Well, it’s over! Spent most of today recovering from the conference and planning the next one for Sydney, Australia on May 5-7 of 2009.
Ye
sterday’s speakers were a mix of the practical and the strategic. Christine Deputy, Vice President of Partner Resources (HR) for Asia and China, spoke on the challenges Starbucks faces as markets evolve, consumers mature, and the world gets smaller. it was fascinating to listen as she unfolded the story of Starbucks expansion into Asia and Australia. I think Singapore attendees were impressed that every employee gets stock in the company and are called partners because of that.
K.A. Chang, EVP of HR at the Singapore Stock Exchange shared his views of leadership development and talent selection, based on several years of research and experimentation in a variety of organizations. Sanjay Singh, VP of HR for Whirlpool Asia also spoke on leadership development and talent retention in the Asiapac area.
Chris Tay, Director of Staffing for Asia Pacific and Japan for HP presented a fun talk on how he has built the staffing function. He gave lots of practical tips and showed how the staffing function has endured mergers and other changes in the business environment.
He was followed by Frank Mulligan of China who showcased emerging web 2.0 recruiting technologies and introduced Singapore recruiters to an
online world that is just beginning to take hold here. In fact, because of his presentation we are going to hold a technology expo at the ATC in Sydney to allow these emerging vendors an opportunity to show off and explain what they do and how they can add value to a recruiter’s toolbox and improve success.
I ended the day by giving a provocative talk on the future of human resources. I see HR morphing into a talent management function with key responsibility for attracting and retaining both Gen Y employees who have freshly minted skills, technology expertise and tremendous energy; as well as the Baby Boomers who have deep knowledge and wisdom.
