HR & TALENT ADVISORY
The Agile People
Strategy
HR’s Call to Action in an Era of Uncertainty
HR & TALENT ADVISORY
Human Resources must rise to meet both the challenges and the opportunities
presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing uncertainty. Doing so requires
a new approach to people strategy development and activation. Are you ready?
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented
crisis for organizations large and small around the world.
While responses will differ based on an organization’s
specific industry and its footing going into the crisis,
all organizations will need to respond to new threats
or opportunities. The period of uncertainty that lies
before us will undoubtedly require rapid tactical shifts in
business strategy. Our counsel to CHROs remains clear
and steadfast: the seismic changes in market conditions,
customer preferences and workforce dynamics will require
you to revisit your people strategy in rapid fashion. If you
have not already done so, now is the time to adopt an agile
approach that starts with a deep understanding of your
business strategy and the degree to which it has been, or
could be, disrupted.
Kincentric’s Agile People Strategy Framework
Employee Experience
Business Human
Organization Talent Activation
Strategy Resources
• Current Strategy • Required Capabilities • Talent Segments • Prioritization and • Alignment
• Disruption and Impact • Target Culture • People Solutions Planning • Measurement
• HR Functional • Iteration
Readiness
The Agile People Strategy Framework is not a prescription outcomes and enable your desired employee experience,
– rather, it is a process by which you identify, prioritize based on the stage in which the organization is currently
and continuously improve upon talent, organizational and operating. In the pages that follow, we outline how this
HR solutions to deliver the greatest impact on business framework can be applied to your organization.
2 The Agile People Strategy: HR’s Call to Action in an Era of Uncertainty
HR & TALENT ADVISORY
Understand Disruption and Impact
to Your Business Strategy
In the best of times, new people solutions are often set in motion
without a clear connection to what will drive business results and
without a plan to measure the value they provide. This is a luxury
most organizations can no longer afford. To get the most out of your
investments, there must be strong alignment between business strategy
and people strategy. The first step in developing your people strategy
is to “unpack” your current business strategy and understand the
value discipline – customer intimacy, product leadership or operational
excellence1 – that sets your organization apart from the competition.
At the onset of crisis, some organizations will need to respond quickly,
whereas others may continue to thrive but need a plan for potential
impacts down the road. Beyond their initial response, organizations may
need to move quickly and in a non linear fashion between navigating
crisis, stabilizing and thriving. In each of these stages, the focus and
tactics may differ.
Stages of Recovery
Navigating Crisis Stabilizing Thriving
• Cash management • Restructuring the organization • Adapting to a new competitive
• Shifting operations to meet • Institutionalizing new ways landscape and regulatory
Imperatives
Business
demand of working (e.g., agility, uncertainty
• Identifying new sources of collaboration, etc.) • Acceleration of digital
revenue • Supply chain, product and/or transformation
customer diversification • New drivers for growth (e.g., M&A,
innovation)
As you navigate these stages, new and existing competitors will be
looking to disrupt and proactively influence what customers value
and how it is delivered. Having a clear strategy and the agility needed
to adapt will be critical to future success. Your people strategy must
be ready to pivot and it all starts with ensuring you have the right
organizational capabilities.
1 - HBR - Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines - Treacy and Wiersema (1993)
3 The Agile People Strategy: HR’s Call to Action in an Era of Uncertainty
HR & TALENT ADVISORY
Identify Critical Organizational
Capabilities and Talent Segments
As we emerge from the current environment and face Additionally, identifying which workforce talent segments
continued uncertainty, new business challenges will will have the greatest impact on your organizational
require a broader array of organizational capabilities to capabilities is a critical step to ensure your people
thrive as well as a new definition of the talent segments strategy drives business outcomes, and a broader view of
critical for enabling those capabilities. talent segments is now required. During the crisis, many
organizations were caught off-guard by the segments
It will not be enough to focus only on those capabilities that mattered, failing to fully recognize the importance
that support your current business strategy. Looking to of virtual workers and those newly considered to be
the business response in the stages outlined previously, essential, such as customer-facing employees and
it is clear that a broader set of organizational capabilities production workers. Your talent segments that matter
is required. For example, the ability of an organization to must now include those that enable organizational
navigate a crisis with agility is often the key to survival. resilience and agility in addition to the segments that
However, the importance of agility quickly shifts to are considered differentiators for delivering on the core
building organizational resilience as the business business, such as R&D or engineering.
stabilizes. Resilience is key to both preparing for a new
crisis brought about by aftershocks (e.g., regulatory
changes, business model disruptions) and preparing the
organization to pivot into growth mode again.
