agile@hr - how agile impacts the hr function

55

Upload: frank-edelkraut

Post on 22-Jan-2018

132 views

Category:

Economy & Finance


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function
Page 2: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

This handbook is created under the direction of the “Agile Management” professional group of the GPM German Association of Project Management

e.V.

The book is published under the Creative Common License: www.creativecommons.org

The manual is developed with and based on openpm.info.

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek:

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der

Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im

Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar.

Alfred Oswald, Wolfram Müller

Herstellung und Verlag: BoD – Books on Demand, Norderstedt

ISBN: 978-3-9783-7431-8929-4

Page 3: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

(Figure based on http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2016/09/08/explaining-agile/#727a73c12ef7,

accessed 15/12/2016)

All authors have ensured that they have been granted all copyrights and

that they alone are fully responsible for any copyright issues with

respect to their contributions in this handbook.

Page 4: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

THE AUTHORS

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Patrick Balve

Heilbronn University, Faculty for Industrial and Process Engineering, 74081

Heilbronn

holds a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in

International Project Management. After graduating, Dr. Balve spent five

years in the field of consulting and research at the renowned Fraunhofer-

Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation. Since then, he has

held various management positions in logistics and quality in the automotive

industry. In 2009, Dr. Balve was appointed professor at Heilbronn University

in the Faculty of Industrial and Process Engineering. He is director of the

“Manufacturing and Operations Management” bachelor’s program and head

of the Heilbronn Learning Factory. His fields of research include lean

manufacturing systems and state-of-the-art project management approaches.

Markus Berk

DB Systel GmbH, 60329 Frankfurt a. Main

is Process Manager for Project Management processes at DB Systel GmbH.

He has over 15 years’ experience as Project Manager in IT, several of them

as Project Portfolio Manager.

Dr. Frank Edelkraut

Mentus GmbH, 22359 Hamburg

Page 5: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

is Managing Director and a well-versed Human Resources manager. As a

Technical Chemist he started his career in Project Management and

subsequently became a Human Resources Manager. In the last 15 years he

has worked as an Interim Manager in a variety of industries and as a trainer in

Leadership Development Programs. He is a member of the professional

group for Agile Management of the GPM (German Association for Project

Management e.V.). His field of work is Organizational Development and

Leadership Development and the consequences of agile methods on

organizational design and developmental matters.

Bernhard Frühlinger

Horváth & Partners Management Consultants, 70173 Stuttgart

is Senior Project Manager at Horváth & Partners Management Consultants in

the field of IT Performance Management. A Master of International Business

Administration, his focus areas of work lie in functional design and

implementation management of corporate performance management

systems. As a Certified Product Owner, he aims to improve project delivery

and quality of results by applying agile practices to various project contexts.

Rüdiger Lang

AXA ART, 51067 Cologne

is Head of the Process and IT department at AXA ART Versicherung AG. For

17 years, prior to his current job, he worked at several consulting companies

(i.e. Cap Gemini, Consileon BC) as a consultant with a focus on both classic

and Agile Project Management. He has also worked abroad for several years,

Page 6: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

in Europe, South America and Oceania. He has been PMI certified since

2011, a Scrum Master and a member of the professional group on Agile

Management of the GPM (German Association for Project Management).

Götz Müller

GeeMco : Götz Müller Consulting, 71554 Weissach

has been involved with Lean Management and continuous improvement

processes since 1998. His professional career started in software engineering

for embedded systems in telecommunications and progressed into leading

product development projects. Today, he is a self-employed consultant for

process improvement. He supports companies and their workforce in

improving procedures and operations, and in the implementation of

continuous improvement processes. His clients are from a diverse range of

branches and areas – industry, handicrafts, services and their production,

product development, workshops, and administrative fields.

Wolfram Müller

VISTEM GmbH & Co.KG., 64646 Heppenheim

Founder & Principal Consultant at Speed4Projects.net and VISTEM, Wolfram

brings 25 years of experience as a Consulting Executive, IT Project Portfolio

and Project Manager, Process Engineer, and Software Engineer. As head of

the PMO at 1&1 Internet AG, he led 40 project managers in the delivery of

500 projects, innovating industry-leading methods, to drive unprecedented

improvements in speed and reliability across the portfolio. He has published

over 20 articles and books on ‘Critical Chain’, ‘Agile’, and ‘Lean’ and is a well-

Page 7: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

known speaker in Europe on how to achieve hyper-productive IT project

portfolios.

Dr. Helge F. R. Nuhn

PwC AG, 60329 Frankfurt

studied Information Systems at the Technical University, Darmstadt and

obtained his PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) from the European Business School

University, Wiesbaden. His areas of research lie in the realm of organizational

theory and temporary forms of organizing. A Certified Scrum Master and

Certified LeSS Practitioner, he seeks to enhance the ways in which teams

work in every conceivable project and environment. In his job as a manager

and consultant, he is part of an internal Agile Community of Interest.

Dr. Alfred Oswald

IFST - Institute for Social Technologies GmbH, 52223 Stolberg

earned his doctorate in Theoretical Physics at RWTH Aachen University. He

is Managing Director at IFST-Institute for Social Technologies GmbH, a

Consulting Institute for Agile and Fluid Organizations. He is head of the

professional group for Agile Management at GPM (German Association for

Project Management e.V.). His field of work is the efficiency and effectiveness

of organizations through innovative social technologies. He has many years of

experience in the management of innovative and complex projects, as well as

in the transformation of project-oriented organizations into high-performance

organizations.

Page 8: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Steve Raue

The Systemic Excellence Group, 10117 Berlin

is an expert for strategic change and project management. He has been part

of the SEgroup since 2011 and is a member of the board. He uses his

expertise in communications, culture and behavior analysis for an innovative

approach to changing organizations in projects and team development. He is

a Scrum Master and founding member of the professional group on Agile

Management of the GPM (German Associations for Project Management

e.V.). Steve is currently working on his doctorate in Cross-Cultural Complex

Project Management, exploring implications for future project management

based on systemic integration of conventional and agile project practices.

Norbert Schaffitzel

DB Systel GmbH, 60329 Frankfurt

studied economics in Freiburg and Berlin with specialization in Business

Informatics and marketing of investment goods. Since 1988 he has been

working in enterprise IT, initially as a software developer and subsequently as

project manager on different projects at DB Systel GmbH, the IT service

provider for Deutsche Bahn AG. Since 2012 his special interest has been the

implementation of Agile Management techniques in projects of large

organizations and the transformation of project teams by using agile

practices. To extend his knowledge of agile experiences and management of

the future, in 2014 he joined the GPM working group "Agile Management and

Methods".

Page 9: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Dr. Johann Stiebellehner

Technisches Büro für Informatik, 1100 Vienna

Johann brings 30 years of practical experience as Software Developer,

Software Engineer, and IT Program and Project Manager. He studied

Computer Science at the Technical University of Vienna and received his

doctorate in Informatics from the University of Vienna (Prof. Schauer, Prof.

Vinek). After working for 8 years as Project manager for Siemens IT Solutions

and Services, he founded “Technisches Büro für Informatik – Dr.

Stiebellehner” in Vienna, a local company with a strong focus on IT software

projects.

Prof. Dr. Hubertus C. Tuczek

University of Applied Sciences Landshut, 84036 Landshut

TCC-Management – Strategy Consulting, 81247 Munich

received his doctorate in Engineering from the Technical University in Munich

(TUM) (Prof. Milberg). He has accumulated over 30 years of management

experience in the machinery and equipment, aerospace and automotive

industries. For 17 years he held the position of group vice president on the

board of the Dräxlmaier Group, an internationally operating automotive

supplier, with responsibility for international business development, quality

and project management, as well as global procurement. At the beginning of

2015 he was appointed Professor for Management and Leadership at the

University of Applied Sciences in Landshut, near Munich. His research is

focused on the changing requirements for leadership in the digital age.

