Recently, I’ve noticed a growing debate among founders and business leaders about the role of Human Resources.

Some argue that HR has become overly bureaucratic. Others insist that strong HR functions are essential for attracting, retaining, and developing talent. The discussion resurfaced when several prominent executives publicly questioned whether traditional HR departments actually improve company performance.

Having studied psychology and organizational behavior since my university days, I’ve long agreed with the idea that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

If people are truly your greatest asset, outsourcing “how to treat people” never made much sense to me.

That’s why, in more than 20 years of building WatchMojo, we’ve never had a traditional standalone HR department.

To be clear, our finance and administration teams have always handled the administrative side of employment: payroll, benefits, compliance, and related functions. Beyond that, people management has largely remained the responsibility of leadership.

My belief has always been that the softer side of HR—communication, empathy, delegation, accountability, coaching, and culture—should be woven into every leadership role rather than concentrated in a separate department.

And if the numbers mean anything, the approach appears to have worked.

Since launching WatchMojo in 2006, we’ve hired 112 employees in total: 110 in Canada and 2 in the United States.

Today, we employ 31 full-time team members, work with 19 contractors, and collaborate with more than 100 freelancers. Despite what some assume, we’ve never replaced employees with AI!

For context, a digital media company producing WatchMojo’s volume of content over two decades might easily accumulate 200 to 500 hires, experience multiple restructurings, and sustain annual turnover rates north of 20%.

By comparison, we’ve averaged roughly 5.6 employee hires per year over the life of the company.

More remarkably, nearly 28% of every employee we’ve ever hired is still with us today.

In media, technology, and digital publishing, where average tenure often ranges from two to five years, that’s highly unusual.

This wasn’t the result of avoiding growth. Between 2012 and 2017, we grew from roughly 10 employees to approximately 50. After that period, we experienced our first meaningful employee departures, but it will still relatively (judging by the numbers), and some of those employees boomeranged back.

But, at the time, it felt strange because we weren’t accustomed to turnover. Looking back, it was completely normal—overdue, and healthy.

The biggest contributor to our stability wasn’t some secret management system.

It was largely the result of hiring thoughtfully, avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy, maintaining direct communication, and building relationships between leadership and employees.

For what it’s worth, WatchMojo has never conducted a mass layoff. And while there have certainly been occasions when employees left or roles were eliminated, I’ve never viewed people as disposable assets, au contraire.

None of this is an argument against HR.

Many organizations absolutely need sophisticated HR functions. As companies scale, compliance requirements increase, management layers expand, and formal processes become necessary.

What I am questioning is the assumption that culture (and people) is something that can be delegated.

One advantage of operating without a traditional HR department is that issues are often addressed directly.

Employees can speak with me, their manager, a VP, one of the co-founders, or someone from administration if the issue is procedural.

In smaller organizations, that direct access often builds trust and reduces frustration.

I would also stress that leaders who dislike communication, culture, organizational behavior, or people management absolutely should seek help from professionals who excel in those areas. Ignoring those responsibilities is a recipe for dysfunction.

Ironically, one aspect of HR that is often overlooked is that HR ultimately works for the employer, not the employee.

That doesn’t make HR bad. It’s simply reality.

In many organizations, an employee brings an issue to HR. HR listens, documents the concern, and then involves the manager. The manager still needs to understand the situation and help resolve it. The difference is that an additional layer has been inserted into the process.

Sometimes that layer is necessary.

Sometimes it isn’t.

The alternative is straightforward: employees and managers communicate directly and involve administration only when genuine legal, compliance, or procedural issues arise.

At 30 employees, operating without HR is unusual but not shocking.

At 100 employees, it’s uncommon.

At 250 employees, it’s rare.

At 500 employees, it’s probably unrealistic.

But for many startups and smaller businesses, there may be a better question than whether an HR department exists:

Do employees trust leadership?

Do they understand the mission?

Do they feel respected?

Do they know where they stand?

If the answer is yes, many other organizational challenges become easier to solve. We’ve also run surveys every two years, with very positive feedback.

Another contributor to our stability has been our use of contractors and freelancers. Today, we work with approximately 19 contract contributors and 100 freelancers. But they too have tenure.

That flexibility allows us to scale production without constantly expanding and shrinking our full-time workforce. In an industry known for boom-and-bust cycles, it has often created mutually beneficial opportunities for talented people who value independence and flexibility.

What strikes me most, however, isn’t our turnover rate.

It’s the longevity.

Many members of our team have spent a significant portion of their careers at WatchMojo. In an era where job hopping is increasingly common and media companies frequently restructure, that continuity feels rare.

None of this proves that companies shouldn’t have HR departments.

What it suggests is that there may be more than one way to build a durable organization.

After twenty years, I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers. We are a relatively small company, and I don’t pretend that our approach necessarily scales to hundreds or thousands of employees.

What I can say is that our employee feedback surveys over the years have been consistently positive, and our retention numbers speak for themselves.

My conclusion is simple:

Culture existed long before HR departments did.

The best organizations don’t outsource culture.

They live it.

And sometimes culture is strongest when it is practiced every day rather than professionally managed.