Leadership

What’s in a name? 6 snazzy HR titles

20 September 2016|

Updated on 6 March 2019

The landscape of job title is changing. Marketers are known as Brand defenders, Sales people as Customer success managers. With this new diversification in job titles, Human Resource professions are no exception. Let's have a look at some of the new HR titles and what do they mean.

Walking on my treadmill, I was constantly reminded that there are more meanings to the acronym HR. There pumping up my heart beat, I found an interesting angle to HR- Heart Rate. Wouldn’t it be great if HR in every company imbibes this meaning as a way to glue the entire organization together? First we want people pumped up, excited and fully engaged-high heart rate, and second we want people to handle any stress situations not letting their rates become unstable.

Renaming HR is not a rebranding effort. The aim is to reinvigorate traditional HR with a different mindset. It is seen that recruitment has really morphed into talent acquisition. It covers the complete process of acquisition through orientation, training, leadership development, planning to engagement. Infact, it can be called as the complete employee life cycle. Along with the traditional view of HR taking care of hiring and compliance, many organizations came up with this sunny idea of having “People Operations” as a new label of HR replacing the oh-so-old-school monikers like Human Resource Officer to empower employees and meet goals.

But “People Operations” isn’t the only label you will find here. With more strategies to maintain come more responsibilities, which call for flamboyant names for HR. Here is a look at some of the trending names replacing Human Resources:

Chief People Officer- There has been a major seismic shift in which executives think about the importance of people, culture and workplace in many organizations. They have come to an understanding that people leadership and culture are levers of business excellence. To achieve this, organizations are adding “Chief People Officer” to their HR team making employees feel more valued. Some of the companies in this trend are Flipkart, Myntra, Microland etc.

Chief Happiness Officer- Does your company have a CHO, if not it is the time now to consider one. The remit of a Chief Happiness Officer is simple: to ensure workers are kept happy who are the DNA of every organization. CHO is in its essence, an HR Manager with the motive to engage and encourage employees leveraging their performance levels. Trainings, Team Outings, Medical Benefits, Leave policies, Mentoring, Flexibility at work, Support in times of crisis and emergency etc. While these are the most common responsibilities for any CHO, there are many more HR areas where happiness matters. Companies such as Krishna Maruti Group, Oye Happy have their own Chief Happiness Officer.

Chief Culture Officer- According to a global 2014 survey of nearly 1,200 C-suite executives by McKinsey & Co., it was found that spending time on culture was a key priority for those who successfully moved to the C-suite. Companies such as Google and Zappos have their own Chief Culture Officer for years. The role of CCO is to keep a finger on the pulse of contemporary cultural trends of the organization to make sure programs and initiatives reflects the company culture while driving business to the pinnacle of success.

Chief Amazement Officer- This is another creative title for HR. Companies like Shephard Presentation has created some fun titles to describe what exactly they do focusing on how to be amazing for their customers and their clients.

Chief Ecosystem Officer- There is a new vision in the corporate world called the ecological vision. This means that systems within the corporate environment are becoming more complex and requires attention. This new title will focus on bringing people together and turning them into collaborative communities fostering the company’s growth.

Chief Evangelist- Evangelist is a person who communicates with public about any technology or product. Hiring an Evangelist marks an important milestone for the company. It shows that the organization is ready to scale-up and committed to marketing success representing your company’s brand and position in the market. Miguel Martin Romero has carried the torch forward by joining OnePlus as its Chief Evangelist.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet”. But to borrow from Shakespere quote, would HR by any other name function that well? While these whimsical titles are creative and interesting, there has to be a management style and system to support it. So which among the above zesty titles you would like to bring in to your organization? Let me know in the comment box.

Topics

#Future HR Leadership

Author

Monalisa Deka