The Future of Work Beyond Flex Work
In this episode, I'm joined by Christian Schmeichel, SVP & Chief Future of Work Officer at SAP.
Christian discusses planning for an evolving workforce composition, the future of work beyond flex work, and the emphasis on mental health and mindfulness.
He also provides perspective on HR trends like leveraging AI and chatbots while retaining the human touch. Christian believes this is a once in a generation opportunity to shape the future of work and live in new ways.
"To me personally, I think this is probably once in a generation opportunity, not just as HR practitioners, but maybe even as a society to shape and to co-shape also the way how we will live and work. And that's simply exciting."
This is a can't-miss episode for all leaders preparing their organizations for what's ahead.
Episode Highlights
The Future Workforce, aiming to define a target picture for a future-proof workforce at SAP
The Future of People Practices, making new, flexible, and healthy work “work” for everyone
The Future of HR, reimagining how HR functions need to operate in the future along a strategic HR master plan
Five tips to increase Workplace Productivity
Accelerate your business growth with workforce upskilling. Implement IDC's top five strategies to build an agile, future-ready team. Invest in your employees' skills today, align their growth with your business objectives, and witness unparalleled success.
🎙️ Automatically generated Podcast Transcript
Chris Rainey 0:00
The future work is now. But as we look forward to into the future, what are you? What are you most excited about?
Christian 0:07
Me personally, I think this is probably a once in a generation opportunity, not just as HR practitioners, but maybe even as a society, to shape and to co shape also the way how we will live and work and that's simply exciting. And to be honest with you for for those of us who are a bit closer to the capital markets, if there were, for example, future work shares available at the stock market, I would certainly recommend to buy them.
Chris Rainey 0:31
Yeah, we should figure that out.
Hi, everyone, welcome back to the HR leaders podcast and today's episode, I'm joined by Christian Schmeichel, SVP & Chief Future of Work Officer at SAP. during a podcast Christian and she has saps holistic future work agenda, the shaping the next world of work. The agenda is saps Northstar to reimagine work at its core. It considers business elements as a strategic HR components along three dimensions to create a sustainable work experience for its global and diverse workforce. Face free dimensions include the future workforce aims to define a target picture for a future proof workforce SAP. It also includes the future of people practices, making new flexible and healthy work work for everyone. And lastly, the future of HR, reimagining how HR functions need to operate in the future, along a strategic HR master plan. This is definitely an episode you don't want to miss. But before we jump in, as always, make sure you hit the subscribe button, turn on notification bell and follow us on your favourite podcast platform. With that being said, let's jump in. First, you're welcome to the show. How are you?
Christian 1:51
Thank you very much, Chris. Thanks for having me. I'm doing very well. How are you today?
Chris Rainey 1:54
I'm good. It seems like every time I speak to you, you're always in New York. Yeah, for everyone. For everyone who can't see Christian is his backgrounds, always a new york city landscape whenever he tunes in no matter where he is. Around the world.
Christian 2:13
That's the beauty of for example, these virtual calls, right? Yeah. So that you're really a global citizen.
Chris Rainey 2:19
Exactly. How have you been? First and foremost? How how's work? How's family?
Christian 2:23
Thank you doing very well, I think these days, everyone is now looking forward also to the summer break, which is something I'm certainly doing as well, I think it has been a very successful and very busy year so far. So therefore, I'm really looking forward now to the summer season.
Chris Rainey 2:38
When we last spoke, you kind of just took on this new role of SVP and Chief future officer. But for everyone listening, could you just give them an overview? What is the role of a chief future of the word officer? How do you describe that when people ask you?
