Is Human Resources the Right Name – Ask #hr bartender

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

I received an interesting reader note talking concerning the name “human resources” and leadership.

HR has evolved through the years from personnel to human resources to people and culture. What’s in a reputation?

Is HR really accountable for culture? If not, then why have ‘culture’ within the title? Is the true function of HR about change, leadership, workforce planning, and worker relations? Should the title then be people and organizational development?

This just isn’t about what we’re called, it’s about what we do and can do in the longer term. 

I see an enormous role in organizing leadership development programs because there are leaders and those that lead. There are lots of the previous and only a few of the latter!

In my extensive HR experience, all of it starts with leadership.

I agree with the reader that there needs to be alignment between what the function is called and what it does. We sometimes see this same challenge in other job titles. For instance, some military job titles don’t immediately provide an image of what the job actually does. 

It jogs my memory of a video in SHRM’s Talent Acquisition: Creating Your Organizational Strategy. Florent Groberg, retired U.S. Army Captain and Medal of Honor recipient, is having a discussion about one in every of the largest challenges with hiring veterans – deciphering the military occupational specialty (MOS). Give it some thought as attempting to learn a brand new language to grasp an worker’s knowledge, skills, and experience. It’s tough!

But back to the name “human resources”. So, I agree that the department’s name should match what they do. A department name also must have familiarity, meaning people should probably have some history with the name. For instance, we all know what the accounting department does. The name has been around for quite a while. 

The name human resources has also been around some time. It was first mentioned in Peter Drucker’s book “The Practice of Management” (1954). While there are individuals who feel that the human resources name is old and needs to be modified, I’m undecided that old needs to be the one factor on the subject of a reputation change. 

For instance, when organizations began renaming their “personnel” departments to human resources, I consider it was partially since the name was old. Nevertheless it was also to signal a brand new set of expectations for HR departments. Latest name = latest expectations. 

So, if a corporation is saying, “Hey – we’re going to rename HR to the people and culture department because we’re changing what we expect from the function.” Then perhaps that’s okay. With the name change comes:

• Communicating to the brand new People & Culture department what the brand new performance expectations will likely be. That would include latest responsibilities and metrics.

• Providing tools and training to individual employees in order that they may be successful of their latest role.

• Communicating to the organization what the brand new People & Culture department will likely be accountable for. And if there are things that they may not be accountable for, indicating the brand new go-to department.

The query really becomes, why does a corporation want to alter the name of a department? Is it to align the work with the name? Or is it simply to sound cool and hip? Truthfully, if the corporate changes the name from HR to something else but doesn’t change any of their responsibilities, then won’t employees just say, “Latest name, standard HR.” 

And that doesn’t profit anyone. 

The reader note ends with the reply to the name query – leadership. The organization’s leadership team should want employees to have job titles that align with the work. They also needs to want department names to align with the work. And it’s okay to alter a job title or a department name so long as all the opposite changes are done as well.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Las Vegas, NV

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