AHRMIO's core service is the suite of developmental programmes – resoundingly welcomed by our members, who have so far voted with their feet and attended in great numbers. There is a wide felt need for specifically tailored programmes in which international not-for-profit organizations can share experience, exchange ideas and learn from one another.

Executive Development Programmes, for senior HR specialists and executives responsible for managing human resources, were organized on an annual basis between 2001 and 2004 by leading academics from four top schools of management – The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Cranfield School of Management, UK, ESADE of Spain and HEC School of Management in France. This programme is now being redesigned as a series of in-depth Master Classes. AHRMIO runs Master Classes with faculty drawn from among members of an Academic Advisory Board (AAB), which consists of the previous faculty members plus others from the academic world and elsewhere (list of members attached). The AAB also identifies people who have done recent research in HRM and invite them to the programme to present their findings. The target audience is not only senior managers in the HR function, but also senior with significant people management responsibilities. The first in this new series of Master Classes, which was on the subject of Results-based Management, took place in 2006 and was highly successful and will be repeated in 2008. A second Master Class, on the subject of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERPs) as a tool for organizational change is also being planned for 2008.

HR specialists' training programme

A two-day training event for mid-level practitioners is held each year immediately before or after the Annual Conference, with lecturers from some of the world’s top management schools. Aimed primarily at those who have comparatively recently entered the HR function, rather than those who had been in service for many years, this event has proved so popular that it is usually considerably oversubscribed. It is repeated, as necessary, in other locations and at other times. It covers such topics as e-human resources, change management, strategic compensation, performance management, and employee relations.

Specialized subject seminars

These seminars are held with increasing frequency on the "nuts and bolts" of international HRM – issues such as cross-cultural management, recruitment and selection techniques, reward strategies, career development, work/life issues and risk management. Where costs permit, certain seminars are provided free of charge for AHRMIO members: for example, in 2007, events were held on strategic HR and long term care.

Developing Change Management Capabilities for HR Professionals. This programme was first held in 2003 in Geneva hosted by the World Health Organization and then again in 2005 hosted by the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. It will next take place in October 2007, hosted by the World Bank in Washington, D.C..

Other seminars and training activities that have taken place include

• a two-day seminar on Reward Strategies (2003) led by Duncan Brown, the then Assistant Director-General of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), UK. 
• a seminar on Responsibility and Accountability for Crisis Management (2003) hosted together with one of its sponsors in London.
• an annual one day meeting on International Recruitment; the 2007 meeting took place in Geneva on 15 June.

The Web Site, mailto:www.ahrmio.org: The Association’s website – which non members can enter as guests - is a unique, secure on-line data provider to members on a growing range of HRM matters. The dynamic, lively and user-friendly site is being redesigned and expanded in collaboration with AHRMIO sponsor, Monster Worldwide and BeMore. The goal is to give it greater appeal and interest to the general public, while aiming also to become the main portal for sharing knowledge by HR specialists in the international HR world. The site includes a knowledge management system, which was developed for members in collaboration with Knowledge@Wharton. It also includes professional profiles, cv’s/résumés, vacancies, an interactive bulletin board and similar services with huge potential as a tool for information exchange and access to thinking at the cutting edge of HRM. Non-members can access only parts of the site. Member organizations can have their all vacancies posted on the AHRMIO website free of charge, and individuals can post their own resumes in a data base frequently searched by member organizations, particularly when searching for candidates for HR jobs.

“Sharing of Learning Experiences”: Work is under way to develop and add to the website a forum entitled “Sharing of Learning Experiences”, which will not only capture systematically HR best practices in AHRMIO organizations, but also provide members with an opportunity to exchange information on practices which were less successful. The forum can be updated and added to by individual members or their organizations.

Promotion of research with partner institutions on specific topics related to key thematic areas: AHRMIO has published its second Survey of HRM practices on behalf of its organizational membership, in collaboration with the Cranfield School of Management. A Survey on Work/Life balance, carried out on AHRMIO’s behalf by its sponsor, ORC Worldwide, will be presented at the 2007 conference. An exciting new research project on "Beyond Talent Management" is under development It will focus on what will attract and motivate the next generation to work for global organizations of all varieties (NGO, IGO and private sector) and identify best practices in talent management for the X and Y generations.

At AHRMIO we try to elicit as much feedback as possible from participants at our events, with the aim of constantly improving our services and tailoring them to the needs of our membership; from this feedback we have learnt that our members value highly the contacts they make at our conferences and seminars. This is vital to AHRMIO's success, and fundamental to our objective of bringing together HRM specialists from around the world, to discuss topics of common interest, to pool experience in overcoming obstacles and to make new friends. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the contacts AHRMIO members make, and indeed a significant number of people have seized new career opportunities through meeting other AHRMIO members.

Our new website features a career portal provided by Monster.com, with the opportunity for our members to publish job vacancies in their organizations; naturally this greatly increases the calibre, diversity and number of potential applicants. The career portal also allows members to post their CVs and search for jobs online.

A central feature of the new website – one that has most frequently been requested by our members – is the message board: an online forum for HR practitioners to share their experiences and ask for advice, follow web debates animated by selected HRM academics and specialists, or simply exchange information. Members will be able to post links to sites of interest here, as well as at the link library.

AHRMIO has been extremely successful in attracting world-renowned academics and business people to give keynote presentations and animate discussion groups at its annual conferences as well as to develop and deliver its other developmental/training programmes.

The Annual Conference is one of the principal activities of the Association. Since the Association’s inauguration in 2000, it has been staged in leading international venues (Geneva, Paris, Washington, Vienna, Noordwijk, Barcelona and Venice). The Conference is an indispensable meeting place for the profession to take onboard the latest thinking on HR and management practices and exchange knowledge and experiences with peers. Top international practitioners and academics give keynote presentations and animate discussion groups. Sponsors exhibit the latest HR-related products. The 2007 Conference will be hosted by the prestigious Wharton Business School, Philadelphia, on 12-14 September.

One of AHRMIO's key partners in this area is Knowledge@Wharton, an initiative of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Knowledge@Wharton provides AHRMIO members with access, through the AHRMIO website, to lively, interesting research-based articles about cutting-edge trends in human resources, strategic management, leadership and change, public policy, and other salient topics. AHRMIO has also built close ties with three other leading business schools, the Cranfield School of Management (UK), ESADE (Spain), the HEC School of Management (France) and the University of Geneva, which will be sharing their research.

A Newsletter is published periodically, with articles covering member news, the highlights of past conferences, and details of future training events and conferences. The newsletter is mailed to every member, and is also available online, exclusively to members. We actively encourage members to contribute articles and research and hope to develop the newsletter into a genuinely interesting and informative window onto our activities.