CIPD conference’s Manchester debut “a recession-busting success”

Any doubts about the CIPD's wisdom in moving its flagship annual conference to Manchester Central were effectively dispelled right from the start, with the banks of registration desks besieged by hordes of enthusiastic delegates on the first morning.  From then on, despite the best efforts of some pretty traditional Mancunian weather, the remodelled event never looked back.

An encouraging start
Nina Harman, the Institute's head of conferences and exhibitions, claimed the move as "a recession-busting success" despite the prevailing economic climate.  Delegate numbers were 9% up on last year's final event year at Harrogate, while conference visitors were provisionally running 28% ahead.  Chief executive Jackie Orme professed herself delighted with the quality of debate and insight on the conference programme and the buzz around the whole event, and is already looking forward to returning to Manchester next November to build on this success.

Welcoming delegates to Manchester at the Tuesday morning opening session, Jackie said that what mattered most was HR's fitness to deal with the present and face the uncertainties of the future.  It's her unshakable belief that HR is an applied business discipline, and recent CIPD developments - including the profession map, new levels of membership and a new suite of qualifications (to be launched in January) are all designed to support this and establish a new ‘gold standard' for the profession.  All this should also help to create a talent pipeline for attracting the brightest and best into HR.

The opening keynote address was delivered by author and business academic Jim Collins.  Speaking on ‘The quest for greatness', he sought to establish what systematically separates exceptional organisations from merely average (or, worse, declining) ones.  He concluded that greatness is "not a function of circumstance" ( i.e. external market conditions etc.) but primarily of conscious choice and discipline: decline is self-inflicted, whereas ascent is self-created.

He also identified hubris as a particular danger to businesses - "the moment you think you're great, you're not."  (From hubris can follow four further stages of decline: "the undisciplined pursuit of more, the denial of risk and peril, grasping for salvation, and then capitulation to irrelevance or death."  And many businesses can pass the first three before anyone's really aware that there are significant problems afoot.)

For Jim, having the right people in the right management seats is crucial to success.  And while good leaders may be no better than anyone else at predicting the future, they're much better equipped to deal with the vicissitudes of an uncertain world.  They'll be ambitious, certainly, but their ambition is for their cause, not for themselves.

The remainder of Ri5's coverage naturally focuses on resourcing-related issues.  Clearly, 2009 has hardly been a vintage year for recruitment, so it was hardly surprising that much of the conference agenda's resourcing content was linked to topics like engagement, retention, talent management and development, with leadership a further consistently important theme.  So we'll offer you our ‘selected highlights' of this year's event.

Talent for tough times
The Tuesday morning continued with a session on talent management chaired by the CIPD's own Claire McCartney.  Claire began by presenting the headline findings of recent Institute research into the importance of talent management when times are tough.  Encouragingly, the majority of organisations consulted (55%) were now developing more talent in-house in addition to adopting various other positive practices.  (Unsurprisingly, many organisations have been shifting their focus from recruitment to retention in the downturn.)

Two case-studies then followed.  First, Christine Bamford and Paul Schanzer explained the background to the ‘Care to Lead' programme for developing world-class NHS leaders in Wales.  Christine outlined the new development centres modelled on TV's ‘The Apprentice' and showed how growing existing leadership talent had saved an estimated £1m in recruitment costs, while Paul focused on the innovative use of technology to support management development, given the "challenging geography" of the principality.  A private-sector perspective was provided by National Express's Stephanie Oerton, who showed how various talent development initiatives had not only helped to discover new talent within the business's existing team but had also got more people across the group interested and engaged in learning and development.

After lunch, Dr Anthony Hesketh of Lancaster University Management School talked on the return on investment for talent.  He defined talent management as "ensuring the right talent is at the right place, at the right time, at a managed cost, which is evidence-based and performance-led", and maintained that the relationship between the CEO, CFO and HRD was now critical.  (It didn't matter whether the latter was on the company's board as long as he or she was "part of the conversation".)

