A Leader’s Guide to Building an Agile Workforce

Over the past year, businesses across all industries realized how quickly things could change. Suddenly, companies had to modify their workforce strategy to operate remotely to maintain a competitive advantage.

In our Work Without Limits Executive Trends Report, we discussed the future of work and how an agile workforce that can adapt to real-time changes—much like the remote shift during COVID-19—is now more important than ever. The good news is that these rapidly morphing environments can present excellent opportunities for brands.

Those who can properly modify their strategies can provide their organizations with the platform needed to move forward. A survey that examined more than 200 companies found that those who lead the industry in digital adoption earn nearly twice as much as brands that lack this agility.

Uncovering strategies to build this level of agility while navigating through the pandemic is the key to thriving in the rapidly changing modern environment. With the rise of digital platforms streamlining workforce management and connecting quickly to remote workers who can fill skills gaps, knowing that your business has the bandwidth to adapt and seize opportunities will set you up for success. Here is what you need to know to nurture this important trait.

Agile advantages: Why you need an agile workforce

In our rapidly evolving modern workplace, business leaders want to build a company that can respond to changes and trends on demand. These team members will have the necessary capabilities to evolve and maneuver themselves and the organization to stay current with consumer demands and expectations.

Agile organizations are better prepared to face upcoming challenges, adopt newer technologies, and position themselves as leaders in their industry. The brands that learn to fill talent shortages on their team quickly will have the potential to get in front of the competition and prepare themselves for the future. ‍

Attributes of agile teams

When we look at an agile business, we see a few key attributes. These traits help showcase the organization’s capabilities to expand and evolve as needs change in the industry. Companies that have cultivated these important traits will find that they can improve business outcomes in various ways. Here are five areas where having human capital with the right skills really pays off.

• The team has a growth mindset. An agile team understands and embraces a mindset centered around growth for themselves and the organization. They don’t feel restrained or restricted by their current skills. They also look for challenges and opportunities to grow because they understand they have unlimited access to the world’s top talent through platforms like Upwork.
• The team collaborates easily. Teams with high levels of agility know how to keep each other engaged and share ideas. This level of communication creates a fertile business environment for new ideas and innovation to emerge.
• The team is open to experimentation. Teams with a high level of agility also feel open to experimenting and taking risks. Rather than relying solely on built-in processes, they feel empowered to use their skills and expertise to find new opportunities and areas where change and automation are welcomed.
• The team is flexible and ready to adapt. Since the team is ready to rise to new challenges and look beyond “how it’s always been done,” they are also ready to adopt new technology. As circumstances change, the team has the built-in flexibility needed to adjust.
• The team easily adopts emerging critical skills. Whether a business is in the health care industry or marketing, new skills and capabilities regularly emerge. When it comes to their talent strategy, teams embracing agility don’t have problems finding and adding new skills that will make their organization that much more efficient.

Building an agile workforce: Hiring and leadership principles

Nearly 60% of hiring managers grasp that businesses that don’t understand building an agile workforce risk falling behind the competition. These human resources professionals see that both small and large organizations need to prioritize building an agile workforce into their hiring practices so they’re prepared to take advantage of the opportunities these flexible, adaptive teams offer.

If you’re preparing to nurture a strong workforce equipped with the agility to manage whatever comes your way, here are a few key hiring practices to incorporate into your efforts.

Embrace hybrid teams

Hybrid teams offer your organization incredible potential to meet needs and quickly hire professionals to deal with specific situations. For example, freelancers can help manage large influxes of work when onboarding new software and new strategies, or they can help provide support when building highly technical teams at certain points during the product life cycle. When these independent professionals work with full-time employees, they can create a dynamic team that scales up and down based on the organization’s needs.

Platforms like Upwork make it easy to find the right professionals to handle a wide range of jobs. The global workforce has many independent professionals with the technical skills and experience needed to support an agile workforce.

Encourage continued education

Making education a priority can encourage the critical growth mindset of everyone at the company. Providing opportunities for people to learn about the latest trends and technology in their particular field helps everyone pivot more quickly to meet business needs.

Work to bring in workers who will similarly prioritize education. Look for people interested in conquering new challenges and continuing to grow and perform in their roles, rather than simply filling a static slot within the company.‍

Nurture self-managed teams

Self-managed teams can develop their own means of meeting group goals and benchmarks. Providing teams with particular goals and allowing them greater flexibility in achieving those metrics can help the entire group feel more capable of adapting to changing needs. When everyone feels locked into a particular role, it can be hard to convince people to transition smoothly. When people feel more fluid in their team, it becomes easier to make the needed adjustments.

Encourage cross-functionality within teams

One of the key traits of the changing business landscape is shifting priorities and trends across all areas of the organization. Having teams that can work effectively across disciplines makes it easier for people to collaborate and communicate around business goals and strategies.

Bringing people together from different disciplines and encouraging them to work together toward common goals helps everyone understand the priorities of others. This improves insight into each other’s work and keeps creativity flowing. When the need to shift in a new direction emerges, teams will have the collaboration tools and insight needed to make changes.

Create a work culture focused on communication

Having a firm culture centered on communication plays a vital role in success, particularly when people work remotely. Create standards for team members to detail project goals, differentiate responsibilities, and document outcomes. Encourage teams to engage with others outside their department and create systems of communication.

Lead by example, taking the time to articulate thoughts and ideas and encouraging responses and questions. This open communication encourages people to speak up about ideas they might have and creates a greater space for challenging past strategies and moving forward with new ideas.

Empower teams to make decisions

Encourage creativity by allowing teams greater authority over their decisions. Let them make certain preferences about the direction of their projects and goals independently and without direct oversight.

When your team knows that you have confidence in them, they’ll have a greater capacity to make adjustments for changing needs—rather than waiting for direct instruction from their managers. They’ll act faster and create a positive experience for the brand.

Balance retention and bringing in fresh eyes

Every leader knows that when experienced, valuable people at a company decide to move on, it hinders the entire group’s progress. Those who’ve been at the company for years have insight that can’t be duplicated.

Simultaneously, teams that have worked together for years also tend to get stuck doing things a particular way, simply because that’s how they did it in the past. Therefore, successful teams balance company veterans’ expertise with the flow of new ideas that fresh eyes can bring.

As an organization, this balance often comes through a variety of strategies:

• Create company hiring policies, packages, and promotional opportunities that encourage the most talented professionals to remain.
• Properly evaluate professionals to see who possesses the growth and agility mindsets to keep the company moving forward.
• Create an open environment where people feel comfortable challenging the status quo.
• Bring in independent professionals with established expertise from outside the company, who can lend new ideas to evolve with the latest trends.‍

Drive workforce agility with Upwork

Creating a company culture centered on agility will prepare your organization for the future. You’ll have the flexibility to meet challenges as they arise to keep your organization at the forefront. As you begin to build your agile workforce, consider how Upwork can help you tap into the global talent pool and bring in the experienced, independent professionals you need to attain your goals.