Filtered Sessions

Arrived in Chicago early? Visit attendee services to pick up your conference badge or register on-site for SHRM24. Accessibility and housing assistance are also located here.

Visit attendee services to pick up your conference badge or register on-site for SHRM24. Accessibility and housing assistance are also located here.

Visit attendee services to pick up your conference badge or register on-site for SHRM24. Accessibility and housing assistance are also located here.

Visit attendee services to pick up your conference badge or register on-site for SHRM24. Accessibility and housing assistance are also located here.

If you haven’t already, visit attendee services to pick up your conference badge. Accessibility and housing assistance are also located here.

In every workplace, beyond the pressure of performance, meeting deadlines, and navigating change, there lurks a more daunting challenge: working with complicated people. You know the types – the overbearing boss who can't decide if they're a micromanager or an absentee leader, the colleague whose mood swings could give the stock market a run for its money, or the client whose demands could rival those of a diva on a world tour. When it comes to complicated people, we’ve got options. 1. We can ignore them. But this option doesn’t help us grow. 2. We can try to change them. But we don’t like when people try to change us. 3. We could cancel them. Are there some people that need to be cut out of our lives? Sure. But when they’re our boss, cutting them out of our lives also means cutting our paycheck. There’s a 4th option that can lead to effective collaboration. And that’s understanding them. How to Work With Complicated People is based on a new book by best-selling author and speaker Ryan Leak, who did a national research study on how to work with complicated people. In this session, Ryan will unpack strategies for effective collaboration with people we often find complicated. With humor, inspiration, and data-driven strategies, Ryan will help us move toward people we’d normally try to avoid. 

With more than 40 states having legalized cannabis in one form or another and at least two states legalizing the use of therapeutic ( psilocybin) mushrooms human resources professionals need to address these realities as they update and enforce their organization's drug and alcohol policies. This session will review federal and state laws as well as legal issues presented with this evolving issue.

Learning Objectives:

• Awareness of federal and state law issues.
• Update on reasonable accommodation as it relates to cannabis.
• Alert to legal pitfalls with health questionnaires involving drug use.
• EAP and other resources Practical approach to discipline and discharge.

In this session, you'll learn to help others feel seen, heard and valued through intentional connection!  You'll hear from Rob Lawless, who's spending 1 hour with 10,000 different people, on how he's spontaneously run into his new friends, what he's learned from the victim of a mass shooting and how he flew in a plane that the pilot had built himself.  Furthermore, you'll connect with each other using his FRIEND framework in 1:1 breakouts!

Learning Objectives:

• Facilitate Conversations - By knowing what questions to ask, individuals will have the ability to dig deeper in their conversations to connect on a more authentic level and create stronger relationships.
• Practice Active Listening - Active listening will ensure that conversations are meaningful and productive allowing for greater understanding and connection between people.
• Set Intentions For Connection - Becoming more intentional about connection will help audience members tap into the compounding value of relationships over time.

This is a must-attend session for HR leaders who want to lead transformation efforts that will proactively shape the future of HR and enable your organizations to remain competitive and to thrive in a continuously complex and rapidly evolving world. 

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the tools for how to master personal and organization transformation that is sustainable;
• Describe and apply eight important shifts that are necessary to remain relevant, strategic, and impactful in your role as an HR leader.
• Engage in interactive dialogue, self-reflection, and practical exercises that reinforce your learnings for immediate application.

In the dynamic Human Resources (HR) field, the emergence of Generative AI has presented a paradigm shift in how HR functions are performed. This session, titled 'Navigating the AI Landscape in HR: When to Rely on Generative AI vs. Consulting Expertise,' is designed to guide HR professionals in making informed decisions about integrating AI technologies while understanding the value and instances where human consultants are indispensable.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding Generative AI in HR and the capabilities and limitations of generative AI technologies in the HR sector. This includes discussions on AI-driven recruitment tools, employee engagement bots, AI in training and development, and predictive analytics for workforce planning, including workplace wellness.
• Delving into the scenarios where human consultants' nuanced understanding, empathy, and expertise are critical. Emphasis on areas like conflict resolution, complex decision-making, personalized career development, and legal compliance.
• Providing a framework for HR professionals to determine when to deploy AI solutions and when to engage human consultants. This includes factors like the complexity of the task, ethical considerations, cost-benefit analysis, and the need for human judgment and emotional intelligence.
• Analyzing the outcomes and lessons learned to provide practical insights into decision-making processes.
• Exploring the future trajectory of AI in HR and how professionals can prepare for a hybrid model that optimally utilizes both AI and human expertise.
• Discussions on upskilling HR professionals to work alongside AI technologies effectively.

Get an insider’s perspective on the federal workforce in this conversation with U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja. Ahuja is responsible for personnel management for the federal government, the nation’s largest employer. The session will include a discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing federal agencies in attracting, developing, and retaining top talent. She will also discuss the latest initiatives OPM is undertaking to modernize the hiring process, fostering a culture of inclusion, and create a more engaging employee experience. This session is a must attend for HR professionals who work with the government or face transformation challenges of their own.

On the heels of the mental health crisis, alcohol and substance use disorders (SUDs) have intensified during the pandemic and transition back to work. About 27 million –– 1 in every 6 –– working-age Americans now struggle with substance use disorders (SUDs) –– a 23% jump compared to pre-pandemic. About one-third of employers say alcohol is a problem in their workforce, and one-fourth say they are concerned about opioids or other SUDs among employees.

As businesses nationwide face rising costs of employee health care in 2024, substance use and addiction contribute to incurred costs of up to $532 billion per year for American companies and society. 64% of employers are enhancing health and well-being resources –– yet, less than 10% of employees are receiving treatment for addiction. So, why aren’t employees getting the help they need?

The barrier of stigma. Offering resources is only helpful to employees who feel comfortable enough to ask for help. Stigma around SUD in the workplace and in society poses a major hurdle for employees seeking assistance as they undergo treatment and pursue recovery.

In this session, you’ll hear the personal stories of employees struggling with addiction while wrestling the equally heavy burden of stigma at work. Learn how judgmental, stigmatizing language and actions from employers and colleagues can amplify the internal shame and anguish felt by those dealing with the chronic, treatable medical condition of SUD. You’ll also learn how stigmatizing behaviors at work can cause extreme isolation and heightened mental health concerns –– even the risk of suicide, making it nearly impossible for these employees to even imagine seeking help.

Learning Objectives:

• Hear from an exemplary company that has transformed its workplace to be more inclusive, positive and supportive for employees struggling with SUDs.
• Illustrate how best-in-class companies are banishing stigma and training employees to do the same.

CEOs speak the business language of goals, costs, and accountabilies, yet most HR executives continue to 'solve' turnover and engagement with traditional one-size-fits-all implementations like pay, benefits, and responses to engagement and exit surveys. This session includes research that first-line leaders are the greatest causes of turnover, retention, and engagement along with a specific 5-step process to move retention and engagement accountability from HR to operations executives and their management teams...where it has always belonged.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to partner with finance to place dollar values on employee turnover.
• Analyze data that results in establishing both new-hire and annual retention goals...and proving in most organizations that cutting new-hire turnover is the key to improving overall turnover.
• Combine costing turnover, forecasting turnover and applying other business-driven methods will lead their executives to establish first-line leader retention goals and accountabilities.

Increase employee engagement by understanding Gen Z Mindsets; review current research on employee loyalty; examine 'PHYGITAL' trends in the workplace (intersection of digital and physical); Re-think AI as a tool that benefits HR leaders and employees; and Leverage the Purpose Profit Loop to increase the impact of your HR strategies.

Learning Objectives:

• Apply Gen Z Mindsets at work.
• Learn about the Purpose Profit Loop and be able to apply it to your strategy planning.
• See the latest research driving today's trends from AI to employee engagement.

As we assume new responsibilities that come with our leadership roles, one of the most magical discoveries we make is our ability to effectively empower and build up others, and ourselves, through successful motivation. Whether working with the highest performers or ones with room for growth, smart leaders are constantly contemplating how to engage their teams and motivate them to succeed. Too often we rely on external rewards - like motivating a horse to run with the carrot on a stick - yet these can only work for so long. The people and projects we lead require different motivation styles and, as a leader, we have an obligation to customize our approach to maximize each individual's intrinsic motivation. In this session, we'll explore the building blocks of successful communication to enhance individual motivation and team engagement.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover the three types of motivation.
• Determine specific strategies to create an environment where intrinsic motivation is especially high.
• Reflect on current leadership practices, and apply new theories to enhance personal leadership.
• Establish a stronger community of like-minded individuals and rising thought-leaders.
• Develop an action plan to implement key lessons into project leadership.

Conflict happens. Everyone approaches conflict differently but usually in the way that makes them feel most comfortable. For some, this may be direct confrontation, but for others, it may be avoidance. As someone who deals with difficult situations every day, you're expected to assess each conflict individually while resisting the innate urge to drift into your personal comfort zone. Having the skills to resolve intense and stressful opposing opinions effectively is one of the biggest challenges in today's business world and is vital to success. This program uncovers results-focused strategies to help prevent, minimize and resolve conflict in the workplace, helping to work more collaboratively with both internal and external customers, to achieve successful outcomes and strive for enhanced relationships.

Learning Objectives:

• Enhance productivity and morale by fostering an environment that encourages differing points of view and enhanced personal accountability.
• Gain clarity, achieve buy-in, and make decisions in a way that cultivates support and leads to faster, more effective outcomes.
• Prevent and better control negative emotional reactions and resolve conflicts more collaboratively-allowing for healthier, stronger and deeper relationships-with individuals both within and outside the organization.

Empathy isn't a skill to be learned, it's a muscle we need to flex. We can all use practice putting ourselves in someone else's shoes. Showing compassion and working to connect with others has been shown to be a top trait of the most effective leaders. This program will use the framework of GIFT (Generosity, Initiative, Forward Momentum & Transparency) to help attendees navigate the path to becoming more empathetic leaders.

Learning Objectives:

• Make the case for empathy in leadership, what it is and why our leaders need it.
• Learn that it's all about flexing a muscle we already have, and how to more effectively engage that muscle.
• Use the framework of GIFT (Generosity, Initiative, Forward Momentum & Transparency) to navigate the path to empathetic leadership.

Did you know that 90% of women will have sole responsibility for their finances at some point in their lives?  Every investor has a unique life path, one that's dotted with milestones and perhaps a few pitfalls along the way.  However, women often face similar challenges and opportunities thanks to longevity and other trends.  Join this workshop to learn about what makes financial planning for your female employees particularly unique.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the stressors that your female workforce may face including diverse career paths and caregiving obligations.
• Outline the opportunities employers have to deliver custom financial wellness education and resources to meet their employees where they are today.
• Demonstrate how an employee's current life stage informs their financial planning challenges and opportunities.
• Recognize that a workforce empowered with sound financial planning fundamentals can reduce stress and enhance productivity at work.

In this session, we will explore the vital connection between key elements of Human Resources' Ambition and Strategy and their impact on worker safety. By analyzing data-driven correlations, we will delve into crucial aspects such as Employer of Choice Brand Recognition, Leader and Manager Effectiveness, Employee Engagement, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, The Future of Work (including hybrid teams and a multi-generational workforce), and Change Management/Organizational Resilience. Drawing on emerging world of work trends and predictive worker behavior, you will acquire a collaborative approach to enhance the psychological safety of your workforce in partnership with your internal stakeholders. We will provide practical guidance on driving impactful change and influencing others to take action. Additionally, we will assist participants in aligning HR's key performance indicators with safety outcomes, enabling Human Resources to play a compelling role in safety discussions and secure a seat at the table. Join us and discover how to strengthen your organization's commitment to worker safety while promoting HR's strategic value.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn world of work trends and their predictive impact on HR Strategy and Ambition.
• Understand how psychological safety, worker engagement, and belonging are coincidental.
• Correlate HR's strategic direction and KPIs to worker safety (physical and psychological).
• Gain actionable insights and guidance into improving worker engagement through collaboration with cross-functional leadership.

Traditional hiring methods are outdated and broken - a sentiment echoed by job candidates and employers worldwide. In the US, there are nearly two jobs for every candidate, experienced employees are aging out of the workforce, the accelerating pace of change at work and the explosive emergence of new skills and jobs mean companies are falling even further behind. With a shortage of quality candidates, employers need to streamline their process to attract talent and hire those with potential who can grow on a career path rather than just a job. We need a dramatically different approach to answer the question 'are we hiring the right people?' This presentation will show how AI allows us to understand the changing world of work - how jobs are related and what skills people need to develop to adapt. Rather than relying on what jobs a candidate has done in the past ('rearview recruiting'), we can assess for what they are capable of. Allowing candidates to showcase their personality traits, skills, and interests drives better candidate fit, improved performance, and retention.

Learning Objectives:

• Current uses of AI in talent acquisition.
• Where the space is going with Generative AI.
• How we can leverage the right kind of assessments to measure potential.
• How to get away from 'review recruiting'.
• How AI can actually improve fairness.

The last several years have brought unforeseen disruption and uncertainty that continues to evolve when it comes to the future of our organizations and economy, not just our work. Whether changing dynamics in what customers really need and want to economic and societal instability to what employees really want from their careers and lives. HR, Talent, OD, and L&D leaders are facing historic challenges in what the real priorities are, how we navigate an extremely competitive talent landscape, manage an exhausted workforce, and pressure to control costs.   To turn this around requires more than just hiring and training great people based on their job expectations and then holding them accountable during their year-end review. Through our work with over 150 companies in leading transformation from turnarounds to hyper growth and exhaustive research over the past three years, we will learn and immerse in the seven critical shifts and the necessary alignment we need in order to achieve what's Really Most Important now and for the long term transformation of our organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Shifts: Immerse into the seven critical shifts we must make as HR/Talent/L&D enterprises to lead the future of your organizations. Prioritize purpose over priorities. Foster ownership instead of engagement. Be an embedded partner instead of an order taker. Build capability rather than talent or skill. Emphasize value creation over job responsibilities. Focus on impact and revenue generation rather than metrics and being a cost center. Promote total well-being for employees instead of just managing their stress.
• Alignment: Align the seven critical shifts with the strategic priorities of your organization to forge inclusive solutions for both your customers and employees at the same time.
• Transformation: Achieve accountability and urgency organization wide to the critical objectives that exist today while building long-term enterprise value-no matter the scale of your initiatives.

All too often, we deeply want to be supportive to our coworkers who we know are experiencing grief, but we don't know how. In this session, Certified Dare to Lead Facilitator Holly O'Hern, gives individuals specific ways and options to be supportive - to others and to themselves - while drawing on real life experiences and moments of transformation.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about hidden types of grief and the many impacts of grief in the workplace.
• Learn common mistakes well-meaning people accidentally make that are not supportive to people who are grieving.
• Learn ways and options to support others who are grieving in lasting ways.
• Learn how grief-sensitive workplace cultures create inclusion and retention for more of their employees and make an impact.

Repeated on Tuesday at 12:30pm

Unmanaged workplace stress in the United States costs more than $300 billion annually in lost productivity, absenteeism, staff turnover, and medical, legal, and insurance expenditures. Many HR departments face escalating burnout, heightened workloads, and shortages. Navigating multiple competing priorities and changing organizational demands is compounded with uncertainty in the marketplace, workloads infiltrating their personal lives, and difficulty disconnecting from work. HR leaders will gain strategies to alleviate personal burnout and cultivate a growth-oriented mindset; equipping them to lead by example within their organizations.  Learn from a Doctor of Nursing with 14 years of experience in improving outcomes and strategically navigating leaders to mitigate burnout and operate at peak performance.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain awareness of the research-validated stages of burnout.
• Recognize the early signs and symptoms of leadership burnout.
• Self-identify with your current phase of the burnout cycle.
• Master targeted strategies to reduce burnout in you lives and career.

Americans could live an extra 19 years - if they pick the right employer. And for that benefit, they will shop for the right employer-don't you want to be on their list? Employers can spark healthy aging in their employees by empowering healthy lifestyles, investing in the social drivers of health, and focusing on well-being and prevention are strategies for success.  In this session, learn about the top 10 ways you and your organization can easily and effectively influence the health and well-being outcomes of your employees through a health equity lens. Explore tools, trainings, and evaluation techniques to gain the skills you need to drive employee health. When employers make decisions rooted in health equity, employees will live happier, healthier, and longer lives. Join us to see where your company can start!

Learning Objectives:

• Discover the biggest drivers of health inequities and HealthSpan among your employees.
• Learn about the top 10 employer-led actionable strategies to address health inequities.
• Begin creating your Workplace Health Equity plan to create change in your workforce.
• Connect with peers on the Health Equity journey to share ideas, struggles, and achievements for long-term health equity solutions.

Are you responsible for managing your organization's retirement plan? The key to success is a strong process. I know, it sounds boring but this presentation won't be! We will coach you through what proper plan management looks like, ideal fiduciary practices, a sample retirement plan committee meeting, investment monitoring practices, and what partners are necessary to ensure your organization's success. We'll share real life successes and failures that will help you create a successful process for your organization!

Learning Objectives:

• Understand fiduciary liability and how to mitigate.
• Establish and run a proper Retirement Plan Committee.
• Discover what partners to engage to support your retirement plan.
• Properly monitor investments.

After passage of the ACA and updates to it and ERISA, there are even more requirements that employers sponsoring health and other welfare plans need to ensure they are complying correctly. During this fast-moving session, one of SHRM's most highly rated speakers, Gary Kushner, SPHR, CBP will walk through 11 items you'll want to review to make sure you have all of the processes and documentation you'll need if your employer is ever the subject of a DOL audit of your health and welfare plans.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn what the DOL looks for when they do an audit (and what you can do to be totally prepared)
• Identify the pitfalls that many employers miss when sponsoring plans that can show up on audit.
• Understand the rules around electronic SPD and notice disclosures.

It seems like every time there's a new Artificial Intelligence application created to streamline an HR function, there are new laws or regulations right behind it! Legal liability surrounding the use of AI in HR continues to evolve and grow. Learn what laws, regs and guidance exist, learn what's coming in the future and learn how to comply.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the fast-changing legal protections that exist for employees in federal, state and local law, as well as at the EEOC, NLRB and other agency level;
• Learn what HR's obligations are under these new laws, regs and guidance;
• Get tips for best practices relating to the use of AI in HR software and functions - for both the employer and the employee.

Although deskless workers, or employees who rarely sit behind a desk to do their job, make up a sizable portion of the U.S. workforce, employers often struggle to find ways to meet these workers’ needs. To better understand the strategies used to encourage benefits enrollment and utilization among this group, SHRM partnered with Fidelity to conduct a survey of HR professionals. Join us as we dive into the results, and examine the best practices currently used within HR to engage deskless workers about their benefits.

Learning Objectives:

• Primary concerns that HR leaders have about deskless workers’ financial, life, health, and work well-being.
• The engagement strategies used to increase benefits enrollment, and utilization among deskless workers.
• Most effective engagement strategies used to increase benefits enrollment, and utilization among deskless workers.

Lately, the 'us' vs. 'them' rhetoric has attempted to fracture corporate DEI. 'Breaking Binary Barriers: Leading with Empathy in a Divided World' delves into the critical importance of discouraging binary mindsets in order to move away from the divisive 'us vs. them' culture and embrace empathy that fuels inclusion. In a world increasingly characterized by polarization, teams and leadership will need to have the tools necessary to cultivate a more willing, compassionate, and understanding future.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the detrimental effects of binary thinking and the urgency to challenge it.
• Embrace the value of empathy as an essential inclusion building tool.
• Acquire practical skills to encourage empathetic leadership within their spheres of influence.

Wouldn't hiring be easier if we just had a machine that could do it for us? Every CEO in the world will tell you there is nothing more important than talent. Yet, most of us still struggle to hire great talent. Tim Sackett is a talent acquisition expert and author of the SHRM best-selling book The Talent Fix, and he has written the instruction manual for all of us to build our own hiring machine. There are actually ten pieces you need to build a great hiring machine, and Tim will share each one in this session. 

• Attract more talent.
• Convert more candidates to applicants.
• Fill jobs faster.

You will leave with an exact roadmap and the tools needed to build your world-class hiring machine. Hiring is hard. Having a hiring machine that does most of the hard work for you will make your life exponentially better!

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how world-class talent acquisition functions do things differently in successful hiring.
• Be given a roadmap and understanding of how to build their own hiring machine.
• Develop more strategic talent attraction strategies.

The impact of reliable, safe child care for workers, their employers, and the broader economy is undeniable. As states explore how to help employers make quality care more affordable for their workforce, companies are stepping up, leaning in, and shaping policy.  In this session, explore what is working across the nation to make childcare more accessible and affordable, and the ways that employers are leading the charge.

Learning Objectives:

• Hear the economic impact and benefit of accessible, reliable care for an employer and the broader economy.
• Receive examples of how states that are innovating in the employer-sponsored child care space.
• This includes programs to match employer contributions, tax credits and deductions, and dedicated startup funds to help employers invest in their workforce.
• Discover the role of businesses in advancing STATE efforts to adopt employer incentive programs using case studies and examples.

In 2023, we saw a flurry of activity from various federal agencies targeting employment practices. As of this writing, we anticipate publication of the FTC's final rule effectively banning non-compete agreements as a key example.  When published, the rule is likely to face legal challenges. The DOJ and FTC continued to push their 'no poach approach.' Federal rules and guidance are also changing related to employers' sharing of wage and benefits information, M & A's, and more. Join this interactive program as we review the latest news, trends, cases, and pitfalls to avoid throughout the employment cycle from recruitment to separation.

Learning Objectives:

• Review applicable laws and recent court decisions impacting related policies and practices.
• Consider the most recent federal agencies' rules and guidance.
• Consider the legal question of 'Can we do this' balanced with the subjective, 'Should we do this?'

Repeated on Tuesday at 2:00pm.

Domestic abuse is a global epidemic impacting all demographic and socioeconomic sectors. The U.S. Center for Disease Control recognizes it as 'a serious public health problem that can have a profound impact on lifelong health, opportunity, and well-being.' What goes on behind closed doors affects every facet of our society. This workshop will teach HR professionals how to recognize the warning signs of abuse, support employees, and ensure the safety of all in the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the warning signs of domestic abuse.
• Support employees who are victims (or survivors) of domestic abuse.
• Ensure the safety of all when domestic abuse spills into the workplace.

