A call to action from the PARE Conference in Tallinn
On April 23, David Ducheyne took the stage at the PARE Conference in Tallinn in his capacity as Vice President HR of the European Association for People Management (EAPM). His message was direct and uncompromising: HR stands at a defining moment, and the profession's future depends on the choices its practitioners make now.
A Profession Both Thriving and Threatened
HR has rarely mattered more, Ducheyne argued — and rarely been more at risk. Organizations need the function as never before, yet that need coexists with a real danger: that HR, if left unattended, drifts toward automation, irrelevance, and even resentment.
The answer to that paradox, he insisted, is not defensive. It is constructive. HR must build itself into a stronger profession, one that looks forward rather than backward, helps organizations master change rather than merely react to it, builds capabilities rather than accumulates policies, and ultimately helps people lead meaningful and sustainable lives.
This is what he called HR for the future. And it does not arrive on its own.
Three Conditions for the Future
Ducheyne outlined three requirements for HR to claim its place.
The first is voice. HR must speak — not only inside organizations, but in society itself. On work, wellbeing, performance, fairness, and decent work, the profession has something to contribute to public conversation, and silence is no longer an option.
The second is seriousness. The profession must hold itself to higher standards: more evidence-based in its practice, more disciplined in its methods, more self-confident in its judgments, and more courageous in what it says and does. And, pointedly, better than AI at the things that matter.
The third is connection. Openness within the HR community is necessary but not sufficient. HR must reach beyond its own boundaries — into business, technology, and society — because the challenges it faces cannot be solved by any single function alone.
These three conditions, Ducheyne suggested, are precisely what the European Association for People Management wants to advance. EAPM brings together 36 countries across Europe around a deceptively simple idea: that people matter.
Why Moments Like This Matter
Gatherings like the PARE Conference, Ducheyne emphasized, are more than celebrations. They are signals — that HR has a voice, that the profession is visible, that it creates value, that it drives innovation, and that its contributions extend beyond organizations into society at large.
They are also, importantly, a signal of intent: a commitment to keep getting better.
"If we don't celebrate our profession," he asked, "who will?"
The Most Difficult Function in the Organization
Ducheyne did not shy away from a candid assessment. HR, he said, is probably the most difficult function in any organization, and certainly not the most visible. But he was unambiguous about its importance: HR is the function that can shape the future of people in the organization more than any other.
The purpose, in his framing, is simple and demanding in equal measure: to ensure that people are both willing and able to perform, to grow, and to succeed, sustainably.
That, he concluded, is what makes HR matter. And that is what makes the profession worth building.
He closed with a word for the evening's nominees, congratulating them in advance regardless of outcome. They had already, he noted, shown what HR can do — and they had been noticed.