Christian 2:53
Absolutely, Chris? No. And that's a great question. Because to be very honest with you, if somebody had asked me 10 years ago, right, or maybe had even introduced him or herself as a chief future officer, I would have been scratching my head first of all, today, as we speak, right, and now here in August 2023, it seems to be pretty straightforward. Because I'm not telling any secrets, right? The world around us is changing at a breakneck speed in SCP we took this as a strategic opportunity to say, hey, you know what, we need to manage something like the future of work as a holistic topic, we came up with a holistic future work agenda. And to simplify, we are more or less looking at the future of workforce, right? If we close our eyes and think about our company, five or 10 years down the road, how many permanent employees will be half? How many gig workers? How much AI will we have on the team? How many robots right and this target picture will help us to determine and talk about the future of people practices, which is the second dimension, which we're looking at. And these people practices, this is certainly bringing the bread and butter business of HR to the next level, make it future ready. But also new, new emerging topics like flex work, mental health and well being and so on, so forth. And the third dimension, which we're taking care of is in the future of the HR department itself. Because let's face it, right, with all of that stuff going on, we as HR practitioners also need to evolve as well. And this is what is the scope of my organisation. Very excited to drive this for company like SAP for 110,000 people across the globe. And of course, we are leveraging technology, no question.
Chris Rainey 4:24
Yeah, no, I love that. Let's let's dive into this more in more detail. Because when we last spoke, I remember you saying that you believe that the future of work goes beyond creating a new where of work, which is really where many people are focusing on, and you mentioned a free strategic dimensions that you follow around the future of work, the first one being the future of workforce. So let's jump in there first, how do you break that down? Yeah, absolutely.
Christian 4:49
And I think when it comes in now to the future of work, this is a broad term, right. And when we take a look back, it's clear that the whole topic has received huge attention and also some acceleration during the pandemic? I mean, let's face it right at the beginning of the pandemic, all employers were kind of checking do you need to send people home to keep them safe? This is also what we did, we more or less sent our folks to remote working setup within 48 hours. And this has been working well. But this was not future of work yet. This was crisis management, this was kind of an emergency, right, we had to take off. And a lot of folks then focus certainly like us also on making sure that we have a solid and an attractive flex work policy in place. So this was our initial focus, right? But then we realised Yes, I mean, when the fun part starts is certainly if you have flex work in place, and you can take a look at all the other dimensions, and this is what we see. Also as future of work, the true future of work is more or less what is starting now, since the pandemic is over, we can now think about these other strategic topics, like for example, the future of workforce,
Chris Rainey 5:53
when you think of flex work, it means something different in every company, what does flex, flex work mean SAP?
Christian 5:59
Yes, that's that's a great question. And we of course, have been already offering quite a lot of flexibility even before the pandemic. But the pandemic caused us and encouraged us to think about this topic in a much more strategic way. Because if you take a look at status, right, we all see this, I mean, in particular, also the new generations entering the workforce, they're looking for much more than simply a good salary and also career opportunities. They also would like to have a great working environment, you should be flexible. So when we had that strategic discussion of SCP, what does flex will mean for us, we look at more or less all the options that flex were offers right on that flexible continuum, we have on one end, more or less something which is completely free floating, everyone is more or less doing what he or she wants, it's kind of made some econ Allah key others may call it paradise, I don't want to judge that. I think this one is one option. This is something we said for SAP, this doesn't really work. On the other end of the spectrum, you would theoretically have something which is very tightly managed, where everyone is checking in and clocking in Yeah, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way. If your business model requires that if you have a lot of compliance going on, that's perfectly fine. But for SCP, this was also not the right option, we were kind of landing in the middle, which we call empowerment along business requirements. And this is where we say we have a pledge to flex where we asked our folks to check with their managers, right? What kind of hybrid working whatever works best for them. In practice, this means that people are more or less in the office two or three days a week, because this is what works best, because we still see a lot of value of getting together. Nevertheless, this is something which is then checked individually, because all teams are different. In the sales arena, I would probably expect people to be rather with the customer. And then in the office, versus in software development. Yes, of course, people are getting together on a regular basis, also to code software, and so on and so forth. So
Chris Rainey 7:49
you're really empowering employees and line managers to make that decision to go with it. Absolutely.
Christian 7:54
And I think this is what is also part of our corporate DNA flexibility, but also trust and empowerment, this is key to make sure that people can run at their personal best at the same time, they need to be conference. And as I said, right, and we are in the business of making business. Therefore, it's important that they also have a good level of productivity. And here we feel that this hybrid working model with being the office two or three days per week, and then for example, having the rest, we didn't more or less focused time at home or wherever this is still something that seemed to work best for us.
