Luani Alvarado
Chief People Officer
Kenvue
Episode 249
Why Employees 'Re-Recruit' Themselves Daily: Inside People-First Cultures.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleMarch 31, 2025 · 11:01
Thesis
“Successful organizations are built by intentionally fostering a people-centric culture where employees feel valued, can make an impact, grow, and are recognized, transcending traditional HR functions to focus on individual needs and leadership development.”
Show notes
When Kenvue spun off from Johnson & Johnson — a 130-year-old institution — Luani Alvarado faced a challenge most HR leaders never encounter: building an entirely new organizational identity from a standing start, for a company that suddenly needed one.
As Chief People Officer, Luani made early bets that signaled how Kenvue would be different. The function wasn't called HR — it was renamed "People," a deliberate signal that human capital isn't a resource to be managed but the core of everything the company does. Identity came before process: the team spent significant energy developing a compelling purpose and set of values that employees could genuinely hang on to during the uncertainty of a spin-off. And performance was redefined to face outward — not what employees are working hard on internally, but how the company is doing in the eyes of customers, consumers, and teams. Her framing: "Every day we're re-recruiting our Kenvue employees, because they have choices."
Luani's other big investment is in people leaders. She argues that frontline managers are the single greatest lever for creating environments where employees actually thrive — not culture decks, not perks, but the quality of the daily leadership relationship. Her experience at the Forbes Power Women's Summit reinforced a theme that runs through everything she does: the impact of mentorship and sponsorship compounds in ways that are difficult to overstate, especially for leaders earlier in their careers.
What you'll learn:
- How Kenvue built a new organizational identity and culture post-spin-off from J&J
- Why renaming the function from "HR" to "People" wasn't cosmetic — and what it changed
- The "re-recruitment" model for performance and engagement: measuring success through external impact
- How Kenvue structures the workplace to meet employees where they are individually
- Why people leaders are the primary cultural catalyst — and how Kenvue invests in them accordingly
- Lessons from the Forbes Power Women's Summit on mentorship and leadership development
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What you'll take away
- 1Establishing a compelling new identity, purpose, and values is crucial for a new company to attract, retain, and grow talent, especially when spinning off from a large legacy organization.
- 2Redefine HR as 'People' to emphasize that human capital is at the heart of business success, requiring transparency, empowerment, and accountability tailored to individual needs.
- 3Shift performance metrics from internal effort to external business impact, aligning with customer and consumer perception, and recognizing that employees 're-recruit' themselves daily based on the environment.
- 4Invest heavily in people leaders, as they are the primary drivers of creating an environment where employees can thrive and feel supported in their personal and professional growth.
- 5Structure workplace practices (learning, flexibility, performance) to meet individual employee needs, allowing them to personalize choices that maximize their performance.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Every day we're having to re-recruit our Ken viewers because they have choices, right? Whether they choose to go with us or go elsewhere, it is about the environment that we create.
- •The deliberate and intentional change of the function name from 'HR Human Resources' to 'People' pushes back on the traditional 'resource' framing, emphasizing the human element above all.
In Luani's words
“Believe it or not, I actually started my career fresh out of school in commercial, part of a leadership development program with Dow Chemical. And I quickly realized that in order to win in the marketplace, it actually came down to people and the right environment to make them thrive. So that's how I made my entry into human resources.”
This quote explains her fundamental shift into HR, driven by the realization that people are central to market success.
“And one of the things that was very important to us in this process was really trying to create our new identity and something that was really inspiring and compelling that we could all hang on to.”
This highlights the crucial initial step in establishing a new company culture post-spin-off.
“That is a great question because in this process, we were also very deliberate and very intentional to change the name of the function from HR Human Resources to People. And that was because we feel that people is really at the heart of everything that we do.”
This quote directly addresses the philosophical shift from 'resources' to 'people' in HR.
“So for us, performance, it's all about how are we truly doing in the eyes of our customers, in the eyes of our consumers, and quite honestly, in the eyes of our teams, because we feel that every day we're having to re-recruit our Ken viewers because they have choices, right?”
This emphasizes an external, market-driven view of performance and continuous employee engagement.
“We spend a lot of time investing in our people leaders because we believe that people leaders are truly the catalyst for creating an environment where people can be successful.”
This highlights the strategic importance of investing in frontline leadership for cultural development and employee success.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Retaining talent and establishing a distinct identity during a spin-off from a long-established parent company.
- •Shifting traditional HR perceptions to a 'people-first' function to align with overall business strategy.
- •Ensuring employees feel a sense of immediate impact and purpose in their roles within a new organizational structure.
- •Creating an environment where diverse voices are heard and recognized for their individual contributions.
- •Moving from an 'effort-based' to an 'impact-based' performance recognition system.
- •Equipping people leaders to be effective catalysts for culture and employee growth.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Johnson Johnson established a new company culture at its headquarters
Kenview: Standing Up a New Company Culture
Kenview redefines HR as a people function rather than just a resource function
Kenview's People-Centric HR Approach
Kenview has implemented strategies to foster a culture of performance and engagement
Culture of Performance and Engagement at Kenview
Kenview recently participated in the Forbes Power Women Summit
Kenview Health CEO Luani On The Power Women Summit
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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