Agile HR
What is agile HR?
Agile HR refers to the application of agile practices to HR operations, focusing on transforming HR into a dynamic, flexible, and responsive domain. It emphasizes breaking down projects into manageable tasks, prioritizing people-centric approaches, and adapting swiftly to change to meet the evolving needs of both the organization and its employees. This approach champions collaboration, ongoing initiatives, continuous evaluation, and employee empowerment over rigid structures and fixed outcomes.
What does agile mean in HR?
Agile methods make HR strategies and operations flexible to change and future-ready, helping HR professionals adapt to different situations seamlessly. These agile strategies consider employee and business needs and market conditions, letting HR teams adjust and adapt their strategies on the go.
What are the benefits of agile HR?
Applying agile practices to HR has many benefits.
Improved employee experience
Organizations adopting agile HR practices have employees at the heart of everything that they do, and they respond swiftly to their changing needs. Agile HR teams have frequent check-ins with their employees and prioritize open communication, making employees feel valued and heard.
Speeds up and enhances the decision-making process
Agile HR teams use data to make informed decisions quickly, and these decisions aren't made by just leaders and top management; HR teams make it a point to send out surveys and polls to gain feedback from employees and managers. This gives employees a better idea about why a particular decision is being made and helps HR teams make better decisions.
Better collaboration
Agile HR teams prioritize teamwork and collaboration in all of their HR practices. For instance, during times of challenge and crisis, agile HR teams work together to quickly assess the issue and come up with a solution instead of waiting for a decision from the top management. They remove barriers so all employees can come together to make decisions, provide feedback, solve problems, and brainstorm new ideas.
Continuous improvement
Agile HR teams make it a point to review what's worked and what needs improvement after implementing each strategy. They also get suggestions from employees regularly rather than waiting for annual processes.
What's the difference between agile HR and traditional HR?
One of the major differences between agile and traditional HR practices is that agile HR prioritizes flexibility and is open to change, while traditional HR usually sticks to rigid and structured processes. Agile HR uses a growth mindset that often involves experimenting with different strategies and adopting what's good for the organization and its employees; traditional HR practices, however, tend to stick with existing procedures. Similarly, when it comes to decision-making, agile HR practices tend to be more collaborative, and traditional HR practices follow a top-down process, where decisions are made in top management and told to employees. Traditional HR policies are also standard for every employee across the organization, while agile HR practices are tailored, keeping in mind the needs of every employee and team.
What does an agile HR team do?
An agile HR will:
Bring diverse perspectives:
They'll have professionals with varied skills, including HR recruiters, generalists, learning and development executives, onboarding specialists, business partners, employee relations experts, analysts, and more.
Embrace technology and automation:
They'll stay on top of tech tools to automate and simplify routine HR tasks and use data analytics to make informed decisions.
Aim for continuous improvement:
They'll break down projects and strategies into small phases so they can review, receive feedback, and improve more often.
Build open communication:
They establish open, transparent, and consistent communication channels to get feedback from employees.
Adapt to change:
They develop flexible policies that cater to the changing needs of their employees.
Prioritize employees:
They keep employees' experiences and needs at the center of everything they do.
Can agile HR work in all organizations?
Any organization, regardless of its size, industry type, and culture, can apply agile practices to its HR strategies. Organizations should be ready to change their rigid processes to be successful with agile HR methods.
What are the core principles of an agile HR team?
Here are some of the core principles that an agile HR team stands by:
- Prioritizing employee experience over rigid processes and bureaucracy
- Facilitating collaboration among different teams
- Being adaptable to market changes and employee needs
- Breaking HR strategies into smaller phases to gain feedback and improve
- Embracing a flexible and changing mindset
- Being results-oriented rather than sticking to standard processes
- Making data-driven decisions
How can HR teams adopt agile practices?
Here's how your HR team can adopt agile practices and be more receptive to changes:
Get a clear understanding of agile principle
Before you start, it's essential to understand the limitations of traditional HR practices, the key principles and characteristics of agile HR, and the broader benefits that agile HR can bring to your organization and its employees. Be sure to explore how each of your HR practices would change after applying agile methods. (For instance, annual performance reviews could change to continuous reviews that provide feedback instantly.) It's also good to attend training programs that offer proficiency in agile HR practices. Once you're confident, explain the benefits of agile practices to your top management and get their support.
Make use of agile frameworks
Agile frameworks such as Kanban, Scrum, and Lean can be helpful in adopting agile practices successfully. For instance, the Kanban framework lets HR teams visualize different strategies and tasks based on their progress status. It's shared across the team so everybody can stay up to date about ongoing, completed, and future tasks. Similarly, the Scrum framework involves breaking down HR projects into shorter tasks. The HR team can discuss work progress and potential roadblocks daily to overcome them. Finally, the Lean framework involves identifying waste or redundant processes that don't add value while streamlining workflows.
Build cross-functional teams
Define a goal you want to achieve or a problem you want to solve. Select individuals from different teams with varying skills and experiences to form your own team, and let everyone share their feedback and suggestions while working toward a common goal. Meet regularly to discuss work progress, different challenges to overcome, and potential next steps.
Let your HR team experiment
Create a culture in your HR team where they feel independent and empowered to come up with new ideas and implement them. They should adopt a growth mindset so they can take risks, embrace change, and make continuous improvements to each of the projects they work on. Invest in training and development programs that enable your HR team to equip themselves with new skills.
Prioritize feedback
To be agile in your approach, it's essential to prioritize feedback at every step since it supports improvement and adaptability. Receiving feedback from employees regularly can help HR professionals identify areas for improvement. It'll also help HR teams identify issues about employees and make quick changes to resolve them.