Culture is strategy: article in the magazine "Versicherungswirtschaft" with Caroline Schlienkamp

The shortage of skilled labor is here and it is a serious challenge. Almost all German companies in our industry are assuming that they will not be able to fill a number of vacancies in the coming years. A few years ago, we were mainly talking about IT specialists, who were difficult to recruit. Today, we are seeing a decline in applications in significantly more professions. There is currently a high demand in areas such as IT, maths, legal and underwriting. On the one hand, we have to ensure that we retain our own employees and, if necessary, develop them for new job profiles. And on the other hand, we must succeed in attracting new employees.

We at the HDI Group have analyzed how high the demand for new talent will be by 2030, when the boomer generation gradually retires from working life. We want to close this gap.

How can we do this?

The scale of the challenge requires a holistic approach. Companies won't get far with a few corporate benefits here and a bit of mobile work there. Such things are important, but they are no longer a unique selling point.

I'm talking about the fundamentals: A living organization with cultural appeal. The further development of your own employees. Strengthening the recruitment process. And about the advantages of artificial intelligence.

Culture is a competitive factor

A study by Heidrick Consulting has revealed an interesting figure: two thirds of international CEOs now consider corporate culture to be the main driver for the success of their business. The CEOs only ranked their strategy in second place. The picture was different two years ago. At that time, less than a third of CEOs considered corporate culture to be the main driver. The perspective at the top of companies has therefore changed fundamentally.

We are going one step further. My opinion is that there is no strategy that works in isolation from culture. Culture is strategy. We should not look at the two factors separately.

Corporate culture describes the way we deal with each other, how we make decisions, how we define leadership and how we achieve top performance. It is the soil in which the seeds of business success grow. Culture is what people experience every day. What motivates them, what makes them creative and what connects them. Recognizing new opportunities and finding suitable answers to new questions is what we do together as a team.

And that is exactly what people are looking for in their job.

In the meantime, we keep hearing a pleasing phrase in recruitment. When asked why talented people want to move to the HDI Group, they answer: because of our culture. Word seems to be getting around that we do things differently: with more personal responsibility, team spirit and trust. In Germany, we now receive 50 percent more applications for vacancies than was the case two years ago.

And we see it in the market: last year, as part of the HDI Careers Study, we asked a representative sample of people throughout Germany whether they had quit their job in the past twelve months or were planning to do so in the near future. And we wanted to know the reasons why they leave.

A good third of respondents had quit their job at the time or were planning to do so. The interesting thing is that cultural reasons played a role for 36 percent of them. In other words, they hoped that a change of company would enable them to move to a more suitable, better cultural environment.

Corporate culture is therefore a decisive competitive factor in the search for talent.

To give people the opportunity to feel the corporate culture, we create opportunities to get to know each other better outside of the interview. Both sides benefit enormously from practical days during which candidates get to know the entire team. They can compare their expectations of everyday working life with reality and find out whether the chemistry is right - both of which are crucial for a successful long-term collaboration.

Developing employees

We want to attract people who will take us forward. That's why we need to focus much more on willingness to learn, openness and curiosity when it comes to qualifications. If this "cultural fit" applies, it says more about a talent than grades or a customized training profile. This attitude is now also reflected in job advertisements. We encourage talented people to apply, even if they do not fulfil all the criteria listed. It depends on what qualities and commitment are brought in to be able to develop successfully in and for the company.

But this also means more internal training. We build on basic qualifications and expand these through suitable measures at all levels. HDI is making targeted investments in part-time actuarial training, development programmes and new dual study courses such as business informatics with a focus on data science. An early search for personnel and forward-looking planning are essential. This includes planning time for further training, whether on the job or through additional in-service training programmes.

Recruiting plays a key role

Our "Recruiting Centre" plays a key role in attracting talent. All recruiting activities are bundled here. Active sourcing is also part of this team - a success story that we are gradually expanding. The Talent Acquisition Managers approach candidates in a targeted manner. This is necessary because talent from certain areas is generally no longer freely available on the market. Coupled with close collaboration with the recruiters and an expansion of employer branding activities, we get many more candidates who are a good fit for us. And: we speed up the process. From initial contact to discussions with the specialist department to a contract offer, we have been able to speed up the process considerably. This is a point on our business card that top talents appreciate about us. Because it reveals more about our culture than a few sentences in a job advert.

Artificial intelligence closes the gap in skilled labour

ChatGPT and co. have become part of a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Artificial intelligence can help close the demographic gap in skilled labour. And it opens up opportunities for new jobs. We will benefit from it if companies create the necessary conditions for cultural development.

Artificial intelligence can square the circle in the coming years: replacing a large number of highly qualified workers who are leaving the workforce for reasons of age, while at the same time there is a shortage of new skilled workers on the labour market.

A learning organization must aspire to be the fastest user of new things. It is crucial to understand new technologies early on and to take action. At HDI, we therefore implemented an internal ChatGPT alternative very early on with Chat@HDI, which supports our colleagues with various topics in their day-to-day work. A learning organization does not try to freeze a situation, it embraces new things. Only companies that do this remain open to new opportunities - and attractive to talent. It takes curiosity and creativity to keep up with the times. Companies have a responsibility to support people by offering learning and development opportunities.

Modern, motivating leadership is just as important. In recent years, we at HDI have invested a great deal in the development of our executives. Today, managers are no longer the best experts in their field. They have other tasks. They set goals, offer sparring, coaching and help with challenges, motivate people and develop them further. It is the task of them to look ahead: What opportunities do new technologies offer for my own area? How can I develop my colleagues to make the most of the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence?

Only a good culture will enable companies to make the leap into the new age of artificial intelligence. We cannot and do not want to rely on individual people at Board level having the right ideas at the right time. Recognizing opportunities and developing suitable answers is something we do together as a team. It is therefore clear that there is no strategy that works in isolation from culture.

Culture is strategy.

This article was published in the German magazine "Versicherungswirtschaft".

By Caroline Schlienkamp, Member of the Board of Management of Talanx AG. As Labour Director and Spokeswoman of the Management Board of HDI AG, she is responsible for the Group's HR department.