals simply cannot ignore when recruiting. Indeed, along with competitors such as Kimeta, Jobrapido, Jobisjob and other meta-job search engines, not only provides a large part of Stepstone’s reach but also that of companies’ career websites – these portals have been an indispensable part of the mix of recruitment tools for several years now.

The trend in e-recruiting is moving towards „programmatic job advertising“. Behind this complicated name lies nothing other than what has long been common practice in online marketing for products. Just as Amazon makes product recommendations to shoppers based on their previous purchasing behaviour, combined with statistical data on similar consumers – both on its own platform and on partner networks, Facebook and so on – this will also be possible in the recruitment sector in future. Intelligent recruitment tools statistically determine likely demographic data and behavioural patterns of the desired target group of applicants and ensure that a (potentially job-seeking) candidate not only within the editorial context of „Beschaffung aktuell“ online, but also on the website of their favourite sports club. A pipe dream?! No, it’s already technically possible today and is currently being implemented.

Digitalisation is advancing: networking is becoming increasingly important in HR

„This is more of an IT fair than an HR fair“ – that was the impression of many visitors, and of the SYNERGIE team too. From applicant tracking systems, talent pools and time and attendance systems to recruitment tools and solutions for software-supported performance reviews – numerous providers of web tools and software showcased their offerings at Personal Süd. There was a wide range on offer, from fully integrated systems covering all HR processes to niche providers specialising in specific areas.

The keynote speeches also focused on digital HR processes: „Digital Transformation – how the „Network Generation“ is changing the world of work“, „Innovation@HR – unlocking potential with self-organised teams“ and „Digitalisation Now! How to Lead Your Company into the Future“ are just three of the presentations on this topic. Digital strategist Carolin Desirée Töpfer spoke on the latter topic: „IT and data will play an absolutely massive role in the future; they will move to the very heart of corporate organisation.“ Whilst start-ups begin without any „legacy baggage“ in the data sphere, with modern business models and a homogeneous age structure, SMEs have to overcome resistance precisely in these areas.

Digitalisation is advancing not only in recruitment and HR management processes, but is also opening up new opportunities in staff development. The experts discussed the use of social media in staff development and mobile learning.

Retaining staff and maintaining the workforce

As the Corporate Health Convention was taking place at the same time, the topic of health management featured prominently on the programme – a quarter of the exhibition hall was occupied by exhibitors from this sector. Stress – and, as a consequence, burnout – along with related prevention schemes offered, for example, by health insurance funds or the German Pension Insurance Scheme, were just as much a focus as some initially very simple approaches, such as those from Fruitful Company.

Our guests at the stand shared these tips and highlights with us

• Eye exercises: Although it might not seem particularly exciting at first glance 😉, this is said to be especially important for those who spend a lot of time in front of a screen: don’t just stare straight at your computer all day – make a point of moving your eyes more often.
• Cycling at work: No, you don’t have to become a pizza delivery rider to do it. This manufacturer at the Corporate Health Convention also offers bikes that essentially serve as office chairs. Performance at every level.
• And on a sporting note: swap your company car for a company bike – for example, with the exhibitor lease-a-bike.

Download interesting presentations and documents

• Presentation on Job Multiposting 2.0 – Christian Neudecker, GermanPersonnel eSearch GmbH
• HR studies by Stepstone at Personal Süd
• Guide to Performance Appraisals from the information booklet „Performance Reviews in the Employee Lifecycle“ by sage
• Corporate culture = performance culture: a talk on employee feedback by Sarah Bohlmeier, teambay GmbH

You can find more photos on Facebook under the hashtag #PSued17.