Jason Jennings, best-selling author and business speaker, told the audience of compensation professionals at the 2006 WorldatWork Total Rewards Conference & Exhibition in Anaheim, California, that they were doing "the most important work taking place in business today."

TriNet, an HR outsourcing firm, recently invited two of its customers, both CEOs of small, entrepreneurial firms, to participate in a Webinar, sharing their strategies for survival in a recessionary economy. The session was moderated by Burton Goldfield, CEO of TriNet, which provides payroll services, recruitment, benefits administration, and other HR services to some 8,000 such firms.

The rising cost of health care and the growing use of outsourcing are two of the top trends HR professionals say will have the most impact on the workplace in the next 10 years, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).