A qualitative research on competency-based human resources systems in the Industry 4.0 process

Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution is a general name for the process that describes the digital transformation of organizations and their environments. While the concept of data, extremely important in this process, forms a leverage effect, it also forces organizations to an absolute transformation and adaptation. It is an inevitable result for organizations that are not involved in this process to lose their competitive advantage. In this digital process, defined as Industry 4.0, technically digitalization is not the only way for organizations to gain a competitive advantage while coping with challenges. In addition to technical processes, human resources systems and the concept of employees still maintain their importance in today's organizations. Just as it was important in the first industrial era, employee competencies that appear as observable behaviors that include distinctive knowledge, skills, and attitudes in achieving excellent performance in organizations, on the axis of human resources systems, have a special importance in today's fourth industrial era by changing and developing over time. With the effects of the Industry 4.0 revolution, organization and employee competencies are also transformed by gaining importance. The transformation in question has been examined in this study with qualitative methods in four different sectors that have stepped into the industry 4.0 process. The new and important competencies that emerged in the Industry 4.0 process provide many advantages to organizations in today's intense competitive environment.