Chris Rainey 8:27
What what are some of the other considerations that shape the future workforce,
Christian 8:31
I mean, when it comes to the to the future of workforce at SAP, it's clear that the world around us is changing at a breakneck speed, as I've already mentioned, and if you close your eyes, and you think five or 10 years down the road, how our business will evolve. It's clear that also our workforce composition, presumably will believe us. So as we speak, we of course, looking how many permanent employees to be have how many kick workers and now also with the latest developments in the AI space, it's clear that people presumably I'm having the future, also some robots on the team and maybe also some artificial, that's for sure. So our workforce in the future will not only be simply human that says clear, it's going to be a human slash machine workforce. And therefore, I mean, so far, we have been growing a lot at SAP and we will certainly do so. But of course, the composition and also with the help of technology, this will certainly change like for all other companies as well.
Chris Rainey 9:28
This this all sounds very exciting. But there are I'm sure challenges in doing so what what are you what have you faced as an as your biggest challenges as you move towards a future workforce?
Christian 9:41
Probably a lot of other companies as well, if you try to plan something like this, and nobody's having a crystal ball, so we need to do scenario planning. The good news is in the year 2023. We have a lot of data at our fingertips, right, which a lot of companies including ourselves, probably didn't have maybe 10 years ago. So there's a different level of quality available that we can leverage in terms of planning scenarios, what's going to happen? And also what works best, right? What kind of skills do we need in a couple of years? What kind of locations may work best. And also, with all these geopolitical changes, it's important to understand maybe the world order will also change over time. And this means that yeah, you need to get your heads around to a, what do you want to do? Where do you think you can work best? And to bring this to kind of effect base level? That's certainly one challenge. I think it's doable, it's a lot of effort, but it's doable. And then at the end of the day, you need to make decisions. And this means that this is also something that is very, very important to do this now. Because the train is running very fast. And if you want to jump on that train, you got to be also pause as well.
Chris Rainey 10:49
Not everyone obviously has a as lucky as yourselves to have a chief Future of Work officer. What advice would you give to companies about how they should approach this? What advice would you give him give him
Christian 11:01
the interesting piece is a future of our organisation like mine, which has been set up two years ago, as certainly a lot of Wallace proximity to HR topics, that's for sure. But it's important that the future of work is much more than people HR topics, you also talking about technology, you're talking about facilities, but you're also talking about numbers and also potential financial implications. And therefore it's important when you are looking at this as a company that this is something that is a cross topic, which also needs to be managed to the cross functional way. So close partnerships with the corporate strategy partner into close partnership with controlling a close partnership with it. And facility is key to get your arms around something like this. Because in the past, I think this topic was very often managed in silos, which is also maybe that the restrictive part. And therefore you need to make sure that you're getting together as a team, this is a team sport, and making sure that you get all the information together and then come up with good scenario planning fact base, and then bring it forward so that the business can make a decision. I love
Chris Rainey 12:08
that I'm so happy that you shared that part. Because that's a part I see that many companies go wrong. They don't have that those relationships, they do work in silos, and it just doesn't move the needle as well. Who do you report into? I'm asking,
Christian 12:23
I'm reporting to our chief pupil and operating officer. So this function, which is combining people topics, it the internal process of SCP, which is our bottom of more or less all of our transformation topics. And this is great, because then you're working in lockstep right with your colleagues on the people or HR side. But at the same token, you're also having your peers as the CIO, Chief Information Officer, and so on. And I think that's a very powerful combination.
Chris Rainey 12:50
Love that. The second strategic dimension is the future of people practices.
