Personnel and Abilities

At the beginning of this chapter, the personnel strategy is considered. This strategy should be designed in such a way that it is coordinated with the innovation strategy so that it promotes it. Innovations arise mainly through the commitment and creativity of the employees. The framework conditions for innovations are to be communicated to the employees in concrete terms. This also includes the fact that the employees also deal with other operational topics and market conditions away from their specialist areas. The goal is, among other things, that innovations are addressed by all employees in such a way that they are in line with the corporate strategy and can be successfully implemented on the market. In the further course of the chapter, the challenges of an innovation-promoting personnel strategy, such as the systematic identification of personnel requirements or the clear formulation and communication of the company strategy and innovation strategy, are discussed. In connection with the HR strategy, successful personnel development and retention is essential. Personnel development, which has the task of further developing the abilities of employees and adapting them to changing market requirements, plays a central role in maintaining and increasing the company’s innovative ability. In addition, this chapter deals in detail with the innovation-promoting behavior of managers, learning through work projects, staffing and personnel retention instruments. It is then shown how the innovative capacity required for the development, adoption and implementation of innovations is characterized and what resources and abilities are required. The necessary resources and the organizational abilities of the employees as well as their relationship to one another are described. The right combination of resources and skills can create competitive advantages for the company. Finally, innovation teams and their roles are discussed. These can also be an organizational and personnel measure for the planning and development of an innovation. The goal is to promote creativity in these innovation teams, something which can be very successful if many areas and competencies of the company are integrated into such a team. As a result, the abilities and knowledge of the employees complement each other. A more effective and faster execution of activities takes place and produces a higher quality of the innovation as well as higher performance of the individual coworkers.