1. With over 25 years of leadership experience, including navigating challenging environments, what advice do you have for HR professionals aiming to excel in their roles?
Drawing from my leadership experience in both the military and corporate world, I believe that navigating challenging environments requires a combination of individual and team-level skills. In my experience, there are several key pieces of advice that HR professionals can follow to excel in their roles.
First and foremost, it is crucial to develop a deep understanding of the business. By aligning HR strategies and initiatives with the overall goals and objectives of the organization, HR professionals can effectively contribute to the company’s success. This understanding allows HR professionals to anticipate challenges, plan, and be prepared for potential obstacles.
Secondly, building strong relationships is paramount. HR is a people-centric function, and establishing trust and rapport with employees, managers, and stakeholders is essential. Effective communication, active listening, and empathy are vital skills that HR professionals should cultivate. By building strong relationships, HR professionals gain a better understanding of the needs of their colleagues and can provide valuable support.
Another important aspect is the ability to stay calm and composed in the face of adversity. Just like in navigating stormy waters, HR professionals should remain level-headed and clear in their decision-making, even when plans don’t work out as expected. This calmness not only serves as a guide for the team but also enables HR professionals to assess the situation objectively and make the right decisions going forward.
Continuous learning and development are also crucial for excelling in the HR field. HR professionals should actively seek opportunities to stay updated with the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. Investing in professional development, attending conferences, and networking with peers can enhance both knowledge and skills, enabling HR professionals to bring innovative solutions to the table.
Lastly, collaboration is a powerful tool. HR professionals should actively engage in cross-functional collaborations with other departments, such as finance, operations, and marketing. By working together, HR professionals can develop comprehensive solutions and foster a culture of teamwork within the organization.
By combining these pieces of advice, HR professionals can navigate challenging environments and excel in their roles, making significant contributions to the success of their organizations.
2. How can HR departments leverage technology effectively to enhance employee engagement and satisfaction?
Firstly, I am deeply convinced that HR must take the chances which technology is providing for a better employee experience. We are all bringing our experiences with technology and the expectations towards technology from private life into the business world, especially in my environment where we are front runners on digitization and connectivity.
Secondly, new technology and all the new possibilities opening with AI are providing the chance to personalize HR services, to gain more insights to tailor services according to the varying needs of our employees and managers.
Bottom line: HR folks need to partner with new technology. That means understanding tech down to a certain level and finding ways to incorporate AI and other HR tech into your HR business.
3. Can you elaborate on your approach to integrating HR, technology, and IT to enhance the employee experience within Deutsche Telekom?
At Deutsche Telekom, we brought together HR IT, HR Technology, HR Product Portfolio Management, and HR Shared Services under one roof, fostering collaboration and close links between teams. This environment provided us with the means and levers to focus on enhancing the employee experience. We further strengthened our capabilities by integrating design expertise, particularly in UX/UI design, which proved invaluable.
Our HR product managers were equipped with Design Thinking skills, enabling us to speak a common language and follow a structured process for designing and creating exceptional product experiences. Additionally, leveraging our own research and analytics from HR customer surveys, we made data-driven decisions to ensure a high-quality employee experience.
4. Drawing from your experience as Chapter Lead HR People Experience & Projects at T-Systems, could you share a standout example of a successful HR project that significantly impacted employee experience and organizational performance?
In my previous role as Chapter Lead at T-Systems, I led a transformative HR project that significantly impacted both employee experience and organizational performance. We recognized the need to adapt our HR working model in response to the dynamic business environment and high economic pressures. As part of this journey, we consolidated HR Business Partners into an HR Project Function, similar to a consultancy model, to efficiently serve HR projects across multiple business units.
One crucial aspect of our HR model was the development of negotiation skills. As HR was at the forefront of business transformations and required negotiations with worker councils in Germany, we identified a scarcity of these skills among our HR population, particularly among younger colleagues. To address this, we implemented a qualification model that combined theoretical negotiation classes, a mentorship program pairing senior and junior HR Project Managers/BPs, and gradually entrusted junior staff with independent negotiation responsibilities.
Over a span of 1.5 years, this journey proved to be a successful handover and knowledge transformation process. It enabled us to maintain a successful track record in managing projects involving business change and negotiations with worker councils while developing the negotiation skills of the younger HR colleagues.
5. Can you provide more details about the employee app utilized within your company?
The employee app at Deutsche Telekom was founded before my time at HR HQ. Its purpose was to bring HR services and products directly to our HR customers through their smartphones, capitalizing on the widespread use of smartphones among Telekom staff. Initially, our colleagues explored integration options with existing systems but realized it wasn’t a viable business case. As a result, a group of dedicated colleagues took the initiative to develop the app in-house.
