To our members who attended the Employers of Excellence 2005 Conference in Phoenix last week, we enjoyed meeting you all face to face and hope you had an enjoyable trip home. I have returned from the conference both refreshed and exhausted at the same time. It is always fabulous to hear from top notch speakers and gather "food for thought" and inspiration. Our speakers certainly provided that.

What was nice about the messages so eloquently conveyed by our keynote speakers was that although they had particular relevance to HR and business, they also had a significant relevance to our career choices and life choices. Although I was unable to attend all the keynote presentations, in the ones that I attended, some common themes were repeated. For example:

Jim Collins -

The hedgehog concept - combining "What you are deeply passionate about?" with "What can you be the best in the world at?" and "What drives your economic engine?"

David Whyte -

The three marriages of significance in your life: to your work, to yourself and to a significant other.

Ann Rhoades -

She presented innovative ways that demonstrated how JetBlue provided flexibility to their employees to allow them to meet both their individual needs and the company´s objectives, and in return received outstanding performance from these employees.

Dewitt Jones -

Through his photography and experience with the natural world, Dewitt focused on the message that there are an infinite number of possibilities or ways to achieve success and not just one "right" answer to a situation.

These messages confirmed for me an expanded view of the concept of "alignment" and how it is achieved. The more we can intertwine individual´s values and objectives in terms of what they love to do and what they want to contribute with the organization´s values and objectives, then the more we effortlessly improve performance. These assumptions point to the need to build alignment beginning with hiring and selection, moving through our performance management and succession planning processes. It also lends itself to individuals asking themselves the question, "Am I currently in a place where I can make full use of my strengths, where I can contribute as a top performer and where I can shine?" This leads to the creation of a win/win situation for all.

This year we began the workshop schedule with a networking session for each track. This session was interactive in nature and the direction was set by the participants. It was the start of a discussion which I hope can be continued throughout the year. In the performance management workshop, there was great interest in learning about steps being taken in other organizations to improve performance management practices. Of interest was one discussion in which the value of not only identifying the attributes and desired competencies held by top performers, but also the identification of potential "derailers" or "cancers" was mentioned.

Might I say also that an exciting aspect of the event was the inclusion of a number of grade 7 students from York Region District School Board who remained at school beyond their school day to view Dewitt Jones´ presentation live. They also had the opportunity to send in their questions via e-mail and study curriculum related to this presentation. For further information on how to bring this program to your school board, please contact Debbie McGrath dmcgrath@hr.com

Also, many thanks to the numerous HR professionals who presented on a variety of valuable topics. In addition to providing relevant, useable content, these workshops allowed the discussion to continue, giving the opportunity for questions to be addressed first hand.

With my recent efforts going to preparations for the event, I have many marketplace updates/press releases of interest to share. I will strive to do so by the end of the week.