Business Agility: The 8 Ways Great Workplaces Adapt and Thrive

Here’s what boosts agility for your employees, and how great workplaces support people in adapting quickly to change.

When facing economic headwinds or business challenges, how you adapt to change is the only measure of success.

Market volatility is soaring as the world digests new U.S. tariff policies, and the rapid rise of AI technology ensures every company is laser-focused on change management.

“There is more change and more disruption going on than ever,” shared Jim Kavanaugh, president and CEO of World Wide Technology, at the Great Place To Work? For All Summit? in Las Vegas.

His recipe for responding to these changes in the business landscape? “If you have a really strong set of values that you commit to, it’s amazing how that culture helps navigate through challenging times,” he says.

For leaders of any organization, a relentless commitment to business agility should be a core part of the strategy for the months and years ahead.

What is business agility?

For companies in any industry, business agility is a measure of your organization’s ability to adapt and evolve to gain and maintain and competitive advantage in the marketplace.

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Business agility plans might include developing new products or services to stay competitive, adjustments to business operations to meet the demands of a new business environment, or maximizing the untapped potential of your workforce.

Even in the best of times, businesses must constantly adapt to remain viable. Only a third (34.7%) of private sector businesses in the U.S. founded in March of 2013 survived to their 10th birthday in 2023, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The companies that beat the odds? They all mastered the art of adaptation.

Why business agility matters for workplaces today

The need for speed is only increasing for business leaders in 2025.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of business leaders say their business doesn’t move fast enough, per an Aon report. In particular, leaders are worried they are falling behind on AI. Nearly half (47%) of C-suite leaders say their organizations are developing and releasing generative AI tools too slowly, per McKinsey.

One potential culprit for slowness? A lack of agility in your workforce. Nearly four out of five (79%) of junior employees say they can’t keep up with the dizzying rate of technological change in the AI era, per Fortune.

For HR leaders, there is a growing imperative to become catalysts for AI transformation and adoption. As more and more CEOs cite AI as the top opportunity and challenge facing their organization, HR leaders who can foster business agility will find more influence in their company.

What drives business agility in the workplace?

Your people play an essential role in either accelerating or hindering business transformation.

Does your workforce lean in and embrace new ways of working, or do they sabotage your modernization efforts? It’s not just senior staff who might be holding onto outdated workflows and business practices. Four in 10 (41%) Gen Z workers admitted to sabotaging their company’s AI strategy in a recent poll.

Great workplaces instead deliver employee experiences that empower employees to take risks and grow their skills. Great Place To Work research analyzed 1.3 million survey responses and found these eight experiences that drive agility for your workforce:

1.     Recognition for those who try new and better ways of doing things

What you celebrate matters. When employees say that their company celebrates people for trying new things, regardless of the outcome, they are 253% more likely to quickly adapt to change, per Great Place To Work data.

That’s why “thanking” is one of the nine high-trust leadership behaviors that strengthen culture and contribute to long-term success. It’s essential for every employee to have the opportunity to receive recognition for their work, and for companies to reward specific behaviors that contribute to their goals.

For example, Bank of America helps every employee look for ways to improve their work by assigning everyone an annual goal to submit new ideas through its “Speak Up!” tool. The employees whose ideas are implemented receive cards celebrating their contributions.

2.     Psychological safety that allows everyone to take smart risks

It’s not enough to only celebrate people for trying something new when a project succeeds. The 253% higher likelihood that employees adapt quickly to change only occurs when employees say their company celebrates people who try new things regardless of the outcome.

This is a core tenet of psychological safety, the term coined by researcher Amy Edmondson to describe an environment where employees feel safe to take reasonable risks.

“If you only welcome trying new things when they work out, then they’re not very new,” she shared on the “Better” podcast. “They’re kind of safe bets. And again, over the long term, that’s not an innovative company. That’s not a company that will likely thrive over the long term.”

How can leaders create an environment where failure can lead to growth? A key ingredient is the ability to acknowledge their own mistakes.

