Fòrema brings together HR managers from 18 companies, collectively managing over 6,000 people, to define the key skills of the future as part of the HR Plus project. The goal: to train an authoritative figure capable of using digital tools, managing company know-how, understanding the labor market, and leading organizations through transition. Roberto Baldo (Fòrema): “Only an authoritative HR professional can shape inclusive, digital, and change-ready organizations.”
Gaining power and using digital tools to anticipate change — this is the profile of the HR manager of the future, as outlined today at Fòrema’s headquarters in Padua during a meeting involving HR leaders from 18 Veneto-based companies representing more than 6,000 employees, including Carel, SIT, and Ard Raccanello, partners in the HR Plus project.
The meeting is part of the broader European initiative HR Plus, led by Fòrema, aimed at identifying the key competencies that will define future HR roles in the coming years.
Hosting the event was Roberto Baldo, Head of Funded Projects at Fòrema and coordinator of the initiative:
“The HR manager must reclaim a central role, with decision-making power and strategic capabilities. That’s the only way to successfully guide the organizational transformation companies are facing, amid digitalization, sustainability, and new cultural demands.”
The day’s discussions clearly highlighted the need for HR professionals to gain greater authority within companies, moving beyond their traditional role as a service function to become architects of organizational change. Only in this way can they influence models, hierarchies, practices, and decision-making processes.
A second key takeaway was the importance of digital competence and the use of advanced tools in HR activities. These tools support the smart collection and management of data, providing insights for strategic workforce decisions. It’s not about becoming technologists, but about knowing how to use digital tools to enhance human capital.
Finally, the group shared a strong conviction: the HR professional of the future must be able to anticipate change, detect early signals, understand emerging employee needs, and adapt internal strategies to shifts in the labor market and society.
The meeting is part of the HR Plus – Innovative Competencies for HR Managers Among Twin and Social Transition project, co-financed by the Erasmus+ program and promoted by Fòrema alongside partners from Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Italy.
As Roberto Baldo explains:
“HR Plus aims to define, at a European level, the competencies required of the new HR manager to lead organizational innovation. In a time when the twin transition — both environmental and digital — along with demographic and migratory changes present complex challenges, we need a new professional profile.”
Officially launched on November 20, 2024, the project includes in-person and online activities throughout 2025 and 2026, with international events already scheduled in Spain, Hungary, and Brussels. At its core is the creation of a shared European training program that will be certified and recognized across member states.
Among the international partners: PC Trend (Hungary), Gdoce (Spain), Previform (Portugal), EVTA (Belgium), along with Italy’s Fondazione Aldini Valeriani and Veneto Lavoro.
During the Padua event, the HR+ Skill Matrix was discussed and validated. This map integrates macro-competencies, digital, social, and environmental trends, challenges, and strategies for those working on organizational and personnel development.
Topics covered included:
- The ability to manage and develop organizational knowledge and skills
- Adapting organizational models and corporate policies to meet new employee needs (including welfare and work-life balance)
- The impact of sustainability on HR practices and responsibilities
- Conscious use of artificial intelligence
- Intercultural management and cognitive bias mitigation
- Change management in hybrid work environments
- Green technologies and the digital workplace
“One of the upcoming milestones of the HR Plus project will be, in September, the launch of a European contest for HR managers, awarding the most innovative experiences in personnel management,” concludes Roberto Baldo.
“We will also launch pilot training courses simultaneously in Padua, Vigo (Spain), and Budapest. In October, we’ll participate in the Hungarian National HR Festival, bringing forward proposals for renewing the corporate role in territorial development. Most importantly, our journey will reach Brussels — together with the contest winners — with an official presentation to the European Commission’s Economic and Social Committee. That’s where we want to bring the voices of Italian companies and HR professionals. Because the future of work is shaped where visions become policies, and skills become engines of growth.”