Human Resources has had quite the evolution. Back when I was finishing my Bachelor’s degree and entering the workforce, the field of Human Resources was still being referred to as “Personnel” in some circles. The Personnel Department was known to process payroll, push paper and police policy. That about summed up the role. 

I began my career as a Human Resources Assistant at an engineering firm and, largely, found this to be true. Our HR department of two people assisted with benefits administration and payroll, ensured new employees completed paperwork and got their badges, supported employees with a “forms wall”, and planned fun events. 

During the dot com boom I experienced a shift in Human Resources. What was seen by many executives and employees, alike, as an administrative function, began to transform into a more strategic role. Tech was the place to be and I was lucky enough to work in HR at a company with an emerging e-commerce division. We couldn’t keep up with the demand for new employees. On top of that, division managers were filling out job requisitions for positions that didn’t exist. I got to work alongside our compensation department and tech management to create job descriptions, research market ranges, and conduct competitor analysis to inform new salary ranges. Not to mention helping craft jaw-dropping sign-on packages for these newly-created tech roles. It was a very exciting time to be in HR.

Somewhere in the 2000s, the world of business started to recognize that one of the most important resources to a company is people. Depending on the industry, that philosophical adoption may have been earlier or later, but eventually, with some education, management started to make the connection between happy people and increased bottom lines. 

I remember in 2010 listening to a company executive disagree with my VP of HR that people were the most important resource to a company. It was fascinating to hear his supporting arguments and think to myself that without people to actually do the work there would be no business to be presently discussing.

Now, in the 2020s it’s been amazing to have a front row seat to the emergence of the next iteration of Human Resources: People Operations. In fact, it was a tech titan, Google, to first coin the phrase “People Operations” back in the early 2000s. As with many pioneering concepts, it takes a while for greatness to hit the mainstream and be embraced as the norm.

In a piece written for Fast Company, Pavithra Mohan says, “In recent years, however, HR’s reputation has undergone a rebranding of sorts. Even the term HR feels dated; in today’s parlance, it may be better known as ‘employee experience’ or ‘people operations.’” 

Workest takes it a step further and says, “People operations has been blowing up in recent years — and it’s much more than a new word for HR. People operations (otherwise known as people ops or POPS for short) takes a people-first approach to business. Rather than looking at your employees as numbers on a spreadsheet or cogs in a compliance wheel, people ops sees employees as your customers.”

In my reflection, it’s interesting to think about the implications of the transition from “Human Resources” to “People Operations”: the former categorizing employees as resources (expendable or otherwise) and the latter recognizing that people-first strategy is the crux of a successful business.

Today, it seems the field of Human Resources is experiencing what the tech industry did during the height of the dot com era: the emergence of new roles and functions to support an ever-evolving world. SHRM reports one of the newest roles in Human Resources, “Employee Experience,” was #5 on the list of the “25 Fastest Growing Job Titles” in 2023, according to LinkedIn.

“Companies and thought leaders are just now starting to develop methods to understand employee experience. ‘It’s complicated,’ [Josh] Bersin said. ‘It’s not just one thing. It includes the job, what the work is like, the team, the management, the culture, the environment, the diversity and inclusion, the ability to advance and learn, flexibility, performance management. Software vendors that say they sell employee experience is laughable.’” 

It’s no lie, the nature of People Operations is complicated. The interpersonal skills, ongoing education, business acumen, and strategic thinking needed require practitioners who understand how to move companies forward by cherishing and celebrating people. Gone are the days of treating employees simply as worker bees intended to stuff the pockets of executives. Any workplace trend on TikTok will tell you as much.

“‘Over the last few years, largely as a result of the pandemic, employers have had to shift many times and in many ways to meet the changing needs and demands of workers, figuring out how to offer the right mix of flexibility and benefits to retain current employees and to attract new talent’,” said Andrew Seaman, managing editor for jobs and career development at LinkedIn News. “And now, in this uncertain time, employers have become even more hyper-focused on keeping their best people engaged, satisfied and committed to their company. As a result, HR roles have become more necessary and more niche, with roles like employee experience manager making the annual list for the first time this year.’”

People Operations requires mastery. And this is why Human Resources roles are in demand. Six of the top 25 fastest growing roles in the U.S. in 2023 are HR positions, in fact. People Ops professionals are people who know how to align business objectives with the care and foresight required to ensure employee engagement and satisfaction, all the while casting off the policy police stigma and donning a new mantle.

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Need help with your people operations strategy? At Clarity HR we work with companies to equip executives, managers, and supervisors with the tools they need to be successful in navigating the complex world of work. Contact us to learn more about how we partner with organizations to create and sustain great workplaces through culture, collaboration and communication.

Written by: Marla Monk