HR – The Department That Promotes The Index Of Innovation

In 2011, as the opening of the new branch in Australia requires a large number of new employees, instead of posting recruitment ads in the traditional way, the furniture company IKEA embed “Career Instructions” details in the assembly instructions in each product sold.  

According to Trendhunter, this unique recruitment method helps them attract more than 4,285 candidates, which in turn easily fills 280 positions without any advertising costs. New employees are mostly IKEA fans or have always been interested and impressed with the brand. 

IKEA’s recruitment campaign is a prime example of how HR (Human Resources) brings forth a “wind of innovation”. Starting from the recruitment touchpoint, this organization both finds suitable personnel and promotes the innovation culture of them among the community. 

Experts said that units and organizations should create an open environment, promote communication, teamwork and regularly organize activities to encourage the spirit of “dare to think and dare to do” in employees to contribute to transform innovation into a feature (or DNA) of business. 

Mr. Jack Nguyen – Deputy CEO of Talentnet – said: “In fact, in any business, HR is the only department in charge of people and culture – factors that govern the innovation and creativity of the organization”. According to Mr. Jack, daring to venture, thinking differently to test new ideas is how HR creates miracles. This effort not only helps them bring innovation to the organization, but also builds their own spirit of innovation.  

Claude Silver of the creative media company VaynerMedia is an example of this change. As an HR, thanks to constantly having new initiatives to help employees be happier, she was trusted by the leader to give her a special role – Chief Heart Officer. The KPI for Claude Silver is employee happiness. She is helping VaynerMedia become the dream working environment of many global media professionals.  

Claude Silver’s breakthrough journey is the motivation for all HR who are cherishing the desire to change and renew themselves. Without having to limit themselves to the job description, HR can take advantage of personal strengths and new ideas to do what they are good at, love and still bring value to the organization.

According to Mr. Jack Nguyen: “Maybe after the ‘Chief Happiness Officer’, global HR will welcome more ‘Creative Recruitment Managers’ or ‘Interest Presidents’. There are no limits to what HR can do, as long as they incubate a spirit of innovation”.

Maintaining a flexible perspective, constantly updating initiatives to promote innovation will help HR refresh itself every day. These initiatives can be found through connections with human resources departments of creative companies, or taking advantage of prestigious human resources courses, international seminars. 

“When changing itself, HR will bring synergistic value to the team, contributing to making innovation a core competency of the business”, Mr. Jack Nguyen added.