What experience and tips do you have with rebranding the "HR" function to the "People" function or some other name? What motivated the change? What "watch-outs" do you have? How comprehensive was the change; e.g., internal/external, updating job titles? We're thinking this through and would love to hear your insights.

Hi, it is all about why you want to do this? Recognition? Breaking silo's? Giving HR a seat at the table? What is the issue you try to solve? In my last role before my current one, I restructured my team from HR Operations to People Solutions. I wanted the team to be stepping out of the shadow from those HR colleagues who worked with the business and who were considered more valuable. My team was in charge for all HR admin, payroll, master data as well as key HR processes but were considered back office staff which impacted their career development, exposure and eventually self esteem. By reviewing roles and responsibilities and make them responsible for a specific work stream per their expertise, they felt more comfortable taking their seat at the table and could show what kind of expertise they had that nobody knew and on which decisions were wrongly based. 

The transition from a transactional HR mindset to a strategic and consultative people and culture approach takes more than a name change. The first of many steps is to send the HR team out into the business to build bridges. People partners have disrupted the old HR model. Rather than employees and leaders reaching out to get information from HR, these team members are going out into the business to build partnerships, looking for opportunities to make an impact rather than sitting on the sidelines waiting for requests the primary reason many businesses are converting their HR practices into people and culture is a wide disconnect between business strategy, long-term goals and how HR works. I am happy to connect to talk through an approach