People-Centered Culture: It’s More Than a Buzzword—Here’s How to Make It Real

It feels like the last year or two has seen a ton of layoffs and I wanted to take a break from talking about business anxiety to talk about values and culture. Maybe it’s just in my sphere, but I’m seeing more and more companies talking about how they’re people focused. About how they want their employees to bring their whole, authentic self to work. About how they care about you as a person, an individual, with a family and a life. Not a resource.

And then they lay you off after 1 year. After 12 years. After 20. And then they fire their 6th, 7th, or 8th C-suite executive in 10 years. Or they fire people because they are trying to do what they were hired for but the company just isn’t ready for it yet.

I will readily accept and acknowledge that some times you can’t help it. There are extenuating circumstances for everything, but I want to look past the specifics here for a minute and talk about the ways in which this people-focused culture needs to show up.

Everyone is quick to talk about how they care about you. How they want you to be able to connect with other people at work. How spending time with your family is prioritized. All of these standard things that should be a given. I’m reminded of Chris Rock talking about a guy who was bragging about taking care of his kids. You’re SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR KIDS. There is no medal for that.

You’re supposed to treat people like people, not resources.

BUT! Here’s the but. If you want this to be the cornerstone of your culture, of your brand identity, of your corporate values, you can’t just have it show up when you approve vacations or parental leave. It has to show up in hiring (but not in the way you’re probably thinking). It has to show up in your forecasting.

If you are quick to hire to fill your needs, and then lay people off or fire people when those needs change or your plans didn’t come to fruition: you are not a people focused organization. How could you handle that differently to actually live your values?

When you forecast for the next year, you’re planning the investment of your company’s resources. Are you considering the full impact of what will happen if you don’t hit that forecast? Will you have to cut people’s pay, deny merit bonuses even though they’re merit and not profit-sharing bonuses, or lay people off? How can you change your forecasting to reflect your intended values and culture?

Now I turn to you with this, and I would love to hear your thoughts. How else can this culture show up in other areas of the business? What about sales? Could this influence Finance in other ways? Product or Marketing? Why not operations?

Culture is something that permeates the entire organization. It isn’t isolated to internal communications or the perks and benefits you provide for your employees. Your values should be a part of every decision you make and every process you follow. If you want to talk about how important your people are, you’ve got work to do.