Welcome from Dale Gifford, Chairman and CEO, Hewitt Associates

They are also the relationship builders of your business, forging strong connections with key customers, and developing cohesive internal teams to solve challenging business issues. As you'll read in the UpFront feature about Hewitt's new book on the emerging workforce, managing your human capital in the 21st century is as important to your ultimate success as investing in research, technology, or facilities.

Other articles in this issue examine talent practices and processes from many different perspectives. The feature on CIT Group explores how a high-performance sales force was created to deliver on the aggressive growth plans of this leading financial services organization. So that nothing would be left to chance, new end-to-end people processes were put in place that encompassed everything from recruiting and hiring to training, development, and performance management.

As the UpClose article demonstrates, sometimes the best HR ideas come from the least expected places—like the factory floor. Discover how Alcoa applied a set of principles originally used in their production operations to improve HR service and control costs.

Be sure to read Part 2 of our exploration that began with the last issue of Hewitt on how HR can create better HR service delivery experiences for their internal customers. Hewitt's Global Service Leader for Customer Experience shares what we've learned using research, testing, and measurement on how to deliver the most effective customer experiences through the Web, service center, and print communications.

And the next time you're feeling in need of some inspiration to solve a knotty challenge, keep the interview with baseball legend Ron Santo close at hand. Ron shows how a positive mental attitude is probably the most important part of winning any game in life.

Enjoy!

Dale Gifford
Chairman and CEO, Hewitt Associates

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