Christian 12:55
It's interesting. All of us, as HR practitioners have been in the past, always focusing on a solid and business focused people agenda, I think that's still very important. Nevertheless, we feel that this needs to be much more future oriented, and therefore we feel our future agenda needs to, on one hand, evolve our bread and butter business of HR, right? How do we recruit? How do we train? How do we reward according to the future workforce, because if you have no more kick workers in the past, you will have a different recruiting process. If you have, for example, a different workforce composition, the permanent workforce side, you also need to have a different training concept, and so on, so forth. So all of this determines right, the target picture on the workforce determines the future of your people practices. And this means evolving your more or less traditional HR functions to be ready for all of that. At the same time, we see that there is a lot of appetite and interest for new and emerging topics. So that's exciting times in HR, right, because new topics are coming up flex work is just one discipline, new ways of working is the second one, right? How do you reshape new organisational models? How do you come up with CO leadership and so on so forth, this needs to be also structured in terms of an organisational development function that can drive these things in the year 2025. And not more or less, looking at traditional methods and things like mental health and being I think this is certainly a big one as well. The health department SCP is also part of our future of work organisation. So we have managed to pandemic work with vaccination, all of that. But as we speak, the focus has also shifted to be much more inclusive in terms of look not just at the physical health but also at the mental health. And then here we feel there's a lot of anxiety in the society was also in our company, and definitely to take care of our people. Right. We are very caring and people oriented organisation and therefore it's key that we do this and just a fun fact that Sep we even have a mindfulness practice. So a dedicated team as part of the future of work organisation, and I'm very proud of that because the guys are doing a fantastic job maybe 10 or 15 years ago, if you were doing offering something like mindfulness, I always felt that a lot of people were a little bit sceptical, seeming to understand this as kind of an esoteric topic and didn't really have the business connection, as we speak at SAP, we have a long waiting list for people who would like to do that. And we see a lot of appetite. Also, after the pandemic, people had the chance to self reflect what is their purpose in life, and would like to, yeah, help and support this, and therefore very proud to have this dedicated team and also as part of our future work organisation, because I think the guys are doing an awesome job to help our company right to offer these kinds of trainings.
Chris Rainey 15:37
Yeah, I love that. And I think that was one of the silver linings of the pandemic, the emphasis we saw on wellbeing, and the impact in the past, it was like a nice to have, you know, now it's, it's really very much table stakes. And it does have a very clear impact on the business on the bottom line is also good. It's also good business, as well as, and you're right, many people had the opportunity to think during a pandemic, about the why their purpose, and is it really what I want to do. And they want to work for organisations that are there to support them, and have ended aligned with their why and purpose. So I love that I love the emphasis that you put on that and with the team.
Christian 16:18
Absolutely no. And as we said, we are getting good feedback from the organisation. So we are continuously listening, we have continuously listening functionals as part of future of work. It's called future work insights. And we feel that everything we do should be data driven. So we need to understand what our folks need for our candidates, applicants as well look for so that you can customise and see everything they do according to then more or less the requirements of our employees and managers
Chris Rainey 16:43
love that. What are some of the other things that you're hearing from employees through that listening? Well, I
Christian 16:48
think first of all, when it comes now to what people are looking for, it's this kind of healthy and caring culture. People feel that yeah, they would love to contribute big time also at work. At the same time, having a healthy work life balance has become much more important to the pandemic. I think that's probably everywhere the case. What we're also seeing is that in addition to things like good and a competitive salary or compensation benefits package, in particular, also these things like flexibility and redevelopment in terms of skill, building what is currently right and hot in the market. This is something people are looking for looking for. Yeah. And I think as an attractive employer, one needs to take this into consideration a very serious way. Because, yeah, the war for talent is certainly increasing, week by week, month by month, quarter by quarter. Therefore, it's important to have this on your radar screen.
Chris Rainey 17:41
When you look at your future of people practices. How did you and the team decide where to start? Because I think a lot of people listening it's quite overwhelming. So what did that look like? And where did you choose to start?
Christian 17:55
I think what we have done is our organisation to Joburg is more or less set up in an agile way. So we have eight HR topic clusters from spreadsheet automation to workforce planning to help. And this means that of course, we have more or less assigned topics. And we have some leeway, and we to focus on more or less what's currently important and we prioritise according to our HR portfolio management process. So we are trying to run HR like a business and say, Hey, this is what is important for the business. This is what we have as capacity, let's prioritise that, then you simply have a stack ranking. And then you start at the top.
