With Western Canada’s majestic mountaintops as the backdrop, amid grey skies with sneak peaks of the sun and a dusting of snow (what, in Vancouver? In November?), the JW Marriott Parq served as a bright and airy space for a gathering of HR Executives at the Fall iteration of the HR Management Institute.

The Institute provided a great deal of insight and inspiration around the theme of “Imagine, Invent, and Ignite: Future-Ready Work Strategies to Ensure Organizational Success”.  Over the course of the 2 ½ day program, four key ideas emerged and wove their way through presentations, vendor showcases, and panels:

1. Employees want meaningful work and a workplace that is worth being in.  This theme emerged in two ways.  First, employees want to build capability and see progression, even if traditional careers are becoming obsolete.  Secondly, they long for an equitable, inclusive, and barrier-free workplace, cultivated through inclusive leadership.   

2. In a turbulent and competitive world, mastering talent acquisition through opportunities like targeting newly arrived immigrants and currently underrepresented and marginalized prospective employees offers a path to differentiating your organization and enhancing your employee value proposition.  The next ten years will be even more challenging as the gap between people entering the job market and the larger numbers departing for retirement widens. Mastering talent acquisition now and expanding your pool of prospects will set you up for future success.

3. Emotional experiences at work matter.  HR Leaders can lead the way to building cultures of meaning by leveraging and caretaking emotions that span joy, curiosity, resilience, courage, anger, frustration and more.  This will become even more important as inclusive leadership, EDI initiatives, and the changing world of work take hold. Recognizing and managing employee stress and cultivating a flourishing environment where employees can experience and leverage their emotions will be a key driver of performance.

4. Digital technologies continue to transform the world of work.  In HR, technologies such as AI, augmented reality, cloud computing and mobile apps offer an array of means to hone recruiting, retention, performance management, data analytics.  Developing digital savvy will enable HR Leaders and their top management team colleagues to design their way into a future that is impossible to imagine or predict. With the right experience, education, and courage, digitally savvy HR Leaders will inspire their organizations to build digital capabilities that will underpin agile responses to a turbulent and complex competitive environment.

The communication and flow of information at the Institute was incredible as the speakers allowed themselves to be vulnerable and to share their lived experiences through various challenges and opportunities.

To contribute to the 2023 HR Management Institute, whether sharing some insights and experiences as a member of the Speaker Faculty, suggesting topic areas for the agenda, or joining the waiting list for attendance, please contact Nas Panwar at npanwar@ipmionline.com.