Human_Capital is a bad word

Shawnee Love   •  
August 13, 2010

I hate the term “Human Capital”. I think it implies people are a commodity instead of a key reason why businesses are successful. People and their qualities of innovation, problem solving and resourcefulness are often what sets one company apart from its competitors and as such is the reason customers choose it.

I don’t like the term “Human Resources” either as I think it is a milder form of HC, and I hate saying I work “in human resources” because it sounds, well, inhuman. The only reason I use HR (like in my business name) is because it is recognizable acronym. And I’ve been told the name is catchy.

If I had my way, we’d rename the HR function to something like People Management or Talent Operations.

How about you? What do you think we should call HR?