At Chrysalis Consulting, we have designed a diagnostic tool to help you establish whether you are already operating an AGILE1 approach to HR in your organization, which you can find on our website:http://www.chrysalis-consulting.co.uk/agile-hr/
Our thinking behind this is to get you looking at things differently, and for the most part, when people complete this, they are able to ascertain just from the questions whether their existing approach is fit for purpose, and then, receive a bespoke report based on their answers.
Here, you can take a look at the questions for yourself, and if you want the report, just complete the diagnostic online and you will have something to talk to your team and your leaders about.
Employees As Able
This first series of statements looks at whether you see your employees as adults able to work autonomously and to a high standard—or whether you micromanage them and use a series of policies as strict guidelines on how they should act, feel, and behave in case things go wrong.
1. Our people policies tell our people what we expect from them.
versus
Our people policies are designed around what our people have told us they need to know to do their jobs well.
2. Our training programs are scheduled throughout the year.
versus
Our people learn at the point where they identify the need and at times that work best for them.
3. We manage our internal communications through scripted cascades.
versus
We provide the bare bones of the content and allow managers a lot of discretion and interpretation of the messaging.
4. We tend to produce new rules in response to things going wrong.
versus
When things go wrong, we look at individual behavior and deal with that, rather than producing a new rule.
5. Many of our processes exist because if we did not have them, our managers would not engage and lead properly.
versus
We do not create processes around poor leaders.
6. We have a fairly linear career path for progression.
versus
We have a flexible approach to career paths. People can dial up/down or move sideways freely.
7. The key purpose of our induction is telling new employees what is expected of them.
versus
The key purpose of our induction is to find out the individual talents and strengths of our new employees.
8. We allocate performance ratings as part of our performance management system.
versus
We do not rate or grade our employees as part of our approach to performance management.
9. We promote our managers based on their technical ability and their commitment to the business.
versus
We recruit managers with the right behaviors and skills to lead and manage a team.
10. We rarely check out how our people policies are being received by our people.
versus
We regularly get feedback from employees on how they feel about our people policies and make changes as a result.
11. We categorize our talent through a nine-box grid so we can identify the high potentials.
versus
We do not categorize our people in terms of their potential. Our focus is on helping all employees stretch and fulfil their potential.
Game-Changing Employees
This series of statements looks at how your employees work, lead, create, and innovate differently to that of your competitors in an open, honest, and transparent way—or whether you prefer a more traditional approach with set guidelines and information for your people to follow.
12. Our social media policy is quite strict about how people can use it as we worry about the risks of misuse and how this could impact on our brand.
versus
We encourage our people to use social media as we recognize the potential value to our brand.
13. We are careful about what we tell our employees.
versus
We tend to be as transparent as we can in what we tell our employees.
14. We have clear guidelines about what people can be paid, based on strict grading criteria and performance grades.
versus
Our line managers use a lot of discretion to work out pay and bonuses.
15. Rewards are given by managers.
versus
Employees nominate each other for rewards.
16. We believe in paying for performance and incentivizing people to work harder/smarter.
versus
We do not believe money is the key motivator.
17. We have an annual bonus scheme.
versus
Our managers make “spot” rewards (either in pay or non-cash/gift voucher) when they feel someone has done something great.
18. We split rewards between base pay and a discretionary element.
versus
We pay our people well and do not have a discretionary element.
19. Our people policies protect the business from employee errors.
versus
We understand why employees have made errors and offer support and development as part of our culture of learning.
20. We ask for ideas for improvements at set times throughout the year, and then, design projects to implement these.
versus
We encourage fresh ideas, new ways of working, and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Employees As Individuals
This series of statements asks whether you place your people at the heart of what you do in HR by valuing the differences of your people or whether you tend toward HR approaches that ignore how people think, feel, behave, learn, and are engaged and motivated and believe a one-size-fits all approach is best for your organization.
21. We have a leadership competency model.
versus
We focus on the existing strengths of our leaders and work with those.
22. Our induction is based on what we need our employees to know.
versus
Our employees create our induction, based on what would have been useful to them when they started.
23. Our leadership development is focused on getting them to learn a pre-identified set of competencies.
versus
We work with our leaders to help them know themselves better. We believe that if they know themselves well, they make better leaders.
