Using Kanban in HR - Part 1 of 3
Introduction to the Kanban methodology and its application to HR
Using Kanban in HR - Part 1 of 3
TL;DR Summary
Kanban, a methodology commonly used in software development and project management, can also be useful for HR projects. By visualizing the workflow, limiting work in progress, managing flow, making process policies explicit, and implementing feedback loops, Kanban can improve transparency, communication, productivity, and efficiency. Part 2 of this series will include examples of how to apply Kanban to specific HR use cases.
What is Kanban
Kanban is a methodology commonly used in software development and project management to visualize work, limit work in progress, and manage flow. It was developed in the 1950s by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota. The idea behind it is simple but powerful: one can only work on so many things at the same time, anything that exceeds that grows stale and creates waste. So it creates a system that limits the work in progress (WiP). Think of it like an inbox that once full doesn’t accept any more requests until it’s emptied. In the 2000s, as the Agile Manifesto was published, and agile methodologies were gaining traction, this method crossed over into software.
How Kanban works
The core practices of Kanban are:
Visualize the workflow: This involves creating a visual representation of the work process, such as a Kanban board.
Limit work in progress (WIP): This means that the team should only work on a certain number of tasks at a time, based on the capacity of the team and the workflow.
Manage flow: This involves balancing the workload across the different stages of the workflow.
Make process policies explicit: This means that the team should clearly define the policies and procedures for the workflow.
Implement feedback loops: This involves gathering feedback from stakeholders and using it to improve the workflow.
Why it is useful for HR
It’s no secret that HR departments and professionals everywhere are overwhelmed and burned out. There’s more work to do, fewer resources available, and more pressure to deliver than ever. In the past 3 years alone, we went from hiring like there was no tomorrow, to a pandemic that forced everybody to figure out how to work remotely, a big healthy (albeit sometimes misguided) push for DEIB, to back-to-the-office struggles, to layoffs galore, and an AI frenzy that threatens to disrupt everything. Even the best-organized HR plans are continuously disrupted by emergencies, and this complex combination of long-term initiatives and fire drills comes with a tremendous cost of task switching.
We need something to help us organize the chaos of multiple concurrent tasks and projects, big and small that are required from HR teams.
And while it is not traditionally associated with HR projects, Kanban can still be a useful methodology to use for these types of projects, as it is specially fit for short, intense projects (which is frequently the norm in the field).
The primary benefit of using Kanban for HR projects is that it allows for transparency and improved communication between team members. The visual nature of the Kanban board allows team members to see the status of all tasks in real time, which can help prevent misunderstandings and promote collaboration. Additionally, by limiting work in progress, the team can focus on completing a few key tasks at a time, which can improve productivity and efficiency.
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