State of Agile HR 2020 English
State of Agile HR 2020 English
State of Agile HR 2020 English
1st
State
of Agile
HR2020
Introduction
page 3
Executive summary
page 4
Participants of the
State of Agile HR
page 5
How organizations In times of fast and unpredictable change, agility is required from everyone. This
are embracing agility
begs the question how HR can contribute to agile organizations. And to what
page 7
How the world of HR
extent HR is agile itself.
is changing
page 10 Agile ways of thinking, working and organizing are not only common in IT
The HR department anymore. Other disciplines are also focusing more on agility, both in a strategic
page 16 and practical sense. HR is a good example of this: sometimes as an initiator,
HR processes coach or practitioner of agile ways of thinking, working and organizing. This
page 19 coincides with the changing role of HR itself: a discipline that wants to reinvent
Agile transformation itself and, according to this report, a discipline that is becoming more strategic.
HR has a unique place in the organization in terms of developing agility. HR has
the opportunity to help individuals, teams and leaders grow as agile people and,
collectively, as agile organizations. That is what Agile HR is about.
To provide insight into the current status of Agile HR worldwide, Organize Agile
conducted this study together with the HU University of Applied Sciences. An
annual survey of HR leaders and professionals worldwide, of which this is the
first!
2.
HR and two ‘knowledge bits’
Supporting multidisciplinary teams in the
in which we show Agile HR
organization and helping those teams to adopt HR
practices.
responsibilities
p. 18
3.
p. 10–14
Embracing agile within the HR department itself
4.
p. 15–17
Reinventing HR processes such as performance
management, centered on flexibility
206
#01
Respondents
19
Countries
<500 500–1,000 1,000–5,000 5,000–10,000 >10,000
6
40% 15% 30% 7% 20% Continents
#02
7%
Financial Services
7% 10%
8% 8% Other
Industrial/Manufacturing
Government Retail
#05
What were the reasons for adopting agile within the organization?
(multiple answers possible)
9% 80% 24%
Joseline Haverman
HR professional, Ministry of
Education, Culture and Science
#07
100%
To what extent is the agile
57%
mindset part of the culture?
0%
Marit Plooijer
HR professional
#08
Leadership development
Employee experience
Performance management
Attracting top talent
Strategic
63% workforce planning
45%
39%
35% 36%
Marieke Pepers
Former Organizational Change Manager at Genentech,
with an HR responsibility for 12000 employees
“The role of managers has changed quite a bit in the past few years, from
micro-management towards a much more facilitating management style.
The old-fashioned manager was the expert: the one who from a technical
perspective knew best, and who would divide the work based on time and
expertise.
In that era, the role of HR was fairly simple. ‘Hey, so-and-so’s contract ends
soon, is he doing a good job? Does he or she need training?‘ Or ‘this person
is ill’ were generally the topics HR was involved in.
Of course that marks a big change for HR, from supporting micro-
management towards coaching the facilitator. I think it has made the role
of HR a lot more fun. Personally I think this is the biggest opportunity for
HR to set people in motion, to create a great place to work.”
#09
HR is becoming
more decentralized 20%
HR is becoming
more centralized 23%
HR responsibilities are shifting
to multidisciplinary teams 33%
HR is becoming
more strategic 65%
HR is becoming
more important 54%
in the organization
For example, we are currently using design sprints for a policy project, more and
more agile frameworks are being used, we use more visualizations, and we are
connected to the internal network of Agile Pioneers. We also think it is a good
thing that we as HR first experiment with this ourselves before we introduce it to
others. After all, you have to know what it means before you can advise someone
else. Practice what you preach.
#10
0%
49% 100%
67% 9% 24%
of the HR departments are mentions the agile mindset are organizing agile by working
using agile frameworks as having a strong presence in multidisciplinary teams
within HR
#11
Working in self-organizing
and multidisciplinary teams
49%
Being able to focus
38%
on the collective HR goals
We had only three analysts when I
started at the people technology
Increasing employee happiness 36%
team, and they were swamped and
drowning in all kinds of requests that
Being able to work in 32% had different levels of priority. I felt
a more structured way this was a good way to make sure
More autonomy for HR teams that the team could focus on the
31% critical deliverables and to keep that
(or HR professionals)
focus with the agile methodologies.
More clarity about 7% So engagement and focus were two
the roles in the team of the drivers for that.
Isabel Sanz
HR Information and Systems
Director, Palo Alto Networks
#13
4% 56% 22%
The ultimate Agile Portfolio Management team knows no silos and works
focused on those things that have value for the business. This also means that
the business has insight into what’s going on in HR and that HR has the
discipline to say ‘no’ when needed.
The visual tool we use in Agile Portfolio Management is a model with three
circles:
The middle ring shows the ambitions of HR divided into themes, the intermedi-
ate ring shows which projects and activities HR is working on, and the outer ring
reflects (operational) issues that are currently at play. By having a different type
of conversation as a team about the what and why of one's own work, new
energy is generated and, in time, one’s own agility increases.