Chris Rainey 18:28
Amazing, I love that. And especially in this in this environment that we live in, you have to have an agile approach. Knowing that Gone are the days of having a five year plan of where of what you know, no one can predict that even two years ahead of where we are now. So I love the fact that you and the team are working in an agile methodology. And in order to have that speed of execution, as well and pivot quickly when needed is just yesterday, right? First strategic dimension, the future of HR such a big topic, right? You can't, you can't go online without hearing about it. Let me ask you this a big question. What do you believe is the future of HR?
Christian 19:06
First of all, it's simply great to see once again, that attention and that focus also on the HR team as a topic, right? I think a lot of colleagues and friends and practitioners in the HR space, have simply done an awesome job also during the pandemic, to keep people safe, make sure that we have been successfully going through and this is great. So we certainly have a seat at the table. That's that's that's a great starting point. Nevertheless, we are just entering a new chapter if you will, right also as people functions, and therefore it's super important to have a clear Northstar. And this is usually I mean the business right and your business strategy that is the starting point. And I feel that as HR practitioners, we need to evolve now our content coming setup and this means yeah, having for example, new people agenda, which is much more future oriented. It also means that we need to evolve our HR operating model. Now with church CBT entering the game. It's is very clear that our more or less traditional also, transactional activities over time will be supported by AI. And this means we will have the opportunity to free up some resources there over time, not tomorrow, but over time. And this will allow us to invest once again into the value active activities much more whether it's Employer Branding, recruiting, running, what have you. And that's going to be great. And this means presumably two things in general. Number one, we need to leverage technology big time. And I'm not saying this because I'm working for a tech company, I think, other tech companies out there, but it's clear, right? I mean, it's going to be the game changers. And if we don't go for digital first approach, we won't have the capacity to drive all of that other stuff that that's clear. But in addition to the great technology backbone, and to leverage that, we also need to evolve as a function. On the skill side, I'm a strong believer that we have a great starting point right now, and as HR practitioners, but we need to evolve our function along various key dimensions. Number one, data driven HR, right, I think working with facts and figures versus simply anecdotal feedback from the business is probably must have. And that's something which needs to be established. I think, historically, as HR, at least as a stereotype. In some functions, we have been very strong on the data side, the payroll or total rewards and other functions maybe sometimes not so strong. Therefore, we need to evolve this at SAP, we have come up with a small team, which is called HR University, where HR learning team where you train this stuff, right with kind of very basic training courses for HR practitioners, coming up with where to find the data, how to analyse the data, how to visualise the data, or how to tell the story around the data. These are very basic things. But that can have a huge impact. Digital HR is for me a second big skill arena. Digital HR doesn't mean that as HR practitioners, we should be able to call software, it's about enriching the systems, right. And to the ultimate extent. And also, for example, HR HR, knowing how to drive things in Agile way, having an agile mindset, being aware of the agenda methodologies is key to success. And I also feel that experience management for HR. So understanding what the business needs from a consumer standpoint of HR services is probably key. And there are tips and tricks and methodologies. I've been the head of HR offers up in Japan a couple of years ago. And if you go for example, to country like Japan, you see what customer service service orientation means and understanding to look at the topic from a consumer standpoint, these things can be leveraged, right to make sure you have great people experiences based on what the customer and the consumer needs. And these are skills we need to evolve as a function. This is not happening overnight. But if we get this, I think we can do great talent management, have a great leadership trainings, and do great offerings on the total reward side based on these new skills based on this new understanding of the business needs.
Chris Rainey 23:03
From everything that you mentioned, what what do you think is going to be the biggest challenge for HR leaders as we move forward
Christian 23:10
to do all of that in a meaningful way? Because it's so much so therefore, one needs to prioritise and you just start somewhere, I think everyone would probably agree that the topics I'm outlining are important and nice. Yeah,
Chris Rainey 23:20
exactly.
Christian 23:22
But need to get it done right, and then just start somewhere. And this will certainly depend on the starting point of the organisation. It will depend on the budget that one is having, and also business requirements. But what needs to start somewhere,
Chris Rainey 23:35
I think one of the challenges I'm hearing I'm not sure if you've heard the same thing in your in your network is, there's many hate colleagues that I speak to that are struggling to maintain the momentum that we got from the pandemic, that was, you know, those huge momentum that was gained over the last few years. And I'm seeing now that HR leaders are really struggling to maintain that momentum.
