My HR Retail Story by Chris Ringer:

The Hr Retail conference is unique in that…

…it is focused on retail. I have been to many conferences before and I was doing a quick google search for attending HR events this year when I came upon HR Retail 2019. It immediately stood out because it was focused on retail. My previous experience attending such events was that the retail industry was not well represented and they often missed the nuances of the industry. Not only was this entirely focused on retail but the agenda was packed with speakers from well established retailers who had lots to share about the different aspects of the HR strategies.

The best feature at the conference was the Onboarding Boardrooms…

..which was lead by executives from Hot Topic. It was a very timely presentation for me since we have just kicked off our own onboarding process for new associates. Hot Topic is a few years ahead of us in their strategy and it was extremely useful to hear about their approach to inducting new associates, the roadmap they use to guide the professional journeys of their associates and the tools they use to measure an associate’s success.

What really impressed me was that the Hot Topic team was so forthcoming in the information they shared. They even gave us some swag from the company and shared the material given to new associates during their training.

Another presentation that I thought was great – Starbucks. The executive gave a presentation that as timely, relevant, and extremely well crafted. The information was candid and genuine with tactical takeaways.

I look forward to attending HR Retail 2020…

…and if not me, then definitely someone else from my team. I would highly recommend that Carmax have some representation at this event. The content is extremely relevant and the knowledge gained is invaluable to the growth of our company.