5 Key Actions for CHROs on Building a Resilient and Responsive Organization | Gartner

The pandemic has underscored the need for organizations to withstand and adapt to unforeseen disruption. And as this need has come into sharper focus, many firms have prioritized agility and resilience as an organizational capability. In this 26-page report, five actions are provided to help CHROs and their teams build these capabilities within their firms. They include: 1) Take a dynamic approach to reskilling, 2) Find talent that generates business impact, 3) Redesign work to enable employees to be more responsive, 4) Leverage hybrid workforce models, 5) Adopt agile principles into HR projects and operating models. One immediate action that HR can take is #5, adopting agile principles into HR projects and operating models. As noted on page 22, a few ways this can happen is: 1) select project teams based on insight into the end-user problem instead of subject matter expertise, 2) use short, iterative project cycles instead of predetermined project plans, 3) co-create with end-users throughout, not at the beginning and end, 4) manage HR’s work as an evolving investment portfolio rather than as a set agenda. With this as the backdrop, I offer a call to action: a) at an upcoming HR team meeting, have the team develop 3-5 principles that enable agile HR in 2021, b) apply those principles to how 2021 HR priorities can be executed c) as priorities get implemented, have ongoing conversations about the extent to which the principles have manifested as behaviors and ways of working; make adjustments in real-time.