Page 10: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

PREFACE

Perhaps you are familiar with the phrase: “Are you just residing or have you

started to live? (Wohnst du noch oder lebst du schon?)“ If we interpret the

message in this slogan within the context of “Agility”, it could be more freely

interpreted as "Are you still just plodding on, or are you making sense of your

life?"

The buzzwords “Agility, Agile or Agile Management” are often interpreted as

miracle-workers.

But the number of different meanings attributed to these terms is immense:

There are thousands of experts and tens of thousands of books and articles

on what agile work actually is. And on the subject of agility, everyone is an

expert – everyone knows how to do it best. But out of the thousands of

experts and books, which ones are right? Or are all of the experts right? What

is of importance? What do we need to know, so we can assess what is right in

our own context?

There are those that suggest “unless you are sprinting all the time, you are

too slow, and you are not agile”. Then there are others who argue that “if you

are unsure of your product vision, then this is a sure way to make lots of

mistakes”. Others place trusty old Lean and Kanban on a pedestal. And then

there are those who assume complexity is responsible for everything. And if

all else fails – it is a question of attitude as to whether one is agile or not. Last

but not least, there are the pragmatists who have introduced the hybrid of -

‘do not throw away the old, but include something new’.

The “Agile Management” professional group of the GPM (German Association

for Project Management e.V.) was founded to offer a deeper understanding of

agility: our aim is to understand the need for a new kind of management,

grounded on basic principles and free from pigeonholing.

Page 11: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Our vision “together with users, to establish cross-sectoral agile working

models to deliver added value for the future” flows into an integral theory-

practice framework: We believe that this framework includes a new mind-set

of agility, systemic thinking, an openness to welcome the ‘new’ as a friend,

and the capability of retaining proven management tools.

When one starts to deal with the important things in life like love, truth or

agility, then the picture tends to have as many facets as there are people. In

discussing this topic, it becomes increasingly clear that it is not possible to

give an operational definition of agility without including a context. – Hence

this book has no chapter on "definition". What emerges though, are principles

of agility (like natural laws) that hold concepts together. These principles are

explainable and help in understanding the practice. They also help assess

which expert ideas are useful and which are only useful in a particular

context.

This book was conceived as a manual or "handbook" and ended up as a

"brain book". It is full of concepts and principles – some rough and coarse –

some fine polished. But all help to understand and put into practice the agile

movement, and to ride this great wave without sinking!

Who should read this Book?

This book is written for anyone who is interested in agility or needs to be

agile. It is for those who seek deeper knowledge about what keeps the agile

world together. You can read it from the perspective of a top manager or

decision maker who feels the urge to be more agile. But you can also take the

book and just follow it from the perspective of a user.

What do you get?

● A systemic picture of agility – to enable you to analyze your system

(your team, your department, your company or your business network)

Page 12: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

and identify fields of agile application and the specific need for agility.

● The ingredients of an agile mind-set – this allows you to transform

your organization and develop an agile culture for your organization.

● The theoretical foundation of agile principles – so that you can really

understand and assess the value of all the expert ideas for you and

your organization. You will get the necessary skills to tailor

organization specific agile frameworks without losing essential

ingredients.

● Input for your own reflections – you will be capable of innovating agility

and be ahead of the main stream.

The Principles behind the Book?

We illustrate the big picture of the concept of the book by roughly outlining the

content of this book:

PART 1 FOUNDATION

In Part I FOUNDATION we start with an outline of one of the main drivers of

complexity, the megatrend “digitization” followed by short reasoning of the

name “Management 4.0” for this book.

We then go on to explain the basic principles of Management 4.0:

● the key principles of an agile mind-set and the link to Management

4.0

● the relationship of agility and complexity

● the “definition” of hybrid (project) management

● the basics of self-organization

● the key principles of the agile frameworks Scrum and Kanban from

the perspective of Management 4.0

● the relationship between cybernetics and agility and derive

guidelines for the design of agile and fluid organizations

Page 13: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

● the relationship to lean management and the IPMA project

excellence model ICB 4.0

PART II BECOME AGILE AND STAY AGILE

In Part II BECOME AGILE AND STAY AGILE we start with the chapter “Agile

Radar”, which gives a description of a tool that can be used to explore

organizational agility needs, capabilities and potentials.

With the help of the “Agile Radar” we

● provide the reader with an agility assessment of their organization ● explain which agile methods and enablers to use, and when and how ● show (the first) blueprints for agile transformation (in Release 2, see

below)

We then describe the impact of agile working on human resource issues.

We outline the “Reliable and Ultimate Scrum” agile frameworks as examples

of how agile principles can be applied, and give input to the discussion on

agility and fixed price contracts.

In the chapter “Agile Scaling”, we outline the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe

and the Critical Chain Project Management method.

PART III AGILE MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

Part III AGILE MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE is devoted to practical

examples of Management 4.0.

The Management 4.0 Handbook – Release 1: A Minimal Viable Product

One of the most important agile principles is to get feedback from customers

Page 14: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

as quickly as possible!

The book is not yet finished, and we still have enough material remaining for

further releases – there is so much more to write and say. So much so, that it

would be easy to keep working on the book for an infinite amount of time.

However, we believe that this first release – contains enough to be of value

for you as reader. Your feedback is of great importance to us – it will help us

to improve quickly!

We have created a product backlog on the next page, which contains the

topics we have planned for the next release of the handbook. We intend to

change the content and priorities of the topics depending on the feedback we

receive from you.

So feel free - after reading the book – to discuss your ideas with us. You can

contact us at: [email protected].

Nürnberg, December 2016

Alfred Oswald and Wolfram Müller

Page 15: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

The impact of working Agile on Human Resources

Author: Frank Edelkraut

Summary: Agile methods have a significant effect on several areas, typically

in the field of Human resources. Organizational design, compensation &

benefits, performance management, labor relations, and career systems are

just a few examples. To make an agile transformation effective and

sustainable it is critical to involve HR in the process. In the majority of

companies facing agile transformation, the initial analyses and decisions will

have to be in collaboration with HR and will also define the future role of HR.

Key Terms: Organizational Design, Human Resources, Agile Transformation

Although the use of agile methods is widespread, they are still mostly seen as

an IT and software development related matter. But as soon the “IT bubble”

has burst, agile becomes a major challenge for HR management. Looking at it

from an HR point of view, agile is much more than just a method like SCRUM,

or an experiment on future ways of working. Nearly all key systems in HR are

affected by agile and it will have a serious impact on the way HR

management is carried out in the future.

If you are an HR representative, it makes the most sense to have a look at the

big picture and the major trends affecting the business world, in a holistic way.

Then it will become obvious that agile is just one out of several topics

following similar patterns and logic, all resulting in the need for organizational

adaptions. Looking only at agile methods would be short-sighted. The modern

business world is characterized by the digitalized Internet of Things (IoT),

agile methods and other trends, all leading to a context we currently describe

by the acronym VUCA. VUCA stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and

Page 16: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

ambiguous. In business, this means companies face fast changes, which are

increasingly less predictable, leading to a more complex environment, and

making management decisions much harder. For example, the increasing

speed of business increases pressure on managers to decide and act faster.

At the same time, the increasing amount of relevant information and

contradictions leads to more options and lower levels of predictability with

respect to the outcome of decisions.

All these effects are driven by technological innovation, new business models,

networking models and individualization. One of the goals of modern

industries is one piece flow, which means every product is unique. This

corresponds very well to the way in which HR views employees who are

unique in themselves, with digitalization and globalization also having

increasing importance. But, this new ideal of individual treatment for each

employee is met with reality in a world where standardized HR systems in a

command & control logic are still widespread. A move into an agile world will

have a significant impact on HR systems and create a need for major

changes.

