OK, first and foremost, I loooove the Sirius Coffee House Channel (channel 30). For quite some time now, it has been the soundtrack to my work day. That was just a tangent – cause some good songs have been playing today.

More and more over the past couple of months, I have been hearing colleagues (either verbally or by e-mail) talk about and question the use of “social media” for recruitment. To their credit, most of the discussions focus on:

1. Does it work, and does anyone have any success stories?

2. What is the quality of candidates?

3. What sites do companies use to target candidates?

4. What are the legal implications of sourcing from these sites?

Interestingly, in many of the conversations, I have heard these people refer to targetting job seekers on these social medial sites. Ummmm…. “Job seekers”? Isn’t that the point of these sites, to find those elusive passive candidates – the high potential future employees who you cannot find anywhere else. If you want job seekers, well then go to the job boards.

So, in my mind, that is the first hurdle to get over – thinking about the whole process differently. For starters, are you targetting “social media” (yes, for now, lets just stick with the over-used term that it waaaaay to broad) because it can be a legitimate source for your company, or because it is the trendy thing to do? For example, I work for a mining company – the bulk of my hires are, well, miners. While I don’t want to stereotype, I have to say that there are not too many miners on Twitter. It’s just a fact. However, are there some likely on Facebook or LinkedIn? Yes. Should I invest my time there and make those primary, or even secondary, sources of candidates – in my case… not likely.

OK, so let’s say your demographic is on social media. How are you getting to them?

Another pet peeve of mine – recruiters who join groups or discussion forums and troll them posting inappropriate comments, off topic discussions, or even blasting out job postings! I don’t believe there are many more things that alienate group moderators or members than this type of behaviour.

What is the right solution? Well, there are far greater experts out there than me who can point you in the right direction. However, here are a few starters:

1. Know your target hire – Not only the skill sets, but the motivations, the likely demographic, desired personality, etc. Planning your ideal hire before you start out will help you pinpoint the places you are likely to find the right person.

2. Know your culture – Ensure your position/department/location/company are suitable to the demographic you are hiring. In my opinion – this is one of the biggest hurdles companies face today. Look at your internet use policies for example. Does your company block Facebook from everyone except the recruiters who have a special exception to use it for recruitment. OK, now think about this… Your recruiter is going to use Facebook, to find a new employee who you value because of their affiliations and use of tools like Facebook, then from day one, you are going to cut them off from the tool you sourced them from?!?!? Makes no sense to me! Think beyond just recruitment – think about your retention as well!!!

3. Leverage your brand – Find out what your marketing department is doing with social media. I could spend 5 more pages talking about recruitment brands. However, in a nutshell (and in my opinion) you cannot CREATE an employment brand. There is no such thing as a recruitment brand. To me, your recruitment/employment brands are an extension or subset of your company/product brand and your culture. You are what your employees and customers say on the street – and, is that not what social media is all about in the first place? Come on… you have too much work to do already, so why re-invent the wheel. Walk down the hall and talk to those brand managers in marketing or advertising – find out what media tools they are using, where they get their focus groups from, what discussion boards or blogs they are monitoring for product awareness. Then, go there and look for your brand ambassadors – who, by the way, might make great employees in their respective fields!

Well I could go on and on, I hope I am getting the point across. It’s easy to jump into social media recruitment with the setup of an account. However, doing it effectively takes careful planning and a targeted approach. Finding the right information on candidates for which to base a hiring decision is not going to come from a Facebook profile. The prohibitive cost and oftern low ROI of traditional job ads (newspapers, magazines, job boards) often makes us think twice about how we source on those mediums. Why not think twice about how you source in a world of social media – to take a targetted approach before you saturate your brand and tarnish your reputation in all those discussion forums.

I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the Federated Press 3rd Annual Workforce Planning conference this past week in Toronto. The course leader was Pierre Lebel of Epiphane and other speakers of note included Peter Louch of Vemo Inc and some last minute additions like Al Doran of Phenix Management International Inc and Robert Carlyle of Aon Consulting.

The topic I presented on was Leveraging Trend Analyses in Workforce Forecasting – basically, leveraging your history to intelligently predict the future workforce needs at your company. In a nutshell, I focus on the importance of conducting workforce planning by reflecting on its potential inverse impact… “the biggest risk is doing nothing”.

Suffice to say, the conference was great, and the attendees walked away with a lot of hands on practical knowledge from leading experts in the field of workforce planning, measurement and evaluation.

