By Paul Juniper, IRC Director

On behalf of Queen's IRC, I want to wish you all a wonderful New Year. I look forward to meeting and speaking with participants at our programming, trade shows, conferences, and events throughout 2012, and communicating our news and research in our newsletters.

Indeed, 2012 is a busy and exciting year for the IRC. Anniversary celebrations, new programming and research, and speaking engagements are just a few of the IRC's projects.

This year marks the IRC's 75th anniversary. Our staff is in the midst of organizing several special events to commemorate this milestone; I will share more details regarding our 75th anniversary celebrations in the coming months.

As always, the IRC is committed to providing outstanding programs and research. Our programming team will be once again traveling across Canada, delivering 14 programs this Spring. Our 2012 Program Planner is now available for download from our website. January is often a time for setting both personal and professional resolutions and goals. I encourage you to review the planner, to see the ways in which the IRC can help you meet your professional development needs, and the learning goals that you have this year. Our new programs in Talent Management and Strategic Grievance Handling may be particularly relevant to HR and LR professionals. Our research team is preparing to publish the results of our recent LR survey, while conducting practitioner interviews, and working to launch the IRC's new opinion polls.

In addition to programming and research, IRC staff members are also actively engaged in conference presentations. For example, earlier this month, IRC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Brendan Sweeney, participated in the Labor and Employment Relations Association's (LERA) annual conference [read more]. On January 31, I will be in Ottawa at the Public Sector Human Resources Conference. Here, I will discuss the role of public sector HR professionals in our current economy.

The articles that follow highlight some of the IRC's work.

Of course, should you have any questions regarding the IRC's work, our programming, or our research, I invite you to contact my colleagues. Stephanie Noel will be happy to answer any programming inquiries and Alison Hill can address research inquiries.