Are you motivated and ready to take your career to the next level? Show employers that you have the HR expertise and competencies needed to drive organizational success by earning your SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP credential-the only HR certification anchored in behavioral competencies and backed by SHRM's 75 years of expertise in the industry. This session benefits anyone with an interest in learning what motivates HR professionals to pursue a SHRM credential, planning to apply for a SHRM credential, or already scheduled to sit for the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP exam. This session covers the practical basics of the SHRM certification exams and provides an opportunity to test-drive your readiness by answering sample questions.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine which exam is right for you.
• Explore the various in which you personalize your preparation plan.
• Gain best practices for studying.
• Get tips and tools to put you on the path to success.

Repeated on Tuesday at 2:00pm.

This must-attend presentation is crucial for HR professionals, department leaders, and agents of organizational change, focusing on enhancing HR's role in companies. Ideal for HR managers, business leaders, and strategic initiative teams, this session offers valuable insights and practical strategies. It's particularly beneficial for those in organizations where HR is primarily seen as administrative and for those aiming to elevate HR as a strategic business partner.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding the Transformation Blueprint: Attendees will learn a structured, step-by-step approach to transition HR from a traditional administrative function to a strategic entity within their organization, focusing on evolving roles and responsibilities.
• Gaining Real-World Insights: Participants will be equipped with knowledge from real-life case studies of successful HR transformations, including the challenges faced, strategies employed, and the outcomes achieved, providing them with a realistic perspective on the transformation process.
• Acquiring Practical Strategies for HR Innovation: The session will offer attendees practical and innovative strategies for key HR areas such as employer branding, talent acquisition, employee engagement, and effective use of technology, enabling them to implement these strategies in their own organizations.
• Learning Metrics of Success: This objective will focus on how to effectively measure and demonstrate the impact of HR initiatives, helping attendees understand the key performance indicators and metrics that show HR's value as a strategic business partner.
• Networking and Collaborative Learning: Attendees will have the opportunity to network with peers, share experiences, and discuss solutions to common challenges, fostering a collaborative learning environment. 

Developing cohesive global compensation reward programs for your organization that are also appropriately nuanced based on country cultures is a very challenging task! The primary objective is to realize the tried-and-true adage 'Think Globally and Act Locally' and have it embedded as the guiding principle in your organization. To accomplish this, it is imperative to develop and implement effective global compensation programs that are aligned with your organization's human capital strategic plans. In his presentation, John will discuss leading-edge compensation solutions, the factors that impact mobility decisions, and all of the necessary techniques to pay your global workforce equitably. Moreover, you will come away with a real-world 'global schematic' of compensation and total reward perspectives, methodologies and approaches that are practiced in premier international organizations. This will help you to fully optimize the design of your global programs with the result of attracting, retaining, motivating and engaging top performers all over the world.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn to develop effective compensation, benefits and well-being programs in complex multi-national organizations.
• Explore how well-being, recognition, and career development can be leveraged to attract, motivate, retain and engage your employees.
• Identify the challenges of managing international assignments and learn approaches for developing aligned compensation solutions.
• Understand internal and external influences that affect global compensation design and delivery.
• Receive a real-world 'global schematic' of compensation and total reward perspectives, methodologies and approaches that are practiced in premier international organizations.

Repeated on Tuesday at 12:30pm

The ability to develop innovative & strategic ideas for your organization is critical.  Equally important is the ability to move those ideas through approval to implementation.  This session will explore techniques and frameworks to expand organizational influence through the lens of an HR leader.  HR needs to build influence and power across their organization, within the C-suite and across the Board of Directors.  We will examine strategies and tools designed to maximize the interpersonal influence for the HR leader and help move initiatives from proposal to execution.  We will explore what is known to the scientific world about social power strategies and how this can be applied to our HR landscape.  Tips & tricks to be an effective CHRO will also be explored.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore five things to consider to maximize your interpersonal influence.
• Identify common strategies to gain alignment and 'get stuff done'.
• Analyz how decisions are made and how to expand the ability to impact.
• Discover the seven bases of power and how to apply to the workplace.
• Sharpen skills that will help advance careers.

Abrasive leadership, workplace bullying, and discrimination are all examples of toxic workplace cultures that can have a detrimental impact on employee morale, retention, and performance. Core values can play a critical role in preventing and addressing these issues by creating a strong foundation for workplace culture that supports respect, inclusion, and ethical behavior. Explore how core values can be used to prevent toxic workplace cultures and create a positive and supportive work environment.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the importance of core values in the company's culture.
• Create core values that are aligned with your culture.
• Address and understand the impact of toxic workplace cultures, including abrasive leadership, bullying, and discrimination, on employee morale, retention, and performance.
• Develop strategies for aligning core values and workplace culture to create a positive and supportive work environment.
• Learn how to make your core values part of your performance system.

Repeated on Tuesday at 3:30 pm

Post COVID19 HR has been challenged to break the mold of status quo and traditional leadership as it pertains to human capital. By understanding how to turn data into information HR practitioners will have the ability to transition from a cost center to a value-add center by leveraging HR analytics to create a proactive approach to create improved business outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Provide the true definition of human capital.
• Discuss a proactive approach to improve business outcomes.
• Understand how human biases impact HR analytics.
• Application of content.

More than ever, HR professionals must rely on collective strength, think differently, and continue moving forward. If we fail to adapt, we fail to move forward. As you continue to make the best of remote and in-person workplaces, the task of responding to problems as an HR professional in the hybrid culture is getting more demanding. It Is What You Make It reveals the keys to solving the problem instead of accepting it.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and overcome the common barriers to thinking and accepting situations as they are.
• How to think critically and imaginatively, explore new possibilities, and generate a range of effective solutions.
• Weigh connections and relationships.
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently.
• Be able to define a problem and apply various problem-solving tools and techniques.

Leading global health authorities are calling for employers to assess their work environments for risks to employee mental health. Occupational health and safety standards and regulations compel employers to mitigate workplace psychosocial risks, including low job control, work overload, and poor managerial support. These factors contribute to burnout, depression, and anxiety while increasing turnover and healthcare claims. Learn how to mitigate risks through impactful work design, company policies, and management practices that enhance organizational well-being.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine the new emphasis on psychological health and safety in the workplace.
• Discuss how and why global guidelines and regulations are compelling employers to practice psychosocial risk management.
• Explain what psychosocial risk management entails, how it works, and how multinational employers can implement evidence-based strategies to benefit individual and organizational well-being.

Repeated on Tuesday at 2:00pm

AI will rewrite the rules of performance, redirecting capacity to unlock new levels of innovation, creativity, and complexity. Sure, AI is the defining technology of our generation, but it won't define our generation. People will. After all, everything that will make or break the success of AI is fundamentally human: Acceptance, transparency, and cultural clarity. The leaders who cultivate these elements will find that their AI-enabled performance has no limits.

Learning Objectives:

• Hear how AI inherently opens capacity for employees to direct their focus to novel things.
• As tech strategy and governance is expected to grow significantly through 2026, learn how AI can (and should) play a role.
• From a leadership perspective, understand how to humanize AI for employees, and cultivate an environment of trust, transparency and acceptance.

Under the Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act and various state laws, employers must reasonably accommodate individuals who need changes in their work responsibilities due to their religious beliefs, observances, and/or practices. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Groff v. DeJoy imposed a new, higher standard for denying these requests: 'substantial'  undue hardship.  To avoid liability in this area, employers must understand the practical implications of the new standard and change their processes accordingly. In this session, Jennifer Shaw, a nationally recognized expert in this area, will debunk common myths and provide practical guidance to help keep your organization out of court.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the new 'undue hardship' standard.
• Learn how to best document reasonable accommodation requests and your responses.
• Understand how to determine if a religious belief is 'sincerely held,' and when to require documentation.
• Learn best practices for engaging in the accommodation process.

Repeated on Tuesday at 2:00pm

In this session, you will learn a value-based approach to designing organizations that goes beyond the org chart or job descriptions. You will gain valuable insight to help guide your organization past potential pitfalls and toward the key drivers or capabilities that you're trying to impact. And you'll leave with an understanding of how to build your organization's blueprint to ensure future-state success.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine a value-based decision approach to designing the organization based on future-state capabilities (rather than jumping straight to an org chart).
• Explain new and different steps for designing and/or redesigning both the organization as well as roles and capabilities of the organization.
• Apply a value-based approach for org design with a blueprint that articulates the high-level architecture for the organization's roles, culture, and structure.

Join us for an insightful session exploring how global retail giant H&M is spearheading a groundbreaking transformation in Human Resources. Discover the strategic initiatives, innovative practices, and cultural shifts that propelled H&M to redefine the HR landscape, setting new standards for the industry. From upskilling to fostering inclusivity, to empowering employees and driving organizational excellence, learn how H&M's visionary approach to HR leadership is shaping a historic paradigm shift, inspiring businesses worldwide to rethink their HR strategies for the future. This session promises to unveil key insights and actionable takeaways for HR professionals, leaders, and organizations striving to embrace change and drive sustainable success in the ever-evolving global marketplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding Strategic HR Transformation: Explore the importance of strategic planning in HR transformation and how it can be applied to their organizations.
• Driving Organizational Change Through HR Leadership: Gain insights into how HR leadership can inspire, and effect change across an organization and adopt a leadership approach that fosters innovation and transformation.

Repeated on Tuesday at 11:00am.

In an era where the stakes of I-9 compliance are higher than ever and audits are increasing, join us for strategic insights and actionable strategies to help your organization navigate the complexities of the Form I-9 and reduce risk. I-9 guru, John Fay, will discuss the latest on E-Verify obligations, how virtual verifications are working for those who qualify, how to help avoid discrimination, and what audits are uncovering.

Learning Objectives:

• Virtual Efficiency: Optimizing I-9 Completions in a Digital Landscape a. Unlock the secrets to streamlining I-9 processes in the new virtual environment. b. Discover innovative approaches to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of your I-9 completion workflow.
• E-Verify Evolution: Navigating Impactful Changes for Employers a. Stay ahead of the curve by understanding the dynamic evolution of E-Verify. b. Explore the implications for employers and learn how to adapt to the latest developments.
• Decoding Trends: Analyzing I-9 Penalty Decisions a. Gain a deeper understanding of emerging trends in I-9 penalty decisions. b. Arm yourself with knowledge by analyzing real-world cases, ensuring your organization is well-prepared for potential pitfalls.
• Risk Reduction Toolbox: Actionable Tips for Your Organization a. Equip your organization with practical and actionable tips to proactively reduce your I-9 compliance risks. b. Implement proven strategies aligned with the latest regulatory standards, helping to safeguard your organization from potential pitfalls.

As our world continues to experience accelerated change, overwhelming complexity, and increased competition, the most successful leaders are those who can transition from a risk-averse to a risk-ready growth mindset. This session explores the transformation leaders need to undergo, both individually and organizationally, and will offer cutting edge strategies and best practices for how to cultivate a culture that thrives on calculated risk-taking, innovation, and problem solving to achieve sustainable results.

Learning Objectives:

• Walk away with greater knowledge, tools, and best practices for how leaders must reframe their view of risk from something to be avoided to something to be strategically managed.
• Identify the benefits of fostering a workplace culture that encourages creativity,  forward-thinking, and problem solving.
• Apply the steps necessary to bounce back from setbacks, adapt to change, and maintain momentum in the face of uncertainty.

This session will discuss the power of empathy to build bridges through self-reflection, proximity, and direct engagement. Topics Covered: Diversity and Inclusion; Company Culture; Racial Reconciliation; WHY IT MATTERS; The impact of the pandemic will be felt for generations worldwide. The current pace of change and ongoing cultural friction is creating an opportunity for difficult conversations around the virtual water cooler and our dinner tables. These conversations can result in a desire to 'cancel', confront, or ignore those who see our world differently.  As professionals navigating the tensions between personal beliefs and experiences and company values, how can we lean in to make positive change in our workplace, families, and communities?   Session snippets include:  Empathy does not require perfection; it requires authenticity and humility. Bridges don't begin until there is nothing underneath them. On our road toward greater inclusion and diversity, we must remember that there is no change in shame.

Learning Objectives:

• Increase cultural awareness and understanding.
• Encourage interpersonal growth in a diverse environment.
• Build bridges to develop an inclusive organizational culture.

Have you ever heard someone say, 'I will NEVER understand her!', 'That's not how I would have reacted', or 'We will just NEVER get along.' If so, you're not alone. HR reports spending an average of 42 percent of their time dealing with employee disputes. Wouldn't your life be more enjoyable if everyone at work could just get along? Uncover the secrets to working with the most difficult team members and learn why the 'golden rule' is wrong when it comes to workplace communications.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand your unique communication style and how it plays out on your team.
• Recognize the distinct style of coworkers, managers, and direct reports.
• Learn to value and appreciate the different qualities that each individual brings to the team.
• Adapt to, welcome, and respect various personalities among team members to move toward a common goal.
• Work successfully and efficiently as part of a solid and high-functioning team.

Learning Objectives:

• Speak to various stakeholder groups in language that resonates with them.
• Counter employee resistance to diversity efforts.
• Incorporate culture-building principles when developing DEI strategy.
• Effectively engage executives as DEI ambassadors.
• Build empathy across audiences for underrepresented employee groups.
• Use technology to amplify Your DEI message.

All aboard for a high-speed journey into the future of HR with AI! This session is your express train to mastering AI-driven efficiency. Learn to swiftly navigate AI prompts, keeping your HR strategy on the fast track. Discover how to manage your 'passengers' effectively, translating complex employee challenges into actionable AI solutions. It is perfect for HR professionals eager to accelerate decision-making, steer your HR department towards increased productivity, and direct your organization towards unprecedented success.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and Master the Key Elements of Effective AI Prompts.
• Master the essential components of effective AI prompts, including role, context, clarity, and specificity to improve communication and the application of AI in various HR functions.
• Translate HR Challenges into Structured AI Queries  Develop skills to critically evaluate HR issues and effectively translate these challenges into structured AI queries to obtain solutions you can immediately implement.
• Differentiate Between Simple and Complex AI Prompts for Diverse HR Scenarios.
• Learn to distinguish between simple and complex prompts, understand their appropriate applications in diverse HR scenarios, and expand your HR and business capabilities using AI technology.
• Implement AI Strategies for Enhanced HR Decision-Making and Efficiency.
• Apply AI strategies and tools to improve decision-making processes and improve HR operational productivity.

Most engagement efforts focus on workplace engagement. In fact, billions of dollars are invested annually to improving engagement, workplace culture,  and leadership.  But Gallup claims 67% of the workforce continue to be disengaged or actively disengaged.  What gives? Research and case studies from Bob Kelleher's  book, I-Engage, Your Personal Engagement Roadmap highlight that workplace engagement is often triggered by what happens at home as much as  what happens at work.  If an employee is not happy in life, they will struggle to find engagement at work.   Do you know what engages you or your people? Do you know why or your employees are or aren't engaged? Are your positive or negative emotions driving your engagement? In this reflective session, discover the secrets to job fulfillment, the impact one's home and personal life have on workplace engagement, and proactive steps to boost engagement at both a personal level, and with employees you manage. You will learn key exercises and tools to unleash a holistic approach to engagement.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to engage the WHOLE employee.
• Coach employees to booster their personal engagement.
• Steps to become more engaged as an individual and to identify warning signs of disengagement with people you manage.
• Underst the two sides of engagement: personal and organizational.

Sha'Kiera Star and Ed Frauenheim seem to have nothing in common. But this unlikely pair bridges differences of race, class, gender and education to offer a nourishing example of human connection and a hopeful message about inclusion and belonging.   The story of their friendship - and the actual stew they cooked together -shows what's possible when people from distant social worlds meet each other with patience, vulnerability, humility and compassion -not to mention a big dash of playfulness.

Learning Objectives:

• The power of personal relationships to bridge differences, build understanding and cultivate dedicated allies of under-represented populations.
• How we can and must pierce the 'paper ceiling' that arbitrarily holds back people without conventional college degrees.
• How our organizations and wider social systems are based on relentless, unhealthy pressures to compete and get ahead--stresses that take a toll even on the cis-gender, straight, white men who benefit most from the status quo.
• The soulful recipe for inclusive cultures of belonging: patience, a sense of adventure, vulnerability, humility, compassion and playfulness.

Repeated on Tuesday at 11:00 am.

HR professionals need to be able to spot deception when conducting investigations and interviewing and hiring applicants. While research shows that the average person is lied to twice a day, most people are extremely poor at spotting deception because they rely on inaccurate stereotypes about how people behave when they lie. In this engaging and interactive session from a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney, you will watch videos and examine case studies to learn how to spot signs of deception and truthfulness.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn which signs of deception are valid and which are based on myth (such as the mistaken beliefs that liars don't look you in the eye and are fidgety).
• How to spot scientifically validated signs of deception, including verbal and non-verbal cues.
• How to spot signs of deception and truthfulness when conducting investigative interviews.
• How to spot deception when interviewing and hiring applicants.

The realm of HR is not exempt from the challenges faced by smaller organizations or single-person HR departments. 'Directing the Solo Symphony' unveils the difficulties unique to these setups and empowers HR leaders to overcome them. Solo HR professionals play a pivotal role in their organizations, often juggling multiple responsibilities. This session acknowledges their unique challenges and provides strategies for tackling them effectively.  Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of HR management, transforming from task-oriented roles to strategic decision-makers. They will discover how to transition from an operational role to a strategic leader, while also evolving from practical application to a true innovator, paving the way for increased organizational impact. This session provides a harmonious blend of insights, practical solutions, and inspirational stories to equip solo HR professionals for success.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and overcome the challenges faced by solo HR professionals.
• Develop skills for transitioning from an operational role to a strategic leader within small HR departments.
• Explore innovative practices and strategies for achieving greater organizational impact.
• Gain inspiration and practical solutions for excelling in a one-person HR department.

Repeated on Tuesday at 2:00pm

An accommodation revolution is coming! This presentation examines legal changes to Title VII workplace accommodations.  Historically, Title VII required minimal employer concessions in terms of accommodations. Recently, statutes and cases expanded the scope of accommodation protections in Title VII. These changes constitute an 'accommodation revolution.' Employers will need to make increasing concessions to employee needs that were previously only available under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Are you ready for the accommodation revolution?

Learning Objectives:

• Increase understanding of the history and operation of Title VII.
• Increase understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Provide information on recent legal changes in Title VII concerning accommodations.
• Increase understanding of the scope of reasonable accommodations.

Do you put off handling difficult discipline discussions? Have you ever 'had enough' and said, 'You are fired'. The discipline process is like a movie; with staging, actors, props, rehearsal, and scripts and you are the star. This presentation will give you tips and strategies to direct an Oscar winning movie. You will learn where we go wrong, how to prepare for the rehearsal, and a best practice discipline process and even if you are the 'Terminator' you will receive a standing ovation.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand a different perspective on the discipline process.
• Learn tips and strategies for successful communication of expectations.
• Identify what goes wrong and why.
• Learn about documentation and 'how to say it' strategies.

In this session, we'll explore how AI-powered tools can enhance your communication skills, enabling you to personalize your messages to connect with your audience on a deeper level. We'll also discuss content strategies that improve your influence in your industry through tailored AI-driven approaches.  The session will include practical tips and success stories and how to apply them effectively while integrating the one thing that AI can't achieve, empathy and emotions.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain a comprehensive understanding of how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping communication strategies and its relevance in various contexts.
• Discover techniques for using AI to identify and personalize your messaging and content, allowing you to connect with your target audience and increase audience engagement.
• Explore strategies and tactics for leveraging AI to build your brand in various contexts, such as brainstorming and content strategies.

Repeated on Tuesday at 3:30pm

Wellness has become of of the major areas of focus in corporations and organizations worldwide. Employee health and mental wellness are critical to the overall culture, recruitment, and retention. This high-energy session will analyze our mantra, 'Self-Care Is A Precursor to Wellness!' Employees and leaders must take 'ownership' of self-care for wellness to penetrate the culture.  This session will provide tools to accomplish this goal. How to inspire your employees to own their own wellness journey.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the three critical areas of self-care and their application in the workplace.
• Learn simple strategies to help employees take ownership of their wellness journey via self-care.
• Be revived in your wellness journey via self-care.
• Learn self-care best practices and the research associated with it.

Today's workplace demands a shift. Wellbeing isn't just talk, it's a priority. In 2022 APA survey, 81% consider employee mental health important when job hunting. What about employees who struggle? Discover how to help employee move from languishing to flourishing and reach their potential.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore the importance of addressing overall employee mental health, not just mental illness.
• Learn how the modern workplace has evolved beyond buzzwords, with employee wellbeing becoming a critical to recruiting and retaining employees.
• Gain insight into strategies that empower employee wellbeing to unlock their potential, find meaning and flourish at work.

Repeated on Tuesday at 12:30pm.

Businesses struggle with communication on a good day so having unnecessary or unresolved conflict added in will only cause deeper structural and organizational flow issues. And while conflict management is a useful skill to exercise, the lack of understanding of forgiveness as a piece of that plan will lead to more repeated situations with those same involved individuals.

Learning Objectives:

• To be able to identify the mired and conflicted communication snags in conflict management within an organization.
• To be able to define what forgiveness (in a business context) is and isn't.
• To be able to practice functional forgiveness as a methodology in conflict resolution and in sustained, healthy internal communication.

In recent memory, has there been any entertaining content providing better instruction to organizations and to human resources leaders than 'Ted Lasso'? The show's focus on the very human aspects of running an organization make clear how important our human capital is to our success.  This session will use the wonderfully people-centric 'Ted Lasso' as the vehicle through which important topical human resources issues will be addressed. Invite inspiration from this nontraditional source, allow Ted and his friends to guide your organization, and . . .  Believe!

Learning Objectives:

• Examine current issues confronting human resources and develop practical solutions to address those problems.
• Discover resources that can be utilized to enhance retention and recruitment for you organization.
• Evaluate the Human Resources concerns confronting our organizations and establish practical and business-focused solutions.

In this engaging presentation, John inspires the audience to embrace a CEO's viewpoint on HR by emphasizing two vital qualities: passion and ownership. Acquire valuable insights and strategies to transform your workplace through the power of human resources. Embrace the life-changing impact that amazingly awesome HR can have on your employees, organization, and community. Attendees will walk away with a personalized, strategic plan to do HR Like a Boss.

