HR gets bogged down and leaves the main mission behind: This is why the HR department is so unpopular among employees

The fact that HR is polarized is nothing new. A study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the European Association for People Management (EAPM) showing that HR is weak in Switzerland confirmed that their tasks are now complex, sometimes even overwhelming, and HR employees have lost their way. A lot of things are going away. “HR departments sometimes get bogged down and try to handle too many issues at once,” says co-author and BCG partner Philipp Kolo, summarizing the results.

HR’s top concern

Nearly 7,000 people, mostly working in HR functions, participated in the research in more than 100 countries. The most important finding: “More than 70 percent of survey respondents say human resources issues are the biggest challenge to business success,” says Kolo. But at the same time, the richness of the requirements required by successful human resources management has increased so much that it is becoming increasingly difficult to formulate a clear strategy.

Particularly past challenges such as the pandemic, as well as serious challenges such as the shortage of skilled workers, clearly demonstrate the importance of personnel. “However, the future environment may be even more challenging as we will face more frequent and severe disruptions, increasing talent gaps, less liquid talent markets, and an increased need for digital transformation and innovation, especially in the field of artificial intelligence,” explains Kolo.

Accordingly, the importance of investments in the digital field is increasing, but at the same time, HR does not want to deal with too much technology. Only a third say they want to use digital technologies or data and analytics to anticipate staffing challenges.

Switzerland is a special case and makes life difficult for itself

But 72 percent see staffing challenges and talent gaps as the biggest challenge in digital. The global environment in particular sees it that way, but Switzerland does not. Philipp Kolo comments: “The research shows that in Switzerland in particular, the ability to develop a clear personnel strategy and set the right priorities is less developed than in the rest of the world. Supporting top talent or developing alternative forms of recruitment to address the shortage of skilled workers also rank in the bottom two places in Switzerland.

The result is surprising because companies in this country complain about the lack of skilled workers. At the same time, due to the comfortable situation of job seekers, there has been an expectation that companies should approach potential candidates instead of the other way around. Another expense for HR.

However, human resources departments in Switzerland prefer to focus on sustainability and ESG standards, IT infrastructure and cloud management rather than personnel and HR strategies or managing the talent pool. It is losing touch with the real understanding of the human resources department. In the future, Swiss recruiters want to maintain this focus, rather than worrying about talent management or employee relations.

Possible solutions for HR

To ensure that HR does not become irrelevant and, at the same time, a company can rely on motivated and knowledgeable employees in the turbulent future, the BCG report makes four recommendations that companies should consider.

When it comes to potential talent, this means reviewing the procurement process. Do job postings effectively match what you want? Or is it more of a requirement for that elusive jack of all trades? In addition to purchasing, further training and retraining of existing staff is also important. There is great potential, especially among employees over the age of fifty, that companies have not yet fully tapped into.