Want to learn more about Agile Portfolio Management? Start your learning
journey with our e-learning: Introduction Agile HR Online
#15
Performance management
“Since we have been working with Agile Portfolio Management, we have gained
more insight and focus on the themes where we want to develop something
new and this is reflected in the results. For example, HR has set up a whole new
performance management model. A model that is really innovative in the
market and in which there is a lot of interest from other companies.”
Can you tell us more about your new performance management model?
“Yes, we have completely stopped with performance reviews. Previously it was
always the case that the manager had a performance review with the employee
based on his or her performance in the previous year. We have completely
abandoned this because we believe that investing in talent and matching people
with the work they excel at is more important, and that also leads to better
performance. This is also proven by all kinds of scientific studies.
So now we have TDP, which stands for Talent, Development and Performance.
Teams decide for themselves how they implement this so that it fits in with the
team’s way of working. In the ultimate state, you as an individual and as a team
determine your development goals and discuss how you as a team are going to
work towards the goals of the team/department. You will talk about this with
each other on a regular basis, in order to get feedback from your team and to
grow further as an individual and as a team. What is ‘regular’ is up to the
employee and the team. This is received very enthusiastically.
The desire for this was apparent from the agile teams that were already
widespread within Achmea. In those teams there was not a single manager who
managed the agile team, in the multidisciplinary teams people all have a
different manager. It was difficult for managers to performance review this
way. It was clear we had to look at performance management differently.
We didn’t change anything in the job descriptions, you’re still in a certain job
with a certain salary. Everyone receives a salary increase on January 1st,
provided the maximum has not yet been reached. In addition, the amounts in
the scales are adjusted, which usually is equal to an adjustment for inflation.
The salary increase is therefore completely disconnected from the performance
review.
In short, you don’t get a rating at the end of the year. You determine your own
development goals and the way in which you are going to contribute to the
departmental goals. You start working with these and discuss them with your
colleagues. At least once a year you write a self-reflection, in which you reflect
on the past period and also look ahead to the coming period.”
Marieke Pepers
former Organizational Change
#16 Manager at Genentech
Which HR processes are
influenced by agile in your
organization?
(multiple answers possible)
KNOWLEDGE BIT:
GROWTH CONVERSATIONS
An important issue for HR is how performance management can support
rather than obstruct an agile organization. Traditional performance
management has many characteristics of a non-agile organization: long
annual cycles, hierarchy as the main steering tool and the use of financial
incentives in the hope of improving performance. As Professor Kilian Wawoe's
research shows, such practices do not lead to the desired improvement in
performance in the long term.
But what is the alternative? An important key lies in the way we organize
performance conversations. This can be more short-cycled and focused on
growth rather than on reckoning. It also means the end of the annual
These cards are made with a diverse group of employees, supported by HR. Then
it is a matter of practicing and starting more and more conversations that will
help you move forward as a person and a professional.
Read about designing an agile job framework in this blog by Minke Buizer.
NO
YES 70%
30%
Anonymous
HR Business Partner
40% 60%
NO YES
#20
Marit Plooijer
HR professional
CASE:
Andrea Pierik
Senior HR Business Partner at Randstad
“For me, it’s first and foremost a mindset, which asks of us to put the end
user first. These end users for us are our internal clients, our candidates and
our own employees. Which factors, for example, are the most important to
increase employee satisfaction? This can sometimes be something as
simple as a good laptop and chair.
We also work a lot with people analytics, combining these metrics with
business analytics to see how people contribute to the final business result.
We have become much more ‘data driven’ in the last two years.
This means that we really know better what the problem is, which analysis
lies beneath it and what we want to achieve.
What we still have to do is focus on the end user, prioritizing and making
choices. We also have something to learn in making our goals more
concrete: when do we consider a goal done? What are you going to make
and what is in it for the end user? If you’re going to work agile, you’ll notice
that you can’t do anything with vague descriptions”.
Employer branding
Work-life balance
Let us know what the answer is and why on www.stateofagilehr.com and have
the opportunity to win a free seat in our 3-day Agile HR training course in New
York or The Netherlands, certified by the International Consortium for Agile.
We want to thank all the respondents for sharing their experience with us.
Without them it would never have been possible to provide a deep insight into
the current status of Agile HR and we hope that the results help them on their
journey towards an agile HR department and organization.
Special thanks to: Monique Roelfsema and Saskia Dorrestein, Isabel Sanz, Kim
van der Meij, Joseline Haverman, Marit Plooijer, Marieke Pepers, Andrea Pierik
and Floortje van de Laak for the wonderful in-depth interviews we had with you.
Willemijn Dijk
Agile (HR) coach
The State of Agile HR 2020. © 2020 Organize Agile. Design: Acute Studio, Amsterdam