Open Access

This full paper track proposal deals with the challenges of designing the onboarding of new employees in digital work settings. The increasing prevalence of home office workplaces due to the corona pandemic poses new challenges for managers in designing this phase given the physical separation of team members. In the context of this research project, the aim was to examine how managers experience digital onboarding in practice and which methods they use to trigger learning and teambuilding processes. In particular, the initial period in a new company is accompanied by many learning and team-building processes at various levels: The newcomer must acquire new technical information, create social connections with other team members, and learn on a superordinate level which values are embodied in the organization. This introductory phase lays the foundation for the initiation of further learning processes as well as the learning climate and should therefore be designed with caution. For this purpose, data was collected using guideline-based expert interviews with managers via digital video call platforms. Most managers reported a preference for hybrid onboarding. Overall, it appears that managers largely use adequate strategies for triggering learning and teambuilding processes in remote work. Nevertheless, not all potentials have yet been exhausted, so this paper describes implementation proposals for the conception of leadership development workshops regarding the design of a professional onboarding.

Digitization is constantly affecting the working world and is of enormous interest in many fields of science. But to what extent are innovative technologies actually being applied in regional SMEs and what are the obstacles to their introduction? From a psychological point of view, it is essential to consider the employee's health and the effects of innovative technologies on their everyday work. The aim of using innovative technologies should not be to completely replace human labor or to dequalify employees, but to relieve the workforce and free up working time for more meaningful activities. One concept that should be included in the human-centered design of human-machine interaction in artificial intelligence is the HAI-MMI concept (Huchler, 2020), which offers starting points for high-quality collaboration at various levels. To reduce the gap between science and industry, this paper focuses on the actual demands of SME in the Aachen region in Germany referring to a requirements analysis within the research project AKzentE4.0 (N = 50 SME) and discusses how appropriate innovative technologies of the Industry 4.0 and AI can be implemented and deployed in a human-centred way. Moreover, the establishment of a Human Factors Competence Center for Employment in Industry 4.0 is outlined, which is meant to be used for the dissemination of research results from the project and should narrow the gap between science and industry in the long run.

Der Pflegefachkräftemangel in Deutschland hat gravierende Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheitsversorgung und erfordert dringende Maßnahmen. Eine wirksame Strategie ist die Rekrutierung ausländischer Fachkräfte, wie es vom FIR e. V. an der RWTH Aachen im Verbundprojekt „Gesundheitsregion Aachen: innovativ lernen und arbeiten – GALA“ untersucht wurde. Anhand von 23 Interviews mit Akteur*innen im Gesundheitswesen in Deutschland und Südamerika wurden drei zentrale Handlungsfelder identifiziert: Sprachkompetenz, länderspezifische Unterschiede in Ausbildung und Kultur sowie Unterstützung bei Integration und behördlichen Prozessen. Dieses Positionspapier beleuchtet die aktuelle Situation, analysiert die Auswirkungen und gibt Handlungsempfehlungen für Unternehmen und Gesundheitspolitik.

Die sechs Themenfelder beinhalten beispielhafte Tools zur Umsetzung arbeitsgestalterischer Maßnahmen in Unternehmen der Gesundheitsbranche. In der Arbeits­gestaltung geht es um die Gestaltung der Arbeits­bedingungen von Arbeits­personen.