Seth Godin weighed in on HR early this week with this take: Why not change the name of the HR function and then try to be exceptional?
After all, at one point the term "personnel" got stale, and the move was made to migrate to "human
resources".
I love Seth's work. But a name change won't change the issues. The problem, in the past, was that personnel had a bad name, then the named changed. Unfortunately, a lot of "personnel" people didn't see the need to raise their games.
"Like it or not, in most organizations HR has grown up with a forms/clerical/factory focus. Which was fine, I guess, unless your goal was to do something amazing, something that had nothing to do with a factory, something that required amazing programmers, remarkable marketers or insanely talented strategy people.
So, here's my small suggestion, one that will make some uncomfortable.
Change the department name to Talent.
The reason this makes some people uncomfortable is that it seems like spin, like gratuitous double speak. And, if you don't change what you do, that would be true.
BUT...
What if you started acting like the VP of Talent? Understanding that talent is hard to find and not obvious to manage. The VP of Talent would have to reorganize the department and do things differently all day long (small example: talent shouldn't have to fill out reams of forms and argue with the insurance company... talent is too busy for that... talent has people to help with that.)"
Seth's books are exceptional, and they've taught me a lot about the concepts of marketing. Check out the recommended books on this blog and you'll see many of his works.
So I'm comfortable. I'd like to deal with the challenge he outlines.
The problem is that many in our profession are still personnel people, focused on transactions. The move to "Talent" as an identifier in our profession would mean that the bottom dwellers in our profession have caused us to abandon identities twice. The "Why I hate HR" would simply become "Why I hate Talent Management".
Maybe a better plan is to offer up some professional credentials that transcend the SPHR, and focus on recruiting, performance management, innovation, leadership development, etc. The high end skills that allow someone to call themselves "Talent".
Then those who have earned it can move to the cool designation. Those that don't can stay in HR... or maybe personnel....
