The main goal of this project is to find a different approach to meet the current and future challenges of the labor market. This involves a different perspective on the employability of employees and what is required from the organization together with the employees. The intended result focuses on insights into the existing and relevant skills of current employees. More concreted, based on the idea of working on a new approach to HR development, we set ourselves the goal of establishing a validation process that supports employees in becoming aware of their own potential and encourages them to actively participate in the further development of their own employability and the organisation. Thus, it also enables them to understand the current challenges and a new approaches to solutions. By linking these insights to the organization's goals (urgency), we foster employee commitment and participation in a positive learning culture and try to encourage companies to improve their existing staff rather than hire new employees. In addition to the development of a good validation process, the aim was to carry out a concrete pilot project with an Austrian municipality.
In both Austria and the Netherlands, the labour market is characterised by a significant shortage of skilled workers and an ageing population, which is why we believe there is a clear need for new and innovative approaches to HR development. Traditionally, HR development has been ‘top-down’ and training has been delivered on behalf of the organisation and its strategy, rather than within the context of employee development goals. This project aims to change this perspective by actively involving employees in the HR development process by strengthening their strengths and focussing on their competencies. In our view, this leads to greater employee commitment and better utilisation of the talent already present in the workforce for employers. The approach originates from the Netherlands and Libereaux B.V. has been working with the development and validation of competences for decades. In this project, BFI Salzburg and Libereaux B.V. collaborated through building on the existing knowledge from the Netherlands and adapting the approach to make it suitable for the Austrian labour market. We also refer to the following policy documents: Council recommendation (Council of EU 2012, 2012/C 398/01); Strategy on Validation [...] (BMB 2017)