resident and CEO of the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés (CRHA)
Every year, the World Human Resources Congress is a big event for HR specialists all over the world. The 2010 edition has taken place in Montreal September 27 to 29. Florent Francoeur, President and CEO of the Ordre, which is organizing the event, presents the main trends.
What were the main themes that were addressed during this international congress?
The issues of demographics and technological change are the background that helped us prepare the Congress—how to attract, mobilize, and hang on to good people in a context in which demographics and technological change have such big impacts. At the demographic level, most industrialized countries face the aging of the population, but other countries, such as Morocco, have a very young population with a very high birth rate. Individual situations differ, but we are all asking ourselves how to better attract, recruit, appeal to and keep our employees. With respect to technology, the congress discussed social media and recruiting in the era of Web 2.0. How to modify labour laws throughout the world to reflect these new technological trends was also examined.
Who was the congress’s target public?
It’s a congress for HR professionals who want to examine the new trends and update their own knowledge so as to improve their departments and their companies. The 3,500 participants came from 35 different countries including Canada, the U.S., France, Switzerland, the U.K., Mexico, Argentina, Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Dubai and Puerto Rico. Diversity was also a consideration in recruiting the speakers. A third of them came from Quebec, a third from other Canadian provinces and the remaining third from the rest of the world. This allowed a real exchange of perspectives on all the HR themes to be covered.
What benefits can Canadian HR specialists take away from such an event?
The congress is a great opportunity to discover how other countries handle human resources issues, diversity, for instance. In Canada, we see religion, race and colour through the North American prism. Some African countries, however, have to deal with not only colour, but also different tribes, languages and traditions. The idea is to put our Canadian experts in touch with colleagues in the same field but who have a different perspective, in order to improve our human resources functions.
Is that what is meant by the title of the congress, “HR Without Limits”?
Yes, absolutely. We do not want to limit ourselves to current models, but instead go beyond the limits of the organization, individuals and borders. We have to look elsewhere and ask ourselves how to reinvent the models without destroying what it is we do well.
Which were the main talks or speakers?
The opening keynote session (September 27) was given by Don Tapscott, an outstanding speaker on how to balance human resources management in a context of technological change. Then Henry Mintzberg, an influential management thinker, has discussed communityship, a new management model (September 28). We also had a session given by two Cirque du Soleil vice-presidents that demonstrated how a Quebec-based organization succeeds in managing employees from all over the world.
Are the Congress address issues of a particularly timely nature?
As the world of work concerns everyone and human resource management policies have an impact on all of us, I would say that everything is timely. We discussed trends that we have observed over the past few years, such as new technologies, diversity and employer branding. These phenomena are accelerating and taking on increasing importance.
Did the preparation for the Congress go well?
Yes indeed. We met our objectives in terms of attendance: 3,500 people, including 1,000 from abroad. I think the programming was exceptional, with more than 100 workshops over three days in French, English and Spanish. Not only could the attendees learn a lot, but we also showed that Canada can do a good job hosting an event of this scale.