More than overdue: People and Culture replaces human resources management

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Contents

• People and Culture: what is behind the term?
• The days of resource administration are over
• The shift in people management
• How the term People and Culture came about
• The shift to People and Culture is not complete yet
• One final tip and conclusion
• Frequently asked questions

TL;DR

People and Culture describes modern HR work that puts people, rather than the administration of master data, at the center. In doing so it replaces classic human resources management, where HR mostly administered resources. The term stands for this change. Yet many companies are still stuck between the old world and the new one. Anyone who takes the shift seriously has to focus their recruiting on transparency, authenticity and approachability.

!Symbolic image of People and Culture: modern HR work puts the people in a company at the center instead of pure personnel administration.

Author: Dominik Becker · Published: 09/03/2022

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Is a major turnaround taking shape in the HR world right now? More and more HR leaders are moving away from the term human resources management and speaking instead of People and Culture management. What is behind it?

People and Culture: what is behind the term?

To start with, People and Culture management of course sounds somehow cooler than HR management. But is that all there is to it? In the digital age, do HR leaders just want to give themselves a hipper title, or does the new name actually mark a shift in thinking in the HR world?

The latter is the case. HR professionals are, for good reason, increasingly distancing themselves from the term human resources management. The term belongs to the old, analog world. And in that world it was entirely fitting. Because it really was about administering resources. HR was a pure accounting and administration unit. There are so many different ways to inspire people. Find the way that works for you.

The days of resource administration are over

The central task was to gather employee information and archive it neatly in folders. Oh, and of course the salary was supposed to be in the employees' accounts on time at the end of the month. HR took care of that too.

HR work was above all a lot of paperwork. Direct contact with employees was rare. Usually only at the beginning and end of a career. For example, when a new colleague started her job and dropped off her documents at the HR department. Or when an employee retired for reasons of age and picked up her documents again.

The shift in people management

Administering employee master data and managing payroll is of course still part of HR management. But by now HR work is about much more than just that.

• It is about marketing yourself as an attractive company and about finding, retaining and developing the best talent and skilled professionals.
• It is also about offering employees a company culture in which they feel completely comfortable, and about helping teams grow into tight-knit units.
• And it is about exploring the best working models, so that employees can balance their private and professional lives perfectly. Keyword: hybrid work.

We could name countless more examples of how HR has changed in recent years. But it should have become clear what we are getting at. In people management, the focus is no longer on administering personal data, but on the person themselves.

How the term People and Culture came about

And that is exactly the reason why the classic term human resources management is used less and less often. Because in the modern world of work, it is all about People and Culture. Full stop.

So far, this is a more than understandable idea. However, it does not help to simply give the HR department a new name and then carry on as before. Because even if we all wish it were so, the mental shift away from classic HR management toward People and Culture is not yet complete in many companies. It is more the case that most employers are currently stuck in a kind of no man's land, somewhere between the old world and the new one.

The shift to People and Culture is not complete yet

And even if this leaves a slightly bitter taste for you as a freshly minted People and Culture manager, unfortunately it is becoming clear in many places that people in companies are not yet at the center. In many cases, classic thought patterns from the old HR world still need to be broken. Where? We will show you now with a few examples from recruiting.

#1 People and Culture requires more transparency and honesty

If companies are serious about putting the people in a company more in focus going forward, that means being completely honest with them from the very start. But how often do we come across job postings that are teeming with polished descriptions. Every applicant immediately realizes that this does not match reality, and it comes across as dishonest. On career pages, by the way, it is usually no better at all.

Of course, it is clear: in the war for talent, you need the arguments on your side as an employer. You have to spark enthusiasm and stand out from the competition. That is true. But it is definitely the wrong path to retouch the facts so beautifully that a genuine dream world emerges, one behind which reality is barely visible anymore.

For example, at photo shoots for recruiting campaigns, a company's own employees are sometimes replaced by models, or employers reach straight for agency photos. With the right images, you can also raise the company's diversity quotient at the same time. But any applicant who gets a tour of the company after an interview feels tricked when confronted with reality. Is that how you put the people of a company and its applicants at the center? Not really.

#2 Talk about the people in your company

Something else we keep noticing in job postings and on career pages: many companies do not talk about the people who work for them at all. Instead, they push bare numbers, data and facts about the company to the fore. In recruiting, applicants often hear about the successes an organization has booked, the spectacular growth it has achieved since it was founded and how steadily revenue has developed.

But hardly anyone names the names and shows the faces behind these milestones. Fundamentally, every single employee has a share in company successes. So why don't you show your employees? Let them talk about successes and about how inspiring they find their everyday work at your company? That way you convey enormous appreciation and put the focus on the people in your company. That kind of thing blows candidates away! Embed various videos of employees introducing themselves. Or written testimonials in which employees tell applicants about everyday work at the company. Show every level of the hierarchy there, from the intern to the board member. That way your company gets a face.

#3 Put applicants at the center

And there is one more thing that is close to our hearts. In job postings and on their career page, many companies come across as truly unapproachable. Applicants find neither a photo nor the contact details of the responsible recruiter here. That leaves a stale feeling: do employers not want to be contacted?

That, too, is hardly a sign that people are being put front and center. On the contrary, it comes across as impersonal and distant. Our tip: create more transparency and name a contact person from the People and Culture area who gets in touch with talent after they apply, or who actually picks up the phone when candidates have questions.

One final tip and conclusion

We have one more closing tip: don't make it so hard for talent to apply to you. Many organizations have endless application processes with complicated online forms that are a nightmare for every applicant and even exclude mobile applicants entirely. Because they are often not designed responsively and are far too difficult to fill in on a small phone display. That way you exclude a lot of talent from the outset, instead of making them the center of your recruiting. So: be sure to offer mobile-friendly, simple workflows.

If you take all of this into account, you put candidates at the center. That makes you a genuine People and Culture manager. Congratulations!