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CEO’s Letter: Serious Issues Require Serious Debate

By Elliot H. Clark

I have been waxing philosophical as I ponder the upcoming HRO Today Forum North America to be held at the MGM Resort in National Harbor, Md., from May 6th to 8th. Mostly, I have been thinking about people.

People are messy. People are complex, occasionally conflicted, fallible, and emotional. But managing people is the business of HR. And the practice of HR is evolving rapidly. Do you know who has the right answers about the ultimate future of HR? No one. We are all on the same roller coaster ride trying to see over the next rise because what follows may be a big stomach-churning turn. So everyone is trying to peer into the future because the only thing we are certain of is that the speed of this ride is accelerating.

If no one has the answers then we must all have them. We must collaborate to make the puzzle of the future discernible. This year’s HRO Today Forum theme is “The Great Debate: The Future of HR.” The future of HR is the subject of a great debate and HRO Today is thrilled to host a dialogue among some of the top HR leaders in the world. We are going to address pressing strategic topics around automation and its opportunities and limits. We will have a panel on the expanding role of HR and whether corporate responsibility should be part of HR’s purview. We will have another great town hall featuring Dr. Peter Cappelli of the Wharton Center for Human Resources and Alina Polonskaia, global leader of the diversity and inclusion practice for Korn Ferry.

We will have a thought-provoking discussion on the cultural issues around workplace safety and security in the wake of a workplace shooting costing the lives of an HR manager and an HR intern. We will have onstage interviews with the CHRO of T-Mobile, Liz McAuliffe, and the CHRO of Aflac, Matt Owenby (yes, we even have questions for the duck). We have scheduled a keynote presentation on diversity and inclusion featuring the CHRO of Freddie Mac, Jacqueline Welch, and a breakfast keynote by Kathryn Minshew, CEO of the The Muse, about employer branding, where she will explain what the company has learned about how brands resonate with millennial and Generation Z candidates.

We will be recognizing extraordinary leaders in our annual CHRO of the Year Awards Gala (learn more about our finalists here). We will be recognizing the Talent Acquisition Leaders of the Year Awards in a special luncheon (click here for this year’s finalists) and honoring top employer brands in our first ever survey of HR leaders on employment branding (read more).

We hope it is a fun event where we can address and debate the pressing strategic issues of our time, from talent shortages to educational infrastructure. We hope the attendees will leave both tired and intellectually energized. We want the HR leaders attending to have fun and make new friends. We also hope the attendees leave with a number of answers and, equally importantly, questions. We hope you can all attend the HRO Today Forum.

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