What is a People Company?

Are your people your most valuable asset? While many business leaders would say yes, do they truly place the success of their people at the top of the list for company success, over everything else? If so, that’s a People Company.

People Companies realise HR is changing. With the global skills crisis, there’s now a war for talent. Employee engagement continues to plummet. As a result, productivity is at an all-time low. People Companies know that to secure the best talent, they need to not just be prepared, but get ahead.

A People Company explained

A People Company considers people its most valuable asset. For leaders of People Companies, success is dependent on their workforce being successful. They know nurturing their people is critical to growth and regularly let them know how important they are to success. This is reflected in how their employees feel about the company and the output of their work.

However, it’s often more complicated than this to recognise a People Company. Ask most leaders ‘Are you a People Company,’ and they would likely say yes. However their employees may not agree. Sage research surveying over 500 HR leaders found 55% of senior executives think their company is people orientated – but only 29% of employees agreed.

People Companies are forward-thinking

Just as Personnel evolved to become HR in the 1980s, now HR is evolving to become a people function. Forward-thinking HR leaders are increasingly automating processes to free up their teams to focus on people.

Employees now expect the systems they use at work to deliver the same ease of use and utility as their favourite apps and websites. People Companies make it easy for them to do things like book holidays and manage their teams. They use scalable, responsive, flexible people systems which give great employee experiences.

Our recent research on becoming a People Company reveals fast-growing companies are embracing these kinds of systems – 80% have embraced HR automation versus 53% in lower growth businesses. The emergence of Chief People Officers is also typically found in forward-thinking fast-growth companies.

However automating HR processes and introducing new job titles is not enough. To be a People Company, HR leaders need to design engaging experiences to help their employees excel throughout their employment journeys.

People Companies design great workforce experiences from before day one

Companies can no longer simply post a vacancy to a job board and wait for the applicants to come rolling in. To attract the best people, businesses must highlight the benefits of their brand and reputation as an employer. When People Companies apply consumer marketing techniques to attract candidates, we call this People Marketing.

But that’s just the start. People Companies grow candidate relationships and deliver great experiences throughout the entire recruitment process. They go beyond free lunches, great workspaces and unlimited holidays. They know their people and what drives them – and use this information to create an employer journey that continually energizes their workforce and gets the best out of them.

People Companies don’t make decisions based on gut feel and spreadsheets

In a People Company, leaders gain insight on what drives their workforce through People Science.

With People Science, organisations can use people data to develop stronger and predictive insights about its people and motivations. These insights can facilitate more informed evidence-based people decisions. Furthermore, the data can be used for predictive purposes, so that managers can begin to understand and make decisions based on people behaviour and motivations.

Being a People Company isn’t a ‘nice to have’ – it’s vital to success

Companies which make evidence-based people decisions, design great workforce experiences and are forward-thinking in their approach to their workforce don’t do this because it’s a good thing to do. They know it’s because being a People Company is vital to the success of their business and growth. And they know it’s just the tip of the iceberg.