Today, our employee app is seamlessly integrated into our IT and touchpoint landscape. It serves as the cornerstone of our HR digitization efforts, aiming to consolidate all HR services and products within the app, making HR accessible via smartphones. This inclusivity extends to our blue-collar staff, who also utilize smartphones. Basic HR processes, such as registering working hours, can now be conveniently performed anytime, anywhere through the employee app.
6. Can you walk us through the implementation process for integrating the manager app within Deutsche Telekom’s employee app, particularly how the idea originated and the role you played in its development?
After the success of our employee app, the idea to develop a manager app emerged. At that time, I was setting up our People Experience Laboratory. The Product Owner of the employee app approached me with the mission to design a manager app. However, before proceeding, we decided to take a step back and gather feedback from the potential target group. The response we received was clear: they didn’t want another app.
Acknowledging their feedback, we explored alternative ways to support managers in their daily HR processes. Together with the managers, we brainstormed the idea of integrating manager functionality into the existing employee app environment. Since all managers were already familiar with the app, this integration made navigation seamless.
To determine the specific features that should be included in the integrated manager functionality, we engaged managers in the decision-making process. We gathered their input and collaborated with IT experts to assess feasibility and prioritize the implementation roadmap.
Today, the integrated manager functionality is available to all managers. Through our successful co-creation approach, we continue to stepwise integrate new features based on user feedback and needs.
7. The intersection of HR, technology, and IT is a key focus area for you. How do you foster collaboration between HR and IT departments to drive digital innovation in HR practices?
Building a culture of collaboration is foundational to successful cross-functional work between HR and IT departments. We all share a common interest in fostering good collaboration, and we recognize the HR customer as our ultimate focus. However, we also acknowledge the potential conflicts of interest that exist within this collaboration.
In our experience, we have identified three major positions: HR IT, which aims to standardize; HR Service, which prioritizes efficiency; and HR product managers/tribes, which strive for effectiveness in terms of policy and legal obligations. In this triangle, the HR customer’s needs may not be automatically represented.
To address this, we brought the HR customer perspective to the table as a vital piece of the puzzle. By incorporating a co-creation approach supported by a deep understanding of design thinking, we were able to foster collaboration and drive digitization efforts.
Design thinking helped us empathize with the HR customer, understand their pain points, and co-create solutions that meet their needs. This approach allowed HR and IT professionals to work together, leveraging their respective expertise, and ultimately driving digital innovation in HR practices.
By placing the HR customer at the center of our collaboration efforts and employing design thinking principles, we were able to bridge the gap between HR and IT, align our goals, and drive meaningful digital transformation in HR practices.
8. How can data-driven insights inform HR strategies and decision-making to better meet the needs of diverse employee populations?
Data-driven decision-making is essential for HR strategies to better meet the needs of diverse employee populations. Evidence-based approaches provide a solid foundation compared to relying solely on gut feelings. Understanding figures, KPIs, and the link between data, products, and strategic direction is crucial. While data-driven decision-making is important, I prefer the term ‘data-educated’ to acknowledge that there may be strategic reasons to override the data in certain cases.
Working with large employee populations necessitates using data to create representativeness and make informed decisions. The larger the company and scope, the more vital data becomes. To truly prioritize the relevance of employees and managers, personal gut feelings and noise cannot be relied upon. Differentiating truth from noise is crucial, and People Analytics, along with survey-based insights, play a central role in achieving this understanding.
This revision captures the main points of your original answer, emphasizing the importance of evidence-based decision-making, the need to understand figures and KPIs, the distinction between data-driven and data-educated decision-making, and the role of People Analytics and survey-based insights in working with diverse employee populations.
9. Finally, in your view, what are the key skills and competencies that HR professionals need to cultivate in order to thrive in the digital age?
According to my experience and viewpoint, there are three fundamental skills and one overarching skill that HR professionals need to cultivate in the digital age:
- Digitization: HR professionals should understand the end-to-end digitization of HR processes and services. This means eliminating manual data transfers, embracing digital workflows, and creating a common data lake. Senior HR professionals and decision-makers must grasp the importance of digitization.
- Employee Experience (People Experience): HR professionals should prioritize understanding the needs of the HR customer and involving them in the development of HR services, processes, and products. This requires adopting a people-centric mindset, incorporating the end-to-end customer perspective, actively listening to employees, and utilizing surveys to gather feedback.
- People Analytics: HR professionals must work with data to gain insights and make informed decisions. Analyzing data sets, asking the right questions, and deriving meaningful information from data are essential for the professionalization of HR. People Analytics has evolved from strategic workforce planning to becoming a foundational aspect of effective HR practices.
- Communication: The ability to communicate effectively is crucial. HR professionals should be adept at translating HR language and requirements into IT terminology and vice versa. They should be able to present insights using numbers and effectively express the voice of the HR customer. Communication skills will become even more important as AI integration in HR progresses.
By developing these skills—digitization, employee experience, people analytics, and communication—HR professionals can thrive in the digital age and effectively leverage technology and data to drive positive outcomes in HR practices.
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