Shout Out: A Day in the Life Sunday

I took a few days away from my regularly scheduled programming at the office to attend the Federal Workplace Conference and Expo. 

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The Federal Workplace Conference is becoming one of my favorite federal conferences. The topics are relevant, the presenters experts and session after session, the labor relations/employee relations ​monster in me was satisfied with expert opinions and current case law updates. 

Knowing that technical expertise alone is not going to get us to where we need to go in facing the challenges of declining budgets, increasing workloads, an aging workforce and outdated or inadequate human resources systems and policies*, a human capital management (HCM) track was added to the sessions. I had the opportunity to work with Dan Gephart​, Editorial Director, LRP Publications/ cyberFEDS® in developing the HCM track.

As a speaker and attendee, I can say that the planning and execution of this conference was first class. I'd like to thank Dan, his team and LRP Publications for producing the event and for the opportunity to participate.

* Bracing for Change: Chief human capital officers rethink business as usual

HR, Cherry Blossoms, and {Airquote} Technology

Technology is at the forefront of HR agendas today.

 In the Hackett Group 2012 survey, The HR Agenda: HR's Top Issues in 2012, 60% of companies surveyed indicated that many HR organizations are failing to leverage their technology and data and that HR needs to deploy and use technologies to better enable service delivery and improve the quality of information and insights to support decision making.

Technology has not been at the forefront of my agenda, but that is changing. My goal for 2012 is to become conversant in the "happenings" in the field and the relationship between technology and the delivery of federal HR services.

It may seem odd, or very appropriate, for an HR leader whose battle cry is "ban the No. 2" to step into the federal HR Tech ring at the national level, but that's just what I am about to do as a moderator (and a guest of LRP Publications) for the session, "Accessible Technology Solutions to Current HR Challenges."

Washington D.C. in April? If I had a bucket list, cherry blossoms would be on it. Will the forces of nature align and greet me with a peak bloom?

I do know that the forces of HR, technology and learning will align on the panel. Let me introduce you to our panel members: 

• Steve Boese, Director, Talent Management Strategy at Oracle will discuss the current state of HR technology and trends we can expect to see in the future.

• K. Scott Derrick, Founder and Advisor, 13L, will introduce you to a low cost low tech and highly effective mentoring program and put to rest the notion that  mentoring takes a lot of time. 

• Lori Rectanus, Assistant Director for Staff Development and Growth at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) will take you behind the scenes of a campus recruitment program.
  

Our commitment as a panel is that attendees will leave our session thinking differently about HR and technology than they did when they walked in. 

With our commitment in mind, what questions would I be remiss in not posing to the panel? If you were listening in, what would you want to hear the panel members discuss, react or respond to?  

Will this be the beginning and the end of the conversation? Absolutely not. Just another stop along the way.