CentroMotion

Kristine Niehus

Kristine Niehus, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, has a career that spans more than 20 years in the manufacturing and software industries. Niehus is a senior director of human resources and currently leads human resources activities for the Industrial division of CentroMotion, a global business comprised of respected brands that add value through innovative motion, actuation and control technologies. Prior to working at CentroMotion Kristine also worked as director of human resources at HR tech and manufacturing organizations.

What are some of the challenges impacting HR talent space today?

As we are a global organization, to cope with the pandemic, we really had to be dynamic in how we address expectations in different parts of the world. Keeping in mind the group we're interacting with, different regulations and the environment, we really had to be responsive to what all of the local expectations were from governmental agencies. Now that a majority of those expectations are now lifted, we have different situations where people have adapted to different ways of working. As a result, today our company has become more open in accepting hybrid style work wherever possible. However, as we are also an industrial manufacturing company, there are many positions that cannot be performed from home. It is important that we strike a balance between the fact that we need our support team to be accessible to our manufacturing team while also attempting to create and improve a culture that reflects the currency of our global environment.

Furthermore, by examining what tasks can be completed remotely versus those that must be completed on-site, as well as by thinking more flexibly, we have been able to expand our talent pools. Doing this, we've uncovered niches in some professions within our organization where we've been able to hire outside of our typical geographic hiring zones and bring in very outstanding people who might not have previously been available to us. As a result, we've achieved some very creative solutions.

“There is always a chance to consider what is absolutely necessary, where we can be flexible, how we need to adapt, and what kind of talent we might need to look at for a position”

On the other hand, many of our manufacturing facilities struggle to find enough employees to work in the manufacturing environment, regardless of where they are located in the world. A lot of our teams have had to be creative and work on various methods of connecting with people to help them understand manufacturing careers can be very fulfilling and lucrative. Moreover, they made sure that people who have worked in manufacturing still consider our sites to be an employer of choice and figure out how to get people interested in a manufacturing career.

How do you envision the future of the space?

Moving forward, talent retention, engagement and attraction will continue to be very hot topics for leaders. We are working with our peers in the business to ensure that we have engaging experiences for our employees. We can convey who we are as an employer to attract people to our opportunity and reflect the diversity of thought that we want to have around our organization and in the future. Furthermore, because we are a global company, we already have a lot of diversity embedded in our business and are trying to continue to build those networks amongst the colleagues that we have around the world, which will be a big component of engagement in the long run for us.

What is your piece of advice for budding professionals in the field?

There is always a chance to consider what is absolutely necessary, where we can be flexible, how we need to adapt, and what kind of talent we might need to seek for a position. Having that flexibility in many areas gives us a chance to be creative and find new ways to accomplish things. Moreover, by doing this, we create the possibility for more innovative outcomes and the ability to achieve the successes we need by being able to change perhaps a few small things we're doing and think a little differently.