Agile is not just for software. Learn how GAP human resources applied Agile to tackle their BHAG: one-day hiring.

1. Agile HR
An Experience Report
Presented by Doc List, Senior Coach and Trainer for Agile Velocity
2016 HR Summit, Dallas

2. Nice to meet you!
• Senior Agile Trainer and
Enterprise Agile Coach for Agile
Velocity
• Photographer
• Love People, Learning

3. A Brief Explanation of Agile
• Origins in Software Development
• Focused on Short-Cycle Delivery
• Highly Team-centric
• Intensely Collaborative

4. Background
• Gap, Inc., San Francisco, California
• Training and Planning (2014)
• “We want to streamline our recruiting and hiring process.”
• Three champions: co-head of HR, VP, manager

5. Value Stream

6. “Craft the team”
Best chance for success - kicked off in March 2015 - four months later

7. “North Star”
The team’s BHAG

8. Working Agile-ly

9. Key Characteristics
• Collocated - one room
• No barriers
• Open communication
• Focused on a clear goal
• Shared CARGO™

10. Their Journey
- colocation
- Agile training
- Backlog
-
team
liftoff
-
Continuous
im
provem
ent
-
Agility
health
- Skepticism
- Reflect and Retrospect
-
W
O
RK
-
Agile
outside
IT
- Scrumban
- Switch tools
-
sprint1
- distributed team
- sprint planning
-
userstory
and
decom
position
w
orkshop
- value stream
map review
- sprint 0
- “product vision”
- Backlog grooming
- Retrospective
Wk. 12Start
What happens when you mix Human Resources with an Agile Workflow?
...a serious lesson in flexibility

11. Wk. 1 - 3: Liftoff and Visualize
• “we're the first of our kind: a self-organized, self-directed team -
using agile methodology to blow the roof off of traditional HR
practices”
• Team Chartering - Team Ocelots
• Where is flow blocked

12. Wk. 4 - 6: Sprinting To The North Star
• Wk: 4: Product Discover
• Wk. 5: Working as a distributed team, Sprint Planning
• First Sprint!
“What will cut the hiring process time in half
and result in better candidates?”

13. “North Star”: One-Day Hiring
• Background checks
• Coffee chats
• Hiring center
• Focus on delays, not events

14. Wk. 7 - 9: Continuous Improvement
• Wk. 7: From Scrum to Scrumban
• Wk. 8: What did it feel like to be the first HR team to use Agile?
• Wk. 9: Product Review

15. Wk. 10 - 12: Customer Is Always First
• Wk. 10: Delivering value to our “customers”
• Wk. 11: Backlog Grooming
• Wk. 12: Retrospect

16. Evolution
• Sprints (Scrum) vs. Flow (Kanban)
• Flexible roles
• Out of the box thinking and working

17. Big Thanks To…
• Team Ocelots
• Read more about their Agile journey here:
www.HRAgileSolutions.com