{"id":6933,"date":"2022-05-02T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/?p=6933"},"modified":"2023-04-07T12:14:04","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T12:14:04","slug":"why-dialog-is-the-capability-for-smes-to-remain-relevant-in-times-of-skills-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/2022\/05\/why-dialog-is-the-capability-for-smes-to-remain-relevant-in-times-of-skills-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Why dialog is the capability for SMEs to remain relevant in times of skills shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the German-speaking world, we say that SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), the Mittelstand, are the engine and anchor of stability in the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Traditionally, in this region, economic success has relied on SMEs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>More than 99 percent of all companies in Germany are part of this sector,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>they generate more than every second euro in the national economy,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and provide more than half of all jobs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This leads to a situation where we have traditionally relied on SMEs to always work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"block-b0b6a6c1f15b46d589fd6968e483c692\"><strong>Yet, SMEs are highly exposed to the complexity and uncertainty in the economy.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One example is the topic of skills shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In times of a shortage of skilled workers and demographic change, the labor market has already turned from an employer market to an employee market: The so-called skilled labor gap in Germany has more than doubled in 2021 (Handelsblatt). Innovation activity in Switzerland is already being held back by a lack of skilled workers and silo thinking (Deloitte). Also, SMEs expect the search for employees to become even more difficult due to digitalization (Credit Suisse).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think now is the right time for SMEs to work on staying relevant for Generation Z apprentices and graduates entering the job market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"block-bcc1e5b63f68489db5c0b9173c5401e1\"><strong>The best way to get graduates to consider the 'Next Mittelstand' as a future employer is by engaging in a future dialog.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually, it is about taking a step back and in this way raising awareness for the real needs of future employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From such a conversation, SMEs will learn not to predict the future from past experiences, and to engage in fundamentally new solutions. It's about discovering flow from the movement in which SMEs themselves play a role. And it includes accepting the risks that are embedded in the evolving whole. Such a conversation will be mind-opening in a way that it helps developing capabilities that make SMEs future-proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"block-7f5f238fe4784b45b8df3880b19b863b\"><strong>Future conversations enable SMEs to transition to a form of resilience that enables dynamic management of crisis and change.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The more uncertainty and insecurity grow, the more the stability of SMEs falters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The questions are: How can Next Mittelstand become part of the future conversation? How can SMEs strengthen their capabilities to survive in times of crisis? And what creates systemic cohesion overall?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dialog is the currency with which we achieve stability by remaining flexible.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the German-speaking world, we say that SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), the Mittelstand, are the engine and anchor of stability in the economy. Traditionally, in this region, economic success has relied on SMEs: This leads to a situation where we have traditionally relied on SMEs to always work. Yet, SMEs are highly exposed to [...]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smes","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huebner.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}