Editor's Note: Today's post comes to us courtesy of guest contributor Chris Dobyns, as Part 1 of a two-post series, where he shares his impressions and takeaways - and particularly his top picks for breakout sessions - from the WorldatWork 2019 Total Rewards Conference and Exhibition, recently held in Orlando, Florida.
The WorldatWork 2019 Total Rewards Conference and Exhibition wrapped up last week, hosted at the Rosen Shingle Creek facility in Orlando. The conference attracted approximately 2,000 attendees, comprised of speakers, practitioners, academicians and exhibitors. Attendees came to get the latest news and innovations in the area of compensation, benefits and work-life practices. This year’s workshops were aligned around the four key themes of Learn, Solve, Disrupt and Envision.
The conference kicked off with the standard events, beginning on Monday AM with a remarkably good plated-breakfast (it is the most important meal of the day). This was followed by a conference welcome and remarks from association President and CEO, Scott Cawood. Scott emphasized the need for both improved awareness and preparation for the transition to a digital economy, given the expected exponential growth of technology in the next 3-5 years. Organizations were encouraged to continue to fine-tune (or perhaps just begin) their digital strategy development, particularly with an eye on the future implications for the total rewards space.
You Are Enough
Keynote speaker, Chris “Bash” Bashinelli, followed and advocated conference attendees to endeavor to walk in the shoes of a global citizen, which is exactly what he has done as a “20-something year old” in his global travels for PBS – both literally and figuratively over the last several years. He encouraged the audience to Stop, Listen, Learn and look to make connections with others to understand their perspective. Then, do your best . . . and that will be accepted.
2019 Workshop Focus
Individual conference workshops were once again centered around the topical categories of: Benefits, Compensation, Executive Compensation, Sales Compensation, Total Rewards and Workforce Experience.
There weren’t too many surprises this year regarding the topical focus of individual workshop sessions. As expected, some clear themes and trends emerged around the topics of gender pay inequity, unconscious bias, data analytics/visualization in support of improved understanding of pay, organizational value and maintaining competitiveness – to retain top talent.
Technological advances provided hints at future inroads and areas ripe for automation, but no innovations met the definition to be categorized as “artificial intelligence” yet. There were some sessions that reflected nascent machine learning or robotic process automation, either in current use or actively being contemplated.
Terminology Shifts, Twists and Turns
The broader term “well-being” appears to have supplanted the term “wellness”, in generally describing employee health and state-of-mind. And in acceptance of what is apparently now considered the “new normal”, the former terminology work-life balance has all but been replaced by what is probably the more accurate phrase, work-life integration. This trend tacitly acknowledges the continued pervasiveness of technology and the difficulty for employees to realistically separate work from their regular life activities.
Lastly, there was a noticeable emphasis on the escalating importance of financial counseling for employees, principally to help them prepare for retirement and better withstand financial hardship events. The 500 lb. gorilla present in at least two workshop sessions was the continuing concern about the $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, and how that is effecting employees practically and psychologically – particularly employees in entry-level positions.
Anecdotal Audience Observations
A couple of noteworthy trends appeared to be on the rise in terms of the audience demographics, although these observations are admittedly about as unscientific as they get. Based on attendance at now four of the last five conferences, the gender demographic would appear to reflect that women comprise the majority of the attendees. The accuracy of this observation and if women also comprise a majority of the demographic in the total rewards profession remains unclear.
A slightly more scientific observation was the discernible number of first-time attendees at the conference. In both the General Session as well as a heavily-attended breakout, by an informal census close to 40 percent of the attendees self-identified as being the first-time attendees to the Total Rewards Conference this year. No additional conclusions or inferences are supported, but both observations are perhaps interesting artifacts.
The Top Workshop Picks for 2019
In a repeat of last year’s conference summary, Part 2 of this article will focus on individual workshops and the handful of topics and their respective presenter [teams], and what really separated these sessions from the rest of the pack. Stay tuned for the next continuation of the series – and the big “reveal”.
Everyone probably has a different perspective. What’s yours?
Chris Dobyns, CCP, CBP is currently employed as a Human Capital Strategic Consultant for the Office of Human Resource Strategy and Program Design for one of the largest U.S. intelligence agencies. The Office of Human Resource Strategy and Program Design is responsible for organizational effectiveness, personnel assessment, compensation and incentives, occupational structure, recognition and rewards, HR policy, human capital program design, implementation, evaluation and assessment and internal consulting. Chris has worked in the area of compensation for more than 35 years, and has been employed in various compensation-related positions by a number of large, private sector companies including, Sears, Roebuck, Arizona Public Service and Westinghouse Savannah River Company.
Original "Conference Themes" image adapted from WorldatWork by Chris Dobyns.
Chris,
The ideas of financial literacy and work-life integration align with studies and seminars I've seen. The former has been the subject of a great number of recent articles on Millennials, in particular, but seems to be a "benefit" gaining traction. The latter may reflect two trends - 1) the increased emphasis being placed on hours worked (almost a badge of honor in some settings) and the blurred lines of where/when work is accomplished.
Looking forward to Part 2.
Posted by: Joe Thompson | 05/20/2019 at 09:47 AM