Learning Objectives:

• Adopt a CEO Perspective: Gain the ability to view HR through the lens of a CEO, understanding the strategic importance of passion and ownership in driving organizational success.
• Strategic Insights: Acquire valuable insights and strategies to leverage the power of human resources, transforming the workplace to enhance employee engagement and overall productivity.
• Keys to Exceptional HR: Embrace the essential elements that contribute to amazingly awesome HR, focusing on making a lasting impact on employees, the organization, and the broader community.
• Concrete Action Plan: Develop a tangible, actionable plan to implement HR Like a Boss principles, ensuring practical application and positive outcomes in the workplace.

This session delves into the crucial balance between embracing technological advancements and preserving the irreplaceable value of human connection in the workplace.  As we witness a paradigm shift towards AI integration and hybrid work models, this talk addresses the pressing need for businesses to re-evaluate and strengthen their approach to human interactions. While technology offers unprecedented efficiencies and capabilities, it also poses challenges to the traditional dynamics of workplace relationships and customer engagement. This session explores how businesses can leverage these technological advancements to enhance, rather than diminish, human connections.  Key highlights include:  Understanding the Current Landscape: A comprehensive look at the technological trends shaping the future of work and their impact on employee and customer relationships.  The Psychological and Business Case for Human Connection: Insights into why human interaction remains a cornerstone for emotional well-being and business success, even in a technologically advanced landscape.  Strategies for the Hybrid Work Environment: Practical approaches for fostering a connected, collaborative, and supportive culture in a hybrid workplace. Empowering Human Resources: Specific tools and methodologies for HR professionals to lead the charge in nurturing workplace relationships in the era of AI and automation.  Future-Proofing Businesses through Empathy and Connection: How businesses can stay ahead by integrating empathy and human-centric approaches into their strategies.  This session is not just a conversation but a call to action for HR professionals to be the architects of a workplace that values human connection as much as technological efficiency. Attendees will leave equipped with actionable insights and strategies to make human empathy a core component of their organizational culture in this high-tech era.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the Impact of AI and Automation on Work Dynamics: Gain insights into how technological advancements, especially AI and automation, are reshaping the traditional workplace and employee interactions.
• Recognize the Importance of Human Connection in Business: Learn about the critical role of human interaction and empathy in maintaining employee morale, customer satisfaction, and overall business success in a high-tech environment.
• Identify Strategies to Enhance Employee Engagement: Discover effective methods to foster a supportive, connected, and empathetic work culture, particularly in hybrid or remote work settings.
• Develop Skills to Balance Tech Efficiency with Human Interaction: Acquire practical skills to utilize technology as a tool for enhancing human connection, rather than as a replacement, ensuring a balanced approach in business operations.
• Apply Human-Centric Approaches in Leadership: Understand the principles of human-centric leadership and how to apply these in managing and motivating a diverse and technologically integrated workforce.
• Create Customer Experiences that Value Personalization: Learn how to design and implement customer service strategies that prioritize personalization and human touch, even when using digital platforms.

This session will share keys for the successful utilization of corporate engagements with higher education institutions.  In today's fight for high quality talent, business leaders are often unaware of how the implementation of academic partnerships can be a long-game strategy worth investing in. Along with developing a pipeline of future potential employees, academic partnerships are an effective model for supporting tomorrow's workforce career readiness, for activating DEI goals aimed at providing access opportunities, and for building community via goodwill.

Learning Objectives:

• Research based insight about Gen Z employees and what they are looking for in the workplace.
• Understanding the impact of corporate partnership with academic institutions as a pipeline for engaging Gen Z future employees.
• How to build a success academic partnership.

Repeated on Tuesday at 12:30pm.

Dave Barnett, Chief Administrative Officer at DeVry University, shares how Human Resources leaders can navigate challenges and redefine the employer-employee relationship amid continuous, global shifts in what we do and how we work.  Participants will learn strategies to intentionally shape a caring, empathy-driven culture, while enabling achievement of exceptional results.

Learning Objectives:

• Walk away with a clear framework for how to assess culture in the context of an aspirational cultural state.
• Receive examples of specific practices that can be leveraged to create a sense of belonging, a culture of care and mission/strategy/culture alignment.
• Discuss a process for how this work can then be leveraged into crafting a compelling employee value proposition.
• Understand how these efforts can translate into tangible organization-wide outcomes and results.

Tired of telling managers it's their job to manage abrasive workplace behavior, not yours? Do you wish they'd find the courage to stop bullying by bosses? This session will show  HR professionals how to motivate leadership to intervene and stop the suffering. Most abrasive leaders can change, but only if their managers motivate them to transform their leadership styles using the correct strategy: conduct intervention.

Learning Objectives:

• The five steps of courageous conduct intervention.
• How to motivate leaders to manage unacceptable conduct: growing their Management Backbone.
• Dealing with leadership anxiety and defensiveness.

Evolving from Thin to Thick Clarifies Communication & Expedites Effectiveness Trust is the foundation for every relationship. Some people start off naturally trusting while others require it to be earned. Without it, time is wasted and the wrong problems are solved.  WHY IT MATTERS How do you decide to trust someone or not? In business, it's not an either/or proposition. We trust our colleagues, supervisors and subordinates in varying degrees, from thin to thick. The thicker the better  An Ownership Mindset enables individuals to engage in conversations that cause the evolution of trust to progress. Using the filters of Care, Commitment & Competence, trust can be built into a strong foundation.  Using a mouse trap to unveil numerous principles that exist within a trusting relationship, Greg engages the audience in a trust exercise like you've never experienced before!  Understanding trust indicators that exist both on teams and between individuals will catapult your ability to thicken up trust!

Learning Objectives:

• Learn why someone might not trust you.
• Explore the contrasting realities between thin and thick trust on teams.
• Understand how vision contributes to empowering trust.
• Grasp the cost of thin trust.
• See how trust is a tangible experience.

Wasted time is wasted money, and the core cause of wasted time is poor communication. Conflict is inevitable at every level of interaction, from entry-level employees to C-Suite. Challenge the notion of conflict resolution and reframe effective collaboration as 'getting comfortable with friction.' By standing confidently on your own values and fully understanding the intentions of your colleagues, you will learn to approach discord courageously and increase the likelihood of a positive outcome.

Learning Objectives:

• Apply techniques to navigate friction before it becomes conflict.
• Demonstrate intentional responses to different perspectives.
• Utilize tools for becoming bravely curious when you don't really want to talk about it anymore.

HR professionals face mounting pressure to develop centralized governance policies for AI hiring tools to comply with legal obligations and meet DEI and accessibility priorities. This session will share actionable guidance to help mitigate and manage bias and discrimination risks for these tools, with a focus on the new NIST AI Risk Management Framework Inclusive Hiring Profile developed in partnership with NIST by a team of industry, advocacy, and government collaborators (anticipated release mid-2024).

Learning Objectives:

• What artificial intelligence (AI) is, and how HR professionals are using it to recruit and assess candidates.
• The landscape of AI risks in HR, including new guidance and procedures from EEOC & OFCCP and state regulatory efforts.
• Sample questions to ask vendors.
• How your organization can develop an AI governance framework to help mitigate and manage the risks that AI hiring systems may carry.
• Suggested actions, activities, and documentation for AI Hiring Tech, aligned to the NIST Risk Management Framework's four key functions (Govern, Map, Measure, and Manage).

Research has shown that high levels of resilience can deliver valuable outcomes for organizations, helping employees recover faster from difficulties, reduce stress, improve job performance, and sustain higher levels of wellbeing. Leaders and employees alike must learn skills to be able to thrive in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world. This session presents a model of resilience that supports in recovering from setbacks and tools for bouncing forward to higher levels of success. Resilience is a way of thinking and not a fixed trait that is 'hard wired' in us. Just like a muscle, we can practice and strengthen our patterns of thinking and behaviors. This session introduces 8 validated components of resilience. The focus is on strengthening overall wellbeing and adaptability, which drives innovative solutions and better business results. The program also provides tools and techniques for building resilient organizational cultures and teams.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the benefits of increased resilience for individuals, teams and organizations.
• State the eight validated components of resilience.
• Apply a model of resilience to help teams recover from setbacks and bounce forward to higher levels.
• Identify your organization's resilience strengths and how to enhance areas for development.
• Apply tools and techniques to increase adaptability and ingenuity.
• Apply tips to build a resilient organizational culture and teams.

Too often, senior executives,  leaders and high performers  operate under their own outrageous 'Big Shot' rules causing distrust and turnover,  brand crushing headlines and social media spread, compliance crises and performance  related disasters. Examples arise in every industrial sector including healthcare, education, finance, utilities, public, and private employment.  This  practical session will provide an HR strategy and tools  for preventing and addressing 'Big Shot' misconduct before it causes lasting public,  team and organizational damage.

Learning Objectives:

• Consider several high-profile examples and recent cases where senior leaders or 'high performers' engaged in routinely outrageous behaviors which caused significant harm inside and outside their organizations explaining why and how it was tolerated;
• Discuss strategies involving Board, C Suite and team members which will prevent or correct such problems benefitting talent acquisition, staff retention, performance, diversity, inclusion and results;
• Discuss strategies for addressing the 'conceptual resistance' that allows blatantly improper behaviors to continue, causing others to avoid speaking up or, if in leadership roles, failing to address such behaviors.

In an era where technology seamlessly integrates into every aspect of our lives, the domain of personnel monitoring has seen revolutionary advancements. This topic, 'The Cutting Edge of Personnel Monitoring: Ethical Implications and Technological Innovations', invites participants to explore the latest monitoring technologies in the workplace while critically examining their implementation's ethical boundaries and implications.

Learning Objectives:

• Technological Advancements in Personnel Monitoring will showcase the latest innovations in employee monitoring tools. It includes discussions on AI and machine learning algorithms for behavior analysis, advanced biometric systems, real-time GPS tracking, and sophisticated digital productivity tools. Melissa will provide insights into how these technologies transform employee management, productivity assessment, and workplace security.
• Ethical and Privacy Considerations will be on the ethical dilemmas posed by these technologies. This includes debates on privacy rights, the fine line between monitoring and surveillance, employee consent, and the ethical use of personal data. Legal perspectives on the current regulatory frameworks and guidelines for ethical monitoring practices will also be discussed.
• Balancing Efficiency and Ethics will aim to strike a balance between the efficiency and effectiveness offered by monitoring technologies and the ethical considerations they raise. This includes exploring best practices for transparent and respectful implementation of these systems in the workplace.
• Commonly used productivity tools like Microsoft 365 and Google Cloud, while primarily designed to enhance workplace efficiency and collaboration, also possess capabilities that can be utilized for personnel monitoring. These tools can be deployed for monitoring purposes. This topic will touch on how crucial it is to balance the operational benefits with ethical considerations.

'The Future of Workplace DEI&A Programs in the Wake of the US Supreme Court decision in Harvard/UNC.' The spotlight is on workplace DEI&A programs like never before.  The US Supreme Court's June 2023 decision on affirmative action in higher education (Harvard/UNC) does not directly affect workplace DEI&A programs, but one of the results of the decision has been an increase in litigation and other challenges to corporate DEI&A programs.  These challenges include employment practices designed to increase workplace diversity, including hiring and promotional practices.  There are also challenges to internship, mentorship and other workplace programs designed to increase inclusion, not to exclude individuals based on gender, race, etc.  Learn the current legal and risk landscape for corporate DEI&A.  This session will (a) provide a general overview of the 'state of the law;' (b) highlight specific workplace practices under the DEI&A rubric that are unlawful or legally risky; and (c) suggest specific DEI&A practices that will help employers achieve the business value of DEI&A and at the same time lessen their exposure to litigation and/or lability.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the current legal landscape for organizational DEI&A programs.
• Hear effective strategies to keep your DEI&A programs on the right side of the law.
• Maintain inclusive workplaces in the face of legal and cultural headwinds.

With its holding in Dobbs v. Jackson Healthcare in 2021, the United States Supreme Court newly invigorated the debate as to state-level rights and restrictions respecting abortion related treatments and services. Regardless of individual perspectives on the issue, the Dobbs decision squarely placed the regulation of abortion related treatments and services in the hands of voters and the state legislatures. With this new authority, many states have already expanded and/or further enshrined abortion protections, while several other states have already utilized this newfound authority to restrict or even ban abortion all together.   For the private employee benefit plan sponsor, these state-level legislative activities raise a bounty of legal and regulatory issues due to both a generalized lack of consistency across the nation, as well the many intricacies involved in the operational requirements of a plethora of laws and regulations. Few times in our history have private employers been drawn so robustly into what many individuals perceive to be a personal (and private) medical debate. Nevertheless, here we are today. Employers must now come to terms with an extensive, ever-evolving slate of contrasting state-level rights, restrictions, and other related legal obligations.   Join us for this timely session to examine the current national abortion landscape. We'll explore abortion-related rights and restrictions placed upon both employees and private employers, as well the options and alternatives for those employers seeking compromises and/or alterative solutions to the dilemma of state-level regulation of abortion related treatments and services.  Learn and understand the current landscape of abortion-related treatments and services regulation throughout the United States.

Learning Objectives:

• Evaluate and understand the current national legal and regulatory landscape affecting individual access to abortion related treatments and services.
• Explore and understand the potential law enforcement consequences arising from a private employer's failure to abide by national state-level restrictions placed upon abortion-related treatments and services.
• Learn and understand options and alternative available to private employers seeking to preserve and/or expand an employee's right to access abortion-related treatments and services.
• Explore employee communication styles, methodologies, and other alternatives for fostering a legal and safe environment for discourse among a private employer's leadership and its workforce related to abortion-related requirements and access issues.

This presentation will delve into the latest trends in employee screening, with a particular focus on the effects AI can have on compliance measures. It will also explore the legal aspects of screening, specifically examining FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) and EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) trends and the latest lawsuits. Attendees will gain insights into the evolving landscape of employee background investigations, the challenges posed by emerging technologies, and the critical need for compliance with these crucial legal regulations.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the latest techniques and trends impacting employers globally when it comes to compliance and avoiding litigation.
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between AI-driven employee screening and FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) and EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) regulations, including their key provisions and implications for compliance.
• Identify common compliance challenges and pitfalls related to AI and its impact on the screening industry, specifically within the context of FCRA and EEOC, and learn strategies to effectively navigate these legal requirements.
• Explore some of the latest examples of lawsuits impacting employers, including EEOC's latest stance on employer violations, gaining practical insights into the consequences of non-compliance and how organizations can avoid legal issues.
• Acquire actionable knowledge on creating and implementing robust compliance processes and policies that ensure the highest level of due diligence and minimize potential risk, including the use of AI in that process.  In addition, fostering a culture of transparency and fairness in the hiring process.

Repeated on Tuesday at 2:00pm

Who's exempt? Who's an employee versus an independent contractor? Are you are a joint employers? What are the penalties for errors? These and other issues have recently undergone major regulatory and policy reforms. This program will provide an overview of these developments and best practices for responding to them. In addition, the program will address some errors that, despite their best intentions, employers all too commonly make with respect to overtime compliance, determining who's exempt, what time is compensable, and nuances regarding calculating overtime pay. Knowing more on these topics and understanding what needs to be audited and modified will allow employers to better conform to the complex and ever-evolving rules regarding overtime, and thereby lessen -- if not avoid --  avoidable and substantial liability due to noncompliance.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding new and pending FLSA regulations and the latest on their legal status, as well as the DOL's current FLSA enforcement initiatives.
• Appreciating mistakes commonly made by employers with respect to overtime compliance, and thereby getting a better a sense as to issues to watch out for while developing and administrating pay and payroll policies.
• Learning steps employers can take to avoid, or at least minimize their exposure to, common overtime pay violations by knowing what to look for while auditing policies and practices and then modifying them to better conform to the law.

Many employers in the United States start international expansion slowly, often employing one, two or a few employees (or maybe using them as contractors). While there are many benefits to this type of expansion, the risks related to issues such as Permanent Establishment, tax presence, using independent contractors and/or third-party employers can outweigh those benefits, if not handled properly.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the key components to a successful start-up abroad.
• Learn how to navigate the risks of international expansion in various countries.
• Gain insight into making key strategic decisions about international expansion such as jurisdictional choices based on business needs, the relevant legal environment and local cultural challenges.

Results from SHRM's Annual Employee Benefits Survey will be covered, including which employee benefits are offered by employers, their prevalence, societal factors that may be influencing employers to increase or decrease their offerings, and how members can utilize the interactive Employee Benefits Benchmarking Tool to view benefits benchmarking data applicable to their organization's size, location, and industry.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify which employee benefits are offered most prominently from SHRM member organizations.
• Interpret increases or decreases in employee benefits offerings based on current societal and workplace factors.
• Understand how to use SHRM's interactive Employee Benefits Benchmarking Tool.

When a loved one struggles with addiction, families tend to focus their energy and attention on getting that person well. Most believe that if their loved one finds help, then everyone else will be okay. Many family members can see the negative impact and consequences of addiction on their loved ones, but find it difficult to see the depth of how they've been affected. If families aren't getting support for themselves, the fear that they've had about their loved one finding recovery often becomes fear about whether or not their loved one will maintain it. Without an understanding of the disease, families often end up reacting as they did when their loved one was still in active addiction.  This session will look at how families are affected by the disease of addiction, how to help these families find support for themselves, and will provide useful resources available to assist HR Professionals in helping those within their organization who are living this experience.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss obstacles to families finding recovery.
• Describe the similar symptoms of addiction that families experience, as well as their loved ones.
• Report and collaborate on resources available to family members who have a loved one who struggles with addiction.

Although efforts have been made in recent years to advance equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Queer, and other gender and sexual marginalized identities, there are still many instances where LGBTQ+ people find themselves excluded, unwelcome, and uncomfortable in the workplace. In fact, according to the Human Rights Campaign, close to 50% of LGBTQ+ employees still report hiding their sexual orientation at work due to hostility, bias, discrimination, and mistreatment.  This fast-paced and engaging session will cover a variety of topics including personal pronoun usage, LGBTQ terminology, employment laws and practices related to gender and sexuality, inclusive language tips, inclusive restrooms recommendations, and more! All attendees will leave with greater awareness and practical takeaways that can be implemented in any workplace!

Learning Objectives:

• Become more familiar with current LGBTQ+ inclusive terminology, appropriate pronoun usage, and inclusive language.
• Develop a greater understanding of the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ employees.
• Learn the differences in the dimensions of biological sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
• Explore strategies to create more diverse, welcoming, and inclusive workplaces.
• Walk away with ready-to-implement ideas for bringing a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) lens to your organization.

This brain-focused inclusion session will help participants understand the basics of neurodiversity, such as ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, through informative and engaging hands-on activities. Pulling from evolutionary psychology and cognitive behavioral science, this interactive training teaches participants the language, tools, and practices necessary to understand and embrace different types of thinkers. It explores what we can do to empower and embrace neurodivergent people and build the most inclusive and fruitful teams and workplaces.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn language, science, and common symptoms of neurodivergence.
• Practice using tools for successful interactions and productive working relationships with neurodivergent people.
• Have a framework for what's needed to build a neuro-welcoming work environment.

Too often we allow change to happen to us. As HR leaders, we should drive change throughout every level of the organization to ensure you have a people-first culture made up of employees equipped to perform. This session will teach you how to become a change catalyst that makes sustainable improvements to help your company thrive and succeed !!

Learning Objectives:

• Be a Change Catalyst and not a Change Victim - Turn the tables and be proactive in creating and driving change instead of being reactive in your HR role.
• Communicate and be strategic about when and how organizational change occurs - The best way to be strategic is by framing and giving direction to the work being done throughout the company.
• The benefit of regularly giving context to others - Context is often missing in communication and efforts at work. Giving context allows people to be informed and perform more consistently.
• Become comfortable in driving change, taking risks, and being a trailblazer - We must be leaders in our HR role who intentionally step forward to take risks and remain current and relevant.

Repeated on Tuesday at 12:30pm

California regulates the workplace like no other state but there are new emerging hurdles for 2024-2025. The session will focus on preparing California employers for 2025 reviewing key workplace developments and provide preventive strategies for workplace issues. This session will include reviewing wage and hour, leave of absence and other difficult areas.  The program will review new laws, important cases and key policy and handbook updates for California.

Learning Objectives:

• What your employer must address in response to the new California laws and agency actions for 2025.
• Provide practical strategies to respond to the new California and federal case law impacting the workplace.
• Provide an action plan to update your California handbook and train your managers.

The US Surgeon General has stated that lack of belonging is one of the nation’s biggest public health crisis’s and it has harmed individual and societal health. This significantly affects your organization and its bottom line. People do not feel valued, they are not engaged, and their people managers do not value them. The lack of belonging increases risk of premature death by 60%. DEATH! The healing for this crisis is in plain sight: civility and belonging will help us live healthier, longer, more fulfilled, and more productive lives.

As one of the top ten places to work, hear what SHRM is doing to create civility and belonging for our team. You will be able to gather many valuable insights to take back to your organization.

Learning Objectives:

• Create a plan to ensure civility in the workplace.
• Train people managers on creating belonging for their teams.
• Make civility an organization wide priority.
• Strengthen your workplace culture by providing opportunities, engaging team members, creating that sense of belonging for each and every person.
• Make your organization a great place for all team members.

When organizations take a human-centric approach with their employees, magical things begin to happen: Productivity increases, job satisfaction improves, retention stabilizes and employees are, well, happy. If your organization needs an attitude adjustment, our practical guide will help your HR team implement and foster a human-centric work environment. We'll weed out the myths, discuss employee nuances (thrivers vs. grinders) and unveil a few small steps that will reboot your employees, taking them from doldrums to dynamic.

Learning Objectives:

• '1-2-3 Check, Check: Let's breakdown three human-centric workplace myths for a reality check: -Too touchy-feely. Our organization isn't emotional enough for a human-centric culture.  - Eeew, people. Having a human-centric workplace involves constant hand-holding, coddling and micromanaging employees.   -What they really, really want: All employees prefer a flexible work schedule.'
• The Benefits: Companies with human-centric cultures are filled with employees who take pride in their organization, feel valued, encouraged to provide feedback and make improvements.
• The Steps: Implementing a human-centric workplace involves understanding employee needs and creating an environment that supports wellbeing, flexibility, communication and sense of belonging.
• The Technology: Better workplace technology boosts employee productivity, improves efficiency and enables informed decision-making.
• The Numbers: Open communication, surveys and constant feedback not only engages employees, but it gives them a voice. Your follow-through ensures they are being heard, valued and respected.

