Why Traditional HR Isn't Working (And What to Do Instead)
Human Resources departments have strayed far from their original purpose. What began as personnel management focused on employee records and basic workplace policies has evolved into departments expected to be everything to everyone – compliance officers, culture builders, vision implementers, and more.
Don't misunderstand – HR plays a crucial role in organizations. The compliance management, policy development, and risk mitigation they provide are essential business functions. As Blake Behr notes, "HR does a lot of really good things for you. The amount of compliance, the amount of making sure y'all don't get sued - that's good. I would put that in the pros section of things."
However, many organizations have fallen into a problematic pattern: when any people-related initiative arises, it automatically becomes HR's responsibility. This includes the nebulous yet critical area of workplace culture, despite most HR departments lacking the resources, positioning, or expertise to effectively lead culture development.
Look no further than the disastrous Microsoft-Nokia merger for a high-profile example of what happens when culture integration is mismanaged. While your organization may not be acquiring a multinational corporation, the underlying principles remain the same – culture isn't just another HR checkbox.
It's time to rethink who owns culture, vision implementation, and people development in your organization. This article explores why traditional HR structures struggle with these responsibilities and offers practical alternatives for building more effective, scalable teams.
The Evolution of HR Departments: From Personnel to "Human Resources"
To understand the current limitations of HR departments, we need to examine how they evolved over time. Early personnel departments primarily managed employee records, payroll, and basic workplace policies. Their role was administrative and clearly defined.
The shift to "Human Resources" terminology in the 1980s signaled a conceptual change – viewing employees as assets or resources to be managed efficiently. This terminology itself reveals part of the problem. As Dustin Pead insightfully puts it, "Culture is not a resource. Culture is who you have totally enveloped your people and your team to be."
As businesses grew more complex and regulations multiplied, HR departments became increasingly compliance-focused. Employment law, workplace safety regulations, benefits administration, and liability management demanded specialized expertise. These critical functions protect organizations from significant legal and financial risks.
However, by the 2000s, HR had also become the default department for handling anything remotely connected to employees – from engagement initiatives and team building to vision implementation and culture development. This expansion occurred without corresponding increases in departmental resources or shifts in fundamental expertise.
Today's HR departments typically face multiple challenges simultaneously:
They're chronically understaffed relative to their responsibilities
They operate reactively rather than proactively
They're process-driven by necessity, not by choice
They're expected to be both rule enforcers and culture advocates
This evolution has created departments with competing priorities that often lack the bandwidth, positioning, and sometimes the skill sets to effectively drive culture transformation while maintaining their critical compliance functions.
“Culture is not a resource. Culture is who you have totally enveloped your people and your team to be.”
The Microsoft-Nokia Case Study: When Culture Integration Fails
The 2014 Microsoft acquisition of Nokia's mobile device business offers a textbook example of culture integration failure despite significant HR involvement. Microsoft paid $7.2 billion for Nokia's mobile phone division, hoping to bolster its position in the smartphone market against Apple and Android.
What followed was a case study in culture clash. Microsoft's corporate culture emphasized software development processes, while Nokia operated with hardware-oriented Finnish engineering values. The two organizations had fundamentally different approaches to decision-making, leadership, and innovation.
Human Resources teams were tasked with integrating these vastly different cultures while simultaneously handling the massive administrative challenges of merging thousands of employees across multiple countries. Despite extensive planning and resources far beyond what most companies could deploy, the integration failed spectacularly.
Within months, key talent began leaving. Operational hiccups multiplied. By 2015, Microsoft wrote down $7.6 billion related to the acquisition – more than the original purchase price – and laid off thousands of former Nokia employees.
While this example operates at global enterprise scale, similar dynamics play out in organizations of all sizes. When culture integration becomes just another HR deliverable without adequate resources, positioning, or leadership involvement, the results can be devastating to organizational health and business outcomes.
The Microsoft-Nokia failure illuminates key questions for any business: Who really should own culture? And why do traditional HR structures struggle with this responsibility?
Why HR Struggles with Culture Implementation
Reason 1: Limited Experience in Vision Implementation
Most HR professionals excel at ensuring compliance and developing sound policies. However, translating a founder's or CEO's business vision into daily cultural practices requires a different skill set. This expertise gap manifests in several ways:
Compliance-oriented mindsets approach problems differently than innovation-oriented needs demand
Process focus often overshadows outcome focus when implementing culture initiatives
Traditional HR training emphasizes risk management rather than cultural psychology and organizational development
This isn't a criticism of HR professionals – it's a recognition that the skills that make someone excellent at compliance management don't necessarily translate to transformational culture building.
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Reason 2: Resource Constraints
HR departments are typically among the most understaffed relative to their responsibilities. Consider what many HR teams manage simultaneously:
Recruitment and hiring
Benefits administration
Payroll coordination
Legal compliance
Policy development and enforcement
Performance management systems
Employee relations issues
Training and development
Adding "transform company culture" to this already overwhelming list isn't realistic without significant additional resources. Culture initiatives require consistent attention, creativity, and presence – elements that resource-constrained departments simply cannot provide while fulfilling their core responsibilities.