Looking at the discussion around agile methods it becomes clear that it has

an effect on other topics, such as team management or leadership. This is

also true for this handbook, where you will find corresponding chapters.

Fewer discussions relate to the impact of working agile on a company’s

organizational structure and processes. In this chapter we will discuss in more

depth, how agile methods may effect Human resources management.

Primarily, it must be said, that to date, there is very little experience in this

area. Most companies who have been using agile methods for some time, are

small or medium sized IT companies, and have proven to be organizationally

flexible, with most having homogenous and highly-educated staff. Workers

councils and other regulatory factors are of minor importance. So there is little

“organizational complexity”, that allows an agile mind-set for trialing its use for

Page 17: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

organizational development. This will be different in the future, in bigger and

more diverse companies. Their adaption of agile and the resulting need to

reconsider their organization will have to be focused, due to the far greater

number of employees in the companies and the significantly higher level of

complexity of any organizational change. An increasing number of mid-sized

companies and large enterprises use agile methods in parts of their

organization. Here, the consequences on HR are significantly higher, since

highly sophisticated and standardized HR systems exist, but do not

necessarily suit agile working and the agile mind-set. A serious

reconsideration of the HR systems in place is required. Using the fictitious

example of Meier Ltd. as a blueprint, we will discuss the initial examination

and adaption of a “classical” HR system to the agile future.

Meier Ltd. could be a mid-sized mechanical engineering company located in a

rural area in Europe. Approximately 1,000 employees produce high-precision

machine components for the industrial goods industry. Over recent years the

project and systems business has become more relevant and actually

contributes 50% to the yearly turnover. This 50:50 split is expected to be

stable for the next few years. The project business is mostly carried out in

cooperation with other vendors or the customer, and working in mixed teams

or task forces has become standard. Software development for embedded

systems and control software, as well as some project work, is already done

using agile methods like Scrum. This reflects a clear need to react flexibly to

changing customer requirements and deliver individualized products for a

global market.

Until now, agile methods have been mainly used in software development,

and more recently the engineering department has started to work more agile.

Productivity has increased and customer feedback has been positive so far.

On the other hand, the first signs of conflict between agile working teams and

parts of the “classical” organization have been observed. Agile team members

in particular, have an increasing number of complaints about bureaucratic and

Page 18: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

“old-fashioned” processes, which hinder their ability to work in a self-

organized and flexible fashion. Managers obviously have difficulties in

handling these conflicts, not least due to the fact that the managers’ roles

have had to change too. The workers council recently complained of

violations of existing agreements on labor hours and freelance staff.

For management, it has already become clear that this creeping process will

sooner or later lead to serious trouble. Now is the time to analyze the

consequences resulting from the use of agile methods and how to handle

them. Assumptions for the future include the parallel existence of agile and

“classical” working units and teams. For the time being, production will stick to

a high-quality, high-efficiency system and the related shift system. Project

organization on the other hand, will be organized more flexibly, to serve a

more fluid market. A significant restructuring and change process may be

needed to make this part of the company the source for more innovations and

more adaptable to the market.

Overall, several managers feel quite uncomfortable and insecure about the

near future and the changes they may face. The future is uncertain, markets

are volatile and none of them have any significant experience with agile

methods or agile management. How will they be able to manage such

processes with an unknown future?

The HR manager is a seasoned professional with a long professional history

in HR. He has experienced a lot of strategic changes and restructurings,

which makes him more relaxed than many of his colleagues in management.

He had already anticipated some of the challenges caused by the use of agile

methods, and had recently started to analyze the actual status of HR systems

and processes and their suitability for a more agile future. He asked a

younger colleague who was acting as the HR Business Partner (HRBP) for

the project organization, to join him in his effort to create an agile-fit HR

department. The HRBP was already experienced in agile working in projects,

Page 19: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

and as an experiment, had already tried to use Scrum in his HR duties.

Together, they believe they are well-prepared for the next steps.

But in actual fact, they are not really sure of the effects that agile work may

have, as IT and Engineering started to use agile methods as an internal

experiment “below the radar”, with no interface to other departments or top

management. This does not make life easy for the two HR managers as they

will initially have to analyze the current status within the IT and engineering

department. The two department heads have been asked to describe their

experience to date and name those topics they believe to be the most

relevant. For this they are asked to conduct a self-developed “HR Agility

Check”, which is based on the German HR Society DGfP’s HR reference

model.

Figure 7-1: Reference Model of HR Management (DGfP 2010)

Page 20: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Figure 7-2: Reference model and more specific topics to manage the "life-

cycle“ of an employee (DGfP 2010)

The HR Agility Check itself is a simple Excel sheet (Figure 7-3, Edelkraut

2014), denoting fields of action stated in the DGfP reference model. (Figure 7-

1 and 7-2). For each of these topics, the department heads are asked to

describe the impact of working agile on the aspects mentioned in column two,

and the resulting consequences. Based on this analysis, it should be easy to

decide on the urgency and importance of adapting HR systems to the new

working methods.

Page 21: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Figure 7-3 HR Agility Check. It asks how the use of agile methods will impact

on which different topics (Figure 7-2) and what needs to be done for an action

result

Very soon the limits of the HR Agility Check are realized. To use it properly,

there needs to be a clear understanding of the origin of influencing factors.

The discussion shows that it is not easy to separate cause from symptom,

and to separate the use of agile methods as a cause from other causes, such

as communication deficits, leadership behavior etc., leading to the same or

similar effects. Additionally, it becomes obvious that those managers not

experienced in agile method use have some difficulty in understanding the

Page 22: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

mind-set (compare chapter 3.2) behind agile. To make things even more

complex, the department heads are not well-versed in most of the framework

conditions for HR management. Aspects related to labor law or HR

administration have always been delegated to the HR department, and they

do not have a sufficiently complete and current overview of all HR systems

and their background. This makes it even more difficult to describe the effects

of agile on their departments.

To describe causes and symptoms more precisely, it was decided to add

another run of analyses to the process and to first use an EIA matrix

(described below), to paint a concrete and detailed picture of the status in

both departments, and to separate the consequences of agile methods from

normal “operational insanity and frictions”.

For the next four weeks, both department heads will create a daily record,

listing all peculiarities for the respective day. The EIA is inspired from aviation,

where all pilots create a report after each flight. In this, they note all aspects

they observed regarding technology, collaboration with cabin crew, flight

control etc. The background to this, is to minimize accidents as much as

possible and the awareness that accidents are mostly a combination of at

least two or three technical malfunctions, collaborations or other human

failures. EIA stands for:

E – Event, e.g. redundant sensors give different data, misunderstand-

ing between pilots and flight control etc.

I – Incident, e.g. planes getting too close and a collision could have

happened, lightning strike followed by a malfunction of some

instruments etc.

A – Accident, e.g. punctured tyre during landing, a passenger injures

another passenger, or of course the loss of a plane

Page 23: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

During the four weeks of analyses, the two department heads not only take

notes on what happens, they also create clusters of similar incidents and

prioritize by impact. In the end, they are able to see clearly the type of causes

and which effects they create on operations.

In a subsequent meeting the managers and HR are not really surprised to see

that 90% of all problems result from “classical” topics and are not related to

the use of agile methods. Most problems initially seen as a result of agile work

are common in other departments too and are caused by process deviations,

or human failure like misjudgments or conflicts etc. These aspects are seen

as a matter of continuous improvement and excluded from further discussion.

The EIA reveals certain aspects, which are related to agile method use and

HR systems:

1. Culture and values

2. Organizational structure and process organization

3. Role of managers and administrative departments

4. Learning & Development, career models

5. Working hours and locations

6. Performance management

As a next step, it is agreed that HR should be allowed to find out what the

concrete aspects within the identified clusters are, how other companies have

handled similar questions, and what the next steps might look like. When the

IT head suggests that this would not be an agile approach, everyone laughs.

