Fostering a positive workplace can be more challenging today than in years past. As hybrid work solidifies itself as the standard, HR professionals are tasked with navigating a more complex set of responsibilities and expectations. For instance, employees may feel that having a desirable work-life balance is as important as other company-provided benefits, and they may request additional support to accommodate their expectations. While this adds a layer of complexity to the traditional HR role, it presents an opportunity for HR leaders to improve the current workplace experience and differentiate themselves from competitors in order to attract and retain the best talent.  

With 57% of employers having hard-to-fill vacancies, adopting an approach to HR that offers this flexibility can help create the workplace experience needed to attract the best talent in the coming years. Agile practices could support this necessary shift, helping to support people more effectively in an uncertain and turbulent environment.

Agile – supporting a changing workforce 

Traditional HR departments are often perceived as rigid bureaucracies, reliant on established policies and procedures to preserve the status quo. However, organisations increasingly recognize the need for a more agile approach to HR to meet the demands of a dynamic workforce.

The agile mindset encourages flexibility to create and respond to change, test our ideas, and succeed despite the uncertainty that emerges during an initiative. It recognises that the requirements of any initiative are emergent – rather than defined prior – and so teams can  prioritise working closely with stakeholders throughout and in response to change. 

Taking an agile approach to traditional HR functions also improves performance more broadly. For instance, in performance management, managers provide more consistent and relevant feedback so employees are aware of their strengths and areas of growth in real time. Rather than waiting for annual performance reviews, employees working in an agile environment are cognizant of what they need to improve through ongoing communication and collaboration with colleagues. 

Putting agile into action

As HR professionals learn and instil agile practices in their organisation, the journey encourages them to look beyond traditional hierarchy and management philosophies. However, it’s important to recognize that outside of IT and technology spheres, many employees may be unfamiliar with agile ways of working, which can hinder its initial acceptance.

For instance, when selecting members for a team, prioritising an individual’s skills over their seniority can lead to significant productivity improvements by better aligning project ownership with capabilities. To achieve this, first identify the skills your individual team members have and then visualise that data, grouping employees based on their assigned tasks and competencies. This can reveal information needed to understand who works best together or even where the organisation may lack specific talent.

By sharing this information across an organisation, employees are empowered to self-organise their teams for new initiatives based around what skills are needed rather than who is available. And the issues that frequently plague siloed organisations – poor communication between teams leading to delays – occur far less frequently as teams work cross-functionally in an agile way.

Adopting an agile framework can help by providing a structure to guide employees in agile ways of working. There are frameworks, like Kanban and Scrum, that can help. Scrum structures work into a regular process of sprint planning, two-week or weekly cadence blocks, and concludes with a sprint review. They can provide the necessary scaffolding for colleagues to understand how agile principles can apply in practice and across their other work. 

It is also possible to test the waters before adopting an agile framework across an entire organisation. Whether it’s recruiting talent for very specific roles or measuring employee engagement, the approach encourages collecting actionable data on how initiatives are performing, which helps provide the evidence needed to run successful trials and pilot programs and make informed decisions.

Embracing Agile for HR transformation

Too many companies are tethered to outdated HR models that no longer align with the realities of today’s workplace. Embracing agile provides an opportunity to evolve practices and usher in better HR operations. With its flexibility, collaborative ethos, and emphasis on continuous improvement, agile is the natural solution. Applying agile practices not only empowers HR teams to navigate the challenges of the chaotic work environment, but also serves as a catalyst for streamlining processes, enhancing job satisfaction, and cultivating an adaptive, team-centric culture.