Last week, I attended the annual CIPD conference. I’ve been reflecting on what I have seen and heard, what I have taken away.

There are a lot of people who work in HR that are hugely passionate about what they do, engage and connect with other like minded individuals, and want to do more to improve our profession.
At the same time, there are a lot of people who moan without seeking to change, are stuck in the past, and are doing the reputation of HR no favours.

There are HR practitioners doing really interesting and innovative stuff in the people space.
At the same time, there are a lot of people peddling the same old, same old, or are bottling new wine in very old bottles.

There are people that will do stuff, attend stuff, blog and tweet about stuff, just for the love of it, not for the reward of it.
At the same time, there are people that are quick to criticise, or find reasons to look on the gloomy side.

Overall, there is great progress being made.
At the same time, there is much to be done.

Questions remain.

2000 people attended the conference, but not everyone can afford a full conference ticket, or afford to come at all. There are plenty of HR types blogging and tweeting, but many aren’t engaging in this space. There are great conversations going on about making work better, making HR better, but it feels like it is too small a crowd having the conversation. So how do we engage more HR professionals with the exciting work that is going on, in creating the future of HR, making work and organisations better, making the changes we need to make? I pose the questions, but don’t pretend to have all the answers.

Although questions and challenges clearly remain, my main takeaway from last week is this. I am lucky. Lucky to do a job that I love, lucky to know and work with some of the amazing people I spent time with at the conference (you know who you are), lucky I get to call this work.

I get to do what Confucius recommended: choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.