key position

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Key positions are strategically relevant personnel positions for companies. Employees in key positions make a disproportionate contribution to the success or failure of a company.

meaning

In most functions in an organization, the performance of the employee and the added value he or she generates are in a proportional relation to one another, not so in key positions. An example: A production employee who works 20% faster brings the company 20% more than his average colleague. This is different for key positions, here an employee can help the organization to increase in value, which is more than linear to his increase in performance. As a result, key positions have the greatest strategically relevant risk in the event of an incorrect appointment. Personnel risks often have a greater impact on key positions because they have a disproportionate influence on the company's success or failure. Key positions therefore represent a significant risk factor and should be given special consideration in personnel risk management .
Filling key positions is one of the most critical tasks for managers . The aim is the long-term orientation of the organization and the securing of the company's success by filling the most important positions with suitable candidates as well as developing promising high potentials in the company. Persistence in key positions is relevant to the company's success, in small and medium-sized companies a failure can endanger the future of the company. The risk of losing employees in key positions is high, so companies try to retain these employees through legal restrictions, e.g. B. by non-competition . The identification of key positions is the basis for implementing talent management within the framework of strategically oriented succession planning.

ID

Key positions must be defined individually in every organization, as they are company-specific and linked to various functions, processes and activities. It must be based on the corporate strategy . The focus is on the question of which functions of an organization are particularly important in order to achieve a competitive advantage over the competition. In terms of future-oriented personnel management, it must then be defined which challenges will have to be overcome in the future by the holders of key positions. For example, companies whose strategy is geared towards innovation and technology leadership will include functions from the area of ​​research and development as their key positions, while companies aiming for price leadership will define functions from purchasing as a key position.
The question of which functions are defined as key positions is difficult because it affects the value of different functions in the company. Individual executives are reluctant to downgrade the importance of their area in favor of other areas. The discussions must therefore be conducted and decided at management level. Key positions are not necessarily tied to specific hierarchical levels or departments, they can be present in all areas and hierarchical levels of an organization and, in addition to management positions, also include positions of skilled workers in the commercial and white-collar sectors . Often the mistake is made that a key position is defined as such because one cannot do without it. In an efficiently organized company, however, one can assume that all functions are necessary in this sense. A success factor for the identification of key positions is a cross-company definition to ensure comparability. When defining key positions, care must be taken to limit the number. Criteria that only partially or sporadically apply should be left out of the process of identification. A large number of key positions make it difficult to manage them and in practice often leads to personnel bottlenecks. In most organizations, less than 15% of all positions are key positions.

Mark

Those factors that make up key positions are directly related to the position. If a factor can be attributed to the fact that the current job holder has specific characteristics or fills the position particularly well, it is not necessarily a key position, as the factors are personal. The following criteria can be used to identify key positions:

  • High contribution to value creation or loss due to the position.
  • Specific requirements for the position holder that are difficult to access on the job market or cannot be developed in the company.
  • Need for company-specific knowledge.
  • Strategically highly relevant performance of a substantial and success-critical contribution to the current or future core business.
  • Immediate dependence of other areas of the company on the results of the position.

Demarcation

Key positions are occupied by people. By definition, every person who holds a key position in the company is a key person. However, regardless of the respective position at all levels in the company, there can also be people who are extremely important for the company's success due to their attitude, their skills, their potential, etc. and do not necessarily have to occupy a key position in the sense described here. Such key persons or key workers can, for example, be persons who are particularly willing and cooperative, who identify with the company's goals and / or who are of decisive importance for the company due to their personality. A distinction must therefore be made between key positions and key people in the company.

literature

  • Armin Trost: Talent Relationship Management. Recruiting in times of a shortage of skilled workers. 1st edition, Springer Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3642170775
  • Matthias T. Meifert: Strategic Personnel Development. A program in eight stages. 2nd edition, Springer Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3642043994
  • Uwe D. Wucknitz: Personnel Rating and Personnel Risk Management. How medium-sized companies improve their ratings. 1st edition, Schäffer-Poeschel 2005, ISBN 978-3791023021
  • Uwe D. Wucknitz, Volker Heyse, Developing and retaining key workers, Waxmann Verlag Münster, 2008
  • Raimund Birri: Human Capital Management. A tried and tested approach with a strategic focus. 1st edition, Springer Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-3834929006
  • Siegfried Neubauer, Stefan Rankl: Order leadership. Handbook and tool kit for newly appointed managers. 1st edition, Springer Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3642117244
  • Meik Führing, Risk Management and Personnel, Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 3-8350-0555-3
  • Dirk Wölwer, identification and evaluation of key people and their influence on the success of small and medium-sized companies, dissertation Bergische Universität Wuppertal, 2017 (available online via the electronic publications portal of the University of Wuppertal )
  • Andreas von Schubert, Excellent customer service through new management methods, 2009 in the manual: PersonalEntwickeln 134th Erg.-Lfg., 7.43, ISBN 978-3-87156-116-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claudius Enaux, Matthias Meifert, Fabian Henrich: Strategic Talent Management: find talent systematically, develop and retain . Ed .: Mathias Meifert. Haufe Verlag, Freiburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-648-00451-7 .
  2. ↑ Dirk Wölwer: Identification and evaluation of key people and their influence on the success of small and medium-sized companies . Wuppertal 2017.
  3. ↑ Uwe D. Wucknitz, Volker Heyse: Developing and binding key forces . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8309-2065-6 .
  4. ^ Meik Führing: Risk Management and Personnel . Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8350-0555-6 .