You must also consider the need for the organization to
quickly adapt again, regardless of the stage in which you
currently find yourself. Understanding the capabilities
required for today as well as new challenges that
may arise and how they will affect the organizational
capabilities required for your organization is critical to
your ability to thrive into the future.
Articulate Your Target Culture
Organizational culture — the underlying beliefs, your people strategy. Within the context of your people
assumptions and unconscious behaviors about how work strategy, the implications of a gap between your current
gets done — is the cornerstone of how an organization culture and your required culture are two fold: You must
responds to change. Culture can either enable or hinder identify the organizational behaviors and other shorter-
your business performance and your ability to navigate a term levers that can help to work around any cultural
crisis. As such, articulating a target culture that supports obstacles and design people solutions (i.e., who you
your strategic business objectives is a critical step. select, how you lead and how you reward) that clearly
Taking a realistic assessment of where you are today align with the target culture and enable the required
is critical to understanding the effects it may have on organizational capabilities.
your ability to execute the business strategy as well as
4 The Agile People Strategy: HR’s Call to Action in an Era of Uncertainty
HR & TALENT ADVISORY
Identify the Moments That Matter
for the Segments That Matter
The employee experience (eX) encompasses the entire moments that matter. These moments are shaped, in
employee life cycle from interview to exit. Identifying large part, by the people solutions outlined below. Your
the moments that matter – those that can elevate, ability to deliver a radically employee-centric, outside-in eX
inspire, connect and remove friction – for the segments is dependent upon leadership, manager and HR function
that matter is critical to ensuring alignment across all capability. Simply put, your eX is at the very heart of your
elements of your agile people strategy. strategy and getting it right has a meaningful impact on
business performance. Kincentric’s research has shown
A strategic, intentional eX is one that brings purpose, that a strong, differentiated eX has a 3pt impact on
culture and engagement to life by positively shaping the EBITDA margin.
Develop People Solutions That Enable Required
Capabilities, Activate Culture and Align with Desired
Employee Experience
The speed of change and continued uncertainty highlight • Monitoring employee wellness, including the ability to
the need for flexible people solutions that can quickly quickly “check in”
enable the organizational capabilities and talent segments • Adapting physical workspaces and/or moving to remote
required to execute a modified business strategy and working
changing tactics. • Quickly training leaders and front-line employees on
new procedures
We have seen throughout the response to COVID-19 that
most organizations, regardless of how their business has Despite these similarities, the focus of each organization
been affected, shared many of the same priorities: has largely been dictated by the state of its business
and whether it was navigating the crisis, stabilizing or
continuing to thrive.
HR Response by Stage
Navigating Crisis Stabilizing Thriving
• Quickly and temporarily resizing • Rightsizing the organization for • Assessing, hiring and onboarding
the workforce the future virtually
Tactics
• Temporary compensation • New approaches to employee • Additional pay for front-line, at-risk
adjustments recognition employees
HR
• Cross-training for flexible resource • Reskilling employees to meet • Taking advantage of new talent
deployment future requirements supply for key skills
5 The Agile People Strategy: HR’s Call to Action in an Era of Uncertainty
HR & TALENT ADVISORY
Looking to the future, many of our clients are now asking themselves if their existing people solutions
meet current challenges and are flexible enough to adapt for a changing tomorrow.
Identify Manage & Grow Lead & Inspire Reward Enable
• Workforce Planning • Developmental Assessments, • Goal Alignment • Base Pay & Benefits • Virtual Work &
• Sourcing & Recruiting Programs & Experiences • Leadership • Variable Pay Workspaces
• Assessment & • Performance & Feedback Development • Recognition • Enterprise & HR
Selection • Career Advancement • Succession Planning Programs Systems
• Talent Reviews • Coaching & Mentoring • Processes & Workflow
Diversity and Inclusion
It is important to recognize that all the factors above Kincentric’s Agile People Strategy methodology can help
have an impact on organizational capability, culture and you answer these pressing questions. By partnering with
employee experience. To be most effective, these levers Kincentric, you will benefit from our flexible, data-driven
cannot be pulled independently — the key is to determine and consultative approach designed to provide maximum
which ones to pull, and when, in a coordinated fashion. impact.
Ready the HR Function
A successful people strategy is dependent upon mobilization of the entire HR
function. You will need to identify and prioritize the underlying HR Operating
Model changes required to successfully implement your people strategy.
