The role of human resources in business agility: recruitment, training and evaluation in the age of adaptability

Companies today face a constantly evolving economic and social environment. To succeed, they must be able to adapt swiftly to change and to the unexpected. This is where business agility comes in, adopting a flexible and adaptive approach in order to meet the needs of the market and of clients.

Agility, however, cannot be achieved without the support and involvement of the Human Resources department. In this article, we explore the role these professionals play in promoting agility within the company, focusing on the recruitment, training and evaluation of employees.

Understanding business agility and its impact on HR

Business agility is an organisational approach that seeks to maximise flexibility, adaptability and speed of response to change in an uncertain environment. It entails establishing a culture of innovation and collaboration, as well as using agile working methods, such as Scrum or Kanban, which foster transparency, communication and employee empowerment.

To be considered agile, a company must demonstrate a strong capacity to respond to change, including the ability to anticipate it and turn it into genuine opportunity. An agile company is made up of teams and employees who display certain key skills, among which we may cite:

• Being able to learn quickly,
• Successfully solving complex problems,
• Knowing how to communicate effectively,
• Understanding how to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams,
• Being client-oriented.

On the soft-skills side, open-mindedness, resilience, curiosity, calculated risk-taking and adaptability are characteristics essential to agile working.

As professionals, the role of HR is to help promote this agile way of working within the company. That means having the ability to recruit talent with a matching profile, but also to train and evaluate them in such a way that they can contribute effectively to the company’s agile culture. Working closely with managers and teams is therefore necessary to support the implementation of agile working methods and to encourage innovation and collaboration.

The HR function and agility: three major challenges

1. Agile recruitment: attracting talent suited to agility

a) Identifying the agile skills and behaviours sought

Agility is systemic: it must concern the organisation as a whole, not only certain teams or certain positions. Before recruiting candidates who match an agile corporate culture, it is therefore necessary to begin by identifying the skills and behaviours sought for each position, but also for the company more broadly. This must be done in close collaboration with managers and senior management in order to understand the needs of the business and to define the appropriate selection criteria. Agile skills and behaviours can be assessed during interviews, or through role-play type exercises.

b) Adapting recruitment processes to assess candidates’ agility

Recruitment processes must then be adapted to assess the agility of candidates. HR can, for example, set practical challenges to test people’s ability to solve problems and to adapt quickly to unforeseen situations. Role-play scenarios are also very useful in bringing out candidates’ ways of working and their main personality traits.

c) Not neglecting the employer brand when attracting agile talent

Care should be taken, however, not to forget that in order to attract agile talent, the company needs to showcase its culture of agility and its employer brand. This may include initiatives such as developing continuous training programmes, promoting collaboration and innovation internally, as well as establishing a culture of regular and transparent feedback.

2. Sustaining business agility through continuous training

a) Analysing skills needs in order to sustain agility

Once adaptive talent has been recruited, Human Resources must help them develop their agile skills. This starts with an analysis of the agile skills needs within the company. It requires working with managers in order to identify the areas in which additional agile skills are needed, as well as the specific skills required to meet the needs of the business. Once agile skills needs have been identified, Human Resources can, for example, design and roll out suitable training programmes.

b) Developing suitable training and the sharing of knowledge

These programmes may include online training, classroom courses, practical workshops or coaching sessions. It is important to ensure that training programmes are suited to employees’ individual needs and to their current level of skill. The learning process must be continuous in order to meet the needs of a constantly changing environment.

Sharing knowledge and best practice is also valuable in supporting business agility. Encourage your employees to share their know-how, their experience, their skills and their best practice. This allows the company to benefit from a wealth of knowledge and skills.

3. Recognising and evaluating employee agility

a) Rethinking performance evaluation systems in order to recognise agility

In an agile environment, performance evaluation systems must be rethought in order to recognise agility. Here again, coordinating with managers will make it possible to define evaluation criteria that reflect the key agile skills and behaviours mentioned above. Evaluations can also be more frequent and more informal, so as to reflect the importance of adaptability and responsiveness.

b) Encouraging your employees to take on responsibility and to show autonomy in their work

HR can encourage this kind of initiative by giving employees the freedom to take decisions and to solve problems by themselves. Encourage team leaders to make more room for exchanges and feedback.

They can also put in place recognition and reward programmes to give value to agile behaviours, such as calculated risk-taking and innovation. They should not hesitate to recognise and reward their employees as they develop agile skills. Managing careers and internal mobility is a lever that can prove very worthwhile.

c) Looking after the well-being of all employees

Finally, to enable employees to develop an agile way of working, attention must be paid to the Quality of Working Life within the organisation. Nor should the diversity of profiles within teams be neglected. This may involve, among other things, an inclusion and diversity policy.

4 characteristics of the role of HR in the face of business agility

1. Introduction to business agility
   Agility involves a flexible approach to meeting the needs of the market and of clients. The Human Resources department plays a crucial role in achieving agility, notably through the recruitment, training and evaluation of employees.
2. Understanding agility and its impact on HR
   An agile company requires employees with key skills such as rapid learning, complex problem-solving and effective communication. HR must promote agile working by recruiting suitable talent, training them and evaluating them so that they contribute to the agile culture.
3. The challenges facing HR in the face of agility
   There are 3 crucial challenges for HR: agile recruitment, continuous training and the evaluation of agility.
4. The outlook
   HR has a crucial role to play in promoting agility by working closely with managers and teams. Diversity, inclusion and employee well-being are essential in creating an environment conducive to agility.