Some key take aways for me included the idea that workforce planning is neither a science nor an art, but rather an exercise where science in fact becomes art – and that is where instinct and calculated risk take over. The challenge as an HR practitioner then lies in the ability to sell the artful outcomes to stakeholders and leadership as the required future workforce strategy to become or remain competitive. Or, as some might say, if you are “at the table” as a Human Resources leader – the challenge lies in bring value to the organization, actually speaking up “at the table” and being a true partner to the strategic planning process from a workforce perspective.

I guess one last tidbit of insight I can share from an analysis perspective, or when looking at metrics in general is to “begin with the end in mind” (Covey). You obviously will not have all the answers when you set down a path, but you need to start out with both a hypothesis to validate and an idea of what you are trying to measure – what will you do with the results? If the results are X versus Y, will that drive a different business strategy… or, will your strategy remain unchanged whether metrics or analyses reveal that your workforce is doing X or Y… or, even Z. Be prepared to take action on your results, or you might just want to re-evaluate your inputs and focus on outcomes you will in fact be able to control.

Well, it’s been a while, but I thought I should at least write something before an entire whole month lapses. Between deliverables at the day job, providing volunteer HR support for a non-for-profit and a new baby, time has not exactly been of the essence when it comes to blogging. So, this one is going to be short and sweet – I plan to be back full force in the near future with lots of fun HR blogging. Or, at least a few quick check ins here and there for a while.

I came across this article, and while it has absolutely nothing to do with HR (or Canada for that matter), it was nevertheless extremely interesting and worth a repost. I’ll comment on why I think it is relevant after the article from the BBC NEWS :

The High Court has given permission for an injunction to be served via social-networking site Twitter.

The order is to be served against an unknown Twitter user who anonymously posts to the site using the same name as a right-wing political blogger.

The order demands the anonymous Twitter user reveal their identity and stop posing as Donal Blaney, who blogs at a site called Blaney’s Blarney.

The order says the Twitter user is breaching the copyright of Mr Blaney.

He told BBC News that the content being posted to Twitter in his name was “mildly objectionable”.

Mr Blaney turned to Twitter to serve the injunction rather than go through the potentially lengthy process of contacting Twitter headquarters in California and asking it to deal with the matter.

UK law states that an injunction does not have to be served in person and can be delivered by several different means including fax or e-mail.

Danvers Baillieu, a solicitor specialising in technology, said it was possible for anyone to approach the court about any method of serving an injunction if the traditional methods are unavailable.

“The rules already allow for electronic service of some documents, so that they can be sent by e-mail, and it should also be possible to use social networks,” he said.

Mr Blaney decided to use Twitter after a recent case in Australia where Facebook was used to serve a court order.

The blogger, who is also a lawyer and owns the firm serving the order, said that he thought that it was the first time Twitter had been used to deliver a court order.

The injunction – known as the Blaney’s Blarney Order – is due to be served at 1930 BST and will include a link to the text of the full court order.

OK – so… Using Twitter to serve a court injunction… Genius! I am curoius how many companies have made it as far as delivering a job offer via Twitter or Facebook? (either just the basics, or including a link to a secure full offer) I know…. Not very likely, but it got me thinking. It seems far fetched right now, but it may be the way to go in the future – especially if that’s where your employees are coming from!

I had the privilege recently of being the guest speaker to a group of Students and Faculty at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (yes, that’s a mouthfull!!!). I intentionally use the word privilege because while I am the one who gets to do the talking (and I do like to talk), I am also the one who gets the benefit of interacting with the students who are the up and comers in the industry. They are the ones who will help set and/or spot trends and the ones with the questions that will help form my future actions. And, there were lots of intelligent questions asked.

Basically, I was there to share some insight into my experience in the world of Human Resources. Not too far a stretch for me to be able to talk for an hour about my background and accomplishments. To be honest, having been on the candidate side fo a number of job interviews recently (and still looking, if you happen to be reading this and are hiring), speaking about my experience in HR was very much like walking through my resume in an interview. Except, trying to keep it a little more interesting for the age demographic at play, as well as focusing on future trends as much as past accomplishments. First mistake though, was probably showing up in the jacket and tie – but, that was rectified quickly.

The students were eager to hear about job search in current economic conditions, positive/negative HR experiences and my work with HR systems. We also focussed on a number of topics that typically do not get a lot of attention in academic cirriculum (data privacy, social media recruitment, the power of networking, etc).