3. High levels of cooperation across teams and between departments

When employees believe they can count on colleagues to cooperate, they are 132% more likely to quickly adapt to change, per Great Place To Work data.

This spirit of cooperation is driven by high-trust leadership, which in turn allows colleagues to invest in the success of their peers. If people don’t believe promotions are fair, or if their hard work isn’t recognized, it breaks trust, which can create a toxic environment where coworkers sabotage each other in a zero-sum competition for power.

Great workplaces do things differently. Companies on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For? List rely on a foundation of trust to boost effort and agility, resulting in 8.5 times more revenue per employee compared to the market.

4. Benefits that support employees’ needs inside and outside of work

Having special and unique benefits makes it more likely — 51% more likely — that an employee will quickly adapt to change. However, the benefits driving increased agility are not gym memberships or free office snacks.

Employees deeply value childcare benefits, flexible work options, generous retirement benefits, and more — tools that allow them to build a foundation of security from which they feel empowered to take risks. It’s hard to take on a new project or adopt a new technology if you are worried about your family or your financial security.

Companies like Wegmans Food Markets uncover the specific needs of their employees through listening sessions and employee surveys. When it learned that frontline employees were struggling to manage at-home responsibilities without a consistent weekly schedule, Wegmans created a companywide program to give hourly employees a consistent day off each week.

5. A clearly communicated vision for the future from top leaders

Employees want to know how they fit into the future of the organization. The more confident they are that their leaders have the skill and foresight to guide them through a volatile business environment, the better they perform.

When employees say leaders have a clear view of where their company is going, they are 51% more likely to adapt quickly to change.

If employees are unclear about how they can contribute to company goals, it might be time to revisit your mission statement.

“The test of a mission statement is ‘Does it drive behavior every day?’” according to John Burke, CEO of Trek Bicycle. Trek’s mission is something Burke regularly calls on when evaluating work or offering feedback to his team.

Whenever his team has faced headwinds, a first step has been to revisit the mission statement and ask: “Is our mission still relevant?”

6. Employees feel involved in decisions that affect them and their work

When employees say they are involved in decision-making, they are 41% more likely to quickly adapt to change. That doesn’t mean every employee has a voice in every business decision, but companies like Hilcorp Energy have achieved remarkable results from increasing the ability of employees to engage in business decisions.

“We give every employee access to the company’s financials, share our measures of business success, and we teach them how to understand them,” says Mike Brezina, senior vice president, human resources at Hilcorp. “We open the books and share our financial measures such as cash flow, margin, production rate, lifting costs, investments, oil and gas price impacts, storage costs, and more.”

7. A commitment to lifting up local communities

Employees who say they feel good about how their company contributes to the community are 34% more likely to quickly adapt to change. This relationship can also be seen in the strong connection between employee sentiment on AI and their trust in their organization’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts.

Companies like Accenture capitalize on these trends by inviting employees to participate in programs like its “Sustainability Innovation Challenge.” Employees from across the organization compete with entries like Mangrovera.ai, a tool developed by a team in India to help researchers restore and protect Mangrove forests. The new technology — an AI-powered solution — provides an opportunity for employees to explore new tools and build skills while giving back to a cause that they believe in.

8. Every employee, regardless of role, has a voice and feels respected

When employees say they are treated as a respected and valued member of the team, they are 31% more likely to quickly adapt to change.

This often becomes a challenge for frontline workers who feel excluded from the culture enjoyed by employees in another part of the company. Frontline workers are less likely to receive training and development opportunities — such opportunities make employees more likely to be engaged AI adopters.

To combat this disparity, Marriott International rebuilt its training and development offering to ensure every employee can access learning content.

Improve your business agility through our employee engagement software

Business agility is a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace. With the rise of AI and mounting market uncertainty, companies that can adapt to change will be in the best position to thrive.

For HR leaders, this means having a strategy to increase agility across your workforce. The first step is to benchmark your culture.

The Great Place To Work platform offers analytics and insights to drive your business to move faster and seize new opportunities in a complex climate. Explore the survey platform and begin your journey with Great Place To Work Certification? today.