COVID-19 Continues to Drive HR Tech Space

Kristine Niehus, Senior Director of Human Resources, CentroMotion

Kristine Niehus, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, has a career that spans more than 20 years in manufacturing and software industries. Niehus is a senior director of human resources and currently leads human resources activities for the Industrial division of CentroMotion, a global business comprised of respected brands that add value through innovative motion, actuation and control technologies. Prior to working at CentroMotion Kristine also worked as director of human resources at Modern Hire.

What are some of the challenges impacting HR tech space today?

As we are a global organization to cope up with pandemic we really had to be dynamic in how we address expectations in all different parts of the world. Keeping on mind the group we’re talking with, different regulations and environment, we really had to be responsive to what all of the local expectations were from governmental agencies. And now that majority of those expectations are now listed, we have different situations where people have adapted to different ways of working. So I believe today our company has become more open in accepting of hybrid style work wherever possible. However as we are also an industrial manufacturing company, there are many positions that cannot be performed from home. Therefore it is important that we strike a balance between the fact that we need our support team to be accessible to our manufacturing team, while also attempting to create and improve a culture that reflects the currency of our global environment.

Furthermore, by examining what tasks can be completed remotely versus those that must be completed on site, as well as by thinking more flexibly, we have been able to expand our talent pools. Doing this we’ve uncovered niches in some professions within our organization where we’ve been able to hire outside of our typical geographic hiring restrictions and bring in very outstanding folks who might not have previously been available to us. As a result, we’ve achieved some very creative achievements.

“I believe there is always a chance to start over and consider what is absolutely necessary, where we can be flexible, how we need to adapt, and what kind of talent we might need to look at for a position”

On the other hand, as many of our manufacturing facilities struggle to find enough employees to work in the manufacturing environment, nearly regardless of where they are located in the world. A lot of our teams have had to be creative and work on various methods of connecting with people to make them COVID-19 CONTINUES TO DRIVE HR TECH SPACE Kristine Niehus, Senior Director of Human Resources, CentroMotion By understand manufacturing careers can be very fulfilling and very lucrative. Moreover they made sure that people who have worked in manufacturing still consider our sites to be an employer choice and figuring out how to get people interested in manufacturing career.

How do you envision the future of the space?

Moving Forward talent retention, engagement and attraction will continue to be very hot topics for leaders. We are working with our peers to ensure that we have engaging experiences for our employees so that we can convey who we are as an employer to attract people to our opportunity, and that we can reflect the diversity of thought that we want to have around our organization and in the future wherever we can. Furthermore, because we are a global company, we already have a lot of diversity embedded in our business and are trying to continue to build those networks amongst the colleagues that we have around the world, which will be a big component of engagement in the long run for us.

What is your piece of advice for the budding professionals in the field?

When I consider my peer group, we tend to go back to what’s worth and then we get frustrated when what has worked doesn’t work any longer. I believe there is always a chance to start over and consider what is absolutely necessary, where we can be flexible, how we need to adapt, and what kind of talent we might need to look at for a position. Having that flexibility in almost everything gives us the chance to be creative and find new ways to accomplish things. Moreover by doing this we create the possibility for more innovative outcomes and the ability to achieve the successes we need by being able to change perhaps a few small things we’re doing and think a little differently about things what worked in the past and not now.