By Jason McRobbie

For the past 70 years, in one form or another, the BC Human Resources Management Association has been “Founding Our Future”. As the underlying theme for the 50th Annual BC HRMA Conference and Tradeshow, it is more apt than ever for HR professionals.

Even a cursory glance at the roster of presenters confirms that this is not the HR of old. From Rick Mercer headlining the pre-conference, Tradeshow Speaker Series on April 25th with his insights on “A Nation Worth Ranting About” to a neuro-psychologist taking the primary plenary stage, this HR has been decades in the making.

HR might not be rocket science, but that is only because said science is comparatively straight forward.  There is no blueprint for building better workers except for building better HR. As a field, as an association and as individual professionals, that has been both the challenge and the commitment of BC HRMA and its members.

Given HR’s lettered designation and growing renown in strategic circles, it comes as little surprise to find HR attracting greater numbers – and in the 50th year of conference, offering as diverse a list of speakers and attendees as it does.

With economists, trend-spotters, neuro-scientists and visionaries claiming center stage at Conference 2012, there is no denying that the profession and the Association which embodies it in British Columbia, have changed in more ways than one. What first emerged as the Wartime Industries Coordination Committee in 1942 has come a long way in so many ways.  For example, there are more women at the table, the computers are mostly handheld and we have a flag to rally ‘round with the Canadian Human Resources Professional Designation.

Diversity a Sign of the Times

In this light, BC HRMA has a history “Founding Our Future”, both as a sign of the times, and as a champion of evermore upwardly-mobile people practices. Today, with over 5,300 members spread across seven regions of the province, the HR professionals at the heart of BC HRMA represent businesses large and small, unionized and otherwise, across nearly every aspect of industry.  From students and future leaders of HR to CHRPs, vice-presidents and HR leaders of present, the sheer diversity of the membership today stands in sharp relief to the the not-so-distant past and in near-complete contrast to its origin.

The field of HR has become more diverse in both its practitioners, as well as the array of responsibilities with which it now contends.  Industrial labour relations, once the stock of the trade, has long since become a single aspect of picture both more complex and simply human. From gate keepers to bridge builders to architects of productive people potential, BC HRMA’s membership has long defined the leading edge; the annual conference is what has kept them there for half a century.

From Hot Springs to Global Trends

Naturally, the first conference in 1962 was a smaller affair, held in Harrison Hot Springs and HR was not as prevalent in the language of business. Labour relations held the floor, fellowship and hot springs the prime interest.  The numbers in attendance, much like those of the membership itself, were to be polite, intimate.

Cue the timeline for April 25-27, 2012 and sheer numbers alone, to say nothing of the view, dictate that the new Vancouver Convention Centre is one of the few venues capable of accommodating the 50th Annual BC HRMA Conference and Tradeshow.

As per the talent? This year’s line up of speakers could not have been imagined in 1962.  BC HRMA’s annual conference has not so much evolved as it has helped shape the evolution of HR. From the core cadre of industry professionals headlining the breakouts to the multi-faceted luminaries in the spotlight, Conference 2012 is  “Founding Our Future” in fine detail and by broad strokes alike.

Consider opening speaker Jeremy Gutsche: founder of Trendhunter.com, the #1 trend-spotting site in the world. Quite literally, Gutsche has a history of tracking the future with a high success rate. At 28, as one of Capital One’s youngest business directors, he led his team to grow a billion dollar portfolio.  As a management consultant for the Monitor Group he advised Fortune 50 clients on top level strategy. As author of Exploiting Chaos: Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change, Gutsche speaks to heart of the opportunity for organizations to explore, exploit and harness the creativity that helps top companies thrive and survive alike.

This was not the purview of yesterday’s HR; it is imperative to the present.

Rethinking Your Brain At Work

The first day of conference also provides a rock to found that future upon – and a whole new way of thinking. Dr. David Rock co-founded the NeuroLeadership Institute as a global initiative to build a new science for leadership development, guest lectures at universities in five countries – including Oxford University’s Said Business School – and has authored four books including the the business-best-seller Your Brain At Work.

In a world once black and white, Rock’s metier is gray matter: how our brains function, both individually and collectively.  As most work involves thinking or influencing other people’s thinking, Rock’s science goes well beyond rocket science to explore some of the surprises emerging from brain research, many of which speak directly to the primary pain points of HR.

People. Passion. Profit. The unspoken unifying element is productivity. The key to that productivity does not lie in clinging to the lingering legacy of a work world that has already undergone such massive, dynamic change.

The Twist to Mastering Uncertainty

According to Linda Nazareth, the key is an unlikely metaphor. What is needed is a twist. As an economist, author and broadcaster, since 1999 Nazareth has been the in-house economist for Business News Network, Canada’s only all-business television network. Her first book in 2001 was called “the first important book on the 1990s stock market boom” and “one of the best books of the year on the Canadian economy.”

What Nazareth brings to the second day of Conference 2012 is “The Twist: Finding Your Path in the Post-Everything Economy”.  An expert on demographic and social change, her most recent book The Leisure Economy: How a Shift from the World World Will Reshape Our Lives and Industries, paints a clear picture of the challenges faced by HR in the broader business picture.

As per Nazareth’s insights and HR’s direct experience, the extreme “time-crunch economy” of the past three decades is transforming into something entirely other, what she calls a “leisure economy” that has already and will continue to necessitate adjustments on every level of our lives and workplaces.

Is this HR? Absolutely.

The Pursuit of Happiness Results in Better Business

As widely versed and varied as the voices celebrating the 50th Anniversary BC HRMA Conference and Tradeshow are, each speaks to expanded role of HR.

As for the final speaker, Zappos.com founder Tony Hsieh is both a perfect fit and living proof of leading HR’s impact.  After selling LinkingExchange, a company he co-founded to Microsoft for $265 million, Hsieh joined Zappos.com as an advising investor and eventually became CEO before growing the company from almost no sales to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually.

How he did so is revealing and an important reminder to HR professionals seeking further validation at the table of big business.  Hsieh’s bottom line results bear considering the title of his first book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose. In Hsieh’s HR, happiness carries bottom lines to levels beyond prior consideration.  The language behind the business is as key to the delivery of the goods.

Hsieh’s take on work/life resulted in Zappos being listed as one of Fortune magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For.” His message, in turn, has evolved into a movement to help people, organizations and business apply the different frameworks of happiness to their lives and work.

In closing the conference, Hsieh provides both solid confirmation of the true worth HR’s ‘soft’ skill set. Herein, solid HR futures are founded upon a fond return to what has always mattered.

Happiness. Results. An HR upon which to build better business.

The keystone of that future has already been laid. For those attending BC HRMA’s 50th Annual Conference and Tradeshow, the work and the wonder continues. Visit www.bchrma.org/conf2012 for full conference registration and detailed information.

(PeopleTalk: Spring 2012)