Recapping SHRM 2010 – A Customer Retrospective

There have been plenty of blog posts recapping the SHRM 2010 Annual Conference and Exhibition, which took place last week. You can read some good highlights here, here and here.

The keynotes, the conference sessions and the exhibit floor were packed, which was a refreshing thing to see, and a positive sign of what’s ahead. Halogen had the privilege of meeting with hundreds of talented HR professionals, as well as the opportunity to sit down and chat with several press attendees and bloggers about what’s next on the talent management horizon. We also debuted our brand new exhibit at SHRM this year, which was a big hit with visitors.

But above the din of the show floor, what we found absolutely remarkable was the connection we made with our customers. As most of you know, we’re very proud of our customer satisfaction ratings which have been reported as the highest in the industry. We work very hard to preserve that reputation. But in reflecting on SHRM, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you why our customers make this constant goal of striving for excellence so very easy for us.

We work with the best clients in the industry! The Halogen SHRM 2010 story explains why…

The first piece of great news came late last year when our friend Derek Dozer of Clow Water Systems told us that he was selected to speak during the SHRM Conference about “Making the Most of Your Talent Management.” Derek has a fantastic story to tell and as such a dynamic speaker, we were especially happy that Halogen would be part of what he would be sharing in his session, and very pleased by how many HR leaders came to visit us after listening to Derek’s presentation.

Then, this past spring, when we saw how many of our clients would be attending SHRM this year we got pretty excited about how we could involve them in what Halogen was doing at the show as well. We reached out to just a few who had shared their Halogen experiences with us in the past, and asked if they could take some time out of their busy SHRM schedules to present their stories to other attendees in the theatre on our booth. The response was fantastic! Over 3 short days we had 10 client presentations taking place at booth 1439. They each shared an account of what their organizations did to transform their performance and talent management processes, and how Halogen played a role.

Special thanks to:

• Tracy White of Clark Nuber
• Daniel Hamann of Doeren Mayhew
• Michelle Reid of Sun-Rype Products
• Brian Spence of Staffing Plus
• David Anderson of Double-Take Software
• Robert Donovan of JT3 LLC
• Tim Mulligan of The Zoological Society of San Diego
• Tony Chartrand of Pechanga Resort & Casino

Not only were we overwhelmed with how fantastic their presentations were, but we were thrilled with how many SHRM attendees got to hear these Halogen success stories from the most important sources of all: real HR people using the solutions. Unexpectedly, we were also showered with customer gifts to share with attendees. From Sun-Rype fruit snacks to stuffed animals from the San Diego Zoo, our customers’ brands stood out on that show floor alongside Halogen’s and we couldn’t be more grateful.

Outside of the exhibit hall we continued to be wowed by our customers. Tim Mulligan, CHRO of the San Diego Zoo, one of our client presenters and biggest Halogen advocates, was gracious enough to invite the Halogen team attending SHRM, as well as other co-presenting customers and guests on a private tour of the world renowned zoo.

The San Diego hospitality we were shown was phenomenal and we want to send a very public thank you to each of the exceptional HR professionals who took the time to share with Halogen during SHRM 2010!

We are so lucky to be able to partner with such great companies, and you are the very reason we work so hard at exceeding your expectations.

Thank you.