Seeking solutions for HR challenges in a tight labor market

On September 26, Robbert Flypo (Paulig), Sofie Spriet (Dewaele), and Nico De Neve (TriHD) shared their experiences, best practices, and persistent challenges in terms of career paths and L&D. The premise? There's no one-size-fits-all solution, but it is invaluable to monitor trends, exchange experiences, test initiatives on a small scale, and monitor results.

A successful L&D policy for both employees and the company is tailor-made

Companies looking to grow in a tight labor market can't bypass the motto "Hire for attitude, train for skills." Setting up an L&D program to make this a reality requires buy-in from everyone within the company, not just from the trainee and trainer, but also from managers and leadership.

Robbert Flypo, Senior Learning & Development Specialist at Paulig: "To keep up with our company's growth, we were faced with the immense challenge of training more than 100 operators for our tortilla and chips factories. Due to the tight labor market, we were forced to hire many workers without any production experience. Our approach? A training plan linked to instructions for each learning objective. It's comparable to a manual with photos for each position. Our operators know best how their machines work, so we gave them the time and support to write those instructions themselves. Our role from L&D is to manage all of this and support the process."

Provide your employees with a vision for the future so they can identify and realize their own growth opportunities

"A growing company eventually creates growth opportunities for its employees," emphasized CEO Sofie Spriet from Dewaele. "Ensure that all your employees are aware of your future vision. This provides a double benefit. On one hand, it ensures that everyone is on the same page and that employees actively think along on how they can contribute to those long-term objectives within their roles. On the other hand, the long-term perspective helps employees see growth opportunities for themselves. By guiding and supporting this, you ensure that employees remain motivated and engaged within your company."

Nico De Neve, Business Consultant L&D at TriHD, added: "At TriHD, we start with the idea that if our people grow, our company will also grow. We call it 'Furthering' our people. Radically putting our people first is our priority."

Make sure you establish the right structures that support the growth of your employees and company

Nico De Neve: "The growth of our Project Consultants is paramount. We operate on the principle that 80% of your tasks should be within your comfort zone and that you should be challenged with new tasks and responsibilities for the remaining 20%. To implement this, we have set up structures and processes. We regularly discuss ambitions with our consultants. Additionally, we have developed a complete 'behavior-skill-knowledge' framework to precisely map to which extent someone masters a set of behaviors, skills, and knowledge and where the gaps lie to take the next career step. This way, we work very specifically on the career path of our people, which is often not linear. Sometimes, someone doesn't know which direction they want to go in, and you only discover your strengths along the way. Sometimes, it turns out that the planned career path is adjusted along the way. Our role is to guide our people in mapping out their career path and to offer the right support to help them achieve their goals, through training, mentoring, defined learning paths…"

The best-skilled employee is not necessarily the best trainer or the best manager

Training or leadership is not a skill that directly stems from mastering your own tasks. Robbert Flypo: "One of the key success factors in our training program was training the trainers. Our approach here is very pragmatic: a two-hour training session focused on the need-to-knows about giving training. This makes all the difference."

"At Dewaele, we invest in the leaders of tomorrow by proactively identifying where coaching skills are present and nurturing them," explained Sofie Spriet. "This ensures that our company is prepared for future growth."

Are you looking to broaden your talent pool by developing a comprehensive training plan for for new hires? Are you intrigued to examine the growth trajectories within your company? Or do you want to rely on our expertise to tackle other Human Development projects?

With TriHD, we are ready to support you in overcoming your challenges! Contact us at info@trihd.be.