The world of work is changing, and the most successful organizations and practitioners are those that understand how these changes impact the way they do business. To help them do so, and to foster further dialogue, Queen’s IRC hosted the Workplace in Motion Summit in Toronto on April 16th, 2015. Over 100 human resource, labour relations, and organizational development professionals from across Canada attended the Summit. Chaired by IRC facilitator Brenda Barker Scott, the Summit provided a forum to stimulate new ideas and new perspectives on the dynamic new world of work.
The Summit focused on a variety of questions of interest to today’s human resource, labour relations, and organizational development professionals. More specifically, it helped participants:
- Identify issues and best practices related to current trends and practices in human resource management, labour relations, and organizational development.
- Explore how rapidly emerging technologies are shaping and re-shaping modern workplaces and the way we work.
- Investigate the impact of changing demographics on contemporary organizations.
This was all done with the intent of identifying how they can better lead change and promote excellence within and beyond their organizations and professional networks.
Over the course of the Summit, several themes emerged that were particularly critical to today’s human resource, labour relations, and organizational development professionals. These included the need to:
- Manage change and transformation in order to advance organizational and professional interests with as little disruption as possible.
- Create the physical space, infrastructure, technologies, and systems necessary to support a collaborative, open, and innovative workplace and work culture.
- Engage, retain, and motivate the new generation of employees and to bridge inter-generational gaps in the workplace.
- Think outside the box in order to appropriately encourage risk-taking and innovation.
This report elaborates on the most important questions, issues, and themes identified by Summit participants going forward.
