<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1540565605981432&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Agile

Implementing Agile – for Employee Retention, Alignment and Engagement

How do you improve employee retention, alignment, and engagement? By using automation/agile business functions that keep both talent and mission aligned.


The ability to hire good talent is more vital than ever to enterprise missions, whether you’re running a military service or discovering the next medical breakthrough. Unemployment at 3.6% does not leave much in the waiting room, and what is left may not meet the standards for a successful outcome. On top of that, available candidates have a bevy of new opportunities; a proving ground for a tight market, a well sought-after labor base, and deadlines can cripple the enterprise. What can senior leadership do that they haven’t tried? 

Let’s look at Agile/Innovation and the disconnect in business functions. Traditional business processes promote teams heavily reliant on culture and labor engrained in structure. It’s no wonder there is no growth when managers maintain tight deadlines, the “just let me keep doing what I am doing” attitude creates an engine room environment. That team/enterprise suffers not only in terms of mission progress but with time, budget constraints, and attracting new candidates. The new labor force has started to swim away from organizations that still follow the engine room mentality versus those that adopt agile practices. 

I am not suggesting agile/innovation for automation’s sake, but I am advocating for automation/agile business functions that keep talent and mission both focused and aligned. Too many enterprise missions rely on single stove-pipe process elements that have been proven to fail, and yet management keeps using them. Why are managers keeping data in spreadsheets, waiting weeks for information queries, or multiple scenarios that should take minutes to answer? I don’t accept the excuse that organizations need to keep information separate for security reasons. That’s too simple a response since permissions and restrictions are elementary to any IT system.

When organizations keep data siloed in stove-piped process/workflows, relying on decades-old techniques, managers and staff are mired in a “just get it done” engine-room and do not have the time, bandwidth, or vision to make necessary changes. Perhaps you’ve heard the adage, “Fail to plan; plan to fail.”? Senior leadership must provide the vision to implement and fund innovation to ensure their teams will execute the mission; to work more effectively and efficiently. You are not required to break every process in order to innovate, but you do need to stop doing things because “that’s how you’ve always done.” Your competition and your next hire are trying something different. Start with a business agile strategy: a “GPS” that allows you to create a visual plan.

Mapping a mission is much like planning a trip: thru points, waypoints and topography determine the “who, what, where, when, and how” of the journey. This is visual automation; know where you are, what you want to achieve, how you are going to achieve it, where you will start, who is on board, and how to respond to deterrents. Now the team is pulling in the same direction, united in the mission, and they have the horsepower needed for the work, even when resources and time are strapped. When you start with the end in mind and share information freely, you do more with less and bring back the essential element that everyone craves­--time

Enterprises that implement business agility and efficient work routines have employees that are mission-focused as opposed to data-focused. Innovation and team alignment are now key to fulfillment and engagement with the current and future workforce, thus making it easier to attract new talent. Having senior-level buy-in provides the support, impetus and visual framework as teams take on their projects and can pivot and redirect in response to change. 

By implementing business agility tools and protocols, an enterprise aligns its mission, employees, strategy, and customers. That creates efficiency at every level and the independence and autonomy that satisfying work provides. Not only does that keep good people working in your enterprise, but they also become magnets that attract and engage with customers and new candidates. That positively affects your bottom line across the board, improving culture, retention, output, and performance. As a leader in your organization, start mapping your business agility plan now!

 

Similar posts