“Personnel development must make itself superfluous in order to have a future” – a provocative thesis coming from within its own ranks! In this article, we summarize the problems in today's PD. And we point out ways to deal with the necessary change: With completely new roles for personnel developers!
One fact is undeniable: With increasing digitalization, not only production and communication processes are changing. The handling of “human resources” is also affected by change – not least due to new requirements, competencies, and learning methods.
Under the keyword “Personnel Development 4.0”, this change is being discussed in many voices. Rarely have I encountered such a clear voice as that of Christian Böhler – notably a personnel developer himself – in his article “Disrupt HR!” (Print or podcast at managerSeminare).
“Personnel development has outlived itself!”
Böhler describes personnel development as a pacifier that HR departments must wean themselves from: “Because the way in which further training is conducted and employee qualifications are promoted there has outlived itself. The ‘pacifier’ is not just a specific format, procedure, or tool, but personnel development itself. Because it does more harm than good.”
Christian Böhler is not alone in his opinion that personnel development in its current form is no longer up to date. A current survey by managerSeminare supports his statement: after all, 65% of respondents believe that personnel development will only exist in a modified form in five years.
It becomes clear that personnel development in its current form does not seem to have a future. But where does this sudden shift towards superfluity come from, when PD has played an increasingly important role in most organizations in recent decades?
Possible Causes of Death of Personnel Development
In his article, Christian Böhler directly lists several “illnesses” of today's personnel development. Basically, PD has two fundamental tasks – both of which it no longer sufficiently fulfills today:
The building of competencies, which consists, among other things, of knowledge, values, and experience.
The provision of relevant help for employees – and precisely in the form and at the time when it is needed.
The crucial point: Personnel development in its current form is “part of the problem, not the solution. PD is to blame for the fact that many employees still do not know what to do with computer science, do not understand digital processes, and cannot handle networking,” says Böhler.
The biggest unsolved problems of today's PD were also the subject of a survey – which comes to very clear results: The main problem of PD is its fixation on its own processes (50%). Added to this is a lack of courage (46%), as well as a lack of knowledge about one's own employees (44%).
The three biggest unsolved problems of personnel development today: Process fixation, lack of courage, and too little knowledge. // Source: managerSeminare Meinungsmonitor
“Personnel development is part of the problem, not the solution!”
Several reasons lead to HR departments being unable to fulfill the required tasks today:
The whole construct of “personnel development” is becoming too rigid for the agile world: PD is simply too slow in its previous processes to recognize and cover the changing needs of employees at an early stage. Ideally, needs would have to be recognized before they occur and lead to problems.
Most personnel developers themselves lack the digital and professional competencies that they are actually supposed to impart. Competencies do not only consist of knowledge and skills, but also of values, motivation, experience, and mindset. (More on the competence approach at managerseminare)
In most companies, personnel development takes place heavily separated from actual everyday work – without this connection, employees lack the opportunity to gather real experience. What is needed today is no longer seminar rooms, but “opportunities to experiment and make one's own experiences.”
“Instead of learning success, it is about making one's own experiences!”
This heavy blow can certainly be frightening: Will you as a personnel developer soon become redundant? Will the entire field of “PD” simply be abolished? In a certain way, Christian Böhler's answer is: Yes! “If you take all of this seriously and think it through to the end, it may well be possible that companies in the future will get by without PD as it is understood today.”
The emphasis is on “as it is understood today” – because for personnel developers, completely new opportunities to become relevant again are opening up:
Personnel developers can gain relevance through a new orientation, more competencies, and knowledge. // Source: managerSeminare Meinungsmonitor
It is up to the personnel developers themselves to refresh their own competencies and to get to know their target group, the employees, better. This then results in a complete realignment:
If new scopes for self-directed learning and experiences are created, employees must not be left to their own devices. “On the one hand, you abolish yourself, on the other hand, you fill the resulting gap,” says Böhler.
Long live personnel development! – New roles for PD professionals
There are diverse opinions on what exactly filling this gap should look like. Below, three concepts are briefly outlined:
Personnel Developer as “People Partner”
Christian Böhler sees the People Partner as a possible role: The focus is on the needs of employees, advice, and support. Your goal as a People Partner would no longer be to initiate the learning process, but to enable your employees to learn in a self-organized manner – for example, through resources or a suitable learning environment.
Small-scale individual roles for PD
Apart from People Partners, many other roles for personnel developers come into question. The “Bildung plus” network in Switzerland identifies as many as 6 roles. These include
the “provider”, who develops and implements offers for competence development.
the “broker”, who finds external providers, plans cooperations, and mediates between external and internal persons.
the “enabler”, who develops competencies for self-directed learning and designs frameworks for successful learning (very similar to the People Partner).
You can find the complete overview with all roles and possible areas of responsibility in the presentation in the post "Current topics in corporate education management" at scil (swiss competence centre for innovations in learning).
Personnel Developer as Learning Companion
Finally, there is the concept of the “learning companion”. How this new role for personnel developers results from the requirements of soft skills, digitalization, and New Work was explained in detail by colleague Corinna in the article “How to become a learning companion.” Central to this is the combination of classic classroom training and digital online learning concepts – an exciting approach for PD!
Conclusion
Modern personnel development no longer just creates continuing education offers, but designs learning processes that continuously accompany employees in their everyday work and sustainably develop their competencies.
To really make employees fit for the future, it is not enough to spruce up old structures a bit! At their core, they will always retain their rigid character, react slowly and sluggishly to new requirements, and only cover needs when they have already become problematic.
What personnel development needs are completely new structures that are aligned from the ground up to the new working world and comprehensive digitalization.
All signs point to a “storm” for personnel developers! It is best to take the initiative for change yourself and expand your horizon: Digitally supported, multimedia learning methods are indispensable in the long run! An easy and at the same time effective step towards modern employee training is offered by Blended Learning – the interlocking of classic classroom events with self-directed online phases.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Why is classic personnel development often considered too rigid today?
Classic personnel development often works with fixed processes, planned measures, and separate learning formats. In a dynamic working world, such structures often react too slowly to new competence needs and changes in everyday work.
What problems complicate modern personnel development?
Among the biggest problems are process fixation, lack of courage to change, and too little knowledge about the actual needs of employees. This results in continuing education offers that are not close enough to everyday work and current challenges.
What new role can personnel development assume in companies?
Personnel development can understand itself more as a learning companion, People Partner, or enabler. The focus shifts from the pure organization of training courses to the design of learning environments in which employees can learn in a self-directed manner and gather experiences.
Why are digital learning methods becoming more important for the future of personnel development?
Digital learning methods enable more flexible, faster, and work-related continuing education. They help personnel developers integrate learning offers better into everyday work and targetedly support self-directed learning.
