THE TRADITIONAL SLIDE vs.

THE AGILE MUSICAL CHAIR

INTRODUCTION

Employees in an organisation are like treasures because they provide their knowledge

and keep you developed in market but the object around which most HR

organizations operate is the job requisition. A traditional job requisition is usually

nothing more than a list of tools and capabilities buffered by ambiguous language

about “self-starters” and “team players”. This style of hiring doesn’t build

organizational agility.

EVOLUTION OF HUMAN RESOURSE

As we look at the field of Human resource we see an evolution in the thinking.

Human resource begin in the time between 1930’s & 40’s. It majorly focused on the

administrative systems of the work by managing the processes and terms and

conditions of work such as labour contracts. It began to shift in setting up of Human

Resource practices. Lot of focus was in staffing, training, compensation, organisation

practices, succession planning in an effective way. Then in last 15 years they have

been linked to strategy. So, there were very smart people in the organisation designing

field, HR strategy field which lead to the creation of HR systems. In the next step of

HR they decided to look outside the company and started thinking how the job can be

done better. ‘Outside’ in the sense reaching the customers, investors, communities and

government agencies by making HR a lever to the external factors and that’s the

direction towards the HR is heading now.

AGILE

Agile is a set of values and principles. A team becomes agile when they make

decisions based on agile values and principles. The decision making process is how a

team becomes agile. The values and principles have enough flexibility to allow teams

in a wide variety of organisation to attain the maximum utility of resources and to

attain the best result. Let’s understand what is agile and what is not. Many things can

be called Agile. Especially, by people who are trying to sell us something. If we ask

the seller of paper products they will tell us to be agile we need to write the user

stories on the sticky note cards that they just happened to sell. If we ask a consultant

he may tell that it is the methodology to develop a software that an organisation can

learn if we buy their services. If we ask a orthopaedic shoe manufacturer he may tell

that the key to be agile is the meetings where everyone stands up. So, the more

comfortable is the shoes the more agile our team is.

The actual definition of Agile is found in the Agile Manifesto. Agile is not a

Methodology, It is not a specific way of developing a software, It is not a framework

or process but Agile is a set of values and principles. Agile is surprisingly flexible. It

doesn’t make decisions for us instead it gives us a foundation that teams can use to

make decisions that result in better development of a project.

When we have a team following agile values and principles they would be making

hundreds of decisions in each week. That is the value of agile. When it comes to

decision making one cannot short routes by using the decisions made by another team

and implementing the same because all the decisions made are based on the
requirement of that particular team. Every team has its own agile values and

principles.

After World War 2 Melanesians of Melanesia were absorbed trying to bring cargo

planes from the sky by mimicking the practices seen performed during the war. They

made planes made out of straw, cleared forests and made run ways and also build a

structure which resembles a control tower out of bamboo. They also made a person sit

on the tower wearing head phones made of coconuts. But they were disappointed

because they couldn’t receive any supplies. Likewise, it is easy to use the decisions

made by another team but it may not work. Each team will make decisions based on

their requirements and their set of agile principles and values. In fact a very good

team will keep changing their way of decision making based on the values and

principles over time according to the change of business environment and

circumstances. Every practices are based on the questions where, how and why. So,

one shouldn’t go behind the practices to make them agile in fact they should find the

practices which support their values and principle to make them agile.

HUMAN RESOURCE AND ITS RESPONSIBILITIES

The work system of HR differs from organisation to organisation. Every employee of

the organisation are literally scared of HR. HR’s are portrayed like cops in an

organisation. The longer the HR’s sitting in their offices looking in to the industrial

working the longer it will take to change the organisation and this is the feeling of the

most. Employees doesn’t want interruption from the Human Resource.

From the first employee in an organisation, a HR needs some structures to take care of

in large organisations like payroll, insurances, holidays, pensions, taxes, reports based

on work efficiency of an employer, occupational safety, work time management,

contracts, union, total compensation, travel polices, id cards and they also act as sole

doctor. When the company grows enough again the HR should start recruiting again.

When there is too much work for HR they will turn this in to policies and processes

which helps manages to start doing themselves which creates a lot of mistakes that

HR’s need to correct. So, to support them HR’s will take new roles by providing

mandatory training to the managers, supporting the managers to do all the above

activities which were taken care of HR’s before.

In the field of HR at current scenario there are many changes. The old form of

methodology will not work anymore. Due to technological advancement there are

many new inventions and the mind-set of people have changed and changing which

lead to new challenges, requirements and problems.

AGILE HUMAN RESOURCE

Agile is created by software people to do whatever they want to. It has immediate

impact on our ability to scale by following agile principles. It keeps the development

team highly engaged and aligned by building the concept of weekly releases of

software, and daily meetings. The traditional approach to software development was

called the “waterfall method”, in which an organization would study requirements,

cascade through a series of refinement in strategy, and then put in place a long-term

development plan.

In terms of HR and learning, there are many similar analogies. Traditional annual

performance appraisals use an older “waterfall” method: continuous feedback and

recognition is an “agile” approach. Traditional, formal education and certification are

“waterfall” models; rapid e-learning and informal learning are “agile” approaches.
Top-down cascading goals are a “waterfall” approach: rapidly updated “objectives

and key results” is an “agile” model.

The “Agile model of HR” states that human resources job is not just to implement

controls and standards, and drive execution – but rather to facilitate and improve

organisational agility. This changes HR’s mission and focus. Driving agility means

driving programs that create adaptability, innovation, collaboration, and speed.

Agile HR strategies include:

1. Hiring experts in the required fields.

2. Interacting directly with customers and knowing their requirements.

3. Developing programs to foster diversity in teams.

4. Encouraging people to give direct feedbacks.

5. Displaying the information about the project, person working in that project

and expert details to promote Transparency in the organisation.

6. Focusing on continuous learning.

7. Setting up smaller teams in the organisation and encouraging them to reach the

targets.

AGILE HR CRITISM

The activities which were done in Traditional HR model and the methods used to

frame them are really based on experience. Yes, somebody would have done

something and he only knows the method of doing that and then he will be doing the

same activity repeatedly. Soon after he will write it somewhere and then it gets

defined. Later on it will be managed and soon gets optimised. This is what helps to

navigate people in an organisation. The question now arises whether the Agile HR

system can fit it to the traditional HR system or will the Agile HR system has the
potential to create new method of every activity carried out by Traditional HR system

because each and every activity in a HR system are interconnected. Changing the

work method of one activity will definitely affect the activity of another. Trying to

modernise an architecture which is old and firm is good but some things are going to

be broken likewise when one tries to modernise the whole system in some places the

connection between some activity will be broken.

When it comes to Legislation and Work time matters the management has the power

to decide that. Reducing the worktime may become a risk for the organisation at some

point. It is better to modernise the activities which are already been followed in

traditional HR system rather than shifting the entire HR system to Agile. It is better to

upgrade the current system of HR and to move towards the healthy, digital, modern,

decentralised organisation.

Keywords: agility, small group, quick solution, responsive

No. of words in abstract – 190

Author - S.Vignesh Adithiya

Co Author - Kshitiz Sharma

Communication Address – Flat No.2, Chathurbhuja Apartment, D – Group Layout,

Muddinapalaya Road, Maregowda circle, Second stage, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore -

560091

Institution Affiliation – K.L.E. Society’s Law College, Bangalore.

Mobile Number – 083002 23929, 85489 63237

Mail Id – vigneshadithiya92@gmail.com