2006 Human Resource Planning Society Annual Global Conference

Date: Monday, April 24, 2006

Change, change and more change: The theme of this year’s HRPS conference is "Adapt & Thrive: Aligning, Engaging and Leading in Challenging Environments." As Ellen Glantz, one of the conference co-chairs, put it, the goal of the conference was to help senior HR leaders deal with the huge changes in the workforce and workplace: "how to handle change, how to get in control of change, and how to keep it from overwhelming us."

HRPS focuses on link between HR and business strategy: Branding can be as important for a nonprofit advocacy group as it can be for a business. Success depends on how an organization sets itself apart. The Human Resource Planning Society is trying to position itself as the group to turn to for guidance on linking HR and business strategy. The group, which draws together high-level HR executives, consultants and academics, is focusing on five areas: HR strategy and planning, leadership development, talent management, organizational effectiveness and building a strategic HR function. HRPS highlighted many of these themes at its Tucson conference. The event drew 630 people from throughout the U.S. and around the world–up from the 500 who attended last year in Miami.

Morning keynote, Day 1: The day’s keynote was given by Mary O’Hara-Devereaux, founder and president of Global Foresight and president of the Center for the Future of China. O’Hara-Devereaux is a futurist with 20 years of global forecasting experience. Her talk centered on the huge changes going on in the world today and how business and HR professionals are going to have to adjust. Some of her more interesting observations:

• Women are going to become a much greater force in the workplace, especially given the rapid growth in the numbers of experienced, educated women.

• Part of this, she says, is due to women becoming much more focused on their careers, especially later in life. O’Hara-Devereaux pointed to the fact that 50 percent of women over age 50 in California are single--trend that will spread nationwide by 2030.

• China will grow and grow, then slow down somewhat. O’Hara-Devereaux says the country will evolve from a manufacturing power to a technical innovation power, particularly in agriculture, biotech and nanotechnology. China will become the second-largest global economy by 2020. To sustain the rapid economic expansion, however, growing environmental problems in China are something the Chinese will need to address.

• Continuous learning will become the norm to succeed in the workplace. Much of this learning will be done in private institutions as public colleges and universities get squeezed for resources.

The satellite connection: High-tech speakers were in vogue with the HRPS crowd. During a morning session on global trends and implications, Jack So Chak Kwong, deputy chairman and group managing director of Pacific Century Cyberworks, the leading telecommunications company in Hong Kong, participated in a panel discussion via satellite phone from Hong Kong--even fielding questions from the Tucson audience. Afternoon speaker Lynda Gratton, a professor of management practice at the London Business School, did one better: She gave her entire presentation, "Cooperating on Purpose: How Organizations Create More Value, More Successfully When People Collaborate More Skillfully," with PowerPoint charts and audience participation via satellite hookup from England, at 1 a.m. London time.

Conference buzzword (courtesy of Mary O’Hara-Devereaux): "Sustainability." That’s the ability to maintain innovation and flexibility and the knack for keeping a business moving ahead. Sustainability will grow in importance as a value for both the workforce and management.