Understanding People Operations: A Holistic Approach to Workforce Management
People Operations, also referred to as People Ops or POPs, is a holistic, employee-centric approach to supporting and managing your workforce. The term was coined by Laszlo Bock—former HR Director at Google—who explored this in more depth in his book, Work Rules! People Operations teams aim to create the best employee experience possible by developing and implementing strategies to promote employee development, engagement, satisfaction, and wellbeing. An important part of this is aligning people’s individual development and goals with the organization’s overall mission and objectives.
The Difference Between People Operations and Traditional HR
Although People Operations may sound the same as Human Resources, there are some key differences, especially compared to the more traditional HR departments. People Operations is focused on maximizing the value of employees while also ensuring compliance, whereas traditional HR is more focused on enforcing compliance and reducing liability. People Operations is consulted on strategic decisions and part of the conversation, whereas traditional HR is informed about decisions and told to execute.
Key Responsibilities of a People Ops Team
People Operations takes a more expansive, holistic view of the business and uses people strategies to achieve goals, while traditional HR operates within established HR frameworks, focusing on standard practices and defined processes. People Operations proactively creates new systems and programs to improve ways of working, whereas traditional HR responds to issues as and when they arise.
People Operations is responsible for helping employees understand their primary role in the wider organization. They also continuously reiterate how people are contributing to the company’s goals. Part of the People Ops job is to design work that encourages engagement and motivates employees to continue improving their skills, knowledge, and expertise.
Roles in People Operations and Their Responsibilities
As mentioned earlier, every People Operations team will look different depending on the size of the company, the budget available to hire people, and the organization’s POPs maturity. Here’s a brief look at some typical roles you can come across in People Operations and their primary responsibilities:
- People Operations Manager: Manages the team’s overall work, similar to a Project Manager. It’s their job to oversee the team and ensure they work efficiently together within and across departments in a streamlined way.
Optimizing People Operations Efforts
To optimize your People Operations efforts, you want to track your activities to make decisions based on data and evidence. Calculating your employee turnover rate or measuring employee productivity and (new hire) satisfaction levels, for instance, is an excellent start. Monitoring this data on an HR dashboard allows you to easily see what is working and where there is room for improvement.
Conclusion: Putting People First in Workforce Management
No matter how you look at it, when your employees are engaged, feel appreciated, and taken care of, you will likely create an exceptional organizational culture and a fantastic reputation as an employer. A People Ops approach can help you achieve all of this and more, but whether you decide to build a separate People Ops team or have your current HR team move toward this method one step at a time doesn’t matter all that much, as long as you move in the right, people-first direction. For more insights, visit hrtechtrend.com.