GRI says HR agility is closely intertwined with the company’s organizational agility and structure. As a company with a global presence, GRI has employees in diverse countries and markets. HR agility requires it to adapt to different markets and different customer expectations. To do this, GRI maintains a close link between the satisfaction of its customers and its employees.
“We are a global sales, manufacturing, and shared service organization,” said Paduma Subasinghe, director of HR, GRI. “The customer is always our nucleus. But it is also important to remember that our customer and employee experience is inter-related. When you have strong and highly engaged employees, you can drive customer value across a global sales organization. Everything must be in-sync. And this daily agility has long been a strength, especially in a crisis such as the global pandemic witnessed this year.”
HR agility is embedded through everyday operations via GRI’s Objectives and Key Results (OKR) process. “OKR systems were implemented in January 2020 to bring sharper focus, track progress, align departments, increase transparency, improve engagement and work toward measurable goals. A cross-functional emphasis on all processes ensure ownership and accountability among all employees and an ability to adapt swiftly. It has helped GRI greatly in this time of volatility and uncertainty,” said Dr. Mahesha Ranasoma, CEO of GRI.
Daily morning huddles at a senior level offer quick cross-functional windows into the day’s operations so that senior managers can take decisions and support each other where needed. This underscores leadership commitment toward an agile and resilient business, leading by example. This agile process is further enhanced with a Weekly Sprint meeting and Collective Intelligence meetings to track progress of key objectives.
“Connecting people emotionally to the organization is critical,” said Subasinghe. “We always try to reinvent our employees’ experience to drive agility and get them excited about the purpose of our organization. Businesses need to work in a way that aligns both employee purpose and organizational purpose.”
OKR systems have been used in companies such as Google, Intel, LinkedIn, Uber, and Microsoft. A key part of agility in GRI is knowledge-building and sharing. Staff are given the autonomy to bring their own flavour into the work they do. GRI also has a shadowing process, which allows senior staff to impart tacit knowledge gained through experience to juniors. GRI works with leading institutes and business schools to support employee development, encourage new leadership, and bring global best practices into the organization.
“Everything is driven on value and is interlinked. Our HR strategy is always aligned to our business strategy and agility is a constant, everyday process. Our focus is to create value, create purpose, and create new experiences for GRI’s employees. Building employee motivation and HR agility deepens the connection with our diverse global clientele, enabling us to withstand challenges such as this year’s pandemic,” added Subasinghe.
