Agility in the Workspace

We are all experiencing shifts in our lives as we navigate our new way of living. We’ve especially seen the force of adaptability and agility in the workspace.

It’s not uncommon to hear our networks share how projects shifted, and Talent Acquisition is no stranger to this. TA around the globe is bending and flexing to progress forward with business on a virtual scale (i.e interviews, onboarding, learning).

This is all too familiar as we roll out new programs as well.

Earlier this year, me and a kick-ass project team developed a program to create consistency in the approach and practice for all candidates involved in interviews for open positions at SC Johnson. We launched the program in North America in late January with a global roll-out to come. In a manner of 3 months we’ve had over 300 employees in North America become certified Interviewers. While we were seeing the success of this program (candidate experience, hiring manager development, structured interview feedback), we didn’t know how our world would soon change. Many organizations seeing their programs put on hold or shifting to support the pandemic. Our team was fortunate to slight delays, but our program has continued to be agile during the pandemic through technology.

As organizations become agile in their approaches, I wanted to share my top five tips and tricks on our program became successful before and during Covid-19. They will be useful for anyone with an upcoming project/program. 

• Start to communicate your ideas of the project/program early to different stakeholders - Build an awareness, gain feedback or initial reactions to the project to prepare you for your project development. The earlier our team communicated our ideas or recommendations; it was easier to have our recommendations accepted verses challenged. 

• Build a project team with a variety of expertise - We knew our program would be large in scale. Throughout our project road map, we identified SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) willing to dedicate their time and expertise to the project at different maturity levels of the program. At times we had a team of five and sometimes a team of 25. It gave us the ability to ensure our program was being seen in a controlled environment while providing us the expertise and support we needed to move it along. 

• Align on the goal and how the project/program will measure success - We identified our goal by building out Global Guiding Principles. Although the initial goal seemed relativity simple; “create consistency in the approach and practice for all candidates involved in interviews…” without our guiding principles the goal could be misdirected throughout our road map. Once we developed our Global Guiding Principles our measurements for success organically fell into place (i.e. surveys, external ratings, attrition rates, retention rates).  

• Identify risks and impacts - Our program came with plenty of potential roadblocks if we didn’t identify them early. One of our risks was the method our training was conducted. By identifying it early on, we researched and bench marked training methods. From the results of our data collection we were able to make an informative recommendation with analytics tied to our decisions instead of gut feelings. As we identified this risk and came up with an informative recommendation earlier on, the program was not delayed. Identifying risks early may not solve everything. We cannot control when a pandemic will happen, so when you are identifying risks/impacts…. evaluate them based on what you are in control of.

• Communicate - Communicate, communicate, communicate. The more our team shared about this program and what was coming the more people we had supporting the success of the project. Organically we got some amazing brand ambassadors to amplify the program leading to change management feeling ‘calm’…as crazy as it may sound. Especially in the times we are being agile in right now, communicate in different channels (facetime, zoom, virtual coffee break, newsletter, town-halls, forums, WhatsApp, KaKao, etc.). Communication is crucial in any project/program. I always believe in over communicate verses under deliver. 

I encourage you to take these tips and use them in an upcoming project/program. Most importantly be agile as you go. I also welcome your tips and tricks!

As I write this, I want to be extremely sensitive and aware how numerous organizations are severely impacted by the pandemic. Everyone is going through this differently. I recognize and empathize with each of you. My goal of this article is to share tips and tricks through normal and unnormal business times. 

The postings on this site are my own and don’t represent SC Johnson & Son, Inc.’s positions, strategies or opinions.