The leadership theme continued with the CIPD's Rebecca Clake introducing a session on ‘Developing a leadership culture'.  Rebecca noted that many organisations were increasing their focus on leadership development - especially the development of ‘ethical leaders' capable of leading organisations through bad times as well as good.  The ensuing case-study, presented by Microsoft UK HR manager Aneta Jajkowska, looked at how Microsoft had deliberately evolved its culture to equip itself for future business challenges, and how the leadership development programme was crucial to achieving this.  Leaders needed a combination of ability, commitment and aspiration to succeed in the new environment.

The power of branding
Away from Manchester Central, the early part of the evening was given over to the Recruitment Society's annual conference-related free event, held this year at TMP's Manchester offices in Princess Street.  Jackie Lanham, resourcing and development director at the Co-operative Group, outlined her organisation's recent employer brand development journey (conceding that she herself had been less than enthused when first approached about the job).

The Co-op - voted the UK's most ethical brand for the last two years running - has already come a long way in terms of its image, following a major brand relaunch on TV earlier this year.  The employer brand is treated as a business-wide initiative, with many different functions involved in its creation and delivery (as well as Work Comms, "the right external partner" according to Jackie).  The key point, however, is that the brand has to be part of the organisation's DNA, not just a cosmetic factor.  "If you don't treat people as you say you will, you'll fail," says Jackie.

TMP's Neil Harrison concluded the session by noting some of the considerable business benefits attached to effective employer branding - not least the high salary premiums that companies with poor brand images have to pay to get good people.  He also predicted a "resume tsunami" as the recovery gathers pace, with recent surveys by TMP and Hay confirming the high proportion of people planning a career move when things start looking up.  And despite two-thirds (65%) of CEOs worrying about the potential loss of key talent, a mere 29% of UK companies have formulated retention plans for the upturn.

For Neil, the employer brand isn't just a communications exercise but an essential platform for driving retention and engagement, as well as recruitment - and it should reflect the business as it is now, not as it was a couple of years ago.  (Finally, despite being in Manchester, Neil felt brave enough to question whether former United star Cristiano Ronaldo had been tempted to join Real Madrid because of the latter's glitzier, more aspirational employer brand!)

Then it was off though the rain and darkness to the joint Sunday Times and People Management party at Great John Street Hotel's Oyster Bar, where the social side of things was already getting into full swing.

Enhancing engagement
The Wednesday agenda began with Hay Group Insight's Robert Browton and Rentokil Pest Control's Clare Marriott taking us ‘Beyond employee engagement'.  For Robert, the key lessons of EE include getting buy-in from all levels of the business, communicating constantly, investing in managing the programme, keeping an eye on detail, and "listening to everything".

Clare outlined the practical steps involved in introducing RPC's ‘Your voice counts' engagement programme, which has consistently improved engagement levels over the past three years with consequent real business benefits.  Indeed, the success of the scheme has since resulted in it being rolled out across the whole of the Rentokil Initial group.

Psychotherapist Dr Nick Baylis then presented a session reflecting the title of his recent book - ‘The Rough Guide to Happiness'.  A far cry from the crass, platitudinous titles that currently cram the self-help shelves of most bookstores, Nick's offering takes a cool, clear-headed look at the issues surrounding individual well-being and what can be done to enhance it.  He stresses the importance of physical exercise and creative pursuits to ‘balance' the effects of a busy working life.

Trust and connectedness (the latter in a genuine rather than virtual sense) are the keys to happiness, he believes, while to be the best at anything you really need to enrich your personal life.  ("Change is an inside job.")  It's not often that a session comes across as truly inspirational but, judging from the thunderous applause and appreciative comments that Nick received, he'd scored a big hit with his audience.

Following a packed-out early afternoon seminar on how to harness the power of social media in the workplace, the focus returned to employee engagement with Unilever's Sarah Redshaw taking her audience through a major change programme designed to reverse Unilever's declining market-share and resume profitable growth.

