we.CONECT: The pop in your job – you work as Head of HR at DERMALOG Identification Systems  – which tasks would you highlight as particularly interesting? What is most exciting about your role, and why are you passionate about your job?

Heiko Vogt: First of all working with all people of the organization is one of the most interesting and challenging part of my role. More focus on real tasks, the most exciting is to shift the mindset of my team and the organization to a modern, long-term oriented and strategic HR perspective. My passion about my job is to bring things forward together with motivated, enthusiastic, and innovative people to ensure a work environment where people can reach the best results for the company and where people love to work.

we.CONECT: You will present “Evolving from traditional administrative tasks to a holistic HR world with diverse technology applications” at Rethink! HR Tech Europe 2022. How would you define your approach?

Heiko Vogt: In some words: Flexible – Culture and People driven – Adaptive – Long term oriented.

we.CONECT: What are the biggest challenges and how have you overcome them?

Heiko Vogt: Mindset shift is one of the biggest challenges. An organization grown over years or even decades, extremely focussed on technical success and continuous innovation and using HR as an administrative unit, is a challenging start point to make HR to a strategic and operative partner along all processes in the company. In addition, the technical background of over 80% of the staff often lead to strong resistance against technical tools they are not used to. How to overcome these challenges: Do not leave any one behind. Involve them. Show advantages and take fears and rejections seriously. Communicate on multi channels and take time for individual face-to-face discussions.

we.CONECT: Looking to the future, what topics and upcoming trends in HR do you expect in the next 12 months – what is the market development?

Heiko Vogt: One topic for all of us is: Find the people you need and retain your workforce. No new topic and I expect that the next 12 months will need more and more individual solutions to handle these challenges. To ensure this, HR needs time, flexibility, freedom of movement and trust of the whole organization.

we.CONECT: What are your learning expectations from Rethink! HR Tech Europe 2022? Which topics are particularly important for you?

Heiko Vogt: Some inspiring ideas and/or experience how to face todays HR Challenges. Most important topics: Talent acquisition – Development and Retention – Longterm motivation all with the focus how to empower HR to be able to overcome these challenges without losing efficiency and effectivity.

we.CONECT: The pop in your job – you work as Global Head of Technology and Insights at Siemens – which tasks would you highlight as particularly interesting? What is most exciting about your role, and why are you passionate about your job?

Jenny Lin: The mission of my team is to orchestrate the technology and data backbone of our learning and growth ecosystem at Siemens. It is particularly motivating to see how technology is enabling a digital learning culture that is growing and scaling on a global level. Every little thing we do, impacts the experience of our 230k+ people. That has really kept us going.

we.CONECT: You will present “Creating a learning ecosystem on a global scale” at Rethink! HR Tech Europe 2022. How would you define your approach?

Jenny Lin: At Siemens, we look at our Learning ecosystem as a platform based ecosystem, like Uber, Amazon or Apple App Store. By applying the principles and experiences from these giants, we have been successfully launched our own learning experience platform and will continue to scale up.

we.CONECT: Looking to the future, what topics and upcoming trends in HR do you expect in the next 12 months – what is the market development?

Jenny Lin: Skills, People Matching powered by AI, job/gig market place, closer connection to talent acquisition

we.CONECT: What are your learning expectations from Rethink! HR Tech Europe 2022? Which topics are particularly important for you?

Jenny Lin: To learn from and exchange with other organizations, esp. on People Analytics