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The night before the press release announcing Tanya Reu-Narvaez as the new chief HR officer of Anywhere Real Estate was to be released, she contacted the CEO with a request: “Is there any chance you’re open to a different title?” she recalls asking.
Instead of CHRO, she thought “chief people officer” reflected her experience, her approach to leadership and her aspirations for evolving the function.
The CEO was on board for the shift, which she says “set the stage” for the function’s transformation in the last few years. In the last few months, Anywhere Real Estate—which employs about 8,000 across brands including Century 21 and Coldwell Banker—has renamed its Human Resources function to People Enablement.
The nomenclature itself signifies where the function is headed: “People Enablement is an action; Human Resources is a noun,” Reu-Narvaez says.
“For us, it’s about enabling growth, enabling better experiences, enabling a stronger collective culture across the enterprise,” she says.
Chief people officer: A modern view of HR
Centering “HR” in the function’s title suggested that the organization’s employees are resources to be exhausted, Reu-Narvaez says, while the rebrand communicates the unit’s strategic work to empower talent.
“Really, it’s a step forward, a commitment to