Reason 3: Culture Isn't a "Resource"
The fundamental framework of "human resources" creates a conceptual mismatch with culture development. Culture is environmental, not transactional. It requires continuous nurturing, not process management.
Policies can be documented, distributed, and checked off. Culture must be lived, demonstrated, reinforced, and evolved continuously. This fundamental difference creates friction when organizations attempt to manage culture through traditional HR mechanisms.
Reason 4: Resistance to Change
HR departments are designed to create stability and consistency – essential qualities for compliance and risk management. However, culture development often requires leading significant change, challenging established norms, and promoting creative approaches to organizational challenges.
This creates an inherent tension. The same department tasked with ensuring consistent policy application must simultaneously drive transformational change. These competing mandates make it difficult for traditional HR structures to effectively lead culture initiatives, especially in rapidly growing organizations that need to scale.
Who Should Own Culture?
Culture ownership begins with leadership, full stop. Founders, CEOs, and executive teams establish culture through their decisions, behaviors, and what they choose to prioritize. As Blake Behr notes, "As leaders, you have got to believe that you suck at communication. Saying what your core values are one time to your team might not have done the trick."
However, leadership vision alone isn't sufficient. Effective culture implementation requires an "integrator" role – someone who can translate high-level vision into practical, day-to-day implementation. In the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS/Traction) framework, this role bridges the gap between leadership vision and operational execution.
Effective culture integrators typically share several characteristics:
They understand all three business pillars (sales/marketing, operations, finance/admin)
They have cross-departmental influence and authority
They're focused on outcomes rather than just processes
They balance leadership vision with on-the-ground implementation needs
They're skilled communicators who can translate concepts into practical applications
This role might be filled internally by a COO, Chief of Staff, or Director of Culture/People Operations. Alternatively, organizations might leverage external expertise through consultants or fractional culture development professionals until they reach the scale to support dedicated internal resources.
Unlike traditional HR, which usually reports through administrative or financial channels, effective culture integrators need direct access to leadership and cross-functional authority. Their performance should be measured by cultural outcomes – engagement, retention, alignment – rather than compliance metrics.
“As leaders, you have got to believe that you suck at communication. Saying what your core values are one time to your team might not have done the trick.”
Practical First Steps to Take
Ready to rethink who owns culture in your organization? Here are concrete first steps to move beyond traditional HR limitations:
Start with honest self-reflection about your current culture. Is it what you intended? Where are the gaps between your vision and reality? Don't outsource this critical assessment – leadership must own this process.
Implement meaningful feedback loops that generate actionable insights. Traditional annual surveys rarely capture the nuanced information needed for culture development. Consider pulse surveys, roundtable discussions, or designated culture ambassadors who can provide real-time feedback.
Create a "notes day" inspired by Pixar's collaborative problem-solving approach. Dedicate time for cross-functional teams to identify culture challenges and propose solutions. As Blake Behr observes, "When people feel part of the solution instead of just a resource, they're going to give you their best."
Identify or develop an integrator on your team. Look for someone who understands all aspects of your business, communicates effectively, and can translate vision into action. This person doesn't need to be titled "Chief Culture Officer" – their effectiveness comes from their cross-functional influence and leadership support.
Consider fractional culture development support if you lack the resources for a full-time position. External expertise can help establish systems that your team can then maintain.
Develop filtering questions to determine what belongs in HR versus culture development:
Is this primarily about compliance or creativity?
Does this require consistent enforcement or adaptive implementation?
Is this focused on risk management or growth potential?
Bring your leadership voice into culture while delegating implementation. As Blake Behr says, "Connection is contagious. When you connect and you invest that part of you into your people and into your culture and they go invest that, it is unbelievable what that can do."
Your personal involvement signals what truly matters.
The Right Roles for the Right Results
HR departments provide tremendous value in the right context. Their expertise in compliance, policy development, and risk management protects organizations from significant legal and financial threats. These functions remain essential regardless of company size or structure.
However, as your organization scales, it requires specialized approaches to culture development. Studies consistently show that employee engagement is directly tied to culture, not just compensation or benefits. Organizations with strong culture alignment experience significantly lower turnover rates and higher productivity.
Leadership must remain actively involved in culture creation while empowering the right people – whether internal integrators or external specialists – to implement the vision effectively. This balanced approach separates compliance functions (where HR excels) from culture development (where different skill sets are needed).
The goal isn't just to avoid the fate of failed mergers like Microsoft-Nokia. It's to create an environment where people thrive, not just comply – where your team eagerly brings their best selves to work each day because they feel connected to something meaningful.
Take time this week to evaluate your current approach to culture. Are you defaulting to an outdated model that overburdens HR while underdelivering on culture? Or are you thoughtfully separating these functions to achieve better results in both areas?
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