Reflections from HRPS 2016

I’m pleased to say the 2016 HRPS national conference in Scottsdale, AZ, was a huge success. HRPS did an amazing job with lining up a fantastic group of speakers.  The theme this year was titled, “The New Talent Ecosystem” which lived up to the expectation of inspiring attendees to focus on the explosion of technology, importance of communities, and new ways to lead.

Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter led off the conference and shared her insights of her latest book, Unfinished Business: Right the Balance – Women, Men, Work, Family. Dr. Slaughter shared how understanding and implementing a larger cultural shift is the key to hiring and retaining the best millennial talent and to increasing productivity both at home and in the office.

On Day 2, Dr. Jennifer Golbeck from the University of Maryland presented how personal data is being crunched to reveal dozens of personal traits as political leanings, ability to work in teams, drug and alcohol habits, and intelligence. This was absolutely eye opening for me. The interesting thing is these algorithms are gathering data about me and I’m not even aware that I’m giving permission by just downloading an app.  I instantly went to my Facebook privacy settings and made sure everything was adjusted in addition to checking the settings on my apps. It is pretty scary stuff.

On the last day of the conference, Dr. John Boudreau, leading researcher of HR and professor at USC, discussed Reimagining Future HR. Dr. John, as people refer to him as, spent a lot of time talking about the great work he is doing with cHReate, the global consortium to reimagine HR, employment alternatives, talent, and enterprise. He also focused on the disruptive forces that are fundamentally changing the work landscape.

Lastly, the networking at the annual conference was fantastic. I would encourage anyone who works in an HR Executive role to consider attending the conference in 2017, in Miami FL.

Raymond Lee

Raymond Lee is the President of Careerminds, a global outplacement company based in Wilmington, Delaware. He has over 20 years of human resource, outplacement, and career consulting experience. He has his bachelor’s in psychology and holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Louisiana Tech University. He is active in SHRM and ATD. Raymond’s been featured on SiriusXM Business Radio, CareerTalk, and the Wall Street Journal and he’s published a book titled, Clocking Out: A Stress-Free Guide to Career Transitions.