While I had fun and believe the surface opportunity of spending time with the students and faculty was a success, I continue to look forward to additional opportunities to further connect with some of the students. Some of us began dialogue on ways for students to partner with employers in current climates of financial restraint to build HR experience and gain a positive reputation in the industry. Still working on this – but open to further dialogue if any additional employers or students want to get a hold of me to discuss further.

Tomorrow night (March 24th) I am off to a Halton based HR networking night and Wednesday looks like another visit to Sheridan. I’m really diggin’ the extra human contact these days…

Often Canadian budgets come and go with little to no impact on those of us in Human Resources. Well, with the current economic times having such a huge impact on jobs and the workforce (not to mention EI, pensions & savings, taxes, and the list goes on), this Conservative government that is fighting for it’s life has presented a budget that is supposed to be both economically appealing as well as poised to please opposition parties. Looks like they pulled it off (and yes, that opinion is subject to its own posting and debate) - and, in doing so, there are a number of items this time around that will affect HR policy and programs at a social, business and personal level.

Here’s some of the highlights (as it pertains to us HR folks):

1. Federally Regulated Pension Plans – The budget includes a change to the rules for solvency valuations. Currently, plans are permitted to smooth asset fluctuations over a five year period when determining cash contribution requirements, given that the smoothed asset value is not in excess of 110% or market value. The language in the budget would increase this limit and thereby reduce required cash contributions for many of the pension plan sponsors that are federally regulated. The government proposes to protect the security of benefits, however, by making the amount of any deferral of funding that results from the use of an asset value in excess of 100% subject to a deemed trust. In addition, the budget confirms the federal government’s prior commitment to temporarily grant solvency funding relief to federally regulated pension plans in respect of solvency deficiencies as at December 31, 2008. The relief would give pension plans under federal jurisdiction ten years to fund a solvency deficiency instead of the normal five years (among other conditions, employers must either obtain the consent of both members and retirees or secure the difference between the 5-year payments and the 10-year payments with a letter of credit).

The obvious impact here is to review your pension plans to understand if you can take advantage, if you need to take advantage, and most importantly, the long term effects and impacts as well as potential risks and opportunities of being able to take advantage of the new rules.

2. Personal Tax Reductions – This is a simple one. As an employer, you need to make sure that your payroll system or payroll provider has been updated with the appropriate patches to reflect the new source deduction rates related to the new deductions. If you are a smaller employer and do no use an in-house system or third party vendor for your payroll, it may be a little more challenging to receive and review and implement the reductions manually, however, it should still be done as soon as possible.

3. Employment Insurance (EI) – For two years, the period for which an individual may collect EI benefits will increase by five weeks (at the end). There will still remain the two week “deductible” at the beginning of eligibility (unless you qualify for an exemption), and, the extension will not apply to other EI benefits such as parental or maternity. This will typically be an increase from 45 to 50 weeks, but may vary depending on the appropriate jurisdiction of the claimant. In addition to these changes, others include an extension of EI benefits related to re-training, changes to expand the work sharing program, and an EI premium rate freeze at $1.73 per $100 of EI insurable earnings. Finally, there is a commitment to establish a task force to look at how it may be possible for self-employed workers to take advantage of the EI program in relation to parental and maternity benefits.

4. Labour Force Tactics – Another program to be aware of if you are an employer that may be downsizing, especially a more seasoned workforce, is additional funding (increase of $60MM) to the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers. An additional spend of $50MM is also being dedicated to a program that would recognize foreign credentials thereby improving the integration of immigrants into the workforce – how this one will work, I have yet to see the specifics, but to sounds very promising on the surface.

5. Expansion to the Wage Earner Protection Program (WEPP) – This is a program that is used by employers when their employer declares bankruptcy, and provides unpaid wages or vacation pay to be somewhat recouped for the six month period prior to the bankruptcy. Subject to maximums, the WEPP changes would allow for severance and termination pay owning to also be recouped.

6. Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIF) – Changes here would see relief to those battered by a decrease in their retirement fund assets by a reduction of 25% in the amount of funds that RRIF holders are required to withdraw from a fund on an annual bases – thereby allowing money to stay in the funds longer and hopefully gain back some of the losses accumulated in 2008. For 2008, there is an opportunity for those who withdrew more than the adjusted minimum to re-contribute the difference and receive the appropriate offsetting deductions (this, of course, subject to deadlines and rules). OK, this one is a bit of a stretch from day to day HR life, but does have an impact on your retired, or retiring workforces, and how potential soon-to-retire employees may rethink, or re-rethink, their current situations.

