Spain ranks 21 of 28 in Europe when it comes to adopting high performance HR practices

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

It is no secret that the main asset of companies is the talent that they bring together. An employee-centered approach that determines the policies of attraction, selection, loyalty and prioritizes elements such as commitment, pride of belonging, satisfaction, and job happiness - something that fully impacts productivity and that, until recently, were relegated to a second, third or subsequent level.

Now, does this new business scenario condition the way in which companies convey their Human Resources policies? This same question was asked by Alberto Bayo Moriones and Pedro Ortín Ángel, signatories of the article What Spanish Human Resources Managers could learn from Europe, published recently. In it, the authors highlight how "to truly believe in the value of workers implies a particular focus on the different areas of human resources management."

What does this mean? For them, simply, "grant decision-making power to the worker" or, what is the same, "adopt high-performance policies and practices that give the worker decision-making power in their daily activity" through practices such as "redesigning jobs, the implementation of participation mechanisms and the alignment of interests through remuneration practices that connect the salary with the results and strengthen the link with the company providing security in employment, professional career and training."

In their opinion, the use of these three groups of practices "gives rise to synergistic effects, since it allows simultaneously the improvement of the skills of the workers, a greater degree of motivation and an increase of the opportunities in which to be able to put into practice those improvements in capacity and effort."

The reality of HR in Spain

To assess the maturity status of Spain's HR, Bayo and Ortín refer to the research carried out based on the information provided by the European Survey of Working Conditions and the European Survey of Companies. In it, the reality of human resources management in Spain is analyzed from an international perspective.

Spain is ranked 21st out of 28 countries, a position close to that of Italy, Croatia and Bulgaria, and being closer to a group of less advanced countries in this area - Poland, Cyprus, Portugal and Greece - than the leading countries - Finland, Denmark and Sweden.

According to the investigations cited, and in the words of the authors, Spain "is especially badly affected in job security, career prospects and job training." It also stands out in the adoption of high performance practices, something that it shares with the rest of Europe, especially between 2010 and 2015. Instead, there is still a way to go, they point out, "in work organization practices such as job autonomy, the rotation of tasks, and teamwork."

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.