Building Organizational and HR Agility
“Agility” has become ingrained in the business lexicon as a way to describe an essential attribute of organizations and leaders that it risks being devalued as a core management concept.
However, Towers Watson believes it is the simplest and clearest way to describe the third area of focus in their new deal framework: embedding greater flexibility and scalability into the organization’s talent and reward strategies and programs – into the HR function itself. Agility operates at several levels: strategically, programmatically, and tactically.
Companies need to rethink the critical characteristics and competencies of their future leaders to create a pipeline to lead successfully in a very different world.
HR Function Design and Service Delivery
The role of human resource function, especially in terms of program delivery, has been under the microscope for more than a decade. It can be seen that HR is doing some things very well, but faces some tough challenges ahead in adapting to the needs and demands of a dispersed and diverse workforce.
Key Stats
The respondents have been found to be quite positive about a number of aspects of their current work experience. However, at the same time:
- Four in ten feel excessive pressure on the job
- A similar proportion often feel frustrated at work
- More than a quarter believe there are organizational obstacles to doing their best work.
- As noted earlier, a substantial majority want more regular communication.
Flexibility can and should extend far beyond incentive compensation design and increased choice in flexible benefit programs. These attitudes speak to the need for a function that can itself flex with the needs of both organization and employees, especially since it falls to the HR function to support organizational agility in the broadest sense of the word. This is the ultimate challenge HR has to face.
The full study is available on the Towers Watson site.
