Employment conference ranges widely

The keynote speakers are a civil rights leader, a young woman who worked her way out of homelessness, and a successful CEO and business professor. The educational sessions mirror the diversity of the keynoters, covering the wide variety of challenges that employment and staffing professionals face each day.

There's more than something for everyone at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Employment Management Association's 36th Annual Conference and Exposition, slated for April 20-22 in Dallas.

Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will speak at the opening general session April 20. He has been at the forefront of social change since 1960, as a founder of the Atlanta student sit-in and anti-segregation organization, and as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and Senate.

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Liz Murray will speak at the April 21 general session. At the age of 15, Murray was homeless, her mother had died, and her father was suffering from drug addiction, but she finished high school in two years, earned a scholarship and entered Harvard University.

The closing keynote will be given April 22 by Bill George, professor at Harvard Business School and chairman of The Center for Leadership and Business Ethics, and former CEO of medical technology firm Medtronic.

The SHRM Academy will debut a new course, "Negotiation Skills for the Human Resource Professional," to build understanding of the practices and processes of negotiation in business, commercial and interpersonal settings. The second SHRM Academy course will be "Business Process Outsourcing: Essential Tools and Methods." Don't be surprised if these courses feel like business classes: The SHRM Academy is a comprehensive educational program in which HR professionals can learn business essentials so they can be more effective partners in their organizations.

Concurrent sessions will explore hot topics this year such as staffed employees vs. leased employees, ethics, training, retention, career development, and emotional intelligence, said Nancy Woolever, SPHR, SHRM's manager of education.

Woolever said many of the sessions will focus on retention, because HR professionals will be facing the challenge of keeping employees happy with their current work as the economy strengthens and other jobs become available.

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--Beth McConnell is associate editor for HR News.

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