If your HR processes are moving slower than your market, you don’t have a talent problem—you have a legacy operating system problem. Agile HR pioneer, Riina Hellström, talks to veteran HR tech and employer branding guru, Gero Hesse, about how she is dismantling HR silos and radically modernising HR thinking globally.
In many modern organisations, Human Resources (People and Culture) has fallen into a dangerous trap: process for the sake of process.
Instead of driving business velocity, HR departments often become bogged down in administrative cycles that prioritise compliance over impact.
Our founder, Riina Hellström, recognised this early in her career. With a background in engineering, she saw that the principles behind the Scrum Guide could act as the “code” to fix HR – just as they had transformed software development.
Since then, Riina has become a global pioneer in Agile HR, transforming people operations globally through training, consulting, and a book now considered a definitive guide to Agile HR.
“I read the Scrum Guide and told my husband I was quitting to bring agility to HR. He said, 'You’re crazy,' and I said, 'You know who you married.' Then, I started a company”
Riina has been reflecting on her journey and the insights she’s gained on the SAATKORN podcast, hosted by Gero Hesse, a veteran of the HR tech and employer branding scene who has spent over 15 years advocating for a better working world.
In the episode, Riina draws attention to five important shifts that need to take place in HR…
The "Annual Plan" is dead in HR
In an era of heightened global uncertainty, the traditional annual HR plan is no longer a viable anchor; it is often outdated by the time the ink is dry. Agility is the essential tool for this reality – not just as a buzzword, but as a practical framework for how you work when the environment moves faster than your plan.
Rebuild HR to dismantle silos
To reclaim its purpose, HR must dismantle the internal silos that fragment the employee experience. Business leaders don’t care if a solution comes from “Learning,” “Reward,” or “Performance”—they care if it works.
Understand the user
Agile HR shifts the focus from professional ego to user centricity. By using data and “user personas”, HR teams can build solutions that meet the diverse needs of a modern workforce.
Prototype over perfection
The pursuit of a 100% perfect plan is an illusion. Agile HR encourages prototyping and experimentation, allowing teams to test ideas, gather feedback, and iterate in real-time.
HR as a strategic engine
An Agile approach enables HR to drive impact – not slow it down. It shifts the function from bottleneck to accelerator. Leaders dissatisfied with their HR direction should actively foster a culture of self-driven learning and radical prioritisation. That’s where real transformation begins.
A pivotal moment for HR – and how to respond
The most pressing disruption today is Artificial Intelligence.
On the podcast, Riina also offers a stark warning: HR professionals who ignore AI today are like those who insisted on using a fax machine when the internet arrived.
“Any job is going to be affected by AI. Your job. It's everyone's own responsibility to be market relevant in your own field. Metaphorically speaking, if you just keep on using the fax, after the internet came around, your skills will be obsolete."
This isn’t just a technology shift; it’s a shift in market relevance. The episode emphasises that the next three years will see AI automate most mundane administrative tasks.
To stay ahead, HR professionals must move beyond theory and begin “tinkering” with the tools themselves to understand their power.
Riina argues that adopting an Agile approach in HR offers the necessary mindset and ways of working required to experiment and respond to the developments AI has to offer.
👉 Listen to the SAATKORN podcast episode Agile HR Talk with Riina Hellström and Gero Hesse here: Episode 544 – How can HR become truly Agile? with Riina Hellström
