The road we walked that led us to determine we needed a new way of working two years ago. The good, the bad and the ugly that brought Randstad's marketing team to this critical decision point.
Andrea: I guess we will go alphabetically here today and ask Kristin to come in next. She’s going to be sharing some stories from her time with the team over at Randstad and answering the very important questions of why agile and why now.
Kristin: Thank you, Andrea. I’m very excited to join you all today, along with my esteemed colleagues, as we talk about a subject that is super near and dear to me. Quite honestly, it was very new to me just two years ago. Agile was a term I heard a lot from my IT colleagues in software development and product development, but it was never something I considered for my own team—until we started to really evaluate our current state.
What I want to share today is the journey my team and I took to realize that an agile framework, philosophy, or mindset could truly transform how we serve the Randstad businesses. I think it’s important to start with where we came from and what our current state looked like in 2016.
Where We Started
At the time, we had seven different operating companies, each with their own product marketer. For example, our business focused on placing IT professionals had a dedicated marketer, and we had seven of those in total. These marketers relied on the same set of delivery people to get their work done. Since there was no defined process or prioritization, people would beg, borrow, and steal to get the time and attention of our creative team. Essentially, the squeaky wheel got the grease.
Another challenge was that these product marketers were expected to be experts in B2B, B2C, and internal communications. This was unrealistic—akin to expecting someone to be an expert in Gucci but selling it at Walmart. They had to cover such a broad spectrum that deep expertise in any one area was impossible.
Each of our businesses had different leaders, different silos of work, and a massive amount of duplication. For example, one business line would request a salary guide in January, and another line would request the same thing in April, meaning we’d start the project all over again. This was happening across multiple projects, with the same shared resources.
Looking back, another alarming issue was our complete lack of A/B testing, data, or analytics. We had no way to measure if what we were producing was the right thing. Everything was subjective. Any marketer can relate to hot debates over headlines, but without stats to support our decisions, those debates were based purely on opinion.
What finally drove the need for change was the realization that 70% of our time was devoted to unplanned or non-strategic work. I often joke about the "beloved turkey flyer"—where, on Thanksgiving, we’d drop everything to run a contest to win a turkey. That would take precedence over major strategic deliverables. Many of you listening may relate to this. At the time, we thought we were doing okay, but looking back, we knew we needed to make a change.
Why 2016 Was the Year for Change
Several factors made 2016 the right time to adopt agile. First, we experienced a huge organizational shift. Our seven lines of business consolidated under two leaders instead of seven, providing an opportunity to rethink our processes. We also recognized the need for specialized expertise, distinguishing between talent-focused and customer-focused marketing, as these two audiences had very different needs.
Additionally, we had more strategic goals that required alignment across business lines, and we were seeing declining engagement scores among our marketing team. People couldn’t see the value of their work, couldn’t connect it to company goals, and had no transparency into what happened after a project was completed. We set a goal to move 75% of our work toward major company initiatives to prove our value.
Another major factor was the rise of the digital era. We had just repositioned our brand in the U.S., moving into what we now call the "post-digital age." This forced us to evolve. We needed to produce more work with fewer people, without additional resources or budget. Agile showed us how to approach work differently.
At the time, a large portion of our headcount was dedicated to repetitive tasks—tasks that people had done before, knew were coming, and didn’t require strategic thinking. The rise of freelancing platforms like Upwork meant that many people preferred project-based work rather than full-time employment. Through a role selection process, we identified which roles needed to remain in-house and which could be transitioned to more flexible models. This allowed us to free up resources to hire the roles we truly needed, like scrum masters and solution architects.
Becoming a High-Performing Team
At the core of our transformation, we wanted to become a high-performing team. At the time, we were seven siloed teams. We aimed to unify into one cohesive, high-performing unit. With digital marketers in high demand, retention was also a key priority. Digital marketers today are much like IT professionals were years ago—they are attracted to exciting projects rather than just job stability. To retain them, we needed to align work with meaningful, strategic initiatives.
Making this change was painful, but in the right ways. It stretched us and helped us grow. When we implemented agile, we worked with experts in the field. Looking back, I think we were on the leading edge of marketing teams adopting agile, and the principles have since evolved. We are still learning and modifying our approach.
We focused on three key areas: people, performance, and process. Under each area, we established workstreams to ensure we remained high-performing as we moved forward.
The Results Two Years Later
Now, two years and many iterations later, I am proud to say that 80% of our work is tied to initiatives or strategies. Only 20% consists of unplanned or last-minute requests. Even within that 20%, we’ve found innovative ways to handle last-minute work without disrupting our strategic initiatives. Whether through offshore models, nearshore models, or external partners like Upwork, we’ve challenged ourselves to do more with less.
One of the key principles of lean thinking is not to solve a problem by adding more people but by approaching it differently. That’s what we did, and it’s one of the things I’m most proud of as a leader.
The Cultural Impact
Beyond process improvements, this shift has engaged our team in a whole new way. Today, our employees clearly see how their work aligns with company goals. They have full transparency into the impact of their programs. They understand their work pace through metrics like velocity. They feel like they are part of a culture that continuously innovates.
This transformation has made our people more accountable. Now, in marketing calls, I often forget whether I’m speaking with finance or IT because we discuss data models, ROI forecasting, and predictive analytics. This level of strategic thinking wouldn’t have been possible without agile.
Final Thoughts
I was never a technical agile expert before, and I’m still not today. But I do live in the agile framework, and as a marketing leader, I can confidently say it was the best—and hardest—thing we ever did. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
Rather than presenting a ton of slides, I wanted to share our journey. We have built an incredible team as a result, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to tell this story. Thank you.