Research

CIPD Smart and agile report

This report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in collaboration with Agile future Forum presents the people management dimension of organisational agility. The research gathered the views of the HR practitioners and employees on the practices that are used to build agile workforce and agile working cultures in organisations.

We found that there is both an interest in improving organisational responsiveness to change, in particular in the public sector, and an opportunity to better match the changing workforce expectations about how work is organised. However, HR leaders surveyed for this study highlight three key barriers to creating more ‘win-win’ solutions for organisations and employees:

1. Focus on the operational pressures in the ‘now’ and lack of investment into future-proof practices.
2. Scepticism to alternative practices and fear of experimentation.
3. Lack of a systemic approach required to build organisational environments and cultures that support agility.

The report proposes a model for HR to some of these barriers in building agile workforces and workplaces.

• Future of Work Report
  Research carried out by The Future of Work Institute for the Agile Future Forum, led by Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice and Executive Faculty Director at the London Business School, identified four trends having a particular impact on the way we work:
• The first is technological advance, which is making work more complex and technology-dependent, and opening up new possibilities for working styles and time patterns. In particular, new platforms are encouraging collaboration and facilitating new forms of remote working. This is leading to the gradual substitution of “connect & collaborate” structures interacting horizontally, for traditional “command & control” hierarchies interacting vertically.
• The second trend that’s shaping the context of modern work is the detachment of the individual from the norms, and ways of doing things, of their employing organisations. People want to do the work they want to do and in the way they want. They want to craft their own jobs, adopt their own styles and feel their relationships with their employers are “adult-adult”, rather than “parent-child”.
• Third, demographic changes are creating opportunities as well as problems. Increased longevity, for example, allows employers to retain for a few years longer knowledge and skills that they would otherwise lose, but it also requires them to adopt a more flexible concept of retirement.
• Finally, globalisation is opening up new markets, but is also obliging businesses to develop 24/7 cultures. More flexible shift-working will be required to keep the organisation always open for business. The globalisation of business is being accompanied by the emergence of a global consciousness that focuses the attention of employees, customers, and the public at large on the principle of “sustainability”. Insofar as growth is seen to increase the use of resources, and particularly the generation of atmospheric carbon, there’s pressure on organisations to reduce travel associated with work and eliminate the culture of “presenteeism” – the assumption that, to be seen to be working, you must be seen at the work place.

In combination, the report concludes  – These four forces are creating an urgent need for agility.

To understand more about agile workforce and the Future of please see the full report below.

Organisational Agility Index – findings report
The Organisational agility index (add link to index in Tools and Research) was developed by KPMG in consultation with other AFF founder members as a methodology to identify the dynamics of organisational agility. To see the organisational agility index findings when tested on AFF members at the start of their agile working journeys (2013) please click on the ink below.
The tool enables organisations to assess the agility of their organisation, leadership, local management and their own experience across 4 areas; skills, leadership and management, capacity and systems & processes. If you would like to understand how agile your organisation is please click here