The agreed approach represents a more “classical” way using experts to

create a plan for further action carried out by other stakeholders. On the other

Page 24: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

hand, this approach is time-saving, since an agile approach would have

required at least some level of expertise with complex HR systems and labor

law, which they do not have. This already shows a potential conflict of interest

that could occur in many companies during their transition to a more agile

future. The agile mind-set and methods needs a certain level of experience

and expertise, and it is quite tempting to stick to common approaches. At

Meier, they agree to remain alert during their own discussions and actions,

and to introduce agile in a more step by step approach. In the first phase,

related to analyses, the existing expert organization will be used. In the

following concept phase, they want to develop two options, a “classical”

option created by HR, and an agile one created in a cross-functional team.

Subsequently, the results and the experience from the processes will be

compared, to learn more about the pros and cons, and to decide on the next

steps in the implementation of agile.

The two HR managers did not actually realize the level of complexity prior to

starting to go into detail. They realized that most areas of HR management

are affected by using agile methods. This ranges from easy to design and

decide aspects, to legal conditions, which cannot be influenced, yet will cause

severe problems. Since many topics are interconnected (e.g. performance

management is related to compensation & benefits and career models and

HR information systems and others) it is quite difficult to find a good starting

point. The lack of well documented experience in the form of benchmarks,

blueprints etc. does not make it any easier for HR. So where do they start and

how should they proceed?

First of all, the HR managers decide to find some kind of structure to help

them define a more systematic approach. They finally decide to use the Dilts

pyramid, which was originally created as a coaching tool by Robert Dilts,

widely used as a model for personal change. The decision is based on the

insight that personal change and agile transformation of a whole company

have different complexities, but follow more or less the same patterns.

Page 25: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Additionally, the levels in the pyramid can be used to structure the different

aspects in agile methods.

To get a better overview, the HRBP offers to collect examples from the HR

community and identify the different ways that the implementation of agile

methods have been handled. A week later, he presented his findings

(Edelkraut 2016) from interviews with HR managers in 37 companies who are

already using agile methods. Only a minority of HR managers had started to

find ways in which to handle consequences. Those who had already dealt

with the topic reported two major insights:

1. There is a high level of complexity in an agile transformation, as they

mostly had to find ways to run agile and “classical” systems in parallel.

Different views, expectations and competencies of employees also

resulted in many conflicts of interests.

2. The best way to solve the problems was to use agile methods from the

start and quickly learn where agile has advantages and where other

approaches are preferred. Customer orientation, iterations,

simulations, prototypes etc. all helped the move from the “old world”

into an agile setting.

Page 26: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Figure 7-4: Dilts Pyramid and the levels of an agile transformation

Agile methods and Works Constitution Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz

in Germany)

In their discussion of the examples found in the research, the two HR

managers started on the bottom level of the Dilts pyramid. They interpreted

“where & what” in relation to the legal, economic and business framework.

With respect to the examples, these are industry, location, laws and other

regulations etc. From an HR point of view, national labor law is one of the key

factors to look at. Located in Germany, the works constitution act is highly

relevant since it affects HR on a daily basis, especially via the workers

council. Additionally, legal regulations for working times, social security,

employment of freelancers etc. all have to be considered and mostly

negotiated with the workers council.

Page 27: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Cooperation with the workers council is based on the German works

constitution act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz; BetrVG), which defines a wide

range of consulting and participation rights and consequently forces the

company to co-determine and come to an agreement with the workers

council. The standard result is a company agreement defining the way a topic

is handled in daily operations.

If agile methods become standard, the following paragraphs will have to be

considered:

§ 111 BetrVG looks at new standards and procedures which lead to a change

in operations

§ 96 BetrVG defines the rights of a workers council in relation to personnel

development measures

§ 87 BetrVG is highly relevant for the standard interaction of HR and workers’

council, since it defines powerful employee rights with respect to any

measures that effect the individual employee. This may relate to

compensation&benefits, recruitment, performance measurement, working

hours and shift systems, technical installations and so on.

From a workers councils point of view, the most relevant aspects of working

agile will probably be:

● new ways of organizing work, including changes in roles and consequences for individual employees

● defining objectives and measuring progress ● compensation&benefit schemes and performance measurements ● equal treatment within the workforce

All of these topics will change in those units that are working agile, and for HR

this will mean long and hard negotiations.

Page 28: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

One exemplary company, which has already started the communication and

negotiation process with its workers’ council, is Deutsche Telekom AG. Both

parties agreed on a company agreement defining the general outlines for

working agile. The aspects integrated into the agreement are:

● Assignment to agile teams ● Management ● Working times ● Holidays and representations ● Retrospectives ● Measuring performance and behavior ● Qualifications

The agreement was discussed in 2011 and is based on little operational

experience. Therefore, the individual paragraphs are rather vague. On the

other hand, an early start followed by later refinements may be an excellent

blueprint for other companies. It fits well into the agile mind-set and allows

both negotiation partners to gain relevant experience.

Although there are no concrete clues as to what an agreement may look like,

the impact of agile working on the relationship between the workers council

and the company becomes clear. Since most companies bundle all activities

related to the workers council within HR, the role of HR in agile transformation

becomes critical. Here, the relevant competencies and experience can be

found, as well as another relevant aspect that is influenced by HR: Time.

Agile Transition and Agile Transformation have a positive side-effect, many

processes become faster. Negotiations between the workers council and HR

on the other hand, tend to be lengthy processes with an outcome that is hard

to predict. There is an obvious conflict regarding timelines, and HR and a

collaborative workers council will have to find procedural answers as to how

to handle this conflict of interests.

When both HR managers discussed how the agile mind-set and the works

Page 29: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

constitution act fit together, a contradiction became obvious. The works

constitution act is meant to protect workers against the interests of their

employer. The law was passed in the late fifties and partly reformed in the

seventies in the last century. It was thought up, discussed and

institutionalized in an industrial era. Since that time, the business world has

changed dramatically and the logic behind the law does not fit into the new

world any more. The concept of a workers council for example, is collective

representation to protect workers from any harm. In a world where agile

teams form and reassemble quickly and highly educated individuals follow

their own career and learning paths, this collective representation (every

agreement with a workers council is binding to all employees) is not in the

interest of individual employees. So how can a workers council member

balance this?

Develop individuals and organizations – Create spheres for learning and

experience

On the next level on the Dilts pyramid, “Behavior – What”, the HRBP selected

an example showing how agile working methods can be introduced into an

organization. Swisscom has already started to prepare itself for changes and

conditions in the telecommunication market. The whole industry is in the midst

of a fast moving process of change, fueled by competitive pressure. The

ability to act flexibly and agile is critical for success. One of the many

consequences is a more intense use of Design Thinking, supporting the

strategic principle to become an Experience Driven company (Haas 2015).

The intention is to create more innovations and foster the development of the

whole company.

At the head office in Berne, a Design Thinking Lab has been installed to

develop new products and services following the principle of User Centric

Design. At the same time, the Lab is being used as a development center for

employees and managers. They can learn to use agile methods in a “Safe

Page 30: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Harbor” here, using agile principles and gaining experience in agile

operations. This approach catalyzes the use of agile methods in day to day

operations and the probability for success increases significantly. Participants

trained in the lab showed a higher level of motivation and willingness to

transfer new experiences, than is usual in standard development settings.

Applying the Swisscom experience to employee and leadership development

at Meier would mean significant changes. The current system is based on

actual common principles and roles of managers (setting objectives,

measuring performance, career paths etc.). Trainings are conducted in

standard formats, organized centrally within HR. A development model suiting

agile principles and agile processes would need to change from a hierarchical

to an individualized and self-driven framework, allowing employees and

managers to decide for themselves when, how and what to learn. Agile

development is meant to offer solutions to the question: “I have a problem

here, how can I solve it?”

