CIPD Director General elected President of the World Federation of Personnel Management Association

CIPD Director General, Geoff Armstrong, will take on the presidency of the World Federation of Personnel Management Association (WFPMA), at the Human Resources Management World Congress in Brazil today (17 August).

Geoff Armstrong and Angela Baron, CIPD Organisation and Resourcing adviser, will speak on people and business performance at the congress. They will discuss how good people management policies can help achieve higher levels of job satisfaction and commitment - key issues that will help improve performance and contribute to the bottom-line in organisations around the world.

The congress will bring together a selection of HR professionals from across the globe to discuss more than 60 personnel management themes for the 21st century. The event has a range of international and national speakers, who will highlight successful human resource practices that can be used worldwide.

Geoff Armstrong, CIPD Director General and incoming President of the WFPMA, says: Around the world globalisation is affecting the way we work, in both developed and developing economies. People, more than ever before, are the differentiators between business success and business failure. People management and the HR profession are critical drivers of value and success in this new world. As organisations seek competitive advantage in a world where borders are less and less important, people management professionals face major challenges and welcome opportunities to deliver strategic advantage.

In this new global economy, people management professionals can learn much from each other. We will be using this congress to share CIPD’s groundbreaking research on the firm links between people and performance with colleagues from all corners of the world, and are looking forward to getting a global perspective on other issues facing our members. I look forward to using the presidency of the WFPMA over the next two years to cement relationships with our colleagues worldwide, and to promote the crucial role people management has to play in delivering economic growth and improved performance.

Luiz Edmundo Rosa, President of the tenth World Congress Conference, says: Brazil has many successful human resource practices that can be used by organisations worldwide. We work in a complex environment and have learnt to build a lot out of very little - most Brazilian organisations have very small budgets, but there is no limit to their potential for imagination and creativity.