Imagine an old steelworks, right in the heart of the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park: rusty steel girders, echoing industrial halls and, right in the middle of it all, a stage where the future of HR is being discussed. It is precisely here, in a place where work used to look very different, that Marcel Rütten has set up his own recruitment conference from scratch: “Schicht im Schacht”. A name that says it all – and which shows just how keen this man is to take HR out of stuffy conference rooms and bring it to where the real discussions take place.

Anyone who thinks HR talks are invariably dry hasn’t yet experienced Marcel Rütten.

Who is Marcel Rütten?

Marcel Rütten is one of the best-known voices on the German-speaking HR scene. For more than 15 years, he has been helping to shape HR management in companies of all sizes – from multinationals such as Siemens and Evonik, through the Berner Group, to the NGO Kindernothilfe. This breadth of perspectives, ranging from large international corporations to non-profit organisations, continues to shape his view of HR issues to this day. As a Global Talent Acquisition Lead, consultant, blogger, podcaster and author, he combines practical experience from day-to-day HR operations with a keen sense of the major trends in the industry.

Through his blog HR4Good and the recruitment conference “Schicht im Schacht” – which he founded and of which he has been CEO and founder since 2022 – he is actively driving forward the professionalisation of recruitment, HR marketing and employer branding. He has received numerous awards for his work: as a Personio HR Top Voice (2023–2025), with a nomination for the German Podcast Award 2024, and, back in 2017, as “Employer Brand Manager of the Year” and “HR Marketing Innovator of the Year”.

Just how uncomfortable he is with the reality in many HR departments is illustrated by a sentence from one of his LinkedIn posts: “People expect HR to operate at Level 3, but only provide the resources for Level 1.” A statement that immediately elicits a nod of agreement from many HR professionals – and which explains why, despite all expectations, HR so often gets bogged down in operational minutiae instead of working strategically.

What he talks about on stage

Rütten’s presentation topics cover the full spectrum of modern HR practice, always with a clear focus on what really works in practice:

• Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding – how an employer becomes an ‘Employer of Choice’
• HR Digitalisation & Transformation – the impact artificial intelligence is already having on HR today
• Recruiting Analytics – metrics and KPIs for data-driven recruitment strategies
• Skills-Based Hiring – the paradigm shift away from CVs alone
• Candidate Experience – whether applicants are truly the focus of the recruitment process
• Professional HR & Future Work – the skills modern HR teams will need in the future

He once succinctly summarised his vision for the future of HR work on his blog, HR4Good: “HR in ten years’ time will be the perfect symbiosis of tech and data support.” For him, this is not a distant dream of the future, but the logical consequence of everything he has observed in 15 years of HR practice – from Excel spreadsheets to data-driven recruitment strategies.

On stage, he never gets bogged down in theory. Rütten speaks from his own operational experience, contextualises current trends and provides concrete insights – incisively, honestly and with the perspective of a practitioner who knows what HR work feels like long after the working day is over.

Why it’s worth booking Marcel Rütten as a speaker

Many HR presentations remain either too abstract or get bogged down in buzzwords. Marcel Rütten offers the opposite: a speaker who understands recruitment, employer branding and HR digitalisation through years of practical experience across a wide range of organisations – from international corporations to NGOs. His insights are concrete enough to be put into practice straight away on Monday, whilst at the same time being forward-thinking enough to prompt a rethink of one’s own HR strategy.

For companies that want to view HR not merely as an administrative function but as a strategic success factor, Marcel Rütten is a speaker who asks exactly the right questions – and provides practical answers.

Interested in booking Marcel Rütten for your event?

The LEADING MINDS team will be happy to advise you on topics, formats and availability – please get in touch: +49 (0)30 640 777 42 or [email protected]