How Can Corporate Functions Become More Agile? | McKinsey

As corporate functions, such as HR, rethink their operating models to enable effective inter-department collaboration, coordination, and faster decision-making, this article provides a few suggestions. One idea presented is the “flow to work” talent model. Under this model, staff operating in organizational silos (such as HR generalists supporting a single business unit) become part of a shared staffing pool, which provides dynamic resource capacity to support emerging priorities as they spring up across the business. These agile talent pools can be deployed to complex tasks or projects based on the organization’s highest-priority work areas requiring diverse capabilities. For this model to work, you would usually need someone to oversee this talent pool and quickly match talent to business needs as they arise. As work becomes more project-based with shorter work cycles, having a dynamic pool of HR problem solvers can be a flexible work model that unlocks capacity. As a bonus resource, I am resharing this 16-page The Conference Board paper, Building an Agile HR Function: Four Pathways to Success. It provides ideas and tactics for how HR organizations are driving more efficient and agile teams.