To do this, all employees would need to be enabled and empowered to make

learning their own process, and in addition, a peer consulting mind-set would

have to be introduced. Last but not least, learning would require time and

space to experiment and use simulations to make it more experience-based

and operations-related.

For HR this would mean handing over more responsibility to the managers

who are closer to the employees and the actual challenges, resulting in the

need to learn. The main driver for this role shift is the expected need for more

individualized learning settings and measures, which are often related to the

working situation and working place. Bringing learning into the work place

also means it will have an impact on the organization of work itself, which is

not the case in the world of learning, where learning formats are located

outside, in training sessions and workshops. In the agile learning world, HR

remains responsible for the selection and development of learning formats

Page 31: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

and concepts, and the selection of vendors. The mind-set will be that of an

enabler and consultant. A trainer´s role would move towards that of a

community manager, supporting individual learning processes. Last but not

least, the managers would be responsible for the integration of learning

processes into the actual workplace and act as coaches for their team

members.

As a result of the discussion, both HR managers conceived the idea of a type

of laboratory, which could be helpful for experimenting with new topics and

competencies and creating and testing prototypes. Additionally, a Lab could

also be used to distribute knowledge and experience, as the Swisscom

example has shown. In a fast changing and barely predictable business

environment, experiments and prototypes require a separate platform, since

they cannot really be integrated into the operational landscape.

Organizational design for agile Organizations – Rules and Behavior

Within the Dilts pyramid the level “Capabilities – How” is very much related to

skills and capabilities. On an individual level, this is mainly a matter of

competencies (see previous section), on a company level, it is related more to

the procedural structure. Due to the strong relation between organizational

and procedural structure, HR would need to combine both in an

organizational design process.

The objective for an organizational design process is to build an organization

that:

● supports the company´s strategy ● allows efficient cooperation of all business units ● ensures all necessary information is available where needed

Most companies are organized by functional units, following the logic of

dividing work into units that process work sequentially by respective experts.

Page 32: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

In an agile world, cross-functional teams have proved to be more effective

and often more efficient. Customer orientation and continuous delivery are

easier if all relevant functions cooperate directly and organize themselves.

An example of an organization following this logic is Spotify. Their

organizational design has been published and discussed several times and is

well documented (e.g. Kniberg & Ivarsson 2012). The principle of Spotify´s

organization is the enablement of Scrum teams, and it uses social group

structures as an orientation. In the end, it is again, a kind of matrix

organization, but the needs of the employees and teams are said to be served

better. Cooperation, learning and (individual) development are key objectives

for the organization, which has proved to be highly innovative and

motivational.

Figure 7-5: Organizational structure at Spotify (Kniberg 2012)

Squad: The central org-unit and backbone of the organization is a team

(Squad) which acts as a kind of mini start-up. Teams get all the competencies

Page 33: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

they need and are co-located. Squads work on exactly one task until it is

ready. All teams are asked to use 10% of their working time for active

learning. The topics and methods covered in this learning time are decided by

the teams.

Tribe: A tribe is a group of Squads working on the same or interconnected

tasks. The tribe is seen as an incubator for the “start-ups” (Squads). A tribe is

managed by a tribe leader whose main responsibility is the creation of a

supportive framework.

Chapters and guilds: Chapters and guilds are Spotify´s answer to the main

disadvantage of self-organized teams. The decrease in central control may

lead to doubling of work, and loss of strategic focus and knowledge

exchange. Chapters are meant to bundle those team members into tribes with

similar expertise, to share knowledge and work on related topics. Whereas

chapters are communities within a tribe, guilds are a kind of community of

interest for the whole company. Every guild has a guild coordinator to

facilitate topics and processes.

As a whole, the organization of Spotify is focused on delivery of projects and

cooperation of the project teams. Functional units are secondary and mainly

for development and strategic coordination.

When the two HR managers at Meier try to transfer the Spotify organizational

model to their own company, it is hard to imagine what this will look like. This

is partly due to lack of experience, but the main questions are related to the

design of an organization primarily based on teams. For example, they

struggle to describe the development of a company in which all teams

independently follow their own processes which can be redefined in changing

contexts. Without central monitoring there is a risk of diverging teams and

processes. HR still have to monitor all developments and facilitate the

processes, so they still fit into the strategy and to all relevant legal and

regulatory requirements.

Page 34: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

For those teams working on projects and service delivery, a more agile

organization like Spotify may be an advantage. For the production units, this

is not so obvious, so both managers decide to postpone the topic and to

involve the managers and selected team members in production first, to

“simulate” an agile production system. This resulted from a discussion on

digitalized production (Industrie 4.0, IoT), which seems to have been helpful.

From an HR point of view, digitalization in production may have similar effects

to agile methods on labour organization, role definitions etc.

Values and Beliefs – A foundation for cooperation

Whilst discussing “agile production”, the two HR managers became aware of

the different grades of agility that different org-units would have in the future,

and that there would be different needs for HR support. What this could look

like is shown in an example the HR Manager selected for the level “Values &

beliefs – Why“ in the Dilts Pyramid. Haufe Umantis became famous in 2013,

when the CEO at the time, Herrmann Arnold, stepped down and asked

employees to elect his successor. Since that time, all managers in the

company have been elected democratically. The logic behind this step is

described by the current CEO Marc Stoffel, who said: “The employees

anyway elect the managers every day. If I as a manger act in a way the

colleagues do not understand or agree on, they will not follow instructions and

in extreme cases leave the company.” (Haufe Umantis 2015).

At Haufe Umantis they use the so-called Haufe-Quadrant (see Figure 7-6). It

is meant to show the link between organizational design and the self-

conception of employees. It is formed by a two axis organizational design

referred to as “controlled” or “self-driven”, and the role of employees referred

to as “Executer” or “Creator”.

The resulting four boxes represent four different ways of interaction:

Page 35: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Command & Control: Executers act within a structured design, which is still a

common way of working in companies. Employees expect and need clear

instructions, which are executed within a defined framework of processes.

Agile Network: In some ways this is exactly the opposite. In a flexible

organization, design employees work in self-organized and self-responsible

teams. Agile networks are based on trust and quick action in flexible markets.

Agile networks are used to handle complex topics and react quickly to

changing demands.

Figure 7-6: Haufe-Quadrant (Haufe 2015)

Shadow organization: Here employees want to act pro-actively and self-

responsibly, but a rigid organizational design does not allow any non-

conformist action. Consequently, breaking rules and creating work-arounds

are standard behavior, as they seem to be the only chance to achieve better

Page 36: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

solutions.

Overloaded Organization: If executers find themselves in an open

organizational design they tend to feel lost and insecure. They are unable to

act in a self-directed and self-organized way to reach objectives.

The Haufe-Quadrant is a good tool for initial analyzes of teams or larger units

in an organization to find out how employee expectations and competencies

fit into the current and any future organizational design.

With respect to the different departments at Meier GmbH, both HR Managers

asked themselves as an initial overall consideration, where to place the

different departments. Regarding the IT department, both soon agree, that IT

clearly works within the upper right quadrant. The employees are working in a

self-organized way and they form a network, which is predominated by

bilateral support, open communication and flexibility. As the existing HR

systems are directed towards a hierarchic production unit, it soon became

evident for them both, that already known conflicts arose at this point and that

the agile reality of the IT department does not correspond to current HR

systems.

With respect to the Production department, both see the department clearly

within the quadrant “order & control”. The interesting part here is that both the

production manager and the employees are relatively satisfied with this

situation. The multiple quality presets of customers, narrow profit margins,

concern about efficiency on the one hand, and stringent safety regulations, a

relatively low but after all heterogeneous competence level of staff on the

other hand make this form of organization appropriate at the moment.

However, the production manager has already clearly voiced concern that the

upcoming changes from increasing digitalization and the trend towards

“Losgrösse 1” (Industry 4.0) will exceed all limits of the system’s efficacy.

