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The Need for HR Agility in an Era of the Gig Economy

by Nick Horney, Ph.D., Leadership Agility Practice Leader

The era of digital disruption for Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) is often referred to as the Gig Economy (AKA -- contingent work, sharing economy, agile talent, non-traditional work relationships, or alternate forms of employment) where Uber and Airbnb have received most of the attention from the press. Other Gig Economy "digital disruptors" include Lyft (ride sharing), UpCounsel (legal experts), Instacart (shopping and delivery), and TaskRabbit (odd jobs). The rapidly accelerating growth of the Gig Economy represents one of the most significant and all-encompassing challenges faced by Human Resources professionals. The fundamental question is whether Human Resources can demonstrate the agility to lead the change in culture, programs, processes, and policies originally designed for work completed by full-time employees to a new era when more of the work is being completed by a talent portfolio increasingly represented by contingent workers (AKA -- Gigsters, free agents, contingent workers, temporary help agency workers, on-call workers, contract workers, independent contractors or freelancers).

Technology-enabled talent platforms are accelerating the disruption of the status quo for CHROs and creating a new era of business turbulence, often referred to as VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity). Illustrations of these talent platforms include Tongal, Topcoder and Mechanical Turk (which the author has used). These talent platforms better enable people to have more control over how they work-whether that's better balance between work and home, choosing passion-driven projects, or being their own boss. The Gig Economy makes all those things possible on a scale like never before. As a CHRO, will you leverage these and other talent platforms to successfully manage your entire talent portfolio, or will you leave that responsibility to the hiring departments or Procurement?

Check out Nick's recent publication in HR People + Strategy magazine

Has Your Leadership Changed with Change?

By Mike Richardson, Team Agility Practice Leader

Leadership and management have always been about change. But has you leadership changed with change?

In an increasingly VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world, our leadership challenge has become a real-time unfolding flow of change as a dynamic journey on a shifting landscape in a constant state of flux. Increasingly quickly, in a time compressed way, accelerating exponentially! We have evolved from a Change 1.0 to a Change 2.0 to a Change 3.0 world.

Being a Rock Star Supervisor Starts on Day One

By Ben Baran, Ph.D. , Agility Analytics Practice Leader

Starting a new job, although exciting, is full of stressors. It's an overload of information-seeking and trial and error. It's a time when you're trying to figure out where to go and what to do, while simultaneously building new relationships and trying not to look like an idiot.

At least that's been my experience.

Those first few days and weeks in a new organization or role are also ones in which you depend greatly upon the support and assistance of others. Good organizations often assign someone to show you around and help you adjust. Sometimes that person is your new supervisor; sometimes it's not.

Regardless of whether or not your supervisor is formally acting as your sponsor during this time, he or she should be involved. He or she should know that you're around, meet with you and answer questions. He or she should at the very least have overall responsibility and accountability for making sure that someone takes good care of anyone new. And I think that these early socialization experiences in a new organization or role are one of a handful of distinct times when supervisors can have a key impact on their people.

Leadership...The Capacity to Translate Vision into Reality!

By Tom O'Shea, CMC, Organizational Agility Practice Leader

This timeless, succinct definition of leadership is one of the many pearls of wisdom Warren Bennis has shared over the years. No doubt, there are many dimensions, skills and nuances about leadership inspiration, intelligence, skills and insights packed into the phrase and required to "translate vision into reality". Most great leaders that I have observed have a noticeably superior skill at articulating, in very authentic manner, their vision for the enterprise and what it means for all of us in real, tangible and inclusive ways. The truly extraordinary leaders also have the situational intelligence to help each team recognize their role in the success equation, feel the gravitas of their contribution and create the unity of focused, fast and flexible teams throughout the organization. These are some of the central elements in our notion of Leadership Agility ... which FORBES declared as the "defining ingredient in next generation leadership".

Agility Consulting Affiliate Corner

By Dr. Robert Prescott, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Welcome to the Agility Consulting Affiliate Corner. In this section of our monthly newsletter we present valuable information on consulting in a VUCA world and the related attributes and backgrounds of our extensive network of Agility Affiliates.

Our Agility Affiliates represent our products and services with their prospects and clients. They often work with our clients on large engagements that require affiliates who are located globally. However, various Agility Affiliates have also segmented their business approach by focusing on niche industries and organizations located domestically and that fall within specific stages of organizational life-cycle development. Whichever is the case, Agility Affiliates maximize their value-delivery to their respective clients through diligent preparation and use of state-of-the-art processes and tools inherent to the Agility Consulting approach. Bringing such value to fruition, Agility Affiliates are constantly up-to-date by having an opportunity to collaborate within the Affiliate Network on business development and marketing initiatives including conference presentations, co-authoring articles, authoring whitepapers on specific agility-related topics, etc.

Watch this section of our newsletter over the coming months to hear about Agility Affiliate success stories, new Affiliate profiles, tips and proven techniques for becoming a successful Agility Affiliate and much more.