What is Agile HR? Why is it important?

What is Agile HR?

Agile hr is an approach in human resource management that focuses on hr flexibility and responsiveness to workforce changes. Agile hr draws its inspiration from agile principles commonly used in project management and software development.

Applying agile principles to their practices an organization can adapt themselves to a rapidly changing business environment, improve employee engagement and enhance the overall ability of the organization to hire, develop and manage the employee.

Key features of Agile HR include:

1. Iterative process: like agile development process, agile hr also focus on continuously improving their hr activities since these activities are conducted in short cycle allowing hr manager to continuously improve feedback and learning process.
2. Cross- Functional team: Agile promotes hr department to collaborate across departments and functions so that they are updated with what everyone is working on and can address any particular challenges.
3. Flexibility and Adaptability: Agile hr is designed to make hr function more flexible and recipient to change. This allows hr practice to evolve from their traditional role to focus more on organizational needs, market dynamics and other external factors.
4. Customer-Centric Approach: In agile hr methodology employees are treated like customers and the hr process are designed in a way to meet the expectation of the employees and create a more employee-centric organization.
5. Continuous Feedback: Feedback is necessary for improvement. Performance reviews and other hr activities involve continuous feedback enabling hr manager to make improvements in real-time.
6. Experimentation and Learning: Agile hr encourages a culture of learning and experimentation. It is acceptable for hr managers to try new things, learn from those outcomes and make adjustments accordingly. 
7. Focus on Delivering value: Agile hr is focused on delivery to the organization. HR initiatives are prepared keeping in mind the organization goals and the impact on business outcomes is a key consideration.
8. Digitalization and technology: Agile hr leverages digital hr tools like hr software, lms and ats platform to streamline processes such as recruitment, onboarding, learning and performance reviews etc. This not only facilitates easy management of the employees but also improves employee engagement.

What is the difference between agile HR and traditional HR?

What is the importance of agile HRM?

Agile hr is necessary for the modern workforce where leaders need to be very active and deploy resources and develop plans for business changes. Here are several reasons why agile hr is important for the organization.

1. Adaptability to change: Agile hr equips the hr manager and organization to quickly adapt to workforce changes in the business landscape. Agile hrm recognise that changes are constant and inevitable and emphasize a mindset that allows organization to respond quickly and effectively to shifts in business environment.
2. Enhanced employee engagement: Agile hr focus on having a collaborative organization involving employees in the decision making process. They adopt a continuous feedback process, open communication and focus on creating an environment where employees feel valued and connected to the organization. 
3. Efficient talent management: Hiring and retaining new talents is more difficult than before when there’s a huge pool of candidates available each with different expectations. Agile allows organizations to adapt their recruitment and talent management process to evolving business needs, this allows them to quickly adjust to recruitment, skills development and workforce planning to ensure that they hire the right talent to meet current and future demands.
4. Improved innovation and creativity: the key importance of agile hr is that it encourages experimentation and learning from failures. It fosters a culture of innovation where employees feel motivated to contribute their idea, view points which leads to increased creativity and problem-solving.
5. Team Collaborations: Agile hr emphasizes cross-functional teams and collaboration where tasks are broken down into silos which enhance communication and allows team to work effectively promoting a sense of collective responsibility for achieving goals.
6. Continuous learning and development: Agile hr promotes a culture of continuous learning and development. They recognize the importance of upskilling and learning and provide opportunities to employees to acquire new skills and ensure they stay relevant in the job. They utilize tools like a learning management system to create a learning program for the new as well as old talents in the organization.

What does an agile HR team look like?

An agile hr team is characterized by its ability to embrace change, collaborate with teams and respond quickly to evolving needs:

1. They consist of cross-functional team members who bring diverse skills and expertise to the table.
2. They are open minded and place  a strong emphasis on creating positive and meaningful employee experience.
3. They foster a culture of continuous feedback and promote ongoing improvement and development.
4. They are flexible and adaptable to changing business needs. They respond to emerging market trends and shift their strategy to tackle all the situations.
5. They adopt a structured way of planning, executing and reviewing tasks.
6. Agile hr teams follows a data driven approach to evaluate the effectiveness of its practise and make data informed decisions.