Work Flexibility is the Key to Sustainability in the Modern Corporate World

Stefan Britz, Chief Human Resources Officer, Allianz Group

As the Chief Human Resources Officer of Allianz, Stefan Britz focuses on co-relating people, IT, and business strategy. He is passionate about sustainability, diversity, and inclusion and is dedicated to applying his knowledge and insights to enhance the engagement and culture in the organization. With more than two decades of experience, Britz has held several positions in finance and operations functions as well as transformation programs. He is currently concentrating on employee engagement, talent attraction, and flexibility of hybrid working/business support, DEI, and dealing with uncertainty.

Early July, HR Tech Outlook Magazine had the chance to talk toStefan Britz about new HR technology and how to attract new talents:

Companies today are investing heavily in cloud-deployed human capital management for administrative HR and talent management. What are some of the benefits and recommendations regarding the novel HR technology?

SB: We had started investing in bringing technology to HR operations even before COVID-19, which helped us navigate through the trying times without strain. In today’s fast changing work environment, it is very challenging, not to say impossible, to run HR operations efficiently without a proper technology in place.

For a better employee experience, we need to have the right workplace and onboarding technology to sustain in the current hybrid environment. Amidst the war for talent whichwe are facingsincethe Great Resignation and high attrition rates, we need effective tools and platforms to streamline application processes and attract the right talents. This is why we need the right technology that offers flexibility to our employees to work in hybrid settings.

Today’s employees value their work-life-balance even more than before COVID-19 started to disrupt our work habits.People today tend to prefer remote or hybrid workplaces to maintain their work-life-balance. For us as a caring employer, this means that we need to be more flexible about it. Therefore, it is necessary to implement simple, efficient HR products and tools, including people analytics and strategic workforce planning to support the business strategy. Especially a global company such as Allianz with more than 150,000 employees needs strategic workforce planning to understand its current talent base. This helps usto analyze what kind of workforce we might need in the next five years and to steer the workforce in the right direction.

“Today’s workforce prefers remote or hybrid workplaces to maintain their work-life balance, so companies must be flexible about it”

With the right analytics in place, HR professionals can obtain necessary insights about the workforce and increase productivity. It also helps to identify the pay gaps and facilitate equal pay in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Companies today proactively offer learning and development opportunities to their employees to retain them. We need to use platforms like Degreed to help employees upgrade their skills through customized learning.

HR tech companies are actively seeking newer ways to approach their operations, as on-site setups are quickly being replaced by remote work arrangements for the foreseeable future. What are your views on this?

SB: The future will definitely be hybrid. The question is to what extent. I think we should have office days to maintain our company culture and ensure our people can identify with our organization. We need to provide workforce with a valid reason to be present in the office—such as strategy meetings, innovation workshops, and simply to have watercooler talks again which are very important to engage with your peers! For example, we have set global standards regarding flexibility for remote working by at least 40 percent. Entities can also go for a higher percentage if they feel the respective need. It could be similar to the work culture that we follow in our Allianz Germany entities, where we are running a pilot with four office team days per month and where we are figuring out what fits best for the teams.

Gen Z and millennials have a different approach to work compared to baby boomers. Given the talent scarcity, people above 50 are crucial for a company and require different working opportunities. With regards to that, mobility has also become a vital part of employee engagement and talent attraction these days. Going forward, flexibility in work arrangements will provide more mobility, making work from abroad possible.

What would be your piece of advice for your peers and leaders?

Trust your people and treat them like your friends – and treat everyone on eye-level. Focus on employee engagement, continuous learning, development and feedback, and focus on attaining the right people mix in HR and in the entire organization, of course.

HR Technology