In our sharply divided political world, the role of the media is often debated because for the most part, it’s more mistrusted than in prior generations as a “spin” machine than informational resource. Thankfully, the trade media and HRO Today has not been subjected to the same level of cynicism that pervades the perception of mass media.
I have been thinking about the trade media and our role. HRO Today’s mission is to inform, educate and improve the practice of human resources. But what does that mean? It means we need to call out the bad and highlight the good. In our most recent readers’ survey, our credibility numbers were at a new high. Our credibility as an “objective source of information” was 92% among practitioners in companies with revenue in excess of $50 million (USD). More than 87% indicated HRO Today has well-written content. I cannot thank Debbie Bolla and her team enough for the wonderful job they do in managing the quality of the content. So, back to the question: What do we do with all of this credibility? We drive better practices, and we are thrilled at your reception and response.
Many of you are familiar with our annual CHRO of the Year Awards program, now in its 10th year. This year, we have received 65 completed nominations from some of the world’s largest companies and more than 100 inquiries or nominations. That recognizes the importance of leadership and vision in HR. We have many alumni of the past decade joining us in Las Vegas, NV, May 3-5, for our HRO Today Forum North America.
Telling the incredible stories of these CHROs is a model and inspiration to the rest of the HR community. We try to be thoughtful during the ceremony and we have noticed that every winner in every category thanks their team—which is really no surprise. And that made us think: What are we doing to recognize the HR department as whole? That was the catalyst behind the HR100 featured in this issue. We have had an incredible response to this program, and we thank the many chief HR officers who contributed their thoughts to the cover story in this issue, but more importantly, we also congratulate their teams on an excellent job of driving best practices and innovation in the field of HR.
All too often in HR, the recognition we provide is to others for their leadership or behaviors and we leave little time to recognize each other. HRO Today is proud to be able to offer these recognitions to help drive best practices and fulfill our mission and important contribution by the media and the HR trade media. Congratulations to all of the companies on the HR100 and to all of the HR practitioners who work there!
And on an unrelated note:
In July August 2022’s issue, I commented on the talent economy in my column found here. I predicted that while the consumer economy may slide into recession, the talent economy would remain strong. That is what we are seeing. Record job creation last month and more than 11 million open jobs in the U.S. are more important data points than some of the highly publicized cuts from overly profitable and overly bloated companies that needed to trim anyway. Be judicious in your approach to cutting HR spending. And to the provider community, expect a slower growth year but not a decline over recent years.
Everyone, as hard as it may be, ignore the fevered ruminations of the journalists on the financial channels (many of whom have little business education, by the way) and watch the macroeconomic data. The talent economy is suffering from a continuing skilled labor shortage and while cooling a bit, is still very strong.