Here as well, adaptive structures and more self-regulated working employees

will become essential in the future.

Page 37: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

The analyses for the HR department demonstrated to both HR managers that

the analysis should not only look at the entire department, but also at

separate parts and individual processes. The analysis had already shown that

the basic logic of HR management broadly follows a classic organizational

structure and contains many systems belonging to the category “order &

control”. They had both already discussed objective agreements for

Performance Management (Zielvereinbarung). Furthermore, people

development was based upon this and organized as a centralized system

(both topics will be discussed later in detail).

The roles of HR Business Partners, on the other hand, who are assigned to

certain organization sectors of the company, feature a great deal of flexibility,

as well as autonomous decisions and implementation. This often results in a

type of shadow system, where specific needs of a department are supported

by innovative, and therefore non concerted solutions or even where existing

processes or rules are circumvented to achieve an adequate solution. The

Compensation&Benefits team (Lohn- und Gehaltsabrechnung) on the

contrary, works according to a classical structure, aiming for compliance and

zero-failure, whilst a project to support the integration of an acquired company

was almost agile. Therefore, a varied range could be observed, even within

the HR department alone, and the question as to what the expectation of

individual HR colleagues would be, also revealed variance from the

employee’s point of view. A reorganization of HR, which would be inevitable

when introducing agile work, would inevitably cause a certain amount of

turmoil within HR.

Vision and Guiding Principles in an agile economy – Purpose and

Alignment in an organization

The discussion on the values and basic attitude of an agile organization,

indicated to both HR managers, that there is a clear need for a vision to

describe the future mind-set and the direction of the company’s development.

Page 38: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Most companies have a vision describing the fundamental alignment and

basic principles to follow. In an economy that is becoming more and more

VUCA oriented, alignment and certainty will progressively be lost or be only

short-term. Many of the existing vision statements are no longer able to fulfill

their purpose. The managing directors and HR therefore, should ask

themselves if there is a need for action with respect to a new vision and

corporate culture.

The discussion on the values and basic attitude of an agile organization

demonstrated to the HR managers at Meier GmbH that the company’s

organizational design and overriding alignment required a lot of attention. This

is important, because fundamental decisions concerning organizational

design are influenced by underlying values and a joint understanding of a

company’s identity and purpose. It makes no sense to define an organization

where real employee behavior and the needs of agile working do not

correspond.

Side note: Vision statement

A vision statement is a formally written declaration by an organization

on self-understanding and basic principles. It depicts a target state

(realistic utopia). For internal organization, a vision serves as an

orientation, and is therefore like an instruction manual and serves as

motivation for both the whole organization and individual members.

For the public (general public, customer) it should make clear what

the organization stands for. It is the basis of corporate identity. A

vision declares the company’s mission and vision as well as the

aimed-for corporate culture. It is part of normative management and

forms the frame for overall strategies, aims and operative actions.

Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unternehmensleitbild (Date:

April 26th 2016)

Page 39: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

The HRBP found two more examples on how the topics identity and vision in

agile working organizations may be of influence. During a conference he

spoke to the Chief HR manager of Whatever mobile Ltd. (Cortinovis 2015).

She had just reported on how the company had changed during over last few

years and the role HR had played in this.

At Whatever mobile Ltd. the trigger for change was the IT department,

because software had to be programmed more efficiently. Introduction of agile

methods rapidly influenced all other departments. That resulted in, among

other things, teams no longer being organized according to function, but

according to value chain (marketing, sales, project management,

development, operations). As a consequence, managers (in terms of position)

were replaced by leadership. Subsequently, an apparently simple methodical

topic (agile programming) had far-reaching implications that influenced even

the company’s self-understanding. It revealed that processes, structure and

culture cannot be separated from each other.

According to this perception, work at Whatever mobile (WM) is currently

based on a corporate understanding of how work is understood (WM 3.0

Principles) and a common behavior codex (WM Style: Respect, Fun at Work,

Speak up and speak out, Openness, Excellence).

At Whatever mobile, the principles of work consist of:

● in team we trust

● fever to deliver

● freedom to act, duty to correct

● thinking value

● sharing leads to caring

A quick consideration of these principles reveals high expectations for all

players. Employees must act self-reliantly and self-critically, managers must

trust employees, and there is an overall need for strong team spirit and

corporate goal-orientation. During the transition period, not all participants at

Page 40: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Whatever mobile wanted or were able to join the change towards a new

culture and basic principles.

The change towards an agile organization also had consequences for HR.

Today the focus and therefore basic attitude is on the transformational and

strategic design of processes. Administrative duties have significantly

declined. Work in HR is guided by agile principles and agile instruments and

follows the above described principles.

Asked for her own experiences, the HR manager stated the following as her

learning experience from agile transformation at whatever mobile:

● The need for communication rises enormously ● Topics get more complex ● HR automatically focusses on organizational development and cultural

topics ● A “Safe Harbour” has to be created, which means adhering to the

basic principle that mistakes can/should happen and things need to be tried out.

The HR manager at Meier GmbH looked at his HRBP and said dryly: "Well,

we still have a lot of work to do. If agile transformation has this effect, it is

indeed a long way off, but it offers the chance to work significantly more

productively and innovatively. I am still not quite sure, whether this is the right

way for us. Something that works well in a little ‘garage software firm’ is much

more complex in a production company. For us in HR it would mean

delegating tasks and responsibilities to the base. That means to the teams

and the management.” “There may even be further implications” replied

HRBP. “If we look at the last example then HR will no longer exist. Just as at

Valve.”

Valve is a game producer in Washington which completely dispenses with

managers/leaders. The financially independent company was founded in

Page 41: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

1996 and aims to represent “greatness”. Therefore, the employees have all

over freedom. Small scale, this means anyone can place their desk

anywhere, everyone can decide what they are working on and in which team.

On a larger scale it relates to the handling of mistakes, which plays a large

role as learning potential, or decisions concerning product rollouts.

The logic of this way of working at Valve is formally described in a manual

every new employee receives. Everything they need to know is described

within it. At Valve there is neither a boss/superior, nor HR. Everything

necessary is carried out by the employees themselves.

Welcome to Flatland

Hierarchy is great for maintaining predictability and repeatability. It

simplifies planning and makes it easier to control a large group of

people from the top down, which is why military organizations rely

on it so heavily. But when you’re an entertainment company that’s

spent the last decade going out of its way to recruit the most

intelligent, innovative, talented people on Earth, telling them to sit at

a desk and do what they’re told obliterates 99 percent of their value.

We want innovators, and that means maintaining an environment

where they’ll flourish. That’s why Valve is flat. It’s our shorthand

way of saying that we don’t have any management, and nobody

“reports to” anybody else. We do have a founder/president, but

even he isn’t your manager. This company is yours to steer—

toward opportunities and away from risks. You have the power to

green-light projects. You have the power to ship products.

Excerpt from: Valve Handbook for New Employees:

http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.

pdf

Page 42: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Figure 7-7: Valve Handbook on the question, how to work without a manager.

Source: http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

The HR managers at Meier GmbH find it thrilling to see how an organization

like Valve works. In particular, it shows there may be a far lesser need for

rules and regulations than expected and that normally exist. Although they

agree that it would not be suitable for their own company for the time being, a

greater focus on self-reliability and initiative are an essential part of any agile

organization.

Page 43: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Modern HR Management for Agile Organizations

One benefit from the current discussion on agile methods is the opportunity

for organizations to critically revise their current HR systems. Comp.& Ben.,

Objective Agreements, budgeting, and other systems are common to many

companies, but will not necessarily work in a more agile setting. Often, these

systems have existed for many years and have been developed in an almost

“evolutionary” way, but have seldom undergone critical revision. They may

even have a tendency to limit the organization, therefore getting rid of these

limitations may be a good trigger for a new organizational design.