Bottom line is that few, all or none of these may affect your company. If not yoru company, some or none may affect your employees. Personally, I know more people now who have been affected by layoffs, reductions, restructurings, etc than I ever have – so if the above is not relevant to your work life, it may be helpful to those in your personal life. Whatever it is, take heed of the the new (and mostly positive changes) and review them against your current programs and policies.

As I have for my past few entries, I am going to write this one based on common searches that have landed people on my website.

So far this month, the recurring theme has been Human Resources (HR) Networking in Canada.

But, before I get to that, I need to to a bit of my own networking for anyone reading this. As a result of major business changes and a large restructure at my present company, I now find myself looking for my next opportunity. If you are reading this and you know your company may be looking for a full-time senior HR professional, or a contractor to implement immediate projects, please take a look at my resume and contact me about the opportunity. I am quite flexible, adaptable and have over 10 years HR experience across a variety of functions and a wealth of industries.

OK, enough of the advertisement. Back to the topic.

With the continued growth of (online) social and business networking, I suppose it is not surprising to be getting the hits I am related to searches for networking. However, since I assume that most people typically know what sites and tools are available, I get the impression that the information people are seeking related to HR is more along the lines of networking specifically in HR, or how to use the network tools for HR functions (ie. Recruitment). On a side note, I have prior posts on good HR Networking sites to connect with like-minded peers in Canada and the US, so if you are looking for some actual sites, please do a search on my prior posts.

So, new year, new resolutions, new opportunities. As folks ramp up into the new year, I believe many are making goals and resolutions to grow their networks and improve their knowledge base. It is interesting to point out, or at least remember, that social networks are nothing new. “Online” social networks are. Think about the traditional company employee referral program for example – it’s success has historically been based on employees referring like-minded and successful individuals from their own business or social networks. How many of you have taken the opportunity to acknowledge this online trend as part of your traditional employee referral programs? That’s to say, encouraging and motivating employees to actively promote your company in their blogs, Myspace, Facebook, LinkeIn, Bebo, etc and track the success of hires through employees from those sources! Perhaps you can provide your employees content to put on their sites, or start a company jobs page on Facebook and incent your employees for every one of their contacts who joins your company’s Facebook career page.

Back to the HR Networking in Canada part – probably what you started reading this for in the first place. I strongly believe that your network is only as good as the degree to which you maintain it. Set your mandate and determine how it will be successful for you. For example, are you networking to find a job, to build sales leads or to share knowledge. Do you want local contacts or contacts across the country (or globally)? Will you accept invitations from anyone, or do you want a specific type of person (ie. HR people only)? How you setup your network based on your goals will determine the size of your network and ultimately how you will be able to maintain and cultivate that network. Why is this important? When you choose to call upon your network for whatever is your reason - is a broader network of thousands useful or is a more intimate network of people you speak to on a regular basis going to be of more value? Perhaps you can maintain a composition of both. And, what tool will you use to maintain your network?

Whatever your reasons, choosing to network with your peers and local community is a great idea. Figure out up front what you hope to get out of it, and what value you can bring to the table for others. Remember, the idea of networking is reciprocal, and only valuable when all parties are active participants.

I’ve had a lot of searches for “year end thoughts” recently end up on my site and in my blog, so I thought I would add some additional consolidated thoughts into a single post.

First and foremost, it is my opinion that the end of the year is not a time to save a whole array of activities for. However, if you must, or if it is just inevitable that cyclical events tie to a calendar or financial year – then the best scenario is to plan and prepare well in advance for that activities which will take place.

What sort of (HR) activities are we talking about? Annual (final) performance reviews, development planning, salary increases, bonus payouts, stock option allocations, profit sharing, benefits re-enrolments, commission payouts and/or adjustments, salary benchmarking & market pricing, budgeting & forecasting, program reviews, strategy building, succession planning, headcount/workforce planning, recruitment plans, vacation and accruals review, and of course, filing. I’m sure there are more items specific to your business that could be applicable.