When organizations take a human-centric approach with their employees, magical things begin to happen: Productivity increases, job satisfaction improves, retention stabilizes and employees are, well, happy. If your organization needs an attitude adjustment, our practical guide will help your HR team implement and foster a human-centric work environment. We'll weed out the myths, discuss employee nuances (thrivers vs. grinders) and unveil a few small steps that will reboot your employees, taking them from doldrums to dynamic.

Learning Objectives:

• '1-2-3 Check, Check: Let's breakdown three human-centric workplace myths for a reality check: -Too touchy-feely. Our organization isn't emotional enough for a human-centric culture.  - Eeew, people. Having a human-centric workplace involves constant hand-holding, coddling and micromanaging employees.   -What they really, really want: All employees prefer a flexible work schedule.'
• The Benefits: Companies with human-centric cultures are filled with employees who take pride in their organization, feel valued, encouraged to provide feedback and make improvements.
• The Steps: Implementing a human-centric workplace involves understanding employee needs and creating an environment that supports wellbeing, flexibility, communication and sense of belonging.
• The Technology: Better workplace technology boosts employee productivity, improves efficiency and enables informed decision-making.
• The Numbers: Open communication, surveys and constant feedback not only engages employees, but it gives them a voice. Your follow-through ensures they are being heard, valued and respected.

Emotional intelligence is vital in today's dynamic work environment. Emotionally Intelligent leaders positively impact their division and the organization through excellent performance and are able to lead with compassion and reduce stress for individuals and organizations by decreasing conflict, and improving relationships and understanding.   This session focuses on the importance of EI for effective leadership, components of EI, empathy and compassion in leadership, and lastly steps leaders can take to develop their Emotional Intelligence.

This is a highly interactive session; participants will reflect on some points and have an opportunity to discuss with other attendees.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the importance and benefits of Emotional Intelligence for leaders and organizations.
• Learn the importance of identifying emotions and strategies for self regulation.
• Identify the different impacts of empathy and compassion in leadership.
• Learn the five core competencies of Emotional Intelligence and steps leaders can take to develop each competency.

REPEATED ON TUESDAY ay 11:00am

It seems like we receive an FMLA request almost every day anymore. Continuous leaves are, generally, simple to deal with and very straight forward – it's hard to 'fake' an appendicitis! Intermittent FMLA, on the other hand, is an automatic, cringe worthy event. This session is designed to help the HR Practitioner avoid the 'cringe' by reviewing the tools we have at our disposal to remain compliant AND minimize potential abuse of the system.  The session covers the basics but is good for mid-level professionals as well - the more we are familiar with the regulations, the better we can apply them and minimize our organizations' exposure to abuse.

Learning Objectives:

• Compliant and effective management of intermittent FMLA.
• Ease practitioner's anxiety over intermittent requests.
• Best practices for risk reduction.
• Checklist for intermittent leave management.

Repeated on Tuesday at 3:30pm

Performance reviews often focus too much on the paperwork and the rigid annual cycle, causing frustration for managers and employees. To be effective, performance management should be streamlined, provide value to individuals and the organization, and be in sync with business needs. Join Joe Rotella, a renowned SHRM speaker, to discover better practices, like SMARTER goals and continuous coaching, that boost employee engagement, deliver results, and foster a high-performance culture.

Learning Objectives:

• How to create an agile performance management process that can respond to quickly changing business needs.
• How to help everyone connect the dots from their efforts to the organization's strategic goals.
• How to focus on teams as well as individual goals.
• How to focus on motivation to create a culture of performance.

Nonqualified plans have become increasingly important in the last 18 to 24 months. Employers need new and inventive ways to attract, retain and incentivize highly compensated and key management employees.  One of the biggest (and most overlooked) differences between qualified and nonqualified plans is the lack of a 'due diligence framework' on the nonqualified plan side. In the world of nonqualified plan, you and your plan committee are required to meet regularly, and to comply with various fee disclosure, notice requirements, etc.   In the world of nonqualified plans, there's a tremendous amount of flexibility, but due diligence is still imperative to make sure plan sponsors comply with applicable law.   The purpose of this presentation is to identify nonqualified plan due diligence needs and develop a related framework and support system.

Learning Objectives:

• What is a nonqualified deferred compensation plan and how does it defer from a qualified retirement plan?
• What are the related advantages for employers and employees?
• What are the due diligence requirements for nonqualified plan sponsors?
• How can these types of plans provide a significant value add to employers?
• What are the key due diligence considerations?

Repeated on Tuesday at 2:00pm.

What happened when Mitratech conducted an experiment, asking ChatGPT a series of common HR questions, and pitting their answers against Mitratech's human experts, who boast an average of 18 years of experience? Chief Services Officer Susan Anderson, who leads Mitratech 's team of HR Experts, will share with her audience the most surprising takeaways from proof-of-concept experiments, including what it takes to transform employee perceptions of generative AI from a threat to an asset.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will learn about AI's limitations, potential, and why emotional intelligence will remain a competitive advantage.
• Attendees will learn the process to run Generative AI experiments, including a rubric for grading responses that can be adapted to organizational needs.
• Attendees will learn why the cultural journey is essential to organizational success and how to create a company culture that embraces the potential collaboration with AI.

Losing quality employees can result in lost institutional knowledge and necessary skills required to meet current and upcoming organizational challenges. Effective succession planning can address these concerns by encouraging retention and preparing employees for internal mobility opportunities. Discover how to implement a process that promotes engagement, supports advancement, and addresses future needs. This session will share useful techniques, practical takeaways, and support templates to ready your employees for internal advancement when the time arises.

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze succession planning efforts of high-performing organizations, including best practices and improvement opportunities.
• Implement a tailored succession planning process to promote engagement, address future needs, and support internal mobility.
• Adapt processes, techniques, and materials according to individual organizational future needs and available resources.

Implementing a talent marketplace, and an internal talent mobility strategy, has been one of the hottest innovations in HR.  While many HR leaders understand of the promise this can bring to their organization, they struggle with how to build the business case for change and how to successfully implement it.  In this session you will learn the ROI this strategy has provided for companies and the keys to success in implementation.

Learning Objectives:

• How to build the business case for implementing an internal talent marketplace.
• The most common business reasons for adopting this new talent strategy, and the results obtained by leading companies.
• How to enable the change through the adoption of new technology, new ways of working, and aligning HR processes to support this new approach to work.
• Best practices in implementing a new talent marketplace.

What is the secret sauce for cultivating a top workplace culture?  In this session you will gain valuable insights from a panel of Senior HR Executives from some of the top workplaces in the world.  From championing inclusion to implementing wellness initiatives, discover the key elements that contribute to a successful workplace culture.  You will leave with practical ideas for elevating your organization's employee experience.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the key elements that contribute to employee experience.
• Develop strategies to support employee wellness, culture, and experience.
• Explore best practices in inclusion & diversity and employee well-being.

Without question, leadership skills are critical for senior roles that have oversight over people and departments. However, savvy employees that are seeking a leg-up on career advancement start exhibiting their leadership chops from whatever seat they currently occupy.   This session will take the mystery out of what it takes to lead from the chair you're in right now by exploring the six critical traits of great leaders and how to implement them in your day-to-day.

Learning Objectives:

• What it means to lead from the chair you're in right now.
• Why it's critical to learn to lead when you don't have direct reports (and how that will help set you up for success when you do have employees reporting to you!).
• How to lead company-wide initiatives without making enemies of your co-workers.
• How to leverage your company's resources and opportunities to gain the leadership knowledge you need to grow your career.
• Driving your own leadership development when your organization doesn't have a clear path or support for growth.

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, effective leadership goes beyond traditional management techniques. Leaders who excel possess a unique set of coaching skills, empowering their teams to achieve greatness. This session delves into the International Coach Federation (ICF) coaching core competences, equipping leaders with the tools to inspire, motivate, and guide their teams to unparalleled success. Through interactive discussions and real-world case studies, participants will learn how to foster a culture of growth, accountability, and innovation. From active listening to powerful questioning techniques, this program empowers leaders to unleash the full potential of their teams, driving sustainable results and fostering long-term success. Join us on this transformative journey towards Leadership Mastery and unlock the true power of coaching in the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the key principles of coaching and its significance in leadership.
• Explore strategies for fostering a culture of growth, accountability, and innovation within the organization.
• Gain insights into leveraging coaching skills to enhance team performance and productivity.
• Create action plans to implement coaching techniques effectively in day-to-day leadership practices.

Joy Chen, a former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and executive recruiter for Fortune 500 CEOs and Board members, embodies a blend of leadership and corporate strategy that spans continents. Her extensive experience has enabled millions across Asia and the Americas with the essential insights and skills needed to flourish in a globally interconnected business landscape. For her contributions to global leadership, Joy has been featured across media including the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Financial Times and Vogue China.

Learning Objectives:

• Decoding Global Cultural Dynamics: Dive into the rich cultural anthropology influencing global business interactions, so that you can understand the unseen social dynamics that shape global teams and boost collaboration and performance.
• Enhancing Cultural Fluency: Elevate your leadership by mastering the skills to bridge cultures, so that you can effectively engage and mobilize colleagues and business partners from all backgrounds and viewpoints.
• Driving Cultural Integration: Transform your team's approach from demanding "culture fit" to embracing "culture add." Learn how to turn cultural differences from a potential obstacle into a potent strategic edge to drive innovation and market growth.

"Leading Across Borders" provides a comprehensive journey into mastering the challenges of global HR leadership in the digital era. Tap into Joy's wealth of knowledge to equip yourself to greater global impact and influence.

SHRM Foundation's national and regional one-time virtual career mentoring events - HR Pathways & Perspectives will be brought to a live audience at SHRM24!   This session is designed to increase HR professionals, emerging professionals and students' awareness of HR career pathways, gather HR career insights, and expand HR professional networks. 

Learning Objectives:

• Hear how leaders have embraced strategies to transform workplaces across the globe leading with empathy and understanding.
• Attendees will receive guidance on career planning and what resources they need to develop leadership skills needed to progress.
• Take home skills on how to expand your professional networks and knowledge on how to build relationships that lead to transformative roles within companies across the globe.

Despite facing increasing opposition from various groups across the nation, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and policies will ultimately prevail. It is not uncommon for transformative initiatives to experience a maturation process where the entire area of focus may come under fire, based upon the overreaches of its weakest ambassadors. Despite these challenges, successful DEI practitioners have consistently managed to overcome these obstacles. Along their journey, they have gained valuable insights on how to flourish in a marketplace that includes critics seeking to undermine efforts to create workplaces that value DEI.  Join Eric M. Ellis, President & CEO of Integrity Development Corp., as he shares his expertise on overcoming DEI opposition and fostering inclusive workplaces. Ellis will outline seven proven methods to successfully navigate the ever-evolving landscape of DEI in the face of setbacks and challenges.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify key indicators of structural DEI resistance.
• Leverage empathic leadership skills to better understand the viewpoints of DEI critics.
• Provide seven proven methods for overcoming DEI resistance.
• Present real world case studies of successful DEI initiatives.

Repeated on Tuesday at 11:00

In this session you will discover what it takes to cultivate a workplace where employees not only excel but flourish. This dynamic session is designed for HR leaders and professionals to enhance employee engagement and retention strategies. Identify the key drivers of a positive workplace culture, and learn approaches to create an environment where employees feel valued, connected, and inspired to contribute their best.

Learning Objectives:

• Building a Culture of Recognition: Learn how meaningful recognition can boost morale, reinforce positive behaviors, and create a culture of appreciation.
• Effective Communication for Engagement: Develop communication strategies that foster transparency, build trust, and keep employees informed and engaged,
• Understanding Employee Motivation: Explore factors and circumstances that drive employee motivation and how to create engagement strategies for employee and team needs.

Amid the ever-shifting terrain of the workplace, nurturing mental health has emerged as a critical priority. Gain insights to design a psychologically safe and supportive work environment. Discover practical steps empowering leaders and teams to prioritize mental well-being, foster innovation, and drive success. Equip yourself with actionable strategies for stress remediation, work-life balance, health, and heightened employee satisfaction, productivity, and engagement. Let's foster a mentally healthy and thriving work environment together!

Learning Objectives:

• Navigate the shifting terrain of workplace mental health with insights into four key challenges.
• Drive innovation by discussing six dynamic strategies to cultivate psychosocial safety within organizations.
• Champion change within your organization by uncovering five compelling reasons to advocate for healthier, more supportive job designs.
• Assess how to observe shifts in mood and behavior that may be signs of potential mental health challenges.
• Implement connections with a person you may be concerned about.
• Identify how to respond to a struggling employee by connecting them with resources, supports and services.

The Case: The topic is related to a 62-year-old conservative, family owned, promoter driven, inward looking organization in the precious metals industry. The business had been coming, the company had been standing, but nobody looked at its growth potential. There was a huge trust deficit between the management and employees. There was the highest level of confidentiality which was hampering the work to an unimagined extent. The systems, processes and policies were very archaic. It was a big challenge to attract talent in spite of good financial stability and position in the market. The brand was lost in oblivion.

 Need for Change: The business environment is always dynamic, constantly evolving and endlessly demanding. It keeps on posing challenges even to the organizations which have existed in the market for years.

Learning Objectives:

• Conceptualizing, designing, and executing a structured organization change process for converting an inward-looking organization into a truly professional global company.
• Identifying the main constituents of organization change and factors which inevitably impact it and managing them to the advantage of the company.
• Understanding expected tangible and intangible impediments which are confronted while executing change management interventions.
• Enhancing involvement of internal stake holders at all the levels in the change process by winning their trust, acceptability, and commitment.
• Rebuilding the organizational culture, transforming the working environment, and broadening people perspective to internalize the effected change.

Health benefits are one of the most expensive pieces of the employee benefits package—yet many employers aren’t getting the most from their investment, in part due to lack of participant education and engagement. Based on new research by Fidelity Health℠ Thought Leadership that combines sentiment from benefit leaders, employees and spouses, and the doctors caring for them, this session will discuss how learning from “hidden stakeholders” can help employers move the needle on employee health.

 Learning Objectives:

• Better understand the importance of getting employees and their spouses in sync about health benefits available to them.
• Discover the communication, engagement, and incentive strategies that hold the most promise for reaching spouses.
• Learn practical strategies employers can consider that will help clinicians more effectively treat their patients.
• Understand what clinicians see as opportunities for employers to improve health benefits equity and employee mental health.

 Additional info: Supporting insights for the session- https://www.fidelityworkplace.com/s/page-resource?cId=engaging_the_household_in_benefits; https://www.fidelityworkplace.com/s/health-benefits

The conversation about the future of work often focuses on the business world, highlighting innovation and change. However, this overlooks the vital nonprofit sector, where the dialogue and solutions for it are just as crucial. 'The Nonprofit Navigator' is a dynamic session designed to fill this gap. It's a deep dive for nonprofit leaders and HR professionals into how their work is evolving in the social impact space and links the ideas of futurism in the for-profit sector to the mission-driven world of nonprofits, addressing how to navigate the changing landscape while staying true to core values. Participants will explore the distinctive challenges and possibilities of nonprofits, understanding how they can contribute to a fair and sustainable future. This session also serves as a conduit to the business sector's focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, offering strategies to integrate these into nonprofit goals without losing sight of their social imperatives. Attendees will leave with a clear vision of their unique role in molding a future that's innovative, socially conscious, and socially sustainable.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore the unique challenges and opportunities of the nonprofit sector in the context of the future of work.
• Understand the role of nonprofits in ensuring equality of opportunities and aligning with ESG goals.
• Gain insights into strategies for creating socially responsible work environments in the nonprofit sector.
• Empower nonprofit leaders with knowledge to drive positive change and innovation within their organizations.

Despite our recent efforts, employee turnover and retention are still among the top concerns of CEOs, HR, and managers. Pay raises, flextime, remote work, and all the other perks haven't been enough. Why? Employees who leave consistently identify poor feedback as one of the biggest reasons.  When translated, you may recognize these: (a) I don't know what is expected of me, (b) I don't know how I'm doing, (c) I don't know where I stand within the company, (d) I don't know the future holds for me or the company, or (e) I never hear from my manager. Within this session, we'll identify the 5 common trends among managers that prevent effective feedback and how to overcome them. We'll tap into the latest workforce research and compare it to shifts in attitude, demographics, work ethics, learning styles, relationships, and more. You'll also leave with specific tools and action plans you can implement right away with managers to begin to see immediate results.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about the top five barriers that most commonly get in the way of effective feedback and accountability.
• Identify the differences in today's workforce that require a shift in how we deliver feedback to effect change.
• Consider best practices to instill a culture conducive to feedback and continuous improvement.
• Understand the 'roadmap' to effective feedback to train and implement with managers.
• Promote greater inclusion in the workplace through effective communication and engagement with employees.

In "Transforming Human Resources: The Future of HR in the Age of AI," we dive into how Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing HR practices, impacting everything from recruitment to retention, and shaping a data-driven future for workforce management. This session offers a deep dive into AI's role in enhancing decision-making, personalizing employee development, and forecasting workforce trends, while addressing ethical concerns and implementation challenges. Attendees will explore the latest AI innovations, understand their transformative potential, and leave with actionable insights to harness AI for HR innovation, operational efficiency, and a more agile, inclusive workplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the key ways in which Artificial Intelligence is transforming traditional HR functions, everything from Hire to Retire.
• Identify the role HR will likely need to play as the world moves to continuously digitize.

A robust organization starts with personalization. By making employees the heroes of their own professional story - valuing individuality and embracing empathy and personalization - organizations can sculpt high-trust environments that enhance employee experience, elevate job satisfaction and drive productivity and profitability. Unleash the power of personalization - and the vitality of your workforce- with analytics that dive deep to understand and interpret the unique needs of your employees, pinpoint focus, uncover redundancies and deliver impactful insights.

Learning Objectives:

• The Power of Personalization: Boldly go where others fear to venture by placing value on individuality, which in turn will unleash a collective energy with your team. Leaders must move beyond the 'professional' identity and show up to work as 'humans,' which helps fuel that power of personalization. Instead of having only transactional or task-oriented relationships with your staff, expand by truly getting to know and connect with them. Make your employees the heroes of the story.
• Listen & Adapt: Actively listening to employees, understanding their concerns and adjusting benefits structures to reflect their needs fosters a culture of trust and employee wellbeing. Leaders can transform their organizational approach by being open to change, fluid in process and adaptable as needed with employees. Find ways to avoid benchmarks and listen to your people instead.
• New Leadership, New Era: How to employ human-centric leadership for enhanced employee experiences means the old hierarchical model isn't meeting the complex demands that today's organizations face. Be human-centric and the numbers will follow.

Repeated on Tuesday at 12:30pm.

Most organizations think they're created safe spaces. There are policies in place for reporting discrimination. Nonetheless, many marginalized people don't feel psychological safety or inclusion because subtle acts of exclusion and unconscious bias are rampant. We will explore how HR professionals can support a more active kind of inclusion, where we connect authentically, where we broach hard conversations with vulnerability and courage, and where we grow and learn together when we mess up.

Learning Objectives:

• Confirm why true inclusion and psychological safety matter so much for our organization to achieve the highest performance possible.
• Understand why the current state of most organizations leads to under-the-radar subtle exclusion and lack of safety for so many people.
• Practice understanding why more authentic connections, more productive mistakes, and more active allyship are essential for getting to true inclusion and safety for all.
• Discover immediately applicable guidelines for speaking up and standing up for colleagues.
• Apply the concepts discussed to policies, processes, and practices in order to proactively build the mostly inclusive and safe culture possible.

Whether you interviewed for the job or not - you are the CEO of your career progression. In this session, you will identify how your unique blend of career experiences, life lessons, styles of interaction, and workplace strengths can be used to get you from the level you're at to the level you want to be. During this workshop, you will learn to write your own story and build a roadmap to your next career destination.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the four critical ingredients for developing their career roadmap.
• Gain a strong understanding of the foundational steps to unleash their professional passion and purpose.
• Discover 18 actionable items to drive their career success.
• Receive two 'take-home' career management strategies to implement plans for their career vision.

Employees frequently complain about a 'hostile working environment.'  The term has specific legal meaning that is much more narrow than most employees think, however. It does not ordinarily cover demanding or unpleasant bosses, legitimate discipline, rude or gossipy co-workers, or hot-tempered customers. To the contrary, it requires conduct that meets certain legal standards and is tied to a protected classification such as sex or race. HR professionals must know how to distinguish between complaints of a hostile working environment that potentially involve unlawful conduct and require a thorough investigation, and those that merely describe the ordinary stresses of the work day. This presentation will highlight the difference.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the legal meaning of the term 'hostile working environment.'
• Learn how to distinguish between complaints of a hostile environment that require a full investigation and those that do not.
• Learn how to address complaints that do not involve unlawful conduct or violations of company policy.

Repeated on Tuesday at 3:30pm

A study from Gallup and Workhuman finds that recognition and well-being, together, can pave the way for improved business outcomes. But HOW do we do that?  What can we do to make the workplace more engaging? From the research and data findings within his research, Dr. Fockler found the 'secret sauce' to change, and this 4-step process for LEADing change in the workplace can support a vast array of business sectors.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the top five issues currently showing up in the workplace as per Gallup and Workhuman.
• Learn about LEADing change (an acronym used to foster change), which is grounded in theory (the science of using the concept).
• Utilize LEAD within your organization (art of using the concept).
• See how the issues presented by Gallup and Workhuman are opportunities for HR practitioners to LEAD change in their organization.

REPEATED ON TUESDAY at 11:00am

During this session, participants will receive tools, resources and practical examples of how to be a strategic leader. Strategy isn't something that is relegated to the board and the C-suite. Every leader must be strategic and not just within their department. The focus of this session is less about leading strategy for the HR department and more about how HR can drive strategic thinking and add value throughout the organization. The idea is that functional leaders don't need you to wear your HR hat when you are serving them-they need you to wear your operations, sales, marketing and executive hats. They NEED you to be STRATEGIC. Only when HR leaders begin to think strategically, act strategically and execute strategically will they really bring the most value possible to their organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine what your real value is to your organization.
• Find out what you might be doing that makes it difficult to do business with you and what you can do to fix that.
• Be prepared to lead strategic planning and thinking sessions for the departments or groups that you serve.
• Evaluate the readiness of your constituents to make real and lasting changes.
• Apply an organizational health model to your efforts to determine areas of ailing and good health.

