Blog

Based on my previous blog which asked the question of whether HR can be “agile” and support a group of developers in a way that is consistent with the agile software development philosophy, here are a few examples of how we have demonstrated ‘agile HR’ at 2Paths recently.

UNITY:
At 2Paths, we were concerned about having an us versus them attitude developing between the development team and what might be called “management team” in other worlds. The word “Management” seemed to take on a slightly negative context when spoken at our office, so we decided to expel that word from our vocabulary (as well as the word employee, except where legally required). Everyone here is a team member.  We also realized that our business (and success) is about the people who develop our software solutions (otherwise known as the development team), and that the rest of us are well, like the Support Crew running alongside the runner, making sure they have what they need to be successful and create the best damn software around for our clients.

So, I do believe we have become more unified and we will make sure our words and actions support that (check out our team section of our website to see how we present our team).  As well, when developing HR communications, programs and processes, we’ve made sure to keep this language and terminology consistent, and we’ve tried wherever possible to make sure that we reinforce and emphasize this unity. We meet together each week to communicate one message, we join in the daily scrum to stay in the loop with what is happening, we get team input when hiring and building new programs, and we celebrate and do team building together.  I even sit right in the middle of the development team; a bit of an adjustment after having my own office with a door within the HR department,  but heh! I actually love being “with” the team. If I was off somewhere in a corner, I certainly wouldn’t feel unified with the rest of the team.

SIMPLICITY:
For example, the 2Paths team had been incorporating 360 feedback in their performance review process and no one felt comfortable giving feedback that might impact someone’s final performance score and possibly compensation in a negative way. So, we decided to set up a separate 360 feedback process. I went away and read up on 360’s and how to make them ‘effective’ and brought my draft materials back to the team for feedback.  Until I got their reaction, I didn’t realize how long, formal, wordy,  and yes “corporate” it looked, sounded and smelled.  That was an eye opener. Luckily they did see some basically good ideas in my draft and I went away and tried again this time with better results. I’m pretty sure that the 360 feedback template we ended up using was still a bit complicated and wordy (and I’ll keep working on that) but the process was pretty simple and straightforward. It may not win any HR awards or be written up in any books, but  almost everyone found it of value and want to keep doing it! That is what counts in my book!

TRANSPARENCY:
When I arrived at 2Paths, one of the first things an esteemed colleague told me is that “we put all of our information on the wiki, and we like to have transparency about everything we do”.  Well, once I figured out how to actually  post things on our wiki (our intranet basically), I was totally sold on it. From working with a company that tried to set up an intranet that needed to be able to limit access to information between groups,  and then moving to a company that had a wiki where everything is shared unless there’s a good reason, I was pleasantly surprised.

So, when setting up HR policies, and other programs I have tried my darndest to be clear, open and transparent about what we are doing, why we are doing it a certain way, and how it compares to other companies. Of course there are always some things we need to keep confidential but those are understood by the team.

Another example of transparency is how we share our company vision, company goals and individual goals and rocks with all  team members.  Everyone has an opportunity to hear about and ask questions about what each team member is working on and about the direction we are going as a company.

We also hold quarterly “clearing house” meetings for the whole team. Basically anything goes in terms of topics to raise, and everyone participates. If people have questions about why we are doing something, are concerned about the office karma, or just want to make some suggestions, we do our best to get it out on the table (or floor) and hash it out and get to some kind of decision, action item or commitment from the team.  I could go on about this value for a while but I’ll stop now. Transparency is one of the keys to building trust in a team.

ADAPTABILITY:
One example from 2Paths was my HR workplan this past two quarters. I had a bunch of work set out for me in terms of policy reviews, HR documentation, etc. but the team felt it was important to start having clearing house meetings regularly. We also had some changes to our roles that needed to be addressed.  Working through these required time, conversations, and some meetings, and of course delayed me in completing some items on my “plan”, but the time was well worth it and we haven’t let issues remain unaddressed or festering. That’s what people remember, not the policy changes I wrote up.

NOTE to reader: I am not professing to be completely agile, sometimes I do revert back to my previous mindset,  but yes, I can honestly say that I have “drunk the agile koolaid” as my fellow 2Pathians would say.

Tags: agile, HR

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 11:27:49 and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.