Yesterday I attended Brandon Hall Group’s HCM Excellence Conference, and I spent my time in the Integrated Talent Management session led by Brandon Hall staff Laci Loew and Claude Werder.
The session was full of incredibly smart, passionate, and engaged participants and I have to admit, it’s a bit daunting. However, in my book, when someone says it’s daunting, my default response is “Bring it on!”
Sure, it would be really easy to start with the generic “Well this was my opinion of the facility, the peoples, and the amenities” but that’s the easy way out. Here’s the best way for me to sum up those areas: The. Conference. Is. In. Fort. Lauderdale. While the rest of the U.S. is trying to dig out from the latest weather issues that have been plaguing the rest of the country, there are a whole bunch of super smart, engaged people, sharing in the sunshine.
[Click here to check out all of the posts about the 2015 HCM Excellence Conference]
Today’s preconference sessions echoed one of the single most important messages that we as H.R. pros have been shouting from the mountaintops.
Simply put:
“If you don’t align your strategy with the needs of the business, the strategy will fail.”
This message is not new, it’s not rocket science, and you sure as heck don’t need me to remind you of it. I’ve seen various versions of this phrase not only in several test prep manuals, but it’s one of the basic tenets taught at all levels of b-schools. But we don’t do it well, and that’s the problem.
Honestly, it’s easy to dismiss this as generic conference rhetoric. Heck, I would possibly agree with you, but there’s one thing that is causing me a small bit of cognitive dissonance. It’s the passion and excitement of the presenters and attendees. Believe me, I’m sitting quietly and taking notes. I’m shaking my head at some things, but then I’m quietly finding myself agreeing and that scares the heck out of me.
So I’m going to keep looking, listening, and taking notes. Having my intellectual curiosity piqued is a good thing. It’s even better when it’s done by some super smart, engaged people who just happen to be sharing in the sunshine.
About the author: John Nykolaiszyn is Associate Director of FIU College of Business’ Career Management Services. As a former corporate recruiter and HR generalist for some Fortune 500 companies, he’s well versed in the world of corporate recruiting and talent acquisition. He currently recruits the companies to come recruit his talented FIU Business students.
