Highlights from BC HRMA conference in Vancouver
As I read somewhere in a product advertisement, you really can’t get any more West Coast than this. With the Vancouver Convention Centre literally perched above the Pacific Ocean, float planes to and from Victoria buzzing overhead every 15 minutes and Alaskan cruise liners berthed next door sounding their horns, the annual British Columbia Human Resources Management Association (BC HRMA) conference — held May 5-7 — definitely wasn’t one of those events housed in a nondescript suburban venue that could be anywhere.
I attended the conference as a member of the media and representative of Canadian HR Reporter, Carswell and our parent company, Thomson Reuters. My colleagues and I gave out hundreds of copies of Canadian HR Reporter and Canadian Employment Law Today, along with our popular tote bags. Thank you to everyone who came by our booth and chatted with us.
As well as manning the booth, I also managed to find time to attend a couple of sessions, browse the trade show and talk to several exhibitors and association staff. In wandering around, I was curious whether the issues that are top of mind for HR professionals in British Columbia are any different from those of professionals located elsewhere.
With the resource-dependent economy of Western Canada generally faring better through the downturn than the manufacturing heartland of Ontario and Quebec, the recent 2010 Winter Olympics and the fortunes of the West Coast being so closely tied to those of the Pacific Rim, I thought there might be some differences.
We spoke with conference attendees from across the province — from Victoria to Fort St. John — and even some from as far afield as Germany. Most of the issues keeping HR practitioners awake at night in B.C. are similar to those of their counterparts elsewhere.
The effects of the economic downturn were noticeable even in Vancouver. A recurring theme mentioned by several people was cost-cutting, being required to do more with less and not having enough time or resources in their HR departments.
On the other hand, one delegate from a remote mining community mentioned serious turnover and retention issues in her company, proving such problems are not unique to large cities. As we recover from the economic doldrums, I have a feeling we are going to see more organizations across Canada focusing on these types of problems, including areas such as employee retention and engagement.
One of the sessions I attended was an employment law Q&A hosted by five senior labour and employment lawyers. The most common themes were the duty to accommodate, disability management and return to work, the roles of the workplace parties in a unionized environment, and issues surrounding the end of mandatory retirement.
I also had a chance to attend one of the keynote sessions facilitated by Jessica Lee, a Washington, D.C.-based senior employment manager at APCO Worldwide, a communications firm. A self-confessed “non-techie,” Lee is quickly establishing a reputation as a social media maven, particularly with regard to the use of such media in talent management and recruiting. Some of the interesting things I took away from this seminar were:
• Recruitment using social media has to be “real.” Tweets should come from real people and not appear to come from corporate robots. Social media should be used to help put a human face on an organization.
• As well as being a tool for sourcing candidates, social media can help with employment branding, especially in establishing a company as a hip, modern and technologically savvy place to work.
• While social media can be very time-consuming, the effort can be worth it in terms of improvements in the quality of candidates and cost reductions through reduced reliance on job boards and headhunters.
• Even though social media generates positive buzz, every organization has to have a strategy for dealing with its “haters.” Honesty and openness are usually the best policies in dealing with such individuals.
The BC HRMA conference was an enjoyable and thought-provoking experience. My only regret was not being able to attend more of the sessions, since there were was a wide array of very interesting options available to conference delegates.
Brian Kreissl is the managing editor of Consult Carswell, a sister product to Canadian HR Reporter. For more information, visit www.consultcarswell.com.
