Purpose

Recent research has shown that the implementation of Industry 4.0 requires companies to (re)adjust their human resource (HR) policies. This article focuses on the relationship between Industry 4.0 and three HR practices: i.e. employee involvement, job design and skill development.

Design/methodology/approach

We use data of the European Company Survey (ECS) (2019). This nationally representative survey in the EU28 gathers data on workplace practices among managers from establishments employing at least 10 employees. We focus on 5,609 establishments in the manufacturing sector.

Findings

Firstly, employee involvement shows a strong positive correlation with Industry 4.0, irrespective of the digital technology used, country or firm size. Secondly, weak but significant correlations are found with increasing job complexity and skill development.

Research limitations/implications

Research should engage in fine-grained analyses of the alignment between particular digital technologies and their respective HR practices.

Practical implications

Our results stress the importance of involving employees during the implementation of Industry 4.0.

Originality/value

Despite frequent acknowledgement across Industry 4.0 roadmaps and maturity models, the predictions for HR practices are empirically incomplete and theoretically inconclusive.

中文翻译：

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欧洲制造业伴随工业4.0的人力资源实践

目的

最近的研究表明，工业4.0的实施要求公司（重新）调整其人力资源（HR）政策。本文重点介绍了工业4.0和三种人力资源实践之间的关系：即员工参与，工作设计和技能开发。

设计/方法/方法

我们使用欧洲公司调查（ECS）（2019）的数据。这项在EU28中具有全国代表性的调查收集了至少雇用10名员工的企业中管理人员之间有关工作场所实践的数据。我们专注于制造业的5609家机构。

发现

首先，无论所使用的数字技术，国家/地区或公司规模如何，员工的参与度与工业4.0都具有很强的正相关性。其次，随着工作复杂性和技能发展的增加，发现了微弱但重要的相关性。

研究局限/意义

研究应该对特定数字技术及其各自的人力资源实践之间的一致性进行细粒度的分析。

实际影响

我们的结果强调了在工业4.0实施过程中让员工参与的重要性。

创意/价值

尽管在工业4.0路线图和成熟度模型上得到了广泛认可，但人力资源实践的预测在经验上是不完整的，并且在理论上尚无定论。