Over my career, I have been told a few times that I can be a little bit cynical about my own function - Human Resources. 

This is because I like to keep things simple, use plain English and avoid the trendy words and terms, which can become quite a funny form of Bingo!!

For me, the HR or People and Culture function is all about driving a company’s competitive advantage through people.  To some extent it also assists a company to comply with the myriad of regulatory frameworks.  Everything that HR does is about partnering with the business to get greater commercial gain through people processes. 

With that in mind, my mantra when designing people and culture solutions is to include a cross section of employees from different hierarchy levels and ask them simple questions such as:

“..…if this people and culture project is to be successful or adopted by you, what does it need to be, do etc…..?” 

Quite simply, make the employees part of the solution for the initiatives you are driving for them and in turn, the business.

Now we have the emergence of the trendy term of “Employee Experience”.  It’s a great idea, don’t get me wrong, but if it is something we are only considering now, then many people in the HR profession have been doing it wrong for a long time.   My experience in many sectors, functions and levels has always reinforced that employees at all levels, want simple and effective tools that work for them.  The tools generally work best when people have had a part in their design.   To reinforce that, my most successful projects based on feedback I have received from both senior leaders and employees, were those where I proactively considered the employees’ opinions prior to the design stage. 

If you want the best from your employees, then talk to them.  Many people, culture opportunities and problems can be solved one conversation at a time.