Labour conflicts cost money, they entail tangible and intangible costs and have an impact on those directly involved, the organisation and society. Nevertheless, Leen Van den Abeele notes in “Bemiddeling in arbeidsconflicten, onbekend of onbemind?” that there is little recourse to professionals such as recognised mediators in social affairs to prevent or, if necessary, defuse labour conflicts. With her article, Leen aims to highlight “mediation in employment context”. Indeed, expert mediation can play both a curative and a preventive role, giving the employer the opportunity to work on the “conflict resilience” and “conflict skills” of employees and the company as a whole.

Katherina Swings pleads to get rid of HR, meaning to transform Human Resources into People & Culture. She distills 3 common grounds that mark the many emerging/current initiatives to add heart and soul to companies and support the idea of People and Culture. “Let’s get rid of HR in 2023” is above all a call to think about what our contribution will be to realise the transformation from HR to People & Culture.

Training is a profit! However, it is not easy to realise this….. In “The value of training – cost or profit”, Peter Buyse first points out the pitfalls that turn training into a cost: training as a menu, training as part of performance and evaluation interviews and training that is determined by short-term thinking. He then elaborates on the conditions that make training a strategic instrument that helps employees to be a crucial factor in realising value for external and internal customers.

In “Een paardenmiddel voor leiders”, Bie De Backer  talks about Horse Assisted Coaching as an efficient support in integrating theory and practice in leadership processes. Leaders can increase their personal growth and self-insight by looking deeply into the mirror.  Horses offer this mirror in a crystal clear way. An example from her practice as a Horse Reflected Coach gives a nice illustration.