What's in a name? Are you happy with "HR department"?

Happy New Year! New words and terms of the year for 2022, according to the Washington Post, include lawfare, defined as the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent, and quiet quitting--that is, the practice of doing no more work than one is contractually obliged to do, especially to spend more time developing one's personal life.

But "human resources" may be in transition! A growing number of companies are using terms like "talent management." Airbnb uses "employee experience." "People operations" is a popular term in Silicon Valley, used by Google and Uber.

John R. Commons, an American economist, first coined the term "human resource" in his book The Distribution of Wealth, published in 1893. However, it was not until the 20th century that HR departments were formally developed and tasked with addressing relationships, from hiring to firing to ironing out misunderstandings between employees, their colleagues and their employers.

Fast forward.

During the pandemic, HR managers were on the front lines. Since then, they have reconsidered their job titles, seeking to reflect their new status and priorities. Many organizations are renaming their HR functions to include the...