WorldatWork Conference Takeaway: A Time of Opportunity

I'm back from the WorldatWork Total Rewards conference in Seattle (early, as obligations here demanded it).  A great experience; I enjoyed the chance to meet a lot of people and to hear and discuss a lot of interesting ideas regarding the state and future direction of rewards.  Lots of blogging fodder, which I hope to translate into posts over the coming days.

One of my big takeaways from the event is a theme I heard repeated through a number of sessions: that today's tough economic environment presents us with many challenges, but also a tremendous positive opportunity.

Because crisis is truly a game changer on so many levels, it also provides us with the chance to hit the reset button on ineffective, suboptimal and failed reward practices.  It gives us the chance to make new deals and to push forward reward principles and ideas that will better position our organizations (and the people who depend on them) for success and prosperity in the future.

We have a window for change, but it won't stay open forever.  So the question I would put to all of us is this:  How are we using this opportunity to make our reward programs better?

Comments

[Derek Irvine, Globoforce]

Ann, I was very pleased to meet you in person at the conference. I agree. A significant take-away from the conference for me is that this recession is giving us the opportunity to evaluate practices in employee recognition, consolidate and raise them to the level of a strategic initiative and use them to drive business results. Indeed, this was heard repeatedly in our session at WorldatWork. I, like you, plan to blog on my thoughts from the show in more detail.

[Ann Bares]

Derek:

It was great to meet you in person there as well! I've heard several of our co-attendees echo the "opportunity" theme. I'll look forward to reading your upcoming posts and your takeaways from the conference.