Visions from Orlando

Let me start with confession time - I have been a member of SHRM since 1992 and I always seemed to have had some excuse why I would not commit to attending a SHRM conference whether it was at the state or national level. Well I bit the bullet and just got back from the HR Florida 2010 Conference attended by 1420 fellow HR professionals from around the southeast and internationally. The field director from SHRM says it was one of the largest regional conferences she has attended. Having said that I came away from the meetings with some observations that are worth presenting here:

1. We are waiting for everything to return to normal - Fairly often we hear this phrase in talking to corporate America. The common theme from the sessions I attended was that we are not going to return to that normal. In its place will be a new normal consisting of a changed work environment. We can expect more government intervention and a greater push to unionization. There will be a changed focus on working local rather then sending expats all over the world.
2. What the C- Suites Want - If we are going to be active in our organizations we have to become part of the organization. I know you are saying but I have been, but are you? Can you talk the talk and walk the walk with the C-Suite? Do you know how to speak the language of business? Do you know how to use analytics to demonstrate what role HR plays within the organization. It was stressed in several sessions that the road to success in the future is through HR, C-Suite just does not know what it is we do.
3. Social Media World - I heard many of my peers who are unsure about the social or new media world. One HR professional suggested that he was concerned that the employees were not collaborating with each other because they were using social media rather than face to face meetings. In this day and age it is critical that HR comes into the 21st century. The new media is colaboration at its perfection. It is albout the conversation.
4. Did he really say that? -  There were several interesting comments passed in sessions over the several days of the conference. The first was from a well respected outplacement consultant who categorically stated that the reason corporations look for passive candidates was ebcause the unemployed did not have the up to date skill sets required by the business world. I would suggest that the view is out of touch with reality of today's job market. In another session ( held ironically at 7am in the morning when all good HR people are wide awake and alert) the presenter made two observations which were different but interesting. The first is that in spite of the rhetoric from the Tea Party and the GOP, the government debt level in the US us lower than most other countries in the world. The second was that he was working with an information systems organization which was looking for a lower cost location for call centers and had decided to move the centers from India to Ireland and Wisconsin because it was less expensive. Yes, I did say Wisconsin. Based on living in sunny Florida I would not move to Wisconsin but that was where they weremoving.
5. Healthcare Reform - I attended a session on workplace advocacy and it was mentioned that some corporations were taking a wait and see view towards the health care reform movement. The Advocacy staff from SHRM said this was the wrong approach. Even if the GOP won big in November there are not enough votes in Congress to overturn the law, So the advice is start now to make the necessary adjustments in your healthcare plans so you are ready as the new requirements come on line.

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