Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the 2011 RCSA International Conference in Port Douglas. This year’s theme was innovation, and there were number of excellent world class speakers on the topic.

The three key points that resonated with me were;

1. Successful innovation is the result of many small incremental changes or improvements made over time and is rarely about a big shiny new product or service. In the words of John Lennon, “It took us years to be an overnight success.” In our industry, innovation will most likely be about service offerings and back room process.
2. People innovate, not technology. Technology, however, is an enabler to innovation. Speaker Steve Vamos (the speaker who resonated the most with me), stated that successful innovative organisations have learning mindsets. By this he meant that their cultures are open to and respectful of new ideas; that all stakeholders can and often do make valuable contributions, if given the opportunity. Also, no established norm in the business is immune to analysis and improvement. Just because something has always been done that way is no excuse to keep doing it that way, if a better method presents itself.
3. In service industries, innovation will arise in the gaps between the silos. This was reiterated by two speakers, Peter Sheahan and Joris Luijke, who both pointed out that many organisations are quite siloed in terms of their service offerings and/or functional departments. Companies that have used enabling technologies to enhance communication and the sharing of ideas between these silos will be the innovation leaders in their fields.

As with other industry conferences, the RCSA 2011 Conference was a rare opportunity to observe, network and interact with peers from other recruitment companies.  It was an opportunity to benchmark and reflect on what Mindset is doing in comparison to other service offerings, and I am proud to say that Mindset is certainly leading the industry in a number of areas.

But it was also an opportunity for me to reflect and learn from what others are doing in this space and I am encouraged by the people I met and listened to during the course of the conference. I have garnered ideas from others that can apply to our business to make further improvement as I hope, in turn, others have been able to garner from me.

Next up… In Part 2 of my blog on the RCSA Conference I will share my observations on the recruitment industry at large, and the role the RCSA has to play.