Example 1: In a Tayloristic working system all resources should be close to a

100% work load. Experience from project management (even the “old”

waterfall systems) showed, that this is not an ideal way to view resources.

Any kind of unexpected or changing matter will cause problems if resources

do not have the capacity to react.

Example 2: In agile methods like Scrum, sprint is a core logic. This can only

work, if resources are able to focus on one task and take the next one from

the backlog when ready to do so.

Looking at HR systems the two HR managers ask themselves which

instruments have to be addressed within HR. They create a list showing all

topics already discussed with the different departments and even at this

stage, the initial version contains many topics:

Agreement of objective: Agreeing objectives with all employees in a yearly

process does not appear to be meaningful in an agile environment.

Additionally, it will become increasingly difficult for the line manager to see

and influence the process to reach the agreed objectives.

Page 44: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Individual bonus payments: The logic of an individual bonus, i.e. to value

individual performance, does not fit into an agile world, where team

performance is key and individual contributions are not even possible to

measure. Individual bonuses violate the mind-set of peer support.

Personal development has to be organized on an individual level and

instruments and formats have to be more flexible to address short-term or

very specific learning needs.

Knowledge Management (KM): The basic question of KM “How do we learn in

this organization?” becomes more relevant in an agile organization. Agile

working teams create a lot of new knowledge and experience and this new

knowledge has to be documented, and analyzed for its value to other teams,

and if meaningful then taught to others. Here again individual teams are the

basis for the new system.

Organizational Structure: An analysis has to be made as to whether the

existing org chart and the therein defined roles and responsibilities still make

sense in an agile organization. It may be necessary to create new structures

more oriented to the work flow as shown in the Spotify example.

Liquid Workforce: In a more agile and faster moving world, competencies and

manpower are more difficult to plan. Therefore, all companies will increase

the number and type of freelancers, Interim Managers and other flexible

workforce. Due to a number of regulations, partly in direct conflict with the

company´s interests (“Scheinselbständigkeit”, social insurance etc.) plus the

increasing need to involve freelancers more heavily in all learning and

knowledge processes, a more structured approach needs to be defined.

IT for HR: The actual IT system at Meier is designed to support managers in

their role as department heads. In an agile future, the self-organization of

teams has to be covered too.

Page 45: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Performance Management: To work in an agile environment, performance

management has to be redesigned from a manager-to-employee-related

system into a 360° system. Feedback from peers and customers (internal and

external) becomes more relevant and part of all performance matters.

Career models: The current career model focuses on managerial and project

related careers. In an agile system, career has to be redefined and a modified

career system established.

These topics alone will create a lot of work for HR and have significant

potential for conflicts. They therefore look at two topics in further detail.

HR Topic 1: Agreeing objectives and Performance Measurement

Many companies run a system of yearly objective agreements and objective

achievement related performance systems, which often fuel a bonus system.

In a world trying to create interdependency of all employees and the

organization this more or less works. In an agile world these common

systems create several conflicts of interests.

The HR manager contacts the department heads of IT and Project

Management and asks for their vision of an agile future. They agree on the

following changes that are needed for the transformation to an agile

organization:

Discard individual bonus payments, since agile work is team related and

individual interests are seen as a hindrance for good cooperation. If a team

member actively supports others it invests time, resources etc. in the success

of someone else and increasing this person´s bonus at the expense of their

own bonus.

Page 46: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Objective and target agreements on a yearly basis should be discarded too.

Short working cycles and the high flexibility of agile teams do not allow the

necessary planning and monitoring.

Performance management should be based on a 360° approach involving

peers in the team and other stakeholders. The ideal would be a mind-set of

speedy and precise feedback given to everyone by everyone.

For Recruitment, just a few changes are expected, since this has always had

to be flexible and customer oriented. For the future, the profile of an ideal

candidate may change, asking for more adaptability to change, cooperation

and communication skills. Technical skills are expected to become less

relevant, since they change anyway at increasing speed. In the future, hiring

will be less related to job descriptions, and more to project related skill-sets

plus a set of attitudes that fit into the environment and teams. More decision-

making power will be given to those teams affected by the hiring and formal

aspects will be less relevant.

Personal and leadership development will have to change with respect to

basic principles. In fact, most learning is carried out in formal learning settings

like seminars. In this learning environment, individual needs are hard to define

and serve and the development of competencies close to impossible. This

topic needs to be discussed later (see below), as learning is a major aspect in

agile organizations and has to be organized properly.

Regarding the idea of skipping yearly objective setting cycles, Meier GmbH is

in good company. More and more companies are changing their systems,

including General Electric. GE was a beacon for structured and highly

proficient objective setting, but recently did away with this system (Quartz

2016). Its reasons were: shorter business cycles (in relation to the yearly

based objective settings) and the high level of pressure felt by employees to

reach these objectives. This made it difficult to be flexible and innovative.

Page 47: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

HR Topic 2: Making Personal Development more agile

During a discussion preparing the initial meeting with the workers council, the

HR Manager recalls his last visit to the IT department. He had wanted to get a

first-hand impression of the way agile methods are used and the resulting

consequences. He addressed learning and training, a topic which is

regulated, and therefore to be discussed with the workers council.

He was quite surprised to hear that none of the team members had

participated in any of the trainings offered at Meier GmbH. On the other hand,

the need for learning and training was never higher than at this time of

change and rapid technical development. The department head explained

that existing formats do not satisfy needs. Traditional training is based on

expert knowledge shared in standardized settings. This is both slow and an

extremely trainer-dependent setting. So speed and practical orientation are

low, in comparison to needs.

In an agile world, employees and managers are permanently forced to

monitor their own skill-set in relation to the changing business environment. If

learning needs are identified, suitable measures have to be defined, and if

possible, incorporated into daily work or simulation settings close to the

working environment. The relevance of trainers will decrease and the

relevance of peer-group learning will increase.

Hearing this forecast, the HR Manager was concerned, because this was an

unmistakable wake-up call from his in-house-customer. HR would have to

redefine learning structures and processes and build a new logic of learning.

One of the key issues would be to let go and hand more responsibility for

learning over to individual employees, and empower them to find or define

suitable formats for learning. This would mean a different self-conception for

the Personal Development experts in his team.

The obvious need for change is related to:

Page 48: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Definition of learning needs: To date, the learning needs of an employee are

analyzed and defined by the team manager and discussed with the employee.

The needs are based on findings with respect to objective achievement and

performance assessment. Neither system will work in an agile future.

Learning formats: Most learning is organized in seminars and other formal

formats. Content and methods are defined and partly certified. Although this

approach has already been regarded as quite inefficient for several years,

real change has not yet occurred. In the future, there will be a need for

learning structures based on collective and peer learning on topics relevant to

individuals in their working environment. Prototype building and simulations in

particular, have been seen to show a high level of potential. These for

example, may be implemented in a laboratory (Lab) setting, i.e. a room (or

several) equipped for Design Thinking, use of new technologies, co-working

on innovation etc.

Content: In the past, the content of learning formats was defined by experts

on this topic. This is normally done in formal training settings (see above). In

an agile environment, future knowledge is created at much higher speed and

in a greater variety, in more places (often in the working teams!). Therefore, a

network and community approach is more likely to fulfil the needs of

permanent and problem related learning.

During the meeting in the IT department, the HR Manager was able to

observe some of these trends emerging. Team members had already begun

to change their behavior with respect to communication and the use of social

media. If a problem occurred, a solution was close to hand on the Internet and

Wikipedia, or Youtube or TED Talks were consulted for a solution. Employees

did not even consider looking for a training session or similar. At the same

time, employees created a great deal of content describing their experience at

work (e.g. from retrospectives) and some team members had become experts

on topics they had a passion for. They posted blogs or short web videos and

Page 49: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

formed communities of interest. This internally created content was

considered more relevant and of higher quality. The IT department head

revealed his concern that tunnel vision of sorts could be a mid-term

consequence if regular refreshment from external sources was incorporated

into the communities. One side effect is, that formal aspects such as functions

or work experience (in years) become more and more irrelevant. Passion for

a topic was shown to be the key driver for an individual´s relevance and

reputation as an expert.