24. Our leadership development is focused on the technical aspects of leadership.
versus
We focus on helping leaders “be themselves better,” that is: giving them the confidence to show humility, authenticity, integrity, tell personal stories, say thanks and so on.
25. We expect our employees to act in line with our culture, values, and behavioral frameworks at all times.
versus
We encourage employees to be themselves at work, recognizing that in order for them to be working with us, some of our core values must be aligned.
26. We have a limited range of rewards.
versus
Rewards in our organization are very personalized, based on what people really want.
27. We have a high potential program.
versus
We tailor our talent management to the individual needs and wants of each employee.
28. We assess our candidates against a clear job specification and train them to do the job to meet our requirements.
versus
We use the recruitment process to identify their strengths, and then, fit the job around them, recognizing that we all have different strengths.
Employees As Leaders
This series of statements looks at how your people collaborate, lead, and succeed in their roles—or whether leadership is considered to be a position you hold.
29. Our structure reflects the levels we need to operate efficiently, with designated operational teams and functions.
versus
Our structure is agile and reflects matrix management, which meets the flexible needs of our organization.
30. Responsibility for performance management sits with our managers.
versus
Employees are responsible for managing their own performance.
31. Our most senior employees are the only leaders within the business.
versus
We recognize that leadership is much more than a position you hold.
32. We do top–down succession planning.
versus
We “crowd source” our future leaders through getting the views of our people.
33. Our induction is a program delivered to groups of new starters.
versus
Our induction is a blend of activities and a set of resources that employees can access as and when they need them.
34. We have training programs for our employees.
versus
We provide access to a range of different learning resources so that our people can learn in ways to suit them.
35. Our people policies are designed to protect the organization from the poor behavior of individuals.
versus
Our people policies are designed on the assumption that people come to work to do a good job and behave well.
36. We provide leadership development programs.
versus
We encourage leaders to develop themselves.
37. We want great managers who can manage the day-to-day needs of the team.
versus
Our managers coach their teams, allowing them to work with autonomy.
38. We measure the performance of our people through strict measures as well as looking at their time in the business.
versus
We measure outputs, not hours worked.
39. Our induction is a self-contained program.
versus
Our induction informs how we manage and engage our individual employees.
40. We have forced or guided distribution of ratings as we believe this ensures performance differentiation.
versus
We do not have any forced or guided distribution as we do not believe this enables better performance.
41. We create our people policies and processes within the HR function.
versus
We involve our employees in the creation of our people policies and processes.
Employees Are Engaged
This final series of statements asks whether you place your people at the heart of what you do in HR or whether you tend toward HR approaches that ignore how people think, feel, behave, learn, and are engaged, and motivated.
42. We advertise our vacancies and see who is interested.
versus
We have a community of people on our radar who we keep engaged and target potential candidates.
43. Our people policies are very detailed and specific.
versus
Our people policies allow for our employees to use their own judgment.
44. Our leadership communications tend to be quite formal.
versus
Our leadership communications allow for individual personalities.
45. Our leadership conferences tend to be PowerPoint-heavy and broadcast in style.
versus
We rarely use PowerPoint. Our leadership conferences are story-based and highly interactive.
46. People are thanked through the bonus they get.
versus
We regularly say “Thank You” in lots of small ways—gifts, handwritten notes, phone calls and so on.
47. We want our employees to focus purely on doing their job to the best of their ability.
versus
We welcome fresh ideas and entrepreneurial thinking and believe this helps us create a great place to work and grow.
48. We have a “probation” period.
versus
We have a “test it out” period.
49. Our approaches to recruitment, training and so on tend to be quite formal and traditional.
versus
We use games, competitions, and so on a lot in how we recruit, develop, and engage our people.
50. Our people are engaged, mostly based on how we reward them and recognize their achievements
versus
We recognize that our people are engaged most when they have meaning and purpose to their work
51. We do an annual (bi-annual) engagement survey.
versus
We seek out our people’s views/feelings frequently and in a wide variety of ways.
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1Our AGILE HR diagnostic has been produced based on the thinking and methodology of the EACH (Employees as Adults, Consumers and Human Beings model) created by Disruptive HR.