Evaluate HR Priorities in Light of Ensure That Your HR Operating
New Strategic Imperatives Model Is Ready to Deliver
A strategic review of HR programs requires you to balance Your people strategy and HR Operating Model are
cost, delivery and quality. You will need to prioritize inextricably linked and reprioritizing people solutions
initiatives based on importance to enabling strategy will require changes to how HR delivers services. This
and feasibility of successful delivery. To support agility, includes changes to your structure, processes, technology
the prioritization of initiatives should leverage current and capabilities. As you identify required operating model
employee sentiment from pulses, available cost estimates changes to enable a more agile people strategy, make
and broad scenario planning rather than rely on in- sure they:
depth quantitative and qualitative research for finalizing • Focus on Experience
decisions. To prioritize, focus on addressing these four • Drive Greater Integration
critical questions: • Enable Agility
• Which initiatives do we start or need to accelerate to • Embrace Digital
support the strategy? • Prioritize Critical Capabilities
• Which initiatives are no longer aligned to the strategy
and must be stopped? The need for a more flexible HR Operating Model that
• What changes to investments will be required? enables agility and delivers integrated solutions preceded
• What is the roadmap for the next 6-18 months? this crisis, and the ensuing uncertainty has only served to
amplify this need. Kincentric’s NeXt HR provides insights
Once you’ve decided what to prioritize, immediately shift into how CHROs can break down functional silos and
investments and allocate resources to directly align to build agility into their function to deliver business results
prioritized programs. In addition, make any necessary and optimize the employee experience.
changes to governance structures and decision-making
that may slow down rapid reallocation of resources.
6 The Agile People Strategy: HR’s Call to Action in an Era of Uncertainty
HR & TALENT ADVISORY
Activate Your Agile People Strategy
Organizational Alignment and Change
The ongoing, iterative nature of an agile approach to strategy will create a
significant amount of change, which must be managed. For the organization,
change will be constant, non linear and often unplanned. Establishing a small,
nimble guiding coalition of key stakeholders early in the process will enable you
to more quickly establish buy-in and create support for future iteration needed
to address unplanned changes.
At an individual level, change will relate to the physical and emotional needs of
employees, managers and senior leaders, as they continue to experience deep,
personal and varied residual impacts from the global pandemic. Within this
context, all significant changes to your people strategy will require thoughtful
stakeholder analysis and consideration of the change implications for the
workforce. At a tactical level, change management discipline and tactics, such
as celebrating small wins to establish momentum, must be integrated into
everyday operations to ensure successful execution.
Demonstrating Impact
An agile approach to people strategy also requires you to establish processes
and governance structures for making regular, iterative and quick decisions on
what initiatives or programs to start, stop or accelerate. To do so effectively,
it is time to reevaluate the what, when and how of measurement aimed at
accelerating organizational impact. Taking an act-listen-adjust approach to
measurement:
• Focuses on taking action and the information needed to direct and shape ACT
those actions.
• Delivers the insights that HR and its stakeholders need to make the best
decisions about their people. LISTEN
• Evolves over time, connects and loops back to strategy and delivery to
demonstrate continuous improvement and value.
ADJUST
By taking these steps, HR is empowered to rapidly reconfigure plans, programs
and processes to successfully enable agility.
7 The Agile People Strategy: HR’s Call to Action in an Era of Uncertainty
Contacts
Tom Friedrich Alex Manfrediz Brian J. Ruggeberg, Ph.D.
Partner Partner Partner
HR & Talent Advisory | U.S. alex.manfrediz@kincentric.com brian.ruggeberg@kincentric.com
tom.friedrich@kincentric.com
Seymour Adler, Ph.D. Stephen Hickey Michael Martin
Senior Partner Partner Partner
Leadership Assessment & Development Culture & Engagement HR & Talent Advisory
Global Practice Leader APMEA Practice Leader Global Practice Leader
seymour.adler@kincentric.com stephen.hickey@kincentric.com michael.martin@kincentric.com
Contact us to talk about how we can help.
About Kincentric
Kincentric, a Spencer Stuart company, approaches
human capital differently – we help you identify
what drives your people, so they can drive your
business. Our decades of expertise in culture
and engagement, leadership assessment and
development, and HR and talent advisory services
enable us to help organizations change from
the inside. Our global network, proven insights and
intuitive technologies give us new ways to help
organizations unlock the power of people and
teams. For more information, visit kincentric.com.
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