Christian 23:55
Yeah, I think this is something we also see in our networks, I think, very often. And this is something where I feel, we need to make sure that you understand the future of work is much more than flex work, because the flex work piece was something which has carried us through the pandemic, and is now a key topic, which is now hopefully, kind of a continuous improvement or for many organisations already. But now we need to make that next step. And the next step for future of work. And also for the future of HR is tech based or AI right, entering another playing field. And this is certainly currently kind of overhyped, but over the midterm probably still underestimated what will happen there. And therefore, we gotta get our arms around this and as HR practitioners get ready for that on the skill side on the tech side, with that, I think we can still gain or keep that momentum even further accelerate.
Chris Rainey 24:44
Yeah, on that point, then how are you? Deploying, obviously your technology company, but how will you deploy deploying state of the art technology in a digital first way to scale efficiency across those workers? experiences that you've just been describing.
Christian 25:02
What I feel is important that one needs to understand right how to manage your data and your technology backbone in the first place. I think this way, you just start to have that foundation. And then of course, yeah, we are deploying now. Please bear with me, of course, SCP runs SCP. So we are running our own. But I think independent from the software that you're using, it's important to have that kind of digital first approach. And not all services can be more or less provided the business in the manual way anymore, nor should they. And therefore, it's important to have a clear strategy, what kind of services are provided via either self services, or for example, via kind of technology based or augmented models. And then what is then more or less remaining, which should be done, also by real humans at this point, to make sure that it's the perfect mix, right? I mean, HR is still about the human touch, but the human touch need to be provided by and with scale, also based on technology. But this doesn't mean that everything needs to be provided by human. On one hand, what you're seeing here, you can do now a lot of also, even human factors, elements remotely, right, we sue or teams or whatever the software is that you're using, that's a big one. At the same time, I feel that the better we standardise in the back end, the more we can personalise and the front end, because with the help of technology, you can see what somebody needs, right? If somebody is, I don't know, a persona X, and he or she would like to consume some training courses. And if you know what other personas in the same models category, have already done as training, you can come up with these training recommendations. So it's about to use the technology for great consumer experience that people are happy and taken care of. And what is then what is left remaining. This is something where HR with the model, strategic HR business partners, or HR advisors, were able to call them to get into the game and then help the business in a straightforward way.
Chris Rainey 26:55
Yeah, no, I love that. What would you say are some of the main considerations that you have when either deploying technology or or or buying it? Because for many leaders I speak to they're overwhelmed. You know, every day, there's new technologies and platforms coming up. And it's quite tempting to run it the new shiny object that's out there, as well. What are some of the questions that you ask yourself? And what some of the considerations that you have whenever you're looking at technology?
Christian 27:23
Number one, I've already mentioned it I mean, as somebody who is now representing SAP, of course, we are running SAP for that reason, the choice for us, it's easy, because this was a mantra. Nevertheless, I think there are, of course, obvious considerations, right? The first one is, it's about simplification and standardisation need to have a standardised and it's simple and straightforward to honest platform where all the data is coming together, I think there's something you always need. And then you need to focus right what is now needed. From a business standpoint, there might be business areas where there's huge growth, and you need to focus more on recruiting and learning. There might be other companies and business models we need to different topics which are spot on, there's something we need to prioritise. And for us, it has always been the case that the more integrated something is right, the more you can go for a complete suite approach, the easier it is also for the implementation, because everything, it all fits together. And based on that, it's not so much about implementing any kind of IoT solution. It's also about the adoption, right? It's about the business and managers and employees, and also the HR folks themselves, like what they have and also use it, it's about adoption. And then you can reap the fruits of everything and can more or less free up resources that you can then reinvest elsewhere and the value add stuff, as I mentioned, employer branding, recruiting, what have you.
Chris Rainey 28:43
That's the hard part, right? People think about the technology implementation, but it's actually the adoption. And that's the hard part, right, which is, you know, not a few months, but this is an ongoing challenge that will continue.
