Do Agile Coach and HRBP have the same role?
Polemic is in the air! In consulting projects and workshops, I am always asked: “JP: don’t the Agile Coach end up doing the same job as HRBP?” It is the topic we are going to address in this text.
The HR area has been through a great transformation, migrating basically from making rules, policies and procedures to becoming a facilitator of companies’ transformation, high performance and workers’ happiness. We have already talked about it here. (LINK) One of the professionals deeply involved in this transformation is the HR Business Partner.
The role of Business Partner was created in the 80s by David Ulrich in the book “Human Resource Champions” and the premise is that the professional should promote the alignment among the business areas and HR area. This connection happens through the support given to business leaderships and transfer the demands to HR specialist subsystems.
In their role they must link the business necessity to what will be produced by the expert area. It only works if it is done cooperatively, working in networks, constantly exercising co-creation and collaboration. For a long time, this professional used to be in the HR area, assisting their client areas. Their visit to the assisted area happened sporadically to perform punctual actions. It is worth mentioning that it is still the reality in many companies. In an era in which we are talking about improving the employee’s experience, is it the best scenario? It’s a point for reflection.
Before moving on, let’s highlight that this reality has been changing. In some organizations, the HRBP started to effectively work in the client area. They get together with the employees, feeling the day by day in the area. Only them they can actually realize the employees’ necessity and reality. This way they can draw their own perception, without the manager’s filter. After this consideration, let’s move on.
While this relationship between the HRBP and the business that happens only with the leaders, there is a share of workers uncovered by the HR professionals’ actions: the teams and employees. So, let’s say the truth: one of the recurrent complaints is that the HR Business Partners only act together with C-levels and managers, luckily with coordinators. Take easy! They are not the only ones to blame. There is a set of variables: the size of the area assisted, important and urgent demands, so on and so forth.
During the digital transformation process, the Agile, including the mindset, its frameworks, tools and events, has been very much used not only to manage the project but also to create a new way to organize the work. In companies where the Agile drove the digital transformation, it is very common to see Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters taking the space left by the HR Business Partner with the purpose to increase results aligned with the individuals’ wellbeing.
It is worth knowing the Agile Coach. They are professional who work on the spreading of Agile values and principles. They have the role to guide individuals, teams and organizations one step further in the journey to Agile. When acting in the individual’s level, they work themes like motivation, discipline, resilience and career. And that’s where there might be a conflict between their work and the HRBP’s.
The ideal is that Agile Coaches and HRBPs find the balance point in their activities, working together to potentialize the spreading of Agile Mindset in practice on executives, leaders and employees’ routine.
On an article published by Forbes in 2018, Steve Denning says that HR professionals must become an Agile Business Partner, supporting the business and stopping acting only as a moderator or executor. Pia Maria Thoren, author of “Agile People: A Radical Approach for HR & Managers”, goes beyond. She says Agile Coach and HBRP roles are going through some transformations and, in the future, she believes they will have the same role. Pia calls this new role Agile People Coach. They will be a leader, coach or Agile HR person with deep people and agility skills.
In Brazil we are acting to help increase the cooperation between the Agile Coach and HRBP roles, since they have similar objectives in organizations, developing teams, mentoring, advising managers to build great workplaces where high performance teams are driven by purpose and impact they cause on the final client. Working together these professionals will be able to potentialize the areas and teams deliveries in a way that they are more connected with the expectations from the business, market and client.