With limited hours and resources, the best plan of attack is to make your list based on the types of above activities and set up a calendar of activities that you can prioritize against. You can set your priorities based on two factors – importance and level of effort. For example, your performance reviews may have critical timing to meet the needs of the business and requires moderate effort (assuming you are not adopting a new program or overhauling an old one) – so it may be something that is high up the list. Creating a recruitment plan for the year, which could be lower priority but require a fair bit of effort to meet with clients and work through their needs – may be prioritized to happen later in your calendar – once your urgencies and quick hits are out of the way.

To your benefit, calendar year ends tend to have the luxury of holiday schedules which may or may not help you find time to accomplish deliverables. I have found that leading up to and following the holidays, my internal clients have tended to focus on their own business deliverables that they mush accomplish before the year is out. This is both good and bad for me. The bad is that for any initiatives that require their input (workforce planning, performance management, etc), time can be scarce and in demand – thus making it difficult getting participation. The good is that for all other more internal HR projects, or phases of projects between those requiring client input (salary benchmarking, strategy building, budgeting & forecasting, etc) there is usually uninterrupted time to hunker down and get those projects done quickly. You can also take the time to finalize your year end reporting and documentation. Balancing the two, and effectively working your schedule and your own holiday time around that of your clients is both the art and the science.

Finally, new years are often new starts. An opportunity to set your new benchmarks, reset your metrics/scorecards, and set new strategy for new programs and policies to benefits your employees, clients and stakeholders. Budgets reset and you can now focus on initiatives you have been waiting to get going on since June of the prior year. You now have the energy, time and resources to focus on the new. Take hold and leverage all that can be had going into a new year. Set your group, team and individual goals (aligned to business needs/strategy) as early as possible before or in the new year. You wouldn’t set off on a road trip without a road map, so don’t set into a new year without clearly defined objectives, priorities and a detailed plan for success. Document the plan, assess it against resources and reality, publish it and share it with your stakeholders (clients, executive team) – as this will give your HR team transparency, respect, trust and well as the incentive to deliver on your promises. Update it as necessary – things change, it’s inevitable and important to be realistic.

Good luck in the new year with all that you will accomplish!

You should probably belong to Facebook and LinkedIn HR groups by now, and be actively network and sharing with your peers. Yes, not just collecting a list of names, but actively sharing and exchanging knowledge.

Here’s a new group that is national, but based out of Toronto and concentrates primarity in the Canadian marketplace – it’s got articles, blogs and forums for you to interact with your peers or to ask questions of others. It is the Human Resources Networking Group and it just launched this week. Membership is free (the site generates revenue through ads, sponsorships and events) and you can get there by going to www.hrng.ca

Once again, happy networing!

I’ve been doing some reading recently on different generations – and how they are tagged by society, and more specifically the implications on employers and work. There is of course the baby boomers, which are the largest group and span a great number of years. Following that group, the initially dubbed “baby bust” now known as Gen Xer’s spans roughly ’65 to ’80 (the grouping, of course, that I fall in to). Then it gets interesting – we have Millennials, or Gen Y (“echo boomers”) born from 1980 to the late 90′s, and most recently Generation Z (apparently sometimes also called the 9/11 generation).

The one I find most interesting as an HR professional, and specifically when it comes to recruiting and engaging a workforce, is Gen Y – quickly taking on a whole new moniker as the “Helicopter Generation”. Here’s some recent stats from a U.S. poll of Millennials:

Even more interestingly, as a side bar and not necessarily directed towards Gen Y, is another news story I saw published recently. The author surveyed text messagers to find out how distracting the technology is to every day life. Of those surveyed, 1 in 10 admitted to walking into people or things on a daily basis while texting on their mobile devices. Even more admitted to bumping into objects on a slightly less frequent basis. They even conducted a test, much like those one’s you see where they take drivers in cars through pilons to test their maneuvering skills – where texters bumped into pilons on the course while trying to walk and text at the same time. I can’t recall if I saw any of them chewing gum or not at the same time. As I said, a sidebar, but just thought it worth sharing to illustrate a culture that embraces technology, lives in the moment, and is far different from those which came before it.

Here’s where it gets interesting. In the workplace, we typically have the boomers in senior management and leadership positions, Gen Xer’s following not far behind in their footsteps, and more and more Millennials entering the workforce. Expectations from one group to the next vary, and while some organizations are able to embrace the differences and leverage unique aspects of each – many struggle with programs and policies that can cater to all. The result? Often environments that try to satisfy all while catering to none. Organizations that do it well? You need not go much further than some of those players that you often see recognized in publications such as Canada’s Top 50 employers.