The HR manager had already observed similar changes himself. He

increasingly watched, TED Talks (www.ted.com) and other online media, with

a clear shift in media usage as well as quality criteria occurring. In a digital

world, where all information exists, and user-friendly formats like Wikipedia,

TED, and blogs are available all the time, people expect information to be

easy to find and presented attractively. Lectures and long Powerpoint

presentations are simply not accepted any more. For corporate

communications, employer branding and all other forms of communication,

there is a significant need to adapt to this change and find new and attractive

ways of communicating. For employee and leadership development, this is

also true, and there should be more focus on the advantages of new media

and digital formats.

In relation to this, there is a TED talk by Simon Sinek: "How great leaders

inspire action“. He demonstrates the importance of telling the story behind the

story and inspiring people. They want to understand the meaning behind

business activities and this is a key challenge, but also opportunity for

managers. Offering purpose is a key skill of any leader.

From an HR point of view, TED Talks and the communication principles

behind them, offer a great chance to further develop leadership culture and

management skills in an organization. Increased communication competence

will increase leadership performance.

Page 50: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Simon Sinek: How great leaders

inspire action

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_si

nek_how_great_leaders_inspire_a

ction

Simon Sinek has a simple but

powerful model for inspirational

leadership all starting with a

golden circle and the question

"Why?" His examples include

Apple, Martin Luther King, and the

Wright brothers ... (Filmed at

TEDxPugetSound.)

This talk, as well as many others, shows the potential of modern

communication. If better communication increases managerial effectiveness,

how will the change in communication and behavior influence the meeting

culture, sales performance or other key areas for excellent communication?

For personal and leadership development or knowledge management, new

formats like webvideos or TED-style conferences can easily be used and

some of the topics already discussed can also use social media logic.

Performance measurement by “Likes” and comments work well on the

Internet, so why should they not also work in a corporate environment?

Page 51: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Summary and Outlook

All discussions on agile methods and the consequences of their use, have

shown a massive need for clarification and for redesigning the organization.

Clarification starts with a definition of agile. There are different concepts of

agile in different departments and at different managerial levels, and the

reasons for becoming more agile may be vary. The already agile working

departments see agile more as a method for organizing work, whereas HR

and the management team see agile more as an organization’s ability to

adapt to change. Step number one in any agile transition or transformation

therefore, must be to define the purpose, definitions and scope of any

activities.

The logic of agile work affects three levels: Individuals, Team and

Organization. HR is an excellent example of how these three levels and the

effects of agile are interwoven. Any change in one small aspect will cause

several side-effects, which then have to be dealt with. An individual bonus for

example, is part of an organization wide salary scheme, which is agreed on

with the workers council and so on. For HR, this is a big challenge, since this

complexity means every change will take time to be defined, negotiated and

implemented. Long processes on the other hand, are in direct conflict with

one of the key benefits of agile work: Speed. Only time will tell how this

conflict of interest can be managed properly.

For Agile@Meier, the two HR Managers formulate the following theses:

● The starting point for any agile transformation is an analysis of the inventory of all systems, processes and instruments currently in place. Only then, can the relevant topics, as well as any measures, be defined.

● To transform HR into an agile (or at least agile compatible) department, agile methods can, and should be used. Experiments, prototypes and simulations are helpful approaches, quite uncommon in HR until now. Since every company will have to find its own way

Page 52: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

and benchmarks, standards etc. do not work properly any more, this is the best way to create suitable and working results.

● The first step to an agile organization is recognizing that agile is primarily a mind-set and set of values. Agile culture and principles have to become part of the company´s DNA and find its way into methods, processes and instruments.

● Complex systems cannot be managed in the classical way. The only way to “manage” a complex system is by continuous observation, feedback, learning and improvement. Using iterations and experimental approaches are possibly the most promising ways to get ahead.

Success in agile transformation depends on several factors:

● Ability to analyze context and options to act ● Let go: Processes, power, … skip what is not working anymore and

change what needs to be changed ● Tolerance: different approaches may lead to the best results and may

be tried, even in parallel ● Endurance: There will be a lot of problems, mishaps and “failure”.

Stand up and move on! ● Experiment: There will be no plan and no one and only way.

Experiments are the best way to find proper solutions and save energy.

● Learn, learn, learn

For HR, this will mean redefining its future role. Depending on the company´s

strategy and the respective context, there is ample room to define what to be.

An administrative specialist can be as helpful as a business driver and

enabler of agile teams and the whole organization. The future will tell. Agile!

Page 53: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Literature

Cortinovis S (2015) Veränderung als Normalzustand – Agile Praxis aus

Personalmanagement-Sicht, Vortrag auf der Zukunft Personal 2015

DGfP - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Personalführung (2010) DGfP

Langzeitstudie Professionelles Personalmanagement,

http://static.dgfp.de/assets/publikationen/2011/03/dgfp-langzeitstudie-

professionelles-personalmanagement-pix-2010-

1342/dgfplangzeitstudiepix2010.pdf

Edelkraut F (2014) Der letzte räumt die Erde auf! Wie sich „agil“ auf die

Personalabteilung auswirkt. Vortrag auf der Manage Agile 2014,

http://de.slideshare.net/fredel00/hr-in-agilen-umgebungen

Edelkraut F, Eickmann M (1/2015) Agiles Management – jetzt wird es ernst!

Wirtschaftsinformatik & Management

Edelkraut F (1/2016) Personalmanagement in der agilen Organisation;

Management Innovation Camp 2016, http://managementinnovation.camp/

Haas A (2015) Führung in einer Experience Driven Company, Beitrag auf

dem DGfP-Lab 2015. Interview und Hintergründe: Wilkat B., Haas A.: Human

Centred Design bei der Swisscom, http://www.the-new-worker.com/human-

centred-design-swisscom/

Haufe (2015) Whitepaper: Agile Unternehmen – Das Betriebssystem für die

Arbeitswelt der Zukunft, http://www.haufe.de/personal/download-agile-

unternehmen-whitepaper_48_319054.html

Haufe Umantis (2015)

http://presse.haufe.de/pressemitteilungen/detail/article/ceo-marc-stoffel-

erneut-demokratisch-gewaehlt/

Page 54: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function

Komus et. al. (2014) Status Quo Agile - Zweite Studie zu Verbreitung und

Nutzen agiler Methoden, http://www.status-quo-agile.de/

Klumpp B, Guillium L (2012) Betriebsverfassungsgesetz und Scrum – Wie

passt das zusammen? Vortrag auf der Deutsche Scrum 2012,

http://deutschescrum.de/sites/deutschescrum.de/files/article/Deutsche%20Scr

um%202012_Betriebsverfassungsgesetz%20und%20Scrum.pdf

Kniberg I, Ivarsson A (2012) Scaling Agile @ Spotify with Tribes, Squads,

Chapters & Guilds,

http://de.slideshare.net/xiaofengshuwu/scalingagilespotify

PMI (2015) Capturing the value of project management through

organizational agility

http://www.pmi.org/~/media/PDF/learning/translations/2015/capture-value-

organizational-agility.ashx

Quartz (2016) http://qz.com/428813/ge-performance-review-strategy-shift/

Stoffel M, Grabmeier S (2015) Mitarbeiterzentriertes Betriebssystem Keynote

auf dem Talent Management Gipfel,

https://www.haufe.com/vision/mitarbeiterzentriertes-betriebssystem/

Page 55: Agile@HR - How agile impacts the HR function