The programme's three elements included defining a new vision for the business, centralising the different divisions in a single new HQ building at Leatherhead, and a major restructure (with significant reductions to headcount).  As Sarah conceded, the new vision - ‘We are Unilever' - is unlikely to win too many external awards.  Yet it has nevertheless contributed to the beginnings of a successful turnround, with a newly competitive cost base for the business, a return to growth, and greatly improved engagement scores.

Keeping things authentic
The Wednesday agenda closed with two case-studies focusing on that concept of the moment, ‘authenticity'.  The session also took into account recent research conducted by Hodes for the CIPD into the effects of mergers and acquisitions on employer brands - which highlighted, among other things, the fact that communication and cultural issues are often paid insufficient attention by those leading the changes.

Martyn Worsley, MD - Organisational Development for the recently-merged BNY Mellon, described a successful programme designed to integrate two complementary but highly distinctive businesses.  This inevitably entailed overcoming a number of practical challenges, not least the enduring legacy of a previous failed hostile takeover attempt.

The guiding principle of the exercise was to create a true merger combining the best of both businesses, while maintaining the highest levels of customer service (and thus losing no clients).  The new company duly succeeded in meeting or exceeding all its integration goals and maintaining great service throughout the problematic credit crunch period, thanks to a combination of strong culture and strong leadership.

Hodes' CEO Helen Rosethorn then manfully stepped in for Morrisons' group HR director Norman Pickavance, called away by the little matter of his own CEO's newly-announced decision to join Marks & Spencer.  Helen showed how Morrisons had succeeded in establishing a distinctive identity within their market (as "the food specialist for everyone"), with a strong focus on ‘organisational authenticity.'  This concept was both sustainable and difficult to copy, and took time to develop.  Morrisons also believe that "growing your own people your unique way" is a key pillar of the authentic organisation, and continue to promote a high proportion of their people from within.

Wednesday night's entertainment continued with parties hosted by Express Newspapers, the Telegraph and Marketing Week among others.  (And for the impartial observer, there was also the little matter of Ireland's grossly unfair elimination from World Cup qualification.)

While resourcing-related issues featured rather less prominently on the Thursday agenda, it was interesting to hear Infohrm's Peter Howes talk on the importance of strategic workforce planning.  This, according to his definition, meant any time horizon from two years out - hence his keenness not to confuse ‘planning' with ‘budgeting'.

Peter also had time for a couple of telling observations.  One was that the term ‘ROI' is often used to mean forecast return on investment, as a basis for obtaining project funding.  (Once the money's approved and spent, organisations rarely go back to measuring it.)  He also noted that, in most organisations, 90% of people's development is on the job or ad hoc, whereas the training department usually only manages training courses.  Another good reason for looking closely at alternative positions, projects and secondments as a means of developing capability internally!

A new leadership paradigm?
The conference's final keynote session saw three contrasting leaders - Sir Christopher Kelly (chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, among other things), Steve Easterbrook (president and CEO of McDonald's Europe) and internet entrepreneur Sháá Wasmund - try to convince a sceptical John Humphreys that a ‘new leadership paradigm' was required for today's world, if not already beginning to emerge.

The panellists agreed that today's leaders had to face significantly more complex challenges, notably in terms of faster-moving external factors, a more complex business environment, a much greater need for transparency and visibility, a broader range of stakeholder groups, and an increased focus on ethical and environmental factors.  It was also suggested that effective leadership now requires a greater degree of collaboration - and that increased stakeholder influence can significantly affect the trajectory of a business.  Consistency, clarity and integrity were the leadership qualities that seemed to be in greatest demand.

It was then up to CIPD president Vicky Wright to close proceedings.  She reminded the audience of the Institute's new profession map, qualifications and services and research insights, as well as the fantastic sessions and networking opportunities that the 2009 conference and exhibition had provided.

So, after all the meticulous planning and preparation, the three days flew past.  In the context of today's tough economic climate, the new-look event could fairly be described as something of a triumph, and people are already talking enthusiastically about returning to Manchester next November (it'll be from the 9^th to the 11^th, if you want to make a diary note now).  But let's hope there will be quite a different slant to the agenda next year, with much more focus on how to deal with the problems of growth and success!