New Year Bold Approach: Turning Human Resources Into A People-First Experience

Maria Neve, Senior Vice President of People Experience, Sony Music Entertainment

To meet the needs of today’s workforce, we can’t rely on the strategies of yesterday’s HR. That may seem intuitive enough as a concept—but the real challenge is putting that philosophy into practice. Two years ago at Sony Music Group, to better meet the needs of our employees and our growing and evolving business, we re-envisioned and rebranded our human resources team— now known across the company as “People eXperience” (PX for short). And we’re already seeing the impact in the new ways people connect and thrive as our business grows.

At the time, we were facing a reality that was still sinking in for more and more organizations. The adaptations workplaces made to center employee wellness early in the COVID pandemic proved to be more than a quick fix; they were a harbinger of a long-term shift in employee priorities. Now, 92% of workers want to work for a company that values their emotional and psychological well-being. Business and HR leaders across the globe learned important lessons about leaving behind what’s not working, carrying forward what is working, and staying nimble as we creatively leverage new technologies and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. However, without an established strategy and processes, many organizations struggle to make more than piecemeal efforts to continue championing employee needs.

Change and adaptation are our bread and butter in the music industry—after all, what is music if it doesn’t evolve constantly to meet the times? Here’s how we applied that philosophy to turn this human resources challenge into an opportunity to evolve and put our people first.

By the time the pandemic began, we had already been working for years to thoughtfully lay the foundations of our people-first culture and build on it. As we took stock of the changes we were adapting to and considered how to keep intentionally building an inclusive, sustainable future of work, we realized it was time to develop and roll out a division-level change that would communicate our people-first values to everyone across the company. As part of this shift, we laid out procedures for maintaining workplace flexibility in the future—instead of attempting to go back to an old way of working.

So, this was more than just a name change. Transitioning HR to PX also represented a shift in how the department works with leaders and their teams across the company to support our long-term business strategy. More than simply being an employee resource, we aspired for PX to be an active, accessible partner in achieving their daily and long-term goals.

"We at Sony Music are already returning to our initial guiding strategy to assess what more we can modernize about how we work and how much further we can go when putting our people first"

That would require a fundamental shift in perception. If employees traditionally perceive HR as a separate, largely administrative entity, we wanted them to see PX as their advocate, coach, and talent strategist—the people at the company who ensure that our stated values are reflected in how we work. At an even simpler level, we wanted everyone in every department to understand PX’s core priorities and embrace them as their own.

With this in mind, we developed a strategy to offer our people the same level of trusted partnership and support we offer our talent. It focuses on four key pillars of business strategy: our talent, our capabilities, our culture, and well-being.

First, be curious, not cautious. Transforming a division—or even making a handful of substantial changes—doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with leadership kicking off honest, curious conversations about what is. It is not working, first with existing human resources staff and then with leadership and staff across the company.

At Sony Music, we reached out far and wide to our leadership and employees across the globe to learn what “human resources” meant to them—and how they saw it impacting our artists and the fans and communities we influence worldwide. That helped us realize that we needed to upgrade how we defined ourselves—which is how we became People eXperience, a name that reminds everyone of our number one priority.

Second, center community. Build systems within your company to encourage collaboration and co-creation across employees. Early on, we shared a new vision for Sony Music’s human resources department: it would be the driving force behind making us the most people-centric company in the music industry, and we’d need all hands on deck to innovate, create, grow, and achieve that success together. That went a long way toward helping everyone understand that a PX team can and should be integral to their day-to-day success.

Third, show your compassion. Recognize that changing how you work will be a big commitment for your team and everyone who co-creates the change with you and that there will be trial and error.

And fourth, be agile. The pandemic taught us we can quickly address emerging needs with resourceful, creative approaches. Don’t fall back into the habit of doing what’s been done before—accept that change is vital for the long-term health of any organization, and don’t be afraid to examine and re-examine the status quo at yours.

To that end, we at Sony Music are already returning to our initial guiding strategy to assess what more we can modernize about how we work and how much further we can go when putting our people first.

As human resources leaders and teams look ahead to the changes and challenges this year, it can make all the difference to ask two simple questions: what is the current state of your people’s experience? And what more could it be?