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5 steps to have an agile HR in your company

Agile is dominating the market. And HR can not be left out.


In times of exponential change, the agile approach is dominating the market. And HR can not be left out. Have you heard of agile HR? 

Well, many people still don’t know the concept.

The term Agile is no longer used only in the area of ​​Technology. Today, Agile Methods are transforming the way companies hire, develop and manage their employees. 

In this post, you will understand what agile HR is, its main benefits, and how to implement it in your company.

What is Agile HR

The concept of agile HR starts with the creation of the agile manifesto in 2001. The idea of ​​the agile manifesto was to create a mindset to improve project management processes to enable more efficient and assertive deliveries of products or services. But if you think that being agile means getting things done on the fly or necessarily delivering projects faster, you’re mistaken that it’s not exactly that.

To be agile is to be more dynamic and bring value to the business.

Much more than a methodology, agile is a culture, a new way of thinking and acting. In this scenario, agile HR is a movement that seeks an optimized and efficient work culture, which adapts quickly to changes and helps to build and support a network of trained, engaged, independent and collaborative teams.

Benefits of agile methodology 

  • Greater discipline, regularity, and autonomy in the teams 
  • Frequent inspection and adaptation of the framework to minimize waste and continually improve
  • Responsibility shared by all team members
  • Work method that values ​​the human side of the project.

5 steps to implement agile HR in your company

Since HR affects all aspects of an organization, its transformation can be even more complex than changes in other areas.

Reshaping the traditional Human Resources to transform it into an Agile HR requires a mindset-oriented approach, setting aside behaviors that seek miraculous tools or expensive programs.

To implement agile HR in your company, it is essential to rethink many aspects. Let’s get to know the 5 steps to implement an agile culture in your HR!

  1. Promote performance reviews frequently

HR needs to structure the feedback process and educate people to feel encouraged and safe to give feedback and be prepared to receive it. For an agile HR, the practice of only annual feedbacks makes no sense. It is necessary to provide feedback frequently to employees, if possible, from multiple professionals. By continuously evaluating its team and the work performed, the company gains credibility and reduces performance gaps. Continuous feedback, free from the fear of errors, gives more transparency to the processes, primarily when rewards are distributed in a short period of time.

  1. Have engaged leaders

If your HR has adopted Agile as a practice, it is essential to prepare its leaders to leave the operational part and give more autonomy to their teams.

Important: The role of the leader today is much more to develop people than to supervise all the tasks that the team does. This tactic should be part of a more significant effort to rebuild the training and development of supervisors to improve their role in the organization. An engaged, experienced and self-managing work team becomes more committed to finding targeted solutions and making assertive deliveries, minimizing waste and impediments. This is only possible when the organization as a whole feels the feeling of partnership.

  1. Form multidisciplinary teams

Companies need people with complementary profiles and different backgrounds if they want to create innovative businesses. The role of HR is to bring these professionals into the company and organize multidisciplinary teams with complementary skills.

When the agile methodology is used for hiring, great synergy is needed through the stages of the selection process until completion. 

Another striking feature of an agile culture is the configuration of teams in squads. The term refers to joining professionals from different areas gathered to develop solutions, innovations, and efficient results.

  1. Investment in development is essential.

With team leaders, agile HR has to plan the training and continuous development of employees, whether through institutional programs, mentoring, or corporate training.

Companies are currently using Artificial Intelligence to get advice for employee profiles, including current and past assignments, desired career paths, and training programs completed.

Some companies even offer special training for Agile environments, with animated simulations created around a series of personas to illustrate beneficial behaviors, such as providing constructive criticism.

  1. Reward employees appropriately

Recent research has shown that rewards motivate employees even more, when applied as quickly as possible, after desired expectations. 

Annual merit-based increases are less effective. Thus, the agile mindset applied to the HR sector proposes optimizing how to remunerate and recognize employees.

Want more tips on how to have an agile HR in your company? Download now the E-book – Agile HR: How to apply it to organizations

Differences between Agile and traditional HR

Traditional HR is primarily focused on individuals – their goals, performance, needs. In agile HR, on the other hand, teams are the primary unit of work. In other words, management and talent systems are increasingly focused on the team. That is why now that many companies are organizing their scope of work on projects.

Unlike traditional management, focused on norms and rules, agile HR is more flexible and works by helping the company walk the path of agility to develop autonomy and creativity.

Another difference is that, in traditional HR, professionals work as specialists, each taking care of their area, be it training, recruitment, selection, or others. 

On the other hand, Agile HR works in a more dynamic way, where teams are multifunctional, and there is greater collaboration in the development of high-performance teams. Deliveries are recurrent and occur in shorter periods.

In addition, agile HR is not only formed by specialists who decide how the sector will develop. There is an excellent exchange with the employee, who directly participates in decisions that concern himself.

In short:

Traditional HR

  • Focus on the individual
  • I appreciate norms and rules
  • Operational
  • Specialist professionals focused on their areas.

Agile HR

  • Focus on the team
  • Flexible and dynamic
  • Strategic
  • Multifunctional teams.

What is the impact of agile HR?

Agile HR is not just a concept. It is the set of good practices adopted that originates from agile methodologies. It is part of the new scenario marked by digital transformation. With agile direction, the sector starts to develop increasingly productive processes, reduce costs, and optimize the experience between the employee and the company.

The agile culture in ​​human resources is extremely necessary for businesses to keep up with market changes. Thus, the concept of innovation must be developed internally and passed on to employees as a corporate cultural value.

That is why agile HR is a way to manage people strategically, based on approaches that condition high performance: increased productivity, reduced costs, less bureaucratic processes, and the engagement of audiences with the brand, among others.

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