Passion, Purpose and 'Progress over Perfection'

72 hours in Berlin and that was SuccessConnect. My 5th and best SuccessConnect so far.

'Progress over Perfection' - was a great quote from Anat Markus from TEVA, just one of the many speakers at the event and summed up how I believe HR and vendors need to think in terms of how they look to meet the needs and expectations of the workforce today and into the future. Perfection is elusive and in an era where change is constant - you should always look for progress first.

In terms of the key HR topics covered - the talent shortage was major theme which Greg Tomb, Stefan Ries and many of the speakers in the breakout sessions highlighted - meaning that organisations need to really focus on talent attraction and engagement - given how rapidly roles and skills are evolving. When you then consider average tenure of employees has gone down to an average of 14 months according to a Deloitte study - organisations must work really hard at giving work purpose and meaning, whilst allowing people's passion to shine though.. Otherwise all the investment in attracting key talent will quickly be wasted if their early stage experiences at work don't meet their expectations.

We live in a world where technology can do so much for people in their personal lives - so we need to enable our employees to interact with HR Systems how and when they want. However, as the amazing visual in the title states - work is still very much about people and how we can find, grow and keep talented people in our organisations.

With all the amazing breakout sessions available - it was hard to choose which ones to go to - but I would highlight one which I thought was exceptional. Wim Valstar gave an amazing presentation on Upgrade2Success - talking through what the options are for on-premise customers considering moving to the cloud.

The ease of moving to the cloud was highlighted - as well as the business reasons for doing so. Given how busy the session was - it is good that there are a series of upcoming Upgrade2Success one day workshops across Europe over the next few months with the next one on July 12th in London - you can find out more and register here.

As per the picture above - the dynamics of how we engage people are changing and we need to match the expectations of the workforce when it comes to technology.

Then it was the closing keynote with Laszlo Bock which was super insightful into the small things that you can do that will make a big difference to your people.

So a fantastic way to wrap up an absorbing 72 hours in Berlin. Lots of exciting developments from a product perspective, lots of interesting stuff that the partners are doing - and lots of things upcoming to be excited about!

Personally it was great to meet in person the people I email a lot and speak with via Skype. The real learning and development opportunities came from being able to meet with people in person and catch up over a coffee (or a beer!) in a different environment. Those 5,10, 15 minute conversations meant a lot. Thanks to all my colleagues that took time out to talk with me.

Vienna, you will have a lot to live up to in June next year... Berlin has set a very high bar!