Many businesses are moving away from the ‘HR’ moniker to adopt ‘People and Culture’ to head up the department that looks after staff. Is a rebrand on the cards for human resources (HR) in schools and MATs?
The relevance of HR
We took the idea to education professionals back in February, asking them a series of questions about their views of HR. Interestingly, a quarter told us they don’t feel the term ‘human resources’ is still relevant to describe the department, compared to just over a third (38%) who still think it is. The remainder appeared on the fence – 21% felt it was ‘sort of’ relevant, and 8% were ‘unsure’.
How suggestive these stats are to ‘People and Culture’ (P&C) departments being the norm is up for debate. On the one hand, our results show the majority feel HR remains representative of the breadth of employee-related activities that HR Directors, SBMs, and SLTs are responsible for. On the other, adding the portion of people who are unsure with those who feel HR is irrelevant indicates another picture entirely.
Can HR be truly holistic?
Reading this, you might already know where you stand. Or you may be like one-in-four of our respondents – hearing of P&C departments for the first time. Either way, seeking a ‘holistic’ approach to HR isn’t new. People management that shows clear links between training and performance, absence and progression is a goal that many HR professionals strive for. Yet for HR to be truly holistic, it needs to be able to balance the act of providing a transactional service with one that’s adding value to its employees.
Your perspective
Think about your organisation’s HR department – what comes to mind? Maybe this ‘transactional’ feel, like using a self-service portal to submit a request for annual leave. Or maybe it feels more employee-centric, i.e. it advocates for employees, with wellbeing high on the agenda.
Indeed, nearly half of survey respondents agreed that the latter description was more accurate, compared to a quarter who related to the transactional answer. It seems school or central MAT HR teams have already begun to implement more of a holistic approach to human resources – whether they know it or not. But when MATs have hundreds (if not thousands) of staff, how possible is it to achieve truly holistic HR?
Opportunities for employee-centric HR
Teachers, finance directors, lunchtime assistants – they don’t want to be identified by an employee number in your payroll system or self-service HR portal. They’re people, and they want to be seen as such. The challenge now is how to make HR feel more personal as trusts merge and grow, and employee numbers rise.
There’s no simple answer – it’s a complex question. But certainly, by removing time-consuming and arduous manual tasks that fall to those involved with HR, you can free up time to focus on what really matters: your people. And an integrated approach to the employee lifecycle is a trend that’s picking up pace in the sector:
HR and payroll systems working together seamlessly to level-up accuracy of employee data and pay.
Datasets that don’t just compile staff attendance data but empower you to understand its story – like patterns to determine the root cause of absence.
Recruitment solutions that encourage the most positive experience for the candidate from the very first interaction (and so supporting retention from the get-go).
To lay foundations for an HR department that gives more weight to this people and culture approach – and achieve the desired holistic HR – then considering how the systems involved need to be working together is key.
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