Christian 28:58
Yeah, I mean, as we speak, we are probably entering a new era, right, I mean, now here with AI. A lot of companies have been using AI we have been using this also in the HR space now already for some years. But in particular on the automation side, when it comes to standardising, for example, processes, workflows and all of that or taking for example bias out of recruiting process because you're kind of enter organising what a CV is. That's something which has been already there. Now with generative AI, right, we're entering a new era. And this means that there will be lots of opportunities also to do a lot of processes differently in a much more effective, effective and also efficient way. And that's something that's going to be exciting. And also for us as HR forget dried properly, once again, once in a generation opportunity to bring our function to complete next level.
Chris Rainey 29:46
Yeah. What are some of the use cases you're seeing of how HR can can leverage chatty witty open AI?
Christian 29:54
In general, we are talking about two dimensions. The first dimension is certainly to make any kind have processes simpler, right in terms of driving efficiencies so that you have your hands free, whether this in the recruiting space that for example, you have GBT, right, your job descriptions here, for example, you can have in that whole skill arena, also maybe check GBT or any kind of other regenerative AI, then work on any kind of skill tagging, right? That for example, you say, Hey, I know what, which is usually a huge manual effort. But for example, matching right what people have to maybe what is available in a standardised way. And this is a huge game changer if we get that right. And I think when you do this, right, beyond driving efficiency, the second dimension search experience, if something is much easier than before, it's of course, a great opportunity to also make working on HR topics much more fun, and much more modern, right, also much more state of the art. And that's certainly a game changer as well, also on the experience side for HR practitioners themselves, but also for the applicants, candidates, managers increase, you're working with HR,
Chris Rainey 30:59
I think we spoke a lot about technology. But I don't want to miss the fact that it's also really important for HR to retain the human factor. So talk about how you think about that,
Christian 31:10
in a very traditional way. HR, right, the age in HR is certainly key, this is what makes our function strong. And therefore, we need to always find ways with all the leverage of technology, and how we can also, more or less, retain that connection to the business, understanding what's needed. And also have that personal touch whenever it's meaningful, right? If I only need information, the cell service is much more effective, I don't need to have a human touch to simply get, for example, a document or maybe a short piece or small piece of information. But when it comes to consulting, also personal topics, it's so important that we as HR practitioners, keep also that connection and that platform for the business open to be in regular interaction. And what I've always been seeing is we need to come up with creative models, how to pool our resources to provide that service. So in SAP a couple of years back, we introduced something which we call HR advisor model. This means that for our first line and middle managers, we offer not an HR business partner service anymore, but we have rather put our resources in a regional setup because of the timezone effectiveness. And then yeah, first and mid level managers can approach these folks if they have a topic. And because usually first and mid level managers have a different set of questions or inquiries or topics, then senior managers, it's much more effective. And people are much happier with that setup than having a one to one relationship with an HR business partner. Yeah. But it's not just more effective. It's also even more scalable for us. So I think we need to think about these traditional boundaries and come up with these elements that still provide a human touch. But at scale, because we have a limited budget. So we need to be creative.
Chris Rainey 32:49
Now. Absolutely love that. Before I let you go as you continue to think about the future of work in the future work is now. But as we look forward to into the future, what are you what are you most excited about? As we look forward? To me
Christian 33:04
personally, I think this is probably a once in a generation opportunity, not just as HR practitioners, but maybe even as a society, to shape and to co shape also the way how we will live and work. And that's simply exciting. And to be honest with you for for those of us who are a bit closer to the capital markets. If there were, for example, future workshops available at the stock market, I would certainly recommend to buy them.
Chris Rainey 33:28
Yeah, we should figure that out. Before I let you go, where can people connect with you if they want to reach out to you personally and say hi, where's the best place? The easiest
Christian 33:36
way is to simply connect with me on LinkedIn and I'm quite approachable and happy to be in touch. Absolutely. Thank you.
Chris Rainey 33:43
Yeah, great question. It's a pleasure as always chatting to you. I love your energy, passion for the work that you do. It obviously clearly comes across and I wish you all the best until next week.
Christian 33:54
Thank you so much, Chris. Thanks for having me. All the best. Thanks.
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Richard Letzelter, CHRO at Acino.