HRM Current Affairs Seminar 2021 Review

What positive reactions at the end of the FHI HRM Current Affairs Seminar on Thursday 4 November! We can no longer call it a challenge, but it was still an adjustment for everyone to meet each other online again. Fortunately, everyone, speakers and participants, has settled back behind the screen for a good portion of updates on developments in the HR world.

A long day, but above all inspiring. Much of it was of course about the current themes of corona, attracting and retaining staff, both young and old, the new assessment and the new pension system.

Labor law

Partner of FHI Advice, Vestius Attorneys, kicked off with the non-competition clause, with Michiel van Haelst emphasizing the importance of correct legal wording in the employment contract. His colleague Sander Pieroelie immediately followed up on legally relevant solutions for the staff shortage, such as the relaxation of dismissal law around the AOW, which allows older employees to continue working longer.

The 'other current affairs' by Lise van den Heuvel resulted in a fair amount of questions from participants, because yes, how do you deal with whether or not to vaccinate against corona. Very topical and several dilemmas quickly followed from the participants about employees in the field, ensuring a sense of safety in teams and legislation and regulations. Lise's tip is to now mainly work from the right to instruct with regulations for the work to be performed and any disciplinary measures.

The new assessment

After a short break, Fré Boels came from ISA Training in picture with a very interactive session about The New Assessment. His core message: see what steps you can take to continuously talk to each other about functioning and development throughout the year. With trust in each other, from a culture of accountability.

Some companies have started with this, as is evident from the participants' responses, which also raise many questions about how to give employees more control and address each other's behavior. Certainly also with employees with less need for development or with managers who are not yet so familiar with servant leadership. On Thursday, January 13, you can attend the full workshop on 'The Development Cycle: The New Assessment' to follow!

Working from home

Enough food to think about, so time to stretch the legs and eat something during the lunch break. And, immediately a good transition to Mike Broxterman of ArboNed: Healthy Working from Home. Because it is now a given that we will continue to work more digitally and from home, with a different emphasis on the relationship between resilience and burden.

In addition to a good workplace and a pleasant routine, it is also good to ask yourself questions in difficult situations about what you can do to get into action mode. And not to forget, try to end the day positively and make sure you get enough exercise. So it is not surprising that he asks everyone to get up and do a few exercises together.

Pension & Early Retirement

And then… what about pensions? A subject in which employees and employers have many choices to make, it turns out. Especially with the transition to the new pension system. First of all, as an employer you have to consider whether or not to offer a pension. It is not an obligation. If you offer a pension scheme to your employees, how do you shape the transition yourself? Weighing up the costs and possibilities of two different schemes for old and new employees or using fixed percentages for everyone immediately and looking at what compensation is needed. When asked by participants, Sander Geijtenbeek of HBR/Clap that it can help to retain people, because accrued rights for employees remain. It can also ensure that people are less likely to switch.

There are also many current questions regarding early retirement. For example, which scheme is best to use now, who should arrange what, how you can safeguard knowledge and how the payment works. As an employer, you should at least inform your employee well about risk moments with regard to your pension.

Sustainable employability

Well, what does that include? Isn't it a catch-all term by now? Participants associate it with motivation, managing talent, vitality, personal development, variety in work and reintegration. It is clear from the chat that the subject is alive and Sandra Engelbertink and Aukje Asma of Human Resources explains that sustainable employability refers to the ability to keep a job and get new work. They approach it primarily from vitality, work capacity and employability.

They note that there is now often attention for care and aftercare and indicate how you can preventively minimize risks and keep people working well. Good examples immediately emerge from the group, such as a PMO, an active prevention officer, agreements on work outside working hours and exemplary behavior by managers. Sandra offers tools to get an idea of what you can do, which is responded to enthusiastically.

Modern rewards

The overheated labor market has been discussed before, but the question is how you can then attract and retain good people. Esther Flipse of Brand takers specifically addresses the possibilities around (modern) employment conditions. What do you offer in your remuneration policy and how do you distinguish yourself? Does it fit in with your core values. Employees are no longer necessarily looking for just a good salary, but want to feel involved.

According to Esther, you can offer a broad package of conditions that employees can choose from in a budget-neutral way. Good examples, which the participants respond to enthusiastically and see one as more quickly practically feasible (facilitating that the informal caregiver can still go to a company party) than the other (letting employees choose their own holidays).

When Esther's session is over, the seminar is also at an end. Andreas Meijer of FHI thanks everyone for their (online) presence and the good, mostly interactive, sessions. There were some nice discussions and several participants expressed the need to talk afterwards, approach speakers or follow workshops on the topics. Many participants thanked for the organization and so we look back on a great seminar!