Agile employees are the secret to organizational success

From macro-level disruptions to micro-level distractions, today’s businesses face an unprecedented amount of uncertainty. Adaptability and flexibility are among the qualities that give an organization the competitive edge necessary to thrive and succeed. Agility encompasses a number of characteristics, like resilience and creativity, that are proven to help companies pivot efficiently and effectively. As recent years and economic forecasts reveal, being poised and prepared to handle unexpected circumstances it not just a ‘nice-to-have’ to include in a job description: it’s a must.

Identifying an agile employee

An agile workforce may be comprised of a dynamic group of individuals, but they share characteristics that foster innovation, flexibility and collaboration. Agile employees share a few key traits:

• Adaptability. An agile employee has the ability to adapt their mindset and approach when called upon to do so, usually by external or internal changes. They are able to adjust quickly and adeptly, remaining open-minded to new ideas, team members, hierarchical changes or circumstances that require different responses than business as usual. Adaptability isn’t easily trained, and generally must be learned through years of practice. This isn’t to say that newer employees can’t be adaptable—it’s just that on-the-job adaptability often comes as a result of having dealt with adversity in the past and finding a way to succeed. Employees without professional adaptability may have overcome challenges in their personal lives that have made them adaptable.
• Creativity. Agile employees are creative, willing to innovate in order to solve problems and grow. They view creativity as both a proactive and reactive approach and are not afraid to take risks or challenge the status quo for the greater good of the organization. Many people view creativity through the lens of a hard skill—things such as painting, writing or playing music—but in the business world, creativity takes on a much broader definition. Creativity in the business world generally involves finding unconventional or innovative solutions to problems. It is a measure of an employee’s willingness to come up with their own unique solutions versus relying on existing structures and systems.
• Resilience. An agile employee is resilient. If these individuals can bounce back from failures, demonstrate optimism when stumbling across obstacles or persevere amid unexpected challenges, their resiliency will benefit your end goals. Agility requires resilience, regarding setbacks as opportunities for learning and development rather than deterrents or roadblocks to progress and succeed. Resilience is crucial to agility, because it’s better to spend time coming up with solutions to problems than it is to be immobilized by them. Keeping an even keel in tough situations not only helps agile employees succeed but also inspires others to stay calm and not overreact.
• Collaboration. Workplaces are increasingly fragmented, whether it’s work from home or hybrid models, or global teams. However, the current and future workforce models reveal more interconnected workplaces that require collaboration to achieve long and short-term goals. An agile employee can collaborate with cross-functional teams and departments, embracing diverse perspectives and applying multifaceted expertise to achieve common goals. Let’s face it, in almost every industry, employees will need to work with someone other than themselves. They need to be able to get along with all different kinds of working styles and personalities in order to succeed.
• Growth mindset. A love of learning, coupled with a commitment to development, indicates an agile employee. They will seek out opportunities to acquire new skills, share knowledge, and grow through personal and professional experiences. They keep an eye on the prize for long-term success, not just immediate wins or tunnel-visioned strategy. In agile employees, this trait applies both to how they conduct themselves and how they conduct business. Personally, an agile employee with a growth mindset is always seeking out and taking advantage of learning opportunities in order to grow. Professionally, an agile employee with a growth mindset will proactively find ways your company can boost its bottom line, even though they don’t directly individually benefit. They know that making these improvements, consistently and over time, will benefit everyone.

Nurturing an agile employee

Once you’ve identified agile employees at your company, it’s time to nurture their skills. There are a number of ways to do this, but here are the most impactful:

• Give recognition. Recognize and reward employee agility by acknowledging their contributions, celebrating team successes, and providing learning and growth opportunities. By incentivizing agility, your organization will reinforce the importance of agile workforces and encourage these characteristics cross-functionally and within departments. Recognition can look any way you want it to, whether through raises, promotions, opportunities to take on exciting projects or even small notes expressing your gratitude.
  
• Training and development. Learning opportunities, like workshops, seminars and resources that focus on essential skills for an agile employee should be made available at all levels. Coaching is also appreciated by agile employees, since they typically crave opportunities to impress. You should encourage your employees to take ownership of their personal and professional development and invest in both accordingly. You might even want to allow particularly high-performing employees the chance to earn advanced or graduate degrees in their discipline. This would not only lead to a more skilled employee, but also a more loyal one.
  
• Lead by example. Leadership plays a vital role in shaping organizational culture and cultivating an agile employee. In order to lead by example, management and executives can demonstrate flexibility, creativity and the other aforementioned attributes first-hand. Willingness to change, openness to feedback and transparency in communication with employees show agility and teach ways to achieve it.
• Develop a culture of innovation. Create an environment that encourages intelligent risk-taking, thoughtful experimentation, and strategic innovation. Celebrate successes and failures alike, recognizing that both are valuable for growth and learning. Encourage employees to share their ideas, voice their opinions, and contribute to the organization’s scaling and innovative efforts.
• Promote cross-functional collaboration. Where teams are in silos, cross-functionality suffers and, by extension, so does the company. Encourage collaboration across different teams, departments, and disciplines, from collaborative project management technology, instant messaging platforms, or in-person team building and socials. Empowering employees to work together on cross-functional projects and initiatives fosters a supportive culture of teamwork, communication and transparency.

Attracting and hiring agile candidates

To attract and hire agile employees, it helps to update your employer brand. After all, agile employees are not attracted to stagnant companies. If you haven’t updated your company’s social media, website or other outward-facing components and marketing elements in some time, do it now. You should also emphasize any benefits or incentives you offer your employees that agile candidates would be drawn to, such as an educational spending account or corporate culture that prioritizes outside-the-box thinking.

When interviewing an agile candidate, ask about previous times they took a proactive leadership approach when it wasn’t necessarily asked of them, or any times they overcame adversity and came out on top. Asking questions like this will give you a good opportunity to assess whether the candidate is truly agile, or if they lied on their resume.