So, what’s this about helicopters? The Helicopter Generation – Generation Y, the Millennials. Warning, I’m going to stereotype and conjecture here a little. This was a generation raised with praise, never being allowed to fail, playing sports at school where players were interchanged across teams and no scores were kept. There was no winning or losing – everyone got a trophy just for coming out. As our beloved Y’s went through school, we saw greater involvement from parents stepping up to challenge teachers on failed assignments and meet with admissions departments of colleges and universities when their kids did not get accepted to their top choices. Now, we see these same kids enter the workforce – and these same parents doing everything from attending interviews and orientations, to negotiating salaries (and why not, a bigger salary means maybe little Billy might be more likely to move back out of the basement), to calling in sick on behalf of their kids or challenging a poor performance review with a phone call directly to the line manager.

Enter our role as HR in the 21st century. We can either keep our heads in the sand, or recognize the existing needs of our current generations in the workplace and welcome the new, and what seems like eccentric, needy and demanding helicopter kids. I’ve read articles about companies outright refusing to let parents into its processes to others that embrace the opportunity to extend its culture to the entire family and actually send welcome kits to parents, brothers and sisters – figuring that if the family wants to be involved in a tightening labour market, then the extra publicity and support might not hurt.

When it comes to managing expectations and leveraging talents beyond the stereotypes joked about above, I believe that it is individual recognition and support that is going to bring the greatest success. New generations want to be connected to the companies they work for, value relationships, personal development and new skills. There is a huge opportunity to pair generations and share expertise from Boomers who house a wealth of knowledge and Millennials who are knowledge starved and looking to soak up as much data as quickly as possible – Or, in the immortal words of Johnny 5 – “need input”. Why not put recruiting and mentorship programs in place that bridge these traditional gaps? So, while the rotor wash from the hovering parents may be overwhelming at first and your experienced workforce are looking at you and your and senior management with puzzled faces – if you move beyond the initial lack of understanding of different expectations, needs and just how much closer these new workers continue to be to their parents than we ever were, there are opportunities to be had in recognizing, understanding, leveraging these valuable successors.

Is Human Resources cool now?

Has it been cool for a while? Or still not at all?

Either way, I have noticed the growing awareness of HR as a legitimate career and function more and more so over the past little while. Being in HR, I could be biased. You know what I mean? Ever notice how before you buy a new car, you never see that brand of car on the road. But, after you buy that new Mazda 6 or whatever, it feels like half the world is driving Mazda 6′s? Maybe HR is just like that for me – the more I invest myself in it, the more legitimized it becomes.

Nah – I think there is actually some substance to my conspiracy theory about the growing prevalence of HR. You need not look further than the attention characters like Toby got in the US version of the television series “The Office”. Sure, he does not get the same airtime as Michael the Manager, or Jim/Dwight in sales, but he was right up there – at least as much face time as those finance/accounting guys. Interesting though, he resigned at the end of the last season – so, we’ll have to see if they replace him, and if so, with who? (os is it with whom?)

Another example? Look at the current season of Big Brother. The character Libra (sidenote – yes, I call them characters, come on, these are some of the most pretentious and animated “people” I have seen in my entire life) is an HR professional. OK, a stretch maybe… she’s in HR. When, in the past, would any reality show allow HR people to star, and if so, I’m sure they’ve come up with some other tag or title to overshadow what was once a purely administrative and value sucking profession.

Today though, with several generations and varying cross sections of cultural norms showing up in our corporations, offices and cube farms – the role of HR has taken the same sort of limelight now reflected in mainstream media and entertainment. From employee engagement to recruitment, and competitive compensation to professional development – the need for GOOD Human Resources professionals is greater than ever. And to be effective at all the aforementioned, great HR leadership and strategic HR is more important than ever as well. Let’s also not forget about the growing global economy. Cross-border HR and an understanding by Human Resources Pprofessionals of not only how businesses run internally is important, but how international business operates and the legal ramifications of managing people in corporate operations across the globe.

So, for all you Finance people out there who have thumbed your noses at your HR counterparts over the past few years… look out. We’re no longer lurking in the sidelines. HR is here to stay and handle all those difficult workplace situations or build the workplaces of the future. Your calculators, digits and fancy spreadsheets just cannot and will not cut it. Oh, and our CHRP certification has more letters than your CA, CGA or CMA – but knowing you finance types, you’ll just try to add your letters together and convince us that your “eight” letters combined total more than our four. Go ahead, I dare you!