Mental health issues are largely hidden especially in the workplace. During COVID mental health issues weren't priorities in healthcare treatment triage decisions. In addition, COVID amplified many mental health challenges with isolation, anxiety, depression and self-medication. In the workplace some programs and benefits could help ( e,g, FMLA, sick leave, short term long-term disability benefits and Employee Assistance programs) but because of misunderstanding of mental health issues, possible accommodations and the stigma that attaches to disclosing challenges and seeking help many employees stay in the shadows. This session will discuss EEOC guidance and help HR professionals better understand and address mental health issues and accommodations in the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding mental health protections under disability laws.
• Applying workplace policies.
• Walking through medical questions.
• Guiding through the accommodation process.
• Documenting important issues.
• Discussing possible resources ad assistance.

Repeated on Tuesday at 3:30pm

What if everyone in your organization could anticipate shifts in trends and embrace uncertainty? Strategic foresight can create that capability. In this session, participants will learn a technique for creating dynamic future scenarios that seamlessly connect strategic thinking training with real strategic planning processes and do so in a way that adapts as the world shifts around their organization. As a bonus, participants leave with a richer understanding of the future of human resource management.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the core uncertainties facing your industry and have a process for mapping how those uncertainties interact.
• Stress test short-term initiatives against a range of 'what if' scenarios and identify blindspots in short-term strategies.
• Lead conversations with leaders in your organization about the importance of developing strategic foresight skills.

During the session, you will explore the remarkable impact of empathy in the recruitment process. We will delve into the art of truly understanding and connecting with candidates on a deep and meaningful level. By cultivating empathy, you'll gain a unique insight into their motivations, aspirations, and potential fit within your organization.  This session will guide you in harnessing the power of empathy to create meticulously crafted candidate personas. These personas serve as invaluable tools for making informed and successful hiring decisions. You'll learn how to go beyond surface-level data and uncover the human stories behind the resumes. By the end of this session, you'll be equipped with the skills to approach recruitment with a more empathetic lens, enabling you to build stronger connections with candidates and, in turn, select the best-fitting talent for your team.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the significance of empathy in the recruitment process and its impact on candidate engagement and long-term success within the organization.
• Learn how to effectively employ empathetic listening and questioning techniques to uncover candidate motivations, values, and cultural alignment.
• Gain the skills to create comprehensive and human-centered candidate personas that go beyond traditional qualifications, enabling more informed hiring decisions.
• Explore real-world examples and case studies showcasing the transformative effects of empathy on candidate interactions and the recruitment process.
• Discover strategies for implementing an empathetic recruitment approach within your organization, fostering a more inclusive and harmonious workplace culture.

Join John Ferguson, the Chief HR Officer at NASCAR, and Laural Logan-Fain, PhD, the Associate Vice President of People Business Partnership at Spurs Sports & Entertainment, in this dynamic session as they discuss Power Skills and Drills crucial for the growth of a dynamic HR leader.    This session will highlight the essential skills and strategies needed to guide attendees as they navigate the next steps of their career and the Racetrack of life.

Learning Objectives:

• Clarify your goal: CEO or Strategic Advisor?
• Connect with others through the art of storytelling.
• Define, develop, and demonstrate your Power Skills.
• Lead change and drive business outcomes.

The future of work has been disrupted, not just by long-standing trends, but by the unforeseen seismic shift of 2020. HR leaders were thrust into a global experiment, requiring a complete reimagining of people, technology, culture, and leadership. Now, it's time to move beyond reactive change and embrace disruption as a catalyst for positive impact and competive advantage.   This session will equip you to harness the power of disruption, strategically disrupt traditional HR practices, and position your organization for sustained success in an ever-changing world.

Learning Objectives:

• Develop and implement strategic approaches for disrupting traditional HR practices, including leveraging data analytics, adopting agile methodologies, and fostering a culture of innovation within HR.
• Design and implement strategies for fostering a culture of disruption within your organization, including encouraging experimentation, promoting risk-taking, and empowering employees to lead change.
• Align HR's strategic approach to disruption with the organization's overall business objectives, ensuring that HR effectively contributes to competitive advantage and sustained success.
• Develop leadership skills that enable you to lead through uncertainty and change, fostering a culture of resilience and innovation within your HR team and the organization as a whole.

So often business leaders 'throw change over the wall' to HR, and you're expected to 'execute the change' by 'communicating' or 'training.'  But you didn't even have a voice in the change, suspect employees will resist, and know there's a better way to roll it out.  With the failure rate of major organizational changes at 70%, often due to 'people issues,' leaders desperately need HR's unique perspective.  Join us for actionable take-aways to influence change!

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the role that HR professionals are typically asked to play during change initiatives - and also the role they could and should play - and how to close that gap to break the 'change failure cycle.'
• Learn about the most common sources of resistance to change, and how HR professionals can help reduce resistance to changes their organizations need to make to survive and thrive in this time of massive disruption across industries and around the world.
• Appreciate the needs and concerns of business leaders during change initiatives, and how to adapt one's approach and communications to 'speak in their language' in order to build relationships as a trusted advisor and influence for impact.
• Build skill in engaging for change up, down, and across the organization to partner in rolling-out successful and sustainable change, which will contribute bottom-line value to your organization by helping to increase the probability of implementing change smoothly and successfully, improving ROI and engagement in the process.
• Develop greater confidence and competence, and reduce stress and frustration, during change initiatives - for oneself and one's colleagues - by becoming more agile and change-ready as an HR professional, and by learning how to foster greater agility and change-readiness in the key stakeholders we serve.

Repeated on Tuesday at 3:30pm

The presentation offers an in-depth exploration of how contemporary social trends, many of which started before COVID-19, significantly reshape HR practices, particularly in the realms of recruitment and retention strategies. Exploring transformative shifts catalyzed by the intersection of social trends aligned with the rise and redefinition of the gig economy, technological advancements, social media impact, work-life balance, environmental and social responsibility, data-driven decision-making, and federal funding the indispensable need to create holistic employee experiences.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain a profound understanding of various contemporary social trends and their direct influence on HR strategies, particularly in recruitment and retention.
• Explore trends such as remote work, DEI initiatives, generational diversity, mental health emphasis, and technological advancements, grasping how each factor shapes HR functions.
• Learn actionable strategies to attract and retain talent in dynamic work environments influenced by trends like remote work and the gig economy.
• Acquire insights into tailoring recruitment approaches for remote talent and leveraging flexible work arrangements to bolster retention rates.
• Delve into the significance of DEI initiatives beyond just attracting diverse talent.
• Understand how these initiatives foster inclusive cultures essential for improving retention rates and promoting a positive work environment.

Many employees expend considerable emotional energy hiding their disabilities from colleagues and bosses in every interaction at work, in every meeting, and when toiling away side-by-side. It's exhausting and stressful. But the stigma around disabilities - the fear of discrimination and rejection, and the risk related to job security - prevents many employees from disclosing their condition and asking for supports and accommodations to succeed at work.  Yet studies show that when employers intentionally create an atmosphere of acceptance and show a commitment to build inclusion - offering disability awareness training and creating employee resource groups as a safe place for people with disabilities, chronic conditions, or difficult life situations to meet and support one another - employees no longer feel threatened to reveal a disability. Instead, they take advantage of employer-provided supports, which, in turn, improves their wellbeing, increases their level of trust in others, and boosts their productivity.  This presentation explores how to approach disclosure in the workplace and provides research-driven strategies that cultivate acceptance from colleagues and supervisors.

Learning Objectives:

• Hear how masking inhibits executive functioning skills.
• Learn about strategies to determine whether and how to disclose a disability.
• Discuss questions to ask to try to determine whether an organization has a culture of acceptance and diversity.
• Talk about approaches to help you advocate for policies that support people with invisible disabilities.
• Innovative research to aid organizations in becoming more aware of invisible disabilities and create policies that foster advocacy and acceptance.

We will focus on understanding microaggressions through the lens of identity-based trauma and its impact on the receiver. In our time together we will examine the latest trauma research to understand the psychological effects of microaggressions on the receiver and the psychology of the sender; explore four patterns of perception that unintentionally create harmful behavior and the impacts individually and organizationally; and equip participants with practical strategies for identifying and addressing them in the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Define identity-based trauma.
• Explain microaggressions through the lens of identity-based trauma.
• Describe the four patterns of perception that lead to microaggressions.
• Explain strategies for mitigating the impact of microaggressions in the workplace.

These days, HR doesn't merely have a seat at the table; it IS the table. The importance of attracting and retaining quality talent has never been higher. Therefore, the impact of offering creative benefits packages that demonstrate a company's culture and values can be significant. In this presentation, Alegeus CTO Anna Lyons and CGO Melanie Hallenbeck explain how account-based benefits can empower HR teams to stand out and excel in the race for talent.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the different account-based benefit options available (HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, LSAs, incentives) and their potential cost-savings for employers and employees.
• Hear real-world examples of creative benefit plan designs and how you can apply the learnings to your own business.
• Learn how emerging benefit options like lifestyle spending accounts (LSAs) can play a role in demonstrating a company's values.
• Learn how to work collaboratively with benefits administrators and brokers to diversify your benefits and tell the story of your benefits package in a way that resonates with job candidates and employees.

Repeated on Tuesday at 3:30pm.

Beware! HR professionals, like most people in general, are often unaware of the dangers of Medicare-related mistakes- until one bites them. Unfortunately, just one Medicare mistake can be incredibly costly - or even deadly. In this session, you'll learn the most common Medicare-related mistakes made by HR professionals and how to steer clear of them, with a special emphasis on COBRA, Medicare secondary payer rules and Guaranteed Issue Right.

Learning Objectives:

• Why Medicare is the primary payer for employees on COBRA after the age of 65.
• What Guaranteed Issue Right is and why it's important for those on COBRA.
• Simple, yet powerful, talking points about Medicare to use with employees.
• Specific strategies to bridge potential gaps in coverage during work transitions.
• How to integrate Medicare into the broader narrative of employee benefits and healthcare planning.

Repeated on Tuesday at 3:30pm

Old school policies like treating everyone the same, banning workplace romance, keeping salaries a secret, probationary periods and firing people for resigning keep us in the baby-sitting business. This session blends best practices, humor and case law to balance legal risk and good business decision-making. Don't let the attorney be the loudest voice in the room. Take away sample policies and learn how to hire the best, fire the rest and stay out of court.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will be prepared to develop, influence and execute strategies for managing organizational change that balance the expectations of the organization, their employees and the law.
• Attendees will gain a real-world understanding of applicable federal/state regulations and an ability to audit their own practices for legal exposure.
• Attendees will learn the effects of company HR policy and procedure on frontline practices including hiring, retaining 'A' players, discipline, documentation and workplace behavior.

Growth aspirations seem like one of the more common and obvious intentions within an organization. Wanting growth, however, is not the same as pursuing growth, with the key differentiator being a growth mindset. Any culture hungry to embody a growth mindset must know their employees are ready and able to embody a growth mindset. This foundation-first approach to professional development will ensure organizations can best position their people to pursue growth.

Learning Objectives:

• Encouraging individuals to identify their authentic attributes to build confidence in the impact their truest self can have on future growth.
• Justifying why the adverse parts of an individual's role must be identified and embraced so as to serve future growth.
• Honoring the work that goes into forming a foundation for growth through more engaged and respectful communication.
• Centering an individual foundation for growth as a means of aligning what people want with the mission of the organization.

Repeated Tuesday at 11:00AM

As HR leaders grapple with unprecedented challenges, discover how integrating Process Intelligence (PQ) into your programs addresses the evolving needs of the workforce. From combating leadership fatigue to empowering emerging talent, this session offers practical strategies and real-life examples, promising an insightful journey to reshape your leadership approach.

Learning Objectives:

• Build performance metrics that drive business focus, urgency and accountability.
• Reignite your teams that are hybrid, virtual or in-person with non-negotiable systems.
• Establish leadership skills to elevate employee engagement in your organization.
• Create a communication cadence that informs at all levels and tiers.
• Discover transformational processes to create innovation in a team.

With the 2024 presidential election in full swing, immigration is in the news on a near daily basis. But what is rumor and what is reality? What is signal and what is noise? In this session, BAL experts will cut through the campaign-trail rhetoric and detail how the presidential election may impact business immigration. They will also provide updates on the less newsy, but still important, regulatory changes that affect HR professionals on a day-to-day basis.

Learning Objectives:

• Hear the differences between the two leading presidential candidates on important immigration priorities.
• Discuss the likelihood of different policies being enacted under a new administration.
• Review recent, or soon-to-be implemented, regulatory changes related to immigration.
• Discover the day-to-day impact of immigration policy changes on HR professionals.

In the 'Running on Fumes: DEI Fatigue and A Supreme Court Decision' session, participants explore the challenges of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, addressing the exhaustion that can accompany these initiatives. The session also delved into the implications of a recent Supreme Court decision on DEI practices. Attendees will gain insights into navigating DEI fatigue and adapting strategies in light of the decision, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of the evolving landscape for DEIB initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the manifestations and impact of DEI fatigue in the workplace, recognize signs, and implement strategies to mitigate its effects on individuals and organizational culture.
• Analyze the Supreme Court decision's implications for workplace DEI initiatives, while maintaining a commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.
• Develop adaptive strategies to address evolving challenges in the DEI landscape.
• Cultivate a workplace culture that prioritizes ongoing learning and dialogue about DEI, fostering an environment where employees are equipped to navigate complexities, contribute to inclusivity, and drive positive change within the organization.

This session outlines the major advantages in moving to a newer HR system, but also the preparation that is needed to fully utilize its capabilities and transform your Human Capital Management practice.  For those looking to use their HR systems implementation to transform their organization, rather than just 'lift and shift' old practices into yet another system, this webinar will give you talking points to take back to your HR and Corporate leadership for more strategic planning around your HR systems implementation, as well as give specific examples of what you can work on now, rather than waiting until your implementation begins, saving you time and money in your implementation, as well as getting the maximum ROI post Go-Live.  Insights from multiple implementations will be shared that you will not want to miss!

Learning Objectives:

• Why an Operating Model and Organizational design is key to a successful HR systems implementation.
• What Compensation, Talent Management, Performance Management and Employee Relations practices can be brought up to date prior to an HR systems implementation.
• Pros and Cons of in-sourcing vs. out-souring Benefits and Absence Manangement.
• Payroll Transformation Principles and complexities.
• Additional tasks to do prior to an HR systems implementation.

Document, document, document. Sounds familiar? This standard mantra from your employment counsel is meant to encourage managers to memorialize performance/disciplinary conversations that shows efforts to help the employee be successful and supports employment decisions. And, importantly, documentation can provide a solid defense if prepared correctly. But, in reality, managers (and HR) are typically not taught how to effectively transcribe verbal coaching, counseling or disciplinary conversations into clear, unambiguous, defensible documentation. Learn the seven steps to creating 'bulletproof' documentation along with ways to tighten your documentation, words and phrases to avoid, and potential red flags for discrimination. Walk away with a usable framework and tips for perfecting your documentation.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn to document expectations, policy violations, performance issues and consequences.
• Properly document employee's explanation and action plan.
• Understand which words and phrases to avoid when documenting.
• Learn about documentation disasters that create liability.

Degrees aren’t going away, but more and more people (more than 2-in-3 working age Americans!) don’t have one. We’re at the dawn of a skills economy, where being a skills-first employer is going to lead to a broader talent pool, a competitive advantage, and a more sustainable and successful future. SHRM Foundation and a growing set of partners and investors in this work, leading corporations, and service partners are building the infrastructure you will need to embrace this new paradigm: AI-driven advising, progress tracking, consolidated tools and trainings, a first-of-its-kind credential for HR leaders and hiring managers, and even a “Trip Advisor for skills tech” so you can compare notes with HR colleagues. In this session, we’ll showcase what “going skills-first” can do at one of America’s largest employers, and then walk you through some of the free and low-cost products available now or coming online soon that you can use to embrace not only formal education, but non-degree credentials, skills, competencies, aptitude, and attitude in your hiring and advancement practices.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn more about why a shift to skills-first strategies is happening, and how you can embrace them to improve employer outcomes.
• Hear about the Skills First Center of Excellence, a first-of-its-kind suite of tools designed to help employers figure out and access what they need to shift to skills-first.
• Gain confidence by hearing success stories from businesses small, medium, and large that have shifted to skills-first.

Join us for an illuminating session as we uncover how Bucknell University has demonstrated unparalleled HR strategic planning prowess in the midst of business adaptation. Explore the strategic initiatives, innovative practices, and transformative approaches that have enabled Bucknell to navigate evolving landscapes with agility and resilience. From talent acquisition and development to organizational culture and change management, discover how Bucknell's HR leadership has played a pivotal role in driving the university's success amidst dynamic challenges.

Learning Objectives:

• Mastering HR Strategic Planning in Dynamic Environments: Provide insights into the strategic planning process, including how to anticipate future challenges, adapt HR practices accordingly, and ensure organizational agility and resilience. Explore the tools and frameworks that can aid in effective HR strategic planning in any dynamic environment.
• Fostering a Resilient Organizational Culture: Delve into the practices and initiatives that have built a strong, adaptable culture, including change management strategies, employee engagement, and inclusivity efforts. Learn how to create and nurture a culture that can withstand and thrive through challenges.

The NLRB has broadened the scope of the NLRA's protection of conduct that may otherwise violate Title VII and similar state statutes and has also entered memorandums of understanding with various agencies, increasing inter-agency scrutiny. Unfair labor practice charges may accompany charges and/or complaints to other federal and state agencies. Whether you are managing a union or non-union workforce, you will identify hot spots between the NLRA and different Employment Laws

Learning Objectives:

• Identifying common issues under the NLRA, Title VII and other employment laws and the overlap between them.
• Best practices to employ for managing workplace issues that implicate the NLRA, Title VII and other employment laws.
• Gain an understanding of an unfair labor practice charge, including the criteria for who can file and effective strategies for responding to the NLRB when such a charge is filed.

Repeated on Tuesday at 2:00pm.

Women make up almost 57% of the US workforce. Working women also spend nearly twice as much time as men caring for children or other household responsibilities. What are some of the well-being challenges women are dealing with and what impact could this be having on your business? This session will address unique factors impacting women's health and workplace productivity and what organizations can do to better support, attract and retain this key employee population.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain a better understanding of the challenges and factors that influence the health outcomes of women.
• Recognize the importance of providing workplace benefits and programs that support the unique challenges of women.
• Learn strategies and gain resources to improve women's health, well-being, workplace engagement and productivity.

When HR and Security teams understand their respective roles, value each other, and have an open, productive partnership, life is good. They can help each other be more effective and complement each other's functions. Unfortunately, that symbiotic state can be hard to achieve. For HR professionals, dealing with the security team can be a challenge. One day they send out an emotionally-triggering simulated phish to everyone in the organization, causing numerous employee complaints that HR has to manager. Next, they're trying to get someone fired for clicking on said simulated phish, even though it's not their job to hire and fire. The security team can seem rigid, controlling, and have the capacity to scare the daylights out of the rest of the organization. Sometimes they scare people too much - the sky can't always be falling - leading to apathy.  So what to do if you don't have the best relationship with the security team?  This talk, based on years of experience navigating the relationship between HR and Security teams, will cover the issues that cause the biggest disconnects between HR and Security. We'll look at the issues from both sides and cover proposed solutions for each.  Improving the relationships for both departments can lead to happier HR and Security professionals who are more effective in their roles, and a company that's better protected and prepared against cyber threats.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover the points of connection and potential disconnect with the Security team.
• Hear why security teams occasionally seem to act more like HR than Security.
• Discuss how Security and HR can collaborate to both be more effective.

While we typically think of pay equity in economic terms, have you considered how pay transparency-a cornerstone of pay equity-impacts employee well-being? We analyzed over 6,000 employee survey responses representing 40 employers from diverse sectors-and the results are eye-opening. Better understand pay transparency and how to effectively implement it, discover actionable insights for promoting pay equity beyond pay practices, and align your compensation philosophy and values to create a workplace that works for everyone.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how policies and practices beyond compensation contribute to pay inequity, and what you can do to build a healthier and happier workplace.
• Understand your 'why,' including how pay equity aligns with your organization's values and how it will help you achieve your larger goals.
• Access tangible, data-driven strategies to promote pay equity across your own organization.

Addressing and preventing cyclical workplace fatigue within an HR context demands a dual commitment to intentional self-care and astute awareness of communication dynamics and leadership style. Elevating your role to that of a 'space creator' is key-mastering the art of setting and maintaining boundaries that not only empower your team but also shield you from assuming undue responsibilities and succumbing to perpetual burnout. This proactive approach is pivotal in fostering a healthy workplace environment and ensuring sustained well-being for both yourself and your team.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore how leaders serve as architects, shaping the values, beliefs, and norms that define the organizational culture.
• Effectively build trust and psychological safety in the workplace.
• Create and maintain boundaries to prevent burnout and generate a culture that prioritizes wellness.
• Apply the Support, Don't Solve framework in real-world leadership, scenarios.
• Implement strategies to delegate effectively, empower others, and encourage authentic collaboration.

Generally, lawyer-led HR presentations focus on cases involving organizations that made significant employment law mistakes -- and suffered significant damages as a result. That is not this presentation. Rather, this session will look at cases in which employers successful defended claims brought against them, analyzing what they did right rather than what they did wrong. The program will do a deep dive into ten recent rulings, providing tips that HR professionals can immediately implement when they return to their organization after the conference. Significant time will be reserved at the end of this program for questions and suggestions from the audience.  

Learning Objectives:

• Create an awareness that employers can and do win workplace-related litigation -- when they do the right thing.
• Understand how to handle difficult situations such that if litigation follows the organization will be able to successfully defend any claims.
• During this program, information will be shared that helps HR Professionals guide managers to take the steps necessary to put the organization in the best position possible to defend any claims.
• By following the best practices covered in the session, HR professional will enhance their organization's culture, increase retention, and decrease their risk profile.

In today's dynamic work environments, leadership goes beyond titles. Professionals need influential leadership and personal branding to make a lasting impact.   In this session, we'll explore the synergy of influence and personal branding, craft a Personal Brand Statement to fuel career success and build credibility, influence and relationships to get results.  Your personal brand isn't just a catchphrase; it's the value you offer. Discover your unique qualities, manage your brand, and accelerate your career.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how to leverage your personal brand as an asset, ensuring alignment with your career goals, as well as your organization's goals to drive meaningful change.
• Discover what motivates humans, how communication works, and how to craft an effective vision that will allow you to lead people to success - regardless of your title or position.
• Develop strategies to manage organizational change using influence, balancing the needs of stakeholders, while actively promoting and communicating your personal brand for increased impact.

