Strategic Management of Personnel Development in the Industry 4.0

Since 2009 the invested capital has steadily increased in personnel development measures and the training of employees is becoming a focus of the companies transnationally. Regarding the industry 4.0 and digitalized learning, the demands on the employees of the companies are rising constantly. But companies struggle with the new challenges due to the digitalized learning and the shaping of effective and strategically oriented learning cultures. The evaluation of the work-related development of competencies is thus a determining factor influencing the outcome of the personnel development strategy, and thus also influencing the competitiveness of the companies. Hence, in this study, an instrument for the implementation of strategic learning cultures for future personnel development will be introduced within the scope of a large-scale research project. Thereby, the study adopts a qualitative case approach to build up and evaluate learning cultures in manufacturing companies by introducing a tool to collect data about the current status of learning cultures. Intention of the study was to assess challenges within the digital change respective personnel development in organizations. The findings provide first guidance for personnel development and future learning activities to promote and measure strategic learning cultures that aim to strengthen effective lifelong learning at the workplace.