As organizations harness the power of generative AI, HR leaders are exploring how to do so responsibly. This careful balance of compliance and innovation requires an ethical framework ensuring fairness and non-discrimination. This session will examine the best practices for organizations seeking to leverage AI tools in the employment context, while upholding HR compliance, driving productivity and fostering inclusion. Learn key considerations, such as responsible AI governance, transparency, data security and privacy.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the critical importance of inclusive, deep data sets in the development, testing and use of HCM AI tools.
• Learn about AI governance structures and how to create processes in your organization for the ethical and effective use of HCM data.
• Understand -- via examples -- how generative AI-powered insights can enable employers to be more effective, compliant and create a more equitable workplace.

Unemployment remains low. Disengagement is on the rise. Employees - often your top performers - will seek other opportunities. How can leaders manage departures in ways that keep doors open for potential returns, protect remaining team members, and reduce productivity drains? As HR leaders, it often falls to us to step in to support healthy transitions. In this engaging workshop, Tina Schust Robinson, founder of WorkJoy, offers three practical steps to help managers say goodbye with grace.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn techniques for opening emotionally-intelligent dialogues with employees who give notice.
• Evaluate potential to retain by considering four critical questions.
• Co-create a win-win transition plan that supports the departing employee, the remaining team members, and the manager.

Although Quiet Quitting is all the rage, speaker/author Bob Kelleher first introduced the concept in his You Tube Video, Who's Sinking Your Boat (1.2 million views). In this dynamic and multimedia presentation, Bob shares studies that show that an individual's level of engagement or disengagement can be directly linked to a variety of factors: One's own engagement; who you select to manage people; the disconnect between an individual's and the firm's values; the dynamics that take place in people's lives OUTSIDE of work; and the failure of firms to hold the actively disengaged accountable.  Bob will walk through key steps to reverse disengagement, while energizing and engaging your 'quiet quitters'.

Learning Objectives:

• How to identify your disengaged employees or those who are quietly quitting the organization.
• Learn the secrets to why employees become disengaged.
• Learn the key engagement drivers of the various workforce generations.
• Learn why staff selection might be the reason you have disengaged employees.
• Understand the important role accountability plays in one's engagement and self motivation.
• Leave with practical videos, case studies, and metrics to share with your own leaders.

The 2023-2024 SHRM State of the Workplace report delves into the significant challenges organizations faced in 2023 and what they foresee looking ahead into 2024. Integrating the perspectives of HR professionals and U.S. workers, the research explores topics such as inflation, labor shortages, the state of HR departments and organizations’ adoption of AI. We invite you to join us as we unpack the findings, and share our recommendations for navigating 2024 and beyond.

Learning Objectives:

• The key issues faced by organizations in 2023.
• The emerging trends and anticipated challenges for organizations in 2024.
• The adoption and utilization of AI technologies in HR.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) continues to impose more obligations on employers, focusing on automated decision-making tech and privacy risk assessments. Employers must evaluate their use of AI, employee monitoring software, and recruiting tools to determine if they trigger new notice obligations and offer opt-out rights for employees and job applicants. In this session, Fisher Phillips' Consumer Privacy attorneys will discuss CCPA changes, their implications for employers, and HR's role in ensuring compliance.

Learning Objectives:

• How to identify what software tools constitute automated decision-making technology, including AI software, employee monitoring tools and other software that assists in the profiling of employees and job applicants.
• Understand the notice obligations and opt-out rights related to an employer's use of automated decision-making technology.
• Understand what is a privacy risk assessment and what uses of employee and job applicant data trigger an obligation to do one.
• Strategies for conducting privacy risk assessments related to uses of employee and job applicant data.

The Career Pathways for Targeted Populations Committee of the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board formed a workgroup focused on career pathways for individual with disabilities in 2022.  The Disability Workgroup leaders will share the work of the group, including data on hiring individuals with disabilities, an employer perspective, the story of an individual with lived experience, and human resources tools for hiring individuals with disabilities.  Leave this session with knowledge and tools about hiring this source of untapped talent!

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the data surrounding employment for individuals with disabilities.
• Learn how to replicate models for hiring individuals with disabilities in their companies.
• Gain tools for creating a culture conducive to hiring individuals with disabilities.

So, you think you're doing the right thing to protect your organization by ordering background checks on your applicants (and you are!) but did you know there are MANY litigation 'traps' where you could be violating FCRA law (and state laws) and you don't even know it? In this new installment of Deb's national background screening educational series, she walks you step by step through ALL phases of using criminal records in the hiring process. This includes job postings, job applications (yes, these can put you at risk!), the interview process (hello, Ban the Box laws), job offers, the EEOC Guidance on the consideration of criminal records, individualized assessments and business necessity, internal job matrixes and Adverse Action. A must attend for all HR Professionals responsible for recruiting, hiring, compliance & talent management.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to make compliant hiring decisions based on the background check itself & the criminal records it contains - this includes state restrictions on criminal reporting, individualized assessments, the EEOC Guidance and Adverse Action, all of which are strong areas of litigation against employers.
• Learn how to compliantly list qualifications in your job postings and how your job application may be causing you great risk of litigation.
• Learn when to compliantly run the background check and how to be compliant with Ban the Box laws during the interview process.
• Learn how to create internal job matrixes which allow you to make consistent, compliant hiring decisions based on business necessity and criminal records based on job duties and how that can vary by position.

In this lively program Janice Litvin will show students and emerging professionals how to manage stress to prevent burnout. Based on the premise that you can change your reactions to stress, Janice's methodology will teach you how to build awareness, convert negative thoughts into positive self-talk, and set healthy boundaries. You will come away with specific tools you can start using immediately. All you need is awareness, desire to change, and willingness to do the work.

Learning Objectives:

• Identifying workplace stressors.
• Recognizing burnout in yourself and peers (physical and mental signs).
• How your thought process contributes to burnout (being aware & reframing your mindset).
• Setting healthy boundaries.

Data Influencers harness data to effectively communicate with executives, drive decision-making, and ultimately achieve their goals. In this session, we will delve into a four-step data strategy employed by HR leaders to address challenging questions, evaluate hiring requests, assess the impact of potential mergers, divestitures, and outsourcing, and optimize HR practices. Through practical examples and case studies, we will explore how these data-driven approaches have transformed organizations and elevated the role of HR professionals.

Learning Objectives:

• Distinguish between influence, power, and persuasion.
• Understand how and what workforce metrics to measure.
• Learn how to use workforce benchmarks effectively.
• Know how to present data in context of your organization's initiatives and priorites.
• Be able to use data to set reasonable goals.

REPEATED FROM MONDAT at 3:30pm

During this session, participants will receive tools, resources and practical examples of how to be a strategic leader. Strategy isn't something that is relegated to the board and the C-suite. Every leader must be strategic and not just within their department. The focus of this session is less about leading strategy for the HR department and more about how HR can drive strategic thinking and add value throughout the organization. The idea is that functional leaders don't need you to wear your HR hat when you are serving them-they need you to wear your operations, sales, marketing and executive hats. They NEED you to be STRATEGIC. Only when HR leaders begin to think strategically, act strategically and execute strategically will they really bring the most value possible to their organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine what your real value is to your organization.
• Find out what you might be doing that makes it difficult to do business with you and what you can do to fix that.
• Be prepared to lead strategic planning and thinking sessions for the departments or groups that you serve.
• Evaluate the readiness of your constituents to make real and lasting changes.
• Apply an organizational health model to your efforts to determine areas of ailing and good health.

Globally, employees are convinced that people who speak up are seen as difficult, limit their career opportunities, and even get fired. It's impossible to innovate, retain employees, and be an organization where people want to grow their careers, if it's not safe to speak up. Get simple, easy-to-implement practices to get employees at all levels talking about what matters most. Create a candid culture when people know at their core, it's safe to speak up.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover why it's so hard to speak up at work and why employees are so afraid.
• Provide managers easy-to-implement practices to get employees talking about what matters most.
• Increase psychological safety and be an innovative organization where employees want to grow their careers.

Repeated from Monday at 12:30 pm

HR professionals need to be able to spot deception when conducting investigations and interviewing and hiring applicants. While research shows that the average person is lied to twice a day, most people are extremely poor at spotting deception because they rely on inaccurate stereotypes about how people behave when they lie. In this engaging and interactive session from a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney, you will watch videos and examine case studies to learn how to spot signs of deception and truthfulness.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn which signs of deception are valid and which are based on myth (such as the mistaken beliefs that liars don't look you in the eye and are fidgety).
• How to spot scientifically validated signs of deception, including verbal and non-verbal cues.
• How to spot signs of deception and truthfulness when conducting investigative interviews.
• How to spot deception when interviewing and hiring applicants.

As the nature of change advances and the speed of change accelerates, it is necessary to look further ahead and be able to alter your organization in the face of uncertainty. This session will reveal the challenges of change and a plan to affect it. It provides HR professionals with a clear and usable model for sorting through what difference you are trying to accomplish and what steps you need to take to get there.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify components and tools necessary to lead change.
• Describe organizational culture variables that might inhibit or help manage change.
• Express the internal and external reasons for a specific change.
• Understand how change will contribute to and benefit the organization and why it is important.
• Evaluate your current culture regarding change management, project management, and leadership.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the 'ACA'), the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act ('MHPAEA'), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ('HIPAA'), the Employer Retirement Security Act ('ERISA'), and other federal laws and regulations, lay out a plethora obligations and requirements for employee benefit plan sponsors. Crisis of contract and organizational security may easily arise to the extent an unknowing or inexperienced transactional team is employed to conduct employee benefits related oversight during due diligence operations conducted in corporate mergers and acquisitions. An unsuspecting buyer might be plagued with post-closing transactional liabilities reaching into the millions of dollars, requiring months or years of negotiations to settle private and federal administrative agency-related enforcement liabilities. To avoid such liabilities, employers must prepare and execute a systematic and comprehensive due diligence operation to catalogue, evaluate, and appraise the relative values and underlying liabilities associated with a seller's performance of a wide range of federal compliance mandates and other regulatory requirements. This program is designed to assist the employer in pre- and post-closing evaluation of employee benefits related due diligence operations arising in the M&A context. Participants will explore foundational aspects of many benefits related laws and regulations, while learning strategies to evaluate, assure and document a seller's current and historical performance of these important legal and regulatory obligations.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn and understand the basic federal regulatory requirements for employee benefit plan sponsors, including legal responsibilities and other obligations arising in connection with the ACA, ERISA, privacy and security laws and regulations, mental health parity laws and regulations, and others.
• Understand and learn to administer a successful due diligence operation respecting the evaluation and assessment of performance of employer liabilities arising in the context of a corporate merger or acquisition.
• Learn strategies for the inventorying of a seller's present and historical performance of certain regulatorily required component tasks underlying satisfaction of the ACA's Employer Shared Responsibility Provisions.
• Learn and deploy a holistic approach to the identification, assessment, and satisfaction of a seller's historical performance of certain complex transactional requirements, such as substantive compliance with the quantitative and nonquantitative treatment limitation requirements of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act ('MHPAEA').

Embark on an inspiring journey into Lenovo's groundbreaking initiative aimed at cultivating and empowering women leaders. In this session, we delve deep into the strategies, insights, and transformative impact of Lenovo's highly successful women leadership program. Discover how Lenovo has prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion by designing a comprehensive program that addresses the unique challenges and opportunities faced by women in the tech industry. From coaching and skill development to networking and advocacy, the program is underscored by executives' commitment to the participants' success and advancement. Explore how Lenovo fosters a supportive ecosystem for women to thrive and ascend to leadership positions.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore the Structure and Components of Lenovo's Women Leadership Program: Examine the key elements of the program designed to empower women, including coaching, skill development, networking, and advocacy.
• Analyze Strategies for Overcoming Barriers to Female Leadership: Investigate the specific barriers that women face in advancing to leadership positions in the tech industry and how Lenovo's program addresses these challenges. Learn about the strategies and initiatives implemented by Lenovo to eliminate these barriers and promote gender equity.

REPEATED FROM MONDAY at 2:00pm

It seems like we receive an FMLA request almost every day anymore. Continuous leaves are, generally, simple to deal with and very straight forward – it's hard to 'fake' an appendicitis! Intermittent FMLA, on the other hand, is an automatic, cringe worthy event. This session is designed to help the HR Practitioner avoid the 'cringe' by reviewing the tools we have at our disposal to remain compliant AND minimize potential abuse of the system.  The session covers the basics but is good for mid-level professionals as well - the more we are familiar with the regulations, the better we can apply them and minimize our organizations' exposure to abuse.

Learning Objectives:

• Compliant and effective management of intermittent FMLA.
• Ease practitioner's anxiety over intermittent requests.
• Best practices for risk reduction.
• Checklist for intermittent leave management.

Imagine this scenario.  You've been called into a confidential meeting and told your organization is considering a merger.  Do you readily have the HR knowledge and skills to strategically support your organization?    Elaine Johnson, Vice President of Advisory Services with Dynamic Corporate Solutions, Inc., is bringing her experience in mergers and acquisitions to share tips for ensuring today's HR leader is always M&A ready.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain a greater understanding of the end-to-end mergers and acquisition process.
• Understand in detail the important role played by Human Resources, with focus on the diligence and post-acquisition phases.
• Discuss why acquisitions fail to meet their deal objectives and the impact of human capital in a successful change management process.

Discover how AI fosters personalized learning, boosts engagement, streamlines training administration, and uncovers insightful analytics. Future-proof your talent strategies and gain insights from real-life examples of AI in action.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the primary applications for AI in talent development.
• Select the most relevant AI opportunities for your organization from proven use cases.
• Develop a plan for implementing AI in Your organization.

Balancing market pay and internal equity is a challenge when developing your compensation plans. You must choose aligned survey sources to ensure you are paying market rates. Equally important is to make sure your organization's internal values are represented. After all, the market operates on pure supply and demand, with no inherent 'values'; whereas your organization has values that must be recognized, such as, pay equity, core position identification, and other company-culture considerations. How do you reconcile the two? In his presentation, John Rubino discusses the most important techniques and methodologies to ensure that you strike the right external and internal balance. You will learn how to articulate your organizations compensation philosophy and pay policy, choosing your benchmark jobs, identifying and analyzing survey sources, as well as internal job evaluation and pay equity methodologies, and much more - all to achieve an optimal balance in your compensation programs!

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and apply the optimal emphasis for your organization between market competitiveness and internal equity, to ensure that your compensation programs are properly equipped to attract, retain and motivate a well-qualified and motivated workforce.
• Create and articulate your organization's compensation philosophy and pay policy.
• Identify and analyze your benchmark jobs and valid market survey sources to ensure market competitiveness.
• Identify and apply the most-aligned internal job evaluation and pay equity methodologies to ensure that your organization's core values are properly represented in your compensation programs.
• Discuss additional tools and techniques to ensure that you are striking the right balance between market competitiveness and internal equity in your compensation programs.

Non-Qualified plans like deferred compensation, RSU's, options, and corporate owned life insurance policies are exploding in popularity as employers look for new ways to attract and retain key personnel. This presentation will take you all the way back to the basics. Why do you (or should you) have one of these plans in your benefits package? How do they work and what are the different ways to structure them? How do you evaluate an existing program and determine if it is successful? Here is a crash course in all types of Non-Qualified Plans and how you can maximize their benefits.

Learning Objectives:

• What is a Non-Qualified Plan?
• Why are Non-Qualified Plans becoming more popular?
• How can a Non-Qualified Plan help an organization meet their goals?
• How to administer your plan to maximize its benefits.

There is a heightened focus on pay equity, pay transparency, and pay reporting and it's growing. This presentation will update the SHRM community on the impact of EEOC and OFCCP enforcement pay trends, ramifications from pay data collection initiatives, and potential implications of the U.S. presidential election on the future of pay equity.  The session will highlight the landscape and leave attendees with strategic and practical tips for analyzing and reporting pay data.

Learning Objectives:

• Increase your knowledge of legal rules and developments related to pay transparency, discrimination enforcement, and mandatory pay data reporting.
• Develop skills to evaluate options for assessing your pay equity programs that align to compliance needs.
• Apply your understanding of contrasting and complex legal requirements and recommend strategies to leadership to enhance your compensation programs.

Repeated from Monday at 3:30PM

As HR leaders grapple with unprecedented challenges, discover how integrating Process Intelligence (PQ) into your programs addresses the evolving needs of the workforce. From combating leadership fatigue to empowering emerging talent, this session offers practical strategies and real-life examples, promising an insightful journey to reshape your leadership approach.

Learning Objectives:

• Build performance metrics that drive business focus, urgency and accountability.
• Reignite your teams that are hybrid, virtual or in-person with non-negotiable systems.
• Establish leadership skills to elevate employee engagement in your organization.
• Create a communication cadence that informs at all levels and tiers.
• Discover transformational processes to create innovation in a team.

As the future of work continues to evolve, traditional employee lifecycle experiences and retention strategies are no longer effective. In this transformative workshop, we'll delve into the future of work and the evolution of workplace culture. It's crucial for HR leaders to understand and adapt to these shifts. You'll walk away with tools and strategies to effectively navigate these changes, focusing on talent retention and the creation of a resilient, high-performance workplace culture.

Learning Objectives:

•    Explore the changing dynamics of the workforce and the implications for talent retention.
•    Identify the six stages of a human-centric talent lifecycle experience and how to implement them in their organization.
•    Discover how to develop and implement effective talent retention strategies in the context of today's rapidly evolving work environment.

The Supreme Court decision broadening religious rights in the workplace has led to many state court decisions that also give employees greater protection for their religious views. This, in turn, has led to an increase in worker demands for accommodation. Learn the current state of legal protection for religion at work and what obligations HR may have to workers claiming faith-based exceptions to employer policies and training.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how religious rights of employees enjoy greater protection due to federal and state court decisions;
• Learn what new state laws are in place based on those court decisions;
• Learn how to analyze requests for accommodation or exemption from workplace policies and training from employees claiming their religious beliefs are being violated.

Repeated from Monday at 11:00am.

In an era where the stakes of I-9 compliance are higher than ever and audits are increasing, join us for strategic insights and actionable strategies to help your organization navigate the complexities of the Form I-9 and reduce risk. I-9 guru, John Fay, will discuss the latest on E-Verify obligations, how virtual verifications are working for those who qualify, how to help avoid discrimination, and what audits are uncovering.

Learning Objectives:

• Virtual Efficiency: Optimizing I-9 Completions in a Digital Landscape a. Unlock the secrets to streamlining I-9 processes in the new virtual environment. b. Discover innovative approaches to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of your I-9 completion workflow.
• E-Verify Evolution: Navigating Impactful Changes for Employers a. Stay ahead of the curve by understanding the dynamic evolution of E-Verify. b. Explore the implications for employers and learn how to adapt to the latest developments.
• Decoding Trends: Analyzing I-9 Penalty Decisions a. Gain a deeper understanding of emerging trends in I-9 penalty decisions. b. Arm yourself with knowledge by analyzing real-world cases, ensuring your organization is well-prepared for potential pitfalls.
• Risk Reduction Toolbox: Actionable Tips for Your Organization a. Equip your organization with practical and actionable tips to proactively reduce your I-9 compliance risks. b. Implement proven strategies aligned with the latest regulatory standards, helping to safeguard your organization from potential pitfalls.

A study of more than 10,000 senior executives showed that the #1 most important leadership behavior critical to company success is 'being strategic.' However, research shows only 3 out of every 10 leaders has mastered this skill. And since bad strategy is the main cause of business bankruptcy 80% of the time, having leaders that can think, plan, and act strategically is often the difference between success and failure.  New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Rich Horwath provides leaders with a framework to master the most important business skill of our time: strategic capability. Rich designed the Strategic Fitness System to help leaders transform the complexity of their business into clear strategic direction. By developing their strategic fitness in the four disciplines of strategy, leadership, organization, and communication, executives will be able to generate new insights on a continuous basis to confidently navigate their business.

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate a clear and concrete definition of strategy and how it differs from other key business planning terms and then apply it to build the foundation of their plan.
• Use innovative thinking techniques to discover new insights that drive competitive advantage.
• Make strategic trade-offs to focus their teams resources to create new value for customers.
• Techniques to improve personal performance and master their calendar.
• Evolve their business model to create, deliver, and capture new value in the market so as not to become obsolete or passed by their competitors.

Repeated from Monday at 2:00pm

In this session you will discover what it takes to cultivate a workplace where employees not only excel but flourish. This dynamic session is designed for HR leaders and professionals to enhance employee engagement and retention strategies. Identify the key drivers of a positive workplace culture, and learn approaches to create an environment where employees feel valued, connected, and inspired to contribute their best.

Learning Objectives:

• Building a Culture of Recognition: Learn how meaningful recognition can boost morale, reinforce positive behaviors, and create a culture of appreciation.
• Effective Communication for Engagement: Develop communication strategies that foster transparency, build trust, and keep employees informed and engaged,
• Understanding Employee Motivation: Explore factors and circumstances that drive employee motivation and how to create engagement strategies for employee and team needs.

A culture of collaboration is the cornerstone of a high-performing and innovative workforce. Successful collaboration in the new world of work requires more upfront effort but drives even greater alignment and purpose when executed properly. This session shares key strategies and practical approaches to cultivate an environment of aligned purpose, cohesion, trust, and dialogue among hybrid and dispersed teams.

Learning Objectives:

• The power of synergy: Understand the transformative impact of collaboration on employee engagement, productivity, and organizational outcomes.
• Building trust and Psychological Safety: Learn how to foster an atmosphere of trust, where employees feel safe to express ideas, take risks, and contribute their unique strengths.
• Effective communication for collective success: Develop communication strategies that promote transparency, active listening, and the exchange of ideas across teams and departments.

Many HR leaders get into HR with aspirations of doing purpose-driven work only to be stuck in the doldrums of administrative tasks. Recent research shows only half of HR leaders are viewed as strategic.   Adam Weber has spoken with 1,000+ HR leaders and identified 5 traits that top leaders exhibit. He will share with the audience how to lean into those traits to elevate their own HR function from administrative to strategic.

Learning Objectives:

• The definition of strategic HR.
• The 5 traits of the top 5% strategic HR leaders.
• Practical ways to implement those 5 traits into their own HR function.
• How to catalyze the shift if their business still believes HR is not a strategic function that delivers bottom-line business impact.

Do you deal with retaliation in your workplace?  Ever felt that you were retaliated against?  Have you ever taken action against someone else?  Ever considered why people are so fundamentally charged up over this topic?  Well it is not you, that is for sure!  The fact is that retaliation in the workplace gets to the core of our essence as humans and it is time that we changed our mindset in terms of how we address, consider and of course train on this very challenging topic.  In this session we will explore our physiology and how our very bodies create a visceral response that needs to be acknowledged and addressed before we can truly work to reduce the level of retaliation occurring in the workplace. Both the applicable employment laws and the cases across the country have left a plethora of examples in the sea of guidance and decisions in this area.  So join me as we engage together to tear down your incorrect preconceived notions and assist you in evolving beyond your DNA to thwart retaliation in your mind as well as your organization.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore the physiological response to the fight or flight response in the workplace.
• Learn about the true exposure to retaliation in the workplace and the costs associated with the same.
• Gain insight into how to address retaliation independent of what employment law is being used in a given situation.
• Understand the questions everyone needs to ask to deal with retaliation concerns at work.

Getting ethics right is a big deal, and ethics requires courage, especially in a world with AI arriving on our desktops. HR professionals often need help in maintaining high ethical and cultural standards for their organization. This facilitated discussion goes beyond a lecture on ethical principles – it includes actionable tactics and recent case studies that offer participants 'real-time' practice in resolving dilemmas, with participants sharpening their critical thinking skills.   Participants will learn and practice effective tactics for aligning their values and ethics with their organization's goals and reducing their fears of 'doing the right thing' in complex situations.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding how Critical Thinking and Ethics are under pressure from the arrival of Generative AI in our organization's life.
• Resolving Ethical Dilemmas using structured thinking tools.
• Preparing for the challenge of an employee needing to address ethics when the challenge/problem includes their boss' action or lack of action.
• How can an employee effectively 'delegate up' when they see an ethical issue that their boss either doesn't see or doesn't acknowledge to be an issue?
• Balancing logic, emotions, and courage while making difficult decisions.
• Building an action plan for personal and organizational courage.

The list of reasons employers get sued by employees is as long as it is wide, but a seasoned employment lawyer with 25 years in the trenches has seen certain ones more than others.  Come for an engaging session by one of those lawyers reviewing his top 10 reasons why employers get sued by employees, and stay for preventative tips on how to avoid each and every one of them!

Learning Objectives:

• Identify 10 of the most significant day-to-day employment decisions they make which create compliance danger if done incorrectly.
• Understand the specific legal risk of being sued which is inherent in each of those choices.
• Learn and take back to your workplace practical and preventative solutions to each issue so as to avoid or minimize being sued.

Repeated from Monday at 11:00am

Unmanaged workplace stress in the United States costs more than $300 billion annually in lost productivity, absenteeism, staff turnover, and medical, legal, and insurance expenditures. Many HR departments face escalating burnout, heightened workloads, and shortages. Navigating multiple competing priorities and changing organizational demands is compounded with uncertainty in the marketplace, workloads infiltrating their personal lives, and difficulty disconnecting from work. HR leaders will gain strategies to alleviate personal burnout and cultivate a growth-oriented mindset; equipping them to lead by example within their organizations.  Learn from a Doctor of Nursing with 14 years of experience in improving outcomes and strategically navigating leaders to mitigate burnout and operate at peak performance.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain awareness of the research-validated stages of burnout.
• Recognize the early signs and symptoms of leadership burnout.
• Self-identify with your current phase of the burnout cycle.
• Master targeted strategies to reduce burnout in you lives and career.

Workplace violence is on the rise. Sadly, it oftentimes starts at home.  Join Kris for an emotional journey through the experiences people face when interpersonal harassment invades their workplaces.  Kris will arm you with information and resources to protect yourselves, your colleagues/employees, and your customers, and will inspire you to make a difference when possible.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the obstacles (real and perceived) that often cause employees facing harassment in their personal lives not to report their experiences (and how to overcome those obstacles).
• Learn how to become an ally who supports and contributes to a workplace culture that cares about its employees experiencing out-of-the office harassment.
• Learn how to protect yourselves, your workplace, and your clients from people who engage in harassing behavior.

Repeated from Monday at 2:00pm

California regulates the workplace like no other state but there are new emerging hurdles for 2024-2025. The session will focus on preparing California employers for 2025 reviewing key workplace developments and provide preventive strategies for workplace issues. This session will include reviewing wage and hour, leave of absence and other difficult areas.  The program will review new laws, important cases and key policy and handbook updates for California.

Learning Objectives:

• What your employer must address in response to the new California laws and agency actions for 2025.
• Provide practical strategies to respond to the new California and federal case law impacting the workplace.
• Provide an action plan to update your California handbook and train your managers.

Capture & capitalize on the thinking preferences of teammates! People have preferences for foods & colors, they also have measurably different preferences when solving problems or tackling challenges. FourSight helps you: Recognize & then capitalize on cognitive diversity; Focus on wrestling with challenges versus wrestling with each other; Strengthen the synergy & productivity of teams; Foster a climate that draws maximum potential.  Complete the FourSight assessment prior; individual & team profiles are revealed in the session.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees will be able to: Understand and leverage the cognitive diversity of their teams With intention, build homogeneous or heterogeneous teams Bolster team synergy  Solve problems better Hire for talent -- choose for team productivity

Cultivating an inclusive workplace not only leads to happier teams who feel seen, heard and valued, it also translates to higher productivity, better performance and overall competitive advantage for your organization. Finally feel confident about how to create and integrate more racial equity and inclusion in your workplace. Learn a step-by-step framework for developing an organizational culture that is inclusive, non- discriminatory, and racially equitable - including how to transform organizational processes that impede the ability to achieve strategic objectives. When we thoroughly understand what a racially equitable culture looks like - and begin influencing organizational decision-making, implement practices and processes that create a more inclusive and unbiased workplace - cultural transformation will occur.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand your organization's current mission and vision and future objectives.
• Explore the importance of racial equity in the workplace and the impact it can have on organizational success.
• Receive tips for participating in and impacting the organization's strategic plan with focused and equitable HR strategies.
• Gain tools for implementing racially equitable processes for maximum organizational performance.
• Learn the seven keys for creating and cultivating organizational equity.

What if you could go back in time, to the early part of your career, and talk with your 'younger self?'  What would you say? What advice would you give, and how transparent would you be with the ups and downs you experienced to get you where you are today?  As HR Professionals we all know that this type of self-reflection is an important component of being an effective leader. But how many times do we intentionally share our stories of adversity, and subsequently how we grew from them, with those around us?  'Dear Younger Self', is one woman's journey as she:

• Left a company she's been at for 18 years.
• Joined a new,  predominantly male-dominated organization, with a well-established Leadership Team.
• Found out that most of the employees (including some of the leadership), viewed the role of HR, as a villain.
• Faced numerous challenges.
• And in the end, learned some incredibly valuable lessons in leadership and life.

Learning Objectives:

• Expansion of self-awareness regarding adversity in the listener's own career and how they responded to difficult situations.
• Recognizing the importance of key leadership and development skills.
• Identifying and leveraging your strengths as they relate to your role and what you were hired to do in your organization.
• Never shying away from saying the things that need to be said.
• The importance of gaining buy-in when going through organizational change.
• Making decisions based on what we know, not how we feel.
• The power of vulnerability.
• Examining why, so often, we associate 'mistakes' as a negative experience vs. an opportunity for growth.

Our workplaces are filled with diverse people whose lives require more from them than ever before. People are managing their personal lives, their families and extended families, their mental health, their emotions, a world that experiences change almost instantaneously, and the everyday stresses that come with being human. Yet we have a difficult time recognizing that these things impact the workplace, and that people are more than the work they do. All people have an innate need to feel understood, heard, or just validated-that life is tough, and we support them.   Enter empathy - our ability to understand what others are feeling and actively share emotions with others. Our ability to lead with empathy and value people for who they are can have a significant impact on the workforce. So, how do we solve it? Join this discussion where we will explore what it means to demonstrate empathy and how we can make this a part of our everyday actions.

Learning Objectives:

• Define empathy and the various types of empathy.
• Explore the importance of empathy in the workplace.
• Discuss how to strengthen empathy skills and remove roadblocks that inhibit empathy.
• Develop a plan of action for creating a more empathic culture.

Feedback is a Gift! 68% of workers who get consistent and accurate feedback feel satisfied in their jobs!  Effective feedback is a crucial aspect of personal and professional growth, and it plays an important role in creating a positive organizational culture. Clear and timely feedback promotes a growth mindset, trust, as well as increased productivity.  Let's get skilled, both as the receiver and giver of feedback. What's the power of the receiver?

Learning Objectives:

• The right response to feedback, regardless if it's accurate or skillfully delivered or not.
• Power of the receiver: pull for feedback.
• Necessary ingredients for effective feedback.

Join international award winning empowerment expert Ashley T Brundage as she shares the 4 empowerment steps to cultivate global leadership for your organization. This session will cover the 4 empowerment steps and the research study results from the 28 countries and 17 languages that participated globally. Hear unique insights, see technology that can leverage insights, and engage with the top empowering actions for global leadership and empowerment for your teams.

Learning Objectives:

• Cover the 4 empowerment steps.
• Learn the research study results from the 28 countries and 17 languages that participated globally.
• Engage live with technology that can leverage insights for empowerment.
• Lead with the top empowering actions for global leadership and empowerment for your teams.

Repeated from Monday at 12:30pm.

Businesses struggle with communication on a good day so having unnecessary or unresolved conflict added in will only cause deeper structural and organizational flow issues. And while conflict management is a useful skill to exercise, the lack of understanding of forgiveness as a piece of that plan will lead to more repeated situations with those same involved individuals.

Learning Objectives:

• To be able to identify the mired and conflicted communication snags in conflict management within an organization.
• To be able to define what forgiveness (in a business context) is and isn't.
• To be able to practice functional forgiveness as a methodology in conflict resolution and in sustained, healthy internal communication.

Repeated from Monday at 11:00am

The ability to develop innovative & strategic ideas for your organization is critical.  Equally important is the ability to move those ideas through approval to implementation.  This session will explore techniques and frameworks to expand organizational influence through the lens of an HR leader.  HR needs to build influence and power across their organization, within the C-suite and across the Board of Directors.  We will examine strategies and tools designed to maximize the interpersonal influence for the HR leader and help move initiatives from proposal to execution.  We will explore what is known to the scientific world about social power strategies and how this can be applied to our HR landscape.  Tips & tricks to be an effective CHRO will also be explored.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore five things to consider to maximize your interpersonal influence.
• Identify common strategies to gain alignment and 'get stuff done'.
• Analyz how decisions are made and how to expand the ability to impact.
• Discover the seven bases of power and how to apply to the workplace.
• Sharpen skills that will help advance careers.

Presented by a lawyer who has defended employment lawsuits for 40 years, this program will highlight HR's role in the events leading up to litigation and in the litigation itself.  HR is instrumental in creating the right policies, in maintaining the necessary records, in documenting employee misconduct and performance issues, and in conducting competent and objective investigations that set the stage for an employment lawsuit.  HR also typically plays a pivotal role in answering discovery, giving depositions and testifying in court.  This presentation will prepare you to set your organization up for a win in the event an employee should sue.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how employment policies can provide a winning edge -- or not -- in an employment lawsuit.
• Learn why thorough documentation of workplace incidents and employee performance is so important -- 'If it's not in writing, it didn't happen.'
• Learn how to conduct an investigation of employee misconduct that won't be shot down by opposing counsel.
• Learn HR's role in the discovery process in a lawsuit, and in testifying in court.

With an increase in requests for team-based training, do you ever wonder, is this the team that really needs this training or is it the level above? When a team isn't functioning effectively, there are a few avenues to take a look at, but all of them benefit from more consistent leadership support.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify metrics for measuring whether your team training is having an impact.
• Explore the impact of team development with organizational support.
• Learn strategies to make team development a priority for senior leaders.

Repeated from Monday at 12:30pm.

Dave Barnett, Chief Administrative Officer at DeVry University, shares how Human Resources leaders can navigate challenges and redefine the employer-employee relationship amid continuous, global shifts in what we do and how we work.  Participants will learn strategies to intentionally shape a caring, empathy-driven culture, while enabling achievement of exceptional results.

Learning Objectives:

• Walk away with a clear framework for how to assess culture in the context of an aspirational cultural state.
• Receive examples of specific practices that can be leveraged to create a sense of belonging, a culture of care and mission/strategy/culture alignment.
• Discuss a process for how this work can then be leveraged into crafting a compelling employee value proposition.
• Understand how these efforts can translate into tangible organization-wide outcomes and results.

LGBTQIA+ equality is both a human rights and business imperative in today's employer landscape. How can HR leaders design thoughtful and culturally-responsive benefits and well-being offerings for every need? In this research-packed session, learn evidence-based techniques and key cultural competencies for inclusive mental health care and initiatives that promote a sense of belonging, inside and outside of work.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss fundamental LGBTQIA+ identity concepts, factors that impact LGBTQIA+ people's mental health, and strategies for effective advocacy.
• Share ways that leadership and colleagues can be an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community.
• Explore the importance of LGBTQIA+ inclusive offerings and what they look like in practice.

In today's digital age, social media and misinformation have intensified political discussions and triggering conversations in the workplace. Contentious and hostile conversations often overshadow the beauty of diverse opinions and jeopardize inclusive workplace cultures. While engaging participants actively, we'll explore the challenges and solutions of navigating sensitive discussions using hands-on exercises. Attendees will gain a comprehensive guide to establishing respect, setting boundaries, and balancing personal beliefs and a respectful work environment.

Learning Objectives:

• Strategies to Navigate Complex Conversations: Equip HR professionals and leaders with tools and techniques to manage situations where political discussions veer into uncomfortable or potentially harassing territories.
• Understanding the Importance of Respect and Inclusion: Participants will learn about respecting diversity of opinion while ensuring a respectful and inclusive workspace.
• Role of HR in Guiding Discussions: Equip managers with the skills to be mindful of their conversations and understand the influence of their authority.
• Setting Boundaries: Participants will learn strategies to set clear boundaries, encouraging employees to avoid potentially triggering topics and ensuring no one is forced into uncomfortable discussions.
• Legal Landscape of Political Discussions at Work: An overview of how the First Amendment interacts with private workplaces and the role of the National Labor Relations Act in workplace discussions about wages, hours, or working conditions.

10,000 Americans turn 65 every day, bringing about a major transformation in the workforce as 28 million Americans will reach this milestone by 2030. Yet, most businesses are unprepared for this massive demographic shift. Our session will provide an exploration of our cutting-edge research that is revolutionizing the way organizations support their pre-retirees. We will also delve into an innovative case study showcasing the incredible benefits of assisting employees in their transition to retirement.

Learning Objectives:

• Walk away with an awareness of the massive shift that is occurring in the workforce as 28 million people prepare to retire.
• Hear groundbreaking insights from an HR survey exploring current trends and opportunities for organizations to support employees' transition to retirement.
• Discuss an in-depth case study highlighting an innovative approach that one company adopted to support their long-tenured employees' transition to retirement.
• Receive resources to help organizations plan for this seismic shift in the workforce.

Breaking into (or back into!) the workforce can be hard for people  whose life responsibilities require creativity, flexibility, and upskilling to access the work they want to do. In this session, we will dig into flexible get-into- or return-to-work options like internships, micro-internships, returnships, and apprenticeships. Explore what these pathways open up, and who (including you and your company!) can most benefit. Sail into a future of professional fulfillment and dig into an incredible untapped talent pool. This session is your compass to charting a course for a more skills-based recruitment.

Learning Objectives:

• Define and understand the benefits of micro-internships, interships, returnships and apprenticeships and how these can be implemented within your organization.
• Understand how to change the work landscape and be part of innovative work trends by utilizing these opportunities.
• Take home specific, immediate actions you can use to implement the future of work within your organization.

By implementing and maintaining a robust succession planning program, HR leaders can support their organizations in fostering a talent pipeline, enhance employee engagement, and maintain continuity during leadership transitions. Learn key steps such as talent identification, leadership development initiatives, mentoring and coaching, and evaluating the success of succession planning efforts. By following these strategies, organizations will create a sustainable leadership framework and promote the growth and development of their employees. HR leaders driving these efforts will add value to the organization.

Learning Objectives:

• How to track the success of internal promotions.
• How to benchmark internal talent against external talent.
• How to use stay interviews to develop internal talent.
• How to be deliberate about always up leveling your best talent.

Current research shows that employees are increasingly more stressed, overwhelmed and burnout. However, when you think about it, it's counterintuitive. Many would suggest that the direct benefits to the workplace, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have been significant. Increases in remote work, administration of virtual meetings, integration of more flexible work schedules, reductions in telecommuting, a more relaxed workplace dress code, deeper focus on online learning and skill-building, reductions in employer operating costs etc. However, in the midst of these benefits, employees are saying that their stress levels are rising, their work-life balance is being challenged and overall employee engagement is declining. There must be other factors or tensions in the work environment creating this imbalance, an impacting our employee base negatively.  This workshop will explore ten (10) 'tens10ns' that exist in the workplace that are causing mass employee dissatisfaction and disengagement. Some of these 'tens10ns' are known and some are hidden, but the impact is far-reaching across many industries, countries and organizations world-wide. Strategies will be provided to encourage a more strategic focus on workplace engagement and wellness, and ensuring that employees have the support mechanisms to be effective both for the short-term and long-term.

Learning Objectives:

• Define and discuss the strategic connection between employee wellness and employee engagement.
• Discuss current trends in employee engagement and wellness and why HR Professionals should be concerned of the impact on their organizations.
• Highlight the ten 'tens10ns' that exist in the workplace that threaten overall employee wellness and engagement.
• Provide best-practice strategies to combat each organizational 'tens10n' and proactively encourage employee wellness.
• Create a personal action plan to improve your response to the 'tens10ns'.

In recent years, the nature of work has evolved quickly and expanded in different, often unexpected directions. The organizations that will thrive in this ever-changing landscape will be those that focus on their people - building new skills, prioritizing flexibility and anticipating what's coming next. Explore why HR's role must change and how it can cultivate talented, innovative people who are equipped not only to navigate the future of work, but to shape it.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain insights into the dynamic landscape of the future of work by assessing various external factors impacting employee wellbeing and retention.
• Recognize the vital role of workforce investment in developing leadership skills, innovative thinking and diverse perspectives, all of which are essential for organizational success.
• Delve into the value of strategic partnerships with educational and industry organizations for talent acquisition and development.

Todd will take all the mystery out of the most misunderstood concepts in HR and Org Design. Using ancient concepts and modern science, the black box will be opened to reveal the previously undiscovered yet simple, natural way to architect organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover the truth about how many levels an organization should have.
• Hear the truth about the number and type of job competencies an organization should have.
• Learn the truth about career path equivalency.

Bereavement (i.e., the loss of someone significant through death) and bereavement leave have a substantial impact in the workplace. Research by the Center for Creative Leadership shows that bereavement impacts job performance, physical wellbeing (e.g., absenteeism), and long-term job attitudes (e.g., engagement). Most employees report insufficient bereavement leave, which is related to lower employee mental wellbeing. This research, along with a supporting framework, will help decision makers establish (or modify) HR policies and practices.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the 'basics of bereavement,' including common grief reactions and prevalent misconceptions about bereavement (e.g., the 'five stages of grief' myth);
• Recognize the subtle ways that bereavement can impact employee and coworker performance and interpersonal interactions;
• Understand the impact of varying lengths of bereavement leave on bereaved employees and possibilities for structuring more flexible bereavement leave policies;
• Assess current organizational policies and practices for alignment with a suggested framework;
• Identify 'small win' ways to support bereaved employees.

In today's fiercely competitive business world, innovation is the key to success. While most companies claim to prioritize innovation, only 18% of employees feel empowered to take creative risks at work. Organizations that equip their leaders and teams with the tools and environment to foster creativity outperform their competitors. In this 'light delivery, deep message' keynote, discover the essential habits (DANCE) to spark creativity in every team member. No arts and crafts required.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify simple techniques to foster creativity in teams.
• List 5 effortless habits (DANCE) to unlock creativity in every team member.
• Recognize and overcome common mistakes that block team performance and creativity.
• Explain the 'leader dilemma', why leaders have an unconscious bias to creativity.

In today's dynamic business landscape, traditional approaches to strategic planning no longer suffice. The rapid pace of change, coupled with unprecedented levels of uncertainty, demands a new paradigm of leadership—one that is agile, resilient, and forward-thinking.

We will explore what has become an art of adaptive leadership in the modern workplace rather than the science of management. Gone are the days of predictable paths and processes; now, leaders must navigate a terrain marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). Yet, within this turbulence lies opportunity—for those with the vision and courage to seize it.

Through the lens of human resources , we'll delve into strategies for fostering organizational resilience and agility. From talent management to workforce planning, we'll equip you with the tools and insights needed to thrive amidst uncertainty. Together, we'll chart a course towards a more resilient, forward-focused HR department—one that is primed to meet the challenges of tomorrow head-on.

Don't miss this opportunity to hone your leadership skills, connect with industry peers, and chart a course towards a brighter, more adaptive future. Join us as we embark on a journey of transformation and discovery, where the only constant is change—and the possibilities are limitless.

Learning Objectives:

• What is the VUCA world-and why it's important for you as an HR leader to understand how it operates.
• How to evaluate the areas of HR to be impacted by changes.
• Establishing and advocating for needs of HR and your employees.
• Aligning processes with the new initiatives in your organization.

2024 ushers in volumes of sweeping changes, from continuing to manage through Covid reintegration to talent scarcity, large-scale employee turnover, quiet quitting, and returning employees to the office. How HR leads its operational management teams through extended periods of upheaval directly ties to organizational effectiveness, culture change, and the bottom line. Join former CHRO of Nickelodeon, Paul Falcone, as he helps to identify new ways of mastering the ongoing aftershocks to our teams and organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Master Individual crises, including building stronger remote relationships, dealing effectively with employee burnout, strengthening employee agility, collaboration, and accountability, and reversing 'silent quitting' trends.
• Lean into Departmental & Team crises, including mediating employee disputes, toxic team turnarounds, multiple generations in the workplace, and making it safe for your teams to share their concerns in a 'psychologically safe' way.
• Share wisdom through Company crises, including demands for hybrid work and returning reluctant employees to the office, threats to unionize, and being prepared for further global crises and natural disasters.

Repeated from Monday at 2:00pm.

Most organizations think they're created safe spaces. There are policies in place for reporting discrimination. Nonetheless, many marginalized people don't feel psychological safety or inclusion because subtle acts of exclusion and unconscious bias are rampant. We will explore how HR professionals can support a more active kind of inclusion, where we connect authentically, where we broach hard conversations with vulnerability and courage, and where we grow and learn together when we mess up.

Learning Objectives:

• Confirm why true inclusion and psychological safety matter so much for our organization to achieve the highest performance possible.
• Understand why the current state of most organizations leads to under-the-radar subtle exclusion and lack of safety for so many people.
• Practice understanding why more authentic connections, more productive mistakes, and more active allyship are essential for getting to true inclusion and safety for all.
• Discover immediately applicable guidelines for speaking up and standing up for colleagues.
• Apply the concepts discussed to policies, processes, and practices in order to proactively build the mostly inclusive and safe culture possible.

Ghosting is an issue that has plagued employers for years, but recently, this phenomenon has seen the disapparation of more applicants than ever before, almost reaching a new high of 28% in some industries. While many employers are blaming the rising generation, laziness, lack of respect or professionalism, etc., what if part of the problem was the employer's fault?   In this session we will cover how to become a recruiting ghostbuster by looking at three specific areas where ghosting occurs the most. Understanding why it occurs is the only way to potentially mitigate the issue and give your organization the opportunity to attract applicants, while keeping them interested and engaged to avoid losing them along the way.   Finally, you will learn a bit more about quiet quitting, and how ghosting is related to this underlying issue.   What would you do if you learned that quiet quitting is sometimes a call for help?   Come learn to be a Recruiting Ghostbuster, and you will have applicants and employees alike answering the question:   Who you gonna call?   Why, the Recruiter, of course!

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how the application process can cause ghosting and three immediate practices that can be implemented to mitigate ghosting at this stage of the process.
• Define the job seeker persona to help avoid the common mistakes that lead to ghosting and understand how the job ad has a direct impact on the likelihood of ghosting from the application stage to the interview process.
• Gain a sound understanding of how manager engagement during the interview process can help stop ghosting and learn the three core elements needed to help managers better prepare for the interview.
• Learn the six core principles for practicing an engaged focus mentality versus the traditional focus mentality to help counter the effects of quiet quitting, leading to greater retention.

Repeated on Wednesday at 7:30am

To become the best in the business, it is essential to employ the best people. But how do employers build a staff that is ready and able to take an organization to its next level? Inspired by the best-selling book, this dynamic session focuses on how to attract talented employees to the workplace, empower them, and sustain an environment in which they are more likely to stay.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn best practices and new strategies on how to restructure their workplace as a more productive and engaging environment, as well as learning how to gauge their own engagement levels by the means of a provided survey tool.
• Recognize and reward other employees to boost morale, as well as how to gauge their own engagement levels by taking a self-assessment survey.
• Learn best practices on how to attract and retain top talent, as well as the benefits of re-casting.

The present-day work environment is marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, making it crucial for HR professionals to embrace modernization and digitization to address challenges quickly, and remain effective. In today's fast-paced business environment, agility and adaptability are essential for the success of the HR professional, while fragility and inflexibility lead to inevitable failure. An agile approach to HR is essential to revamp the work culture and your role as an HR Professional has never been more important!

Learning Objectives:

• Define and Explore Agile HR/HR Agility as a construct.
• Demonstrate HR's role as a Driver of Change in Organizations.
• Evaluate how HR Agility contributes to the following areas in HR: Recruitment, Learning and Development, Function Evaluation and HR Analytics.
• Explore Strategic KSA's that the CHRO of tomorrow needs to develop today!
• Discuss how Learning Agility affects and contributes to overall HR Agility,

The California Supreme Court issued several wage-hour decisions in the last few years that complicated the already daunting task of driving wage-hour compliance in private sector workplaces. Whether you are charged with handling issues related to calculating the regular rate of pay for overtime, dealing with meal and rest period premium pay, determining when on-call time is compensable, or managing any of the other 'hot' wage-hour topics in California, you need to understand the law and how to apply it in a practical manner.  In this interactive session, Jennifer Shaw, a nationally respected employment lawyer, will cover these topics and more.  She also provides litigation-tested strategies for changing your risky practices without encouraging a lawsuit.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about the key California wage-hour laws.
• Learn practical tips to ensure compliance with California's wage-hour laws.
• Learn how to conduct a wage-hour compliance audit.
• Learn how to make changes in wage-hour practices without encouraging litigation.

Repeated from Monday at 12:30pm

An accommodation revolution is coming! This presentation examines legal changes to Title VII workplace accommodations.  Historically, Title VII required minimal employer concessions in terms of accommodations. Recently, statutes and cases expanded the scope of accommodation protections in Title VII. These changes constitute an 'accommodation revolution.' Employers will need to make increasing concessions to employee needs that were previously only available under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Are you ready for the accommodation revolution?

Learning Objectives:

• Increase understanding of the history and operation of Title VII.
• Increase understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Provide information on recent legal changes in Title VII concerning accommodations.
• Increase understanding of the scope of reasonable accommodations.

Repeated from Monday at 11:00am.

Domestic abuse is a global epidemic impacting all demographic and socioeconomic sectors. The U.S. Center for Disease Control recognizes it as 'a serious public health problem that can have a profound impact on lifelong health, opportunity, and well-being.' What goes on behind closed doors affects every facet of our society. This workshop will teach HR professionals how to recognize the warning signs of abuse, support employees, and ensure the safety of all in the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the warning signs of domestic abuse.
• Support employees who are victims (or survivors) of domestic abuse.
• Ensure the safety of all when domestic abuse spills into the workplace.

As of this writing, the FTC is poised to issue a final rule, effectively banning non-compete agreements. Concurrently, Congress is considering comparable legislation. The momentum continues with state laws and rules are barring, limiting, or restricting employers' use of other agreements including and not limited to confidentiality / non-disclosure, no solicitation, non-disparagement, and more. Join this program as we review the latest news, updates, rules and regulations limiting and restricting employers' use of these agreements, when, how, where, and for whom.

Learning Objectives:

• Compare and contrast at least three common agreements;
• Build the business case to advocate for or against the use of one or more agreements;
• Describe the impact of when such agreements are offered and to whom;
• Explain at least two current trends impacting the use of certain employment agreements.

In today's world of faster, better, cheaper, businesses are in an all-out sprint to beat the competition. Sometimes this means management and HR are being asked to push the envelope or go right up to that line in the sand.  Is it right to push it just a little?  To see how far you can bend it before it snaps?  To rationalize the fact that it was just once, or who's it going to hurt? HR professionals must remain above the fray.  We must work with both the company and the employees.  We can't give either stakeholder a reason to doubt our motives.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the provisions of the HR Professional Code of Ethics including professional responsibilities, professional development, ethical leadership, fairness and justice, conflicts of interest, and use of information.
• Learn how unethical behavior from HR or executives have impacted companies.
• Develop a strategy to deal with ethical dilemmas in the workplace and impact change.
• Identify ways to avoid the perception of being the 'Department of No' and instead discover alternative solutions that are a win-win while still maintaining ethical standards.

Repeated from Monday at 11:00.

This must-attend presentation is crucial for HR professionals, department leaders, and agents of organizational change, focusing on enhancing HR's role in companies. Ideal for HR managers, business leaders, and strategic initiative teams, this session offers valuable insights and practical strategies. It's particularly beneficial for those in organizations where HR is primarily seen as administrative and for those aiming to elevate HR as a strategic business partner.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding the Transformation Blueprint: Attendees will learn a structured, step-by-step approach to transition HR from a traditional administrative function to a strategic entity within their organization, focusing on evolving roles and responsibilities.
• Gaining Real-World Insights: Participants will be equipped with knowledge from real-life case studies of successful HR transformations, including the challenges faced, strategies employed, and the outcomes achieved, providing them with a realistic perspective on the transformation process.
• Acquiring Practical Strategies for HR Innovation: The session will offer attendees practical and innovative strategies for key HR areas such as employer branding, talent acquisition, employee engagement, and effective use of technology, enabling them to implement these strategies in their own organizations.
• Learning Metrics of Success: This objective will focus on how to effectively measure and demonstrate the impact of HR initiatives, helping attendees understand the key performance indicators and metrics that show HR's value as a strategic business partner.
• Networking and Collaborative Learning: Attendees will have the opportunity to network with peers, share experiences, and discuss solutions to common challenges, fostering a collaborative learning environment. 

We will cover the difference between 'pay equity' and 'equal pay for equal work.' Comparisons will be made between the litigation-based North American model and the reporting-based European model by using specific examples from the US, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, Australia, Japan, and China.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the difference between 'pay equity' and 'equal pay for equal work'.
• Understand the difference between North American vs. European models.
• Understand the complexities of wage and hour issues in myriad international jurisdictions.

In this groundbreaking session, we'll highlight the pivotal role that Child Care Benefits play in shaping the future of work. As organizations strive to create environments conducive to employee diversity, well-being, and productivity, the spotlight has shifted to comprehensive support systems. Join us to explore how investing in Child Care Benefits isn't just an ethical choice but a strategic imperative for businesses navigating the complexities of the modern workplace. This session promises a fresh perspective, backed by data-driven insights, on why Child Care Benefits are the key to unlocking the absolute potential of the workforce.   In a world where the boundaries between work and life continue to blur, providing robust Child Care Benefits has emerged as a game-changer for businesses aiming to attract, retain, and unleash the full productive power of their workforce. This session will dissect the symbiotic relationship between quality Child Care support and organizational success. Drawing from real-world case studies and industry best practices, we will navigate the strategic landscape, offering actionable insights that transcend traditional HR practices. Attendees can expect a dynamic discussion that transcends rhetoric, providing tangible takeaways for immediate implementation.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand why child care benefits are not just a perk but a strategic imperative for organizations seeking sustained success in the ever-evolving landscape of work.
• Explore the direct correlation between child care benefits and employee well-being, mental health, and Job satisfaction, and Learn how this impacts overall productivity.
• Gain insights into how organizations leveraging robust child care benefits gain a competitive edge in attracting top talent and retaining valuable employees.
• Delve into the broader economic implications of investing in child care support, from reducing turnover costs to fostering a more inclusive and diverse workforce.
• Acquire actionable strategies and best practices for implementing and optimizing child care benefits programs within your organization, ensuring they align with both employee needs and business goals.

Revolutions happen when current systems break down and no longer serve their purpose. Our challenges to find, recruit, and retain talent using traditional approaches clearly show the need for a workforce revolution. This session will show how to find and develop talent from multiple sources to meet employer needs.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize where traditional recruiting approaches fall short in today's workplace.
• Understand the need to re-evaluate employee strategies that include automation, internal development, and recruitment from non-traditional candidate pools.
• Learn best practices using a competency-based model to build in-house development programs that acclimate, up-skill, and promote employees.
• Create a roadmap to revolutionize in-house recruitment efforts.
• Engage strategic partners to help find and grow the best talent.

Repeated from Monday at 2:00pm.

What happened when Mitratech conducted an experiment, asking ChatGPT a series of common HR questions, and pitting their answers against Mitratech's human experts, who boast an average of 18 years of experience? Chief Services Officer Susan Anderson, who leads Mitratech 's team of HR Experts, will share with her audience the most surprising takeaways from proof-of-concept experiments, including what it takes to transform employee perceptions of generative AI from a threat to an asset.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will learn about AI's limitations, potential, and why emotional intelligence will remain a competitive advantage.
• Attendees will learn the process to run Generative AI experiments, including a rubric for grading responses that can be adapted to organizational needs.
• Attendees will learn why the cultural journey is essential to organizational success and how to create a company culture that embraces the potential collaboration with AI.

When you're the only one in your human resources department, you're playing all the positions for what's normally a team sport. You may even be switching jerseys if HR is not your main role. In this session you will learn the 'need to knows' of the game in accordance with all positions you'll play. Whether it be recruiting and retention, compliance and conflict, or engagement and offerings, this session will help you get more comfortable with your swing to knock it out of the park.

Learning Objectives:

• Know Your Playbook: Understand the basics so you can be comfortable with day-to-day HR operations.
• Use Your Bench: You can utilize both internal and external resources to improve your game.
• Go From the Minors to the Pros: Level up with some strategic planning to knock your HR game out of the park!

Healthy businesses are comprised of individuals who understand the full scope of the business, what it takes to be successful, and what roles everyone within the organization plays in contributing to the mission. Networking is the key to gaining the full circle of knowledge and support that is required to make an organization whole, healthy, and successful. As an HR professional, you must know the people you work with, what they do, and how you can collaborate with one another to boost the company's success.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand that networking is a set of skills used to expand one's community (internally and externally), demonstrate interest, and build trust.
• Learn the competencies involved in being an effective networker and how to apply them.
• Practice a few critical networking skills you can utilize with your organization as a way to expand your knowledge of the business, your investment in the mission of the organization, and your ability to provide professional expertise more broadly.
• Learn to use your network more effectively in a virtual environment including refining your LinkedIn practice and virtual meeting strategies.

Working with people can be challenging. It's easy to become overwhelmed and burned out and become a person who goes through the motions in HR. However, that's not who we should be – ever !! This session will confront the reality of where HR is in today's organizations and where it should go. It starts with us being genuine humans ourselves. All. The. Time. You'll learn proven ways to be yourself and be the leader you were meant to be as a business professional who happens to practice HR.

Learning Objectives:

• Be Human Yourself – Learn how it's safe to be yourself at work. In fact, it will set the model for your entire organization's culture.
• Getting Unstuck – Move from being stagnant to being proactive and ahead of the furious pace everyone experiences.
• The C's Have It – Start effectively working with the executives on purpose by showing them the value of a people-centric company.
• Invest in Others – Develop relationships with employees at all levels of the organization by intentionally investing your time.
• Define the Workflow – Learn how to effectively balance the mix of project-oriented work, employee relations situations, and the constant push of daily HR work.

The NLRA is the Grandaddy of them all when it comes to employment laws impacting on ALL private sector employers and employees.  Recent changes dramatically change the legality of handbooks and policies, the rights of employees on social media and during workplace investigations, the leverage unions have during bargaining and, most significantly, created new and much easier pathways for unions to organize and very strict limits on employers' ability to educate employees during union organizing drives.  The new reality is that employers could violate the law with a few simple words in a handbook and can be unionized in as little as fourteen days if they miss the new NLRB deadline.  Immediate action is necessary to understand these changes, update your labor relations compliance strategies and prepare your workplace.  This interactive session will update on the law and provide critical on how to prepare your management team for the challenges we face in the new pro-labor arena and era of heightened union activism.

Learning Objectives:

• A detailed understanding of new NLRA legal requirements that impact on all private sector employers.
• Clear guidance on how new changes in the law change the leverage labor unions have during organizing and at the bargaining table.
• Clear guidance on actions that must be taken to ensure the legality of handbooks and workplace policies.
• A detailed labor relations strategy guideline to take back to their workplaces to assess their risks and actions that can be taken to achieve their labor relations goals.

Aging populations can be drivers of economic productivity and an asset to employers.  However, a population who cannot afford to retire, not only drives up healthcare expenses but can impact morale.  Consider how to thread the needle between avoiding the proverbial 'brain drain' and empowering your employees to have the financial freedom to choose how and when they work.

Learning Objectives:

• Outline opportunities for the business community to leverage the resources of an aging workforce.
• Consider 'journeys' or pathways for the advancement and legacy of older workers so that succession happens effectively and beneficially.
• Demonstrate how health insurers are underwriting longevity risk and how employers can manage the trend of increased costs.
• Learn how to utilize your organization's retirement plans to offer meaningful financial planning tools and resources to employees.
• Consider what the future holds for retirement and healthcare benefit trends.

For as long as people have worked together for a common purpose there has been conflict.  How organizations help employees manage interpersonal struggles, and train employees to resolve conflicts in a respectful and construct manner, is essential to a successful organization. During this lively session, popular speaker and employment attorney Adam Rosenthal, will explore innovative strategies HR professionals can use to manage conflict in the workplace, from onboarding to employment litigation, and everything in between.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to better distinguish between the types of workplace conflicts which typically require HR involvement, as compared to those conflicts that employees can generally resolve without intervention by HR.
• Gain a better understanding of how to implement effective 'real world' strategies to train employees and leaders on how to apply effective problem-solving techniques to avoid unhealthy conflict and encourage productive and respectful disagreements in the workplace.
• Use alternative dispute resolution and mediation strategies that are well-recognized in the litigation context to resolve issues between current employees and their managers, as well as in the context of ongoing disputes and litigation with former employees.

Research shows 35% of HR professionals report their job having a negative impact on their mental health, a whopping 81% say they are burned out, and 2-in-3 are considering leaving the field. Does that sound familiar? As an HR leader, you're the organization's go-to for listening, decisions effecting employee health and mental health, and expert on all things DE&I. That's a lot! But there are things you can do to ensure you're providing the support needed to your fellow staff members while also protecting yourself and your own mental and physical health. In this session, learn more about SHRM's research into the mental health of HR Professionals, and walk step-by-step through key strategies for staying trauma-informed, maintaining personal resilience, setting boundaries, and staying healthy in your job.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the latest in terms of how HR professionals and other workers see work impacting their mental health and well-being.
• Discuss specific tactics, such as trauma-informed practice and boundary setting, as well as tools and trainings that can keep you resilient and mentally healthy.
• Explore together what it means to often be the frontline in minding the mental health and well-being of your staff.

Repeated from Monday at 11:00am

AI will rewrite the rules of performance, redirecting capacity to unlock new levels of innovation, creativity, and complexity. Sure, AI is the defining technology of our generation, but it won't define our generation. People will. After all, everything that will make or break the success of AI is fundamentally human: Acceptance, transparency, and cultural clarity. The leaders who cultivate these elements will find that their AI-enabled performance has no limits.

Learning Objectives:

• Hear how AI inherently opens capacity for employees to direct their focus to novel things.
• As tech strategy and governance is expected to grow significantly through 2026, learn how AI can (and should) play a role.
• From a leadership perspective, understand how to humanize AI for employees, and cultivate an environment of trust, transparency and acceptance.

Repeated from Monday at 11:00am

In this session, you will learn a value-based approach to designing organizations that goes beyond the org chart or job descriptions. You will gain valuable insight to help guide your organization past potential pitfalls and toward the key drivers or capabilities that you're trying to impact. And you'll leave with an understanding of how to build your organization's blueprint to ensure future-state success.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine a value-based decision approach to designing the organization based on future-state capabilities (rather than jumping straight to an org chart).
• Explain new and different steps for designing and/or redesigning both the organization as well as roles and capabilities of the organization.
• Apply a value-based approach for org design with a blueprint that articulates the high-level architecture for the organization's roles, culture, and structure.

More companies than ever employ openly LGBTQ+ people, yet over 30% of LGBTQ+ people are actively applying to work somewhere more inclusive. LGBTQ+ employees face coworkers who refuse to treat them respectfully, citing religious and polarizing beliefs, while HR managers feel they can't step in. This session will equip you with educational, policy, and enforcement strategies to build workplaces where all employees get to feel authentically seen and respected.

Learning Objectives:

• Have the knowledge and resources to handle the large percentage of objections based on confusion and lack of understanding, including a firm foundation of language around LGBTQ+ and transgender identities.
• Understand the foundations of frequent religious objections and be equipped to differentiate between honoring all beliefs while having standards and policies for behavior, especially around topics such as pronouns and inclusive or hateful language.
• Understand the driving forces of the increase in anti-LGBTQ+ polarity and feel prepared to address misinformation and hate speech as it arises in your organization.
• Learn about the United States's 'Internal Refugee Crisis' of over 200,000 LGBTQ+ individuals and families leaving their homes, and often their workplaces, to flee laws jeopardizing their access to healthcare, restrooms, and education, and will feel prepared to develop a strategy to support these employees.

In a culture trained by centuries of sexism and racism to objectify women's bodies, to privilege thinness, and to condemn fatness, the importance of celebrating and respecting fat bodies can be difficult for some to grasp. Social systems of sizeism and ableism deny fat bodies equal worth, access, and value. Outdated practices in the healthcare industry invalidate personal autonomy, pathologize, and endanger big bodies. Anti-fat bias in hiring and recruiting can mean missing out on talented candidates who we assume to lack individual willpower or discipline simply because of their size. In this workshop, we explore sizeism and ableism through the intersectional lens of sexism, racism, and classism. We discuss the implications of anti-fat bias in the workplace and learn to create inclusive spaces for bodies of all sizes.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the concepts of sizeism, anti-fat bias, body positivity, and fat activism.
• Examine our experiences and messaging around fatness and fatphobia.
• Explore the systemic roots of sizeism and its implications in the workplace, education, and healthcare.
• Recognize and interrupt microaggressions and bias related to fatphobia.
• Practice with tools and skills to act as an ally to fat persons.

When was the last time what stood between you and some result you absolutely needed to achieve was the behavior of one or more people? If so, you had an influence problem.  The ability to influence others is at the core of true leadership - and it's crucial for driving positive change in any organization. Unfortunately, we often turn to a poorly designed incentive, persuasion tactics, or tinkering with processes and procedures to try and drive change.   Yet human behavior can't be altered with a singular strategy; instead, it's governed by six sources of influence. Leaders who know how to leverage these sources in favor of winning behaviors are exponentially more successful at securing change and achieving results. In this session, you'll learn how to harness these six sources of influence to create lasting behavior change and achieve results.

Learning Objectives:

• Focus on the vital behaviors that directly drive results.
• Use multiple sources of influence instead of chasing quick-fix tactics.
• Add the six sources of influence into your leadership strategy.

Did you know that facts are 22 times more memorable to an audience when delivered within the context of a story? With the rise of AI, the ability to communicate data effectively is important to bring to life the insights from the intelligence. This session equips HR professionals with the formula to solve the equation of data storytelling in a fast-paced, information-flooded world. You'll learn what a crosswalk countdown timer and a Roman tour guide have to do with effective storytelling, and leave with the ability to convey complex information in a compelling way to influence decisions and gain buy-in.

Learning Objectives:

• Transform data into engaging stories that resonate with stakeholders, enabling better decision-making.
• Master the use of visuals to convey HR metrics memorably.
• Leverage data-driven narratives to influence organizational strategy, from talent acquisition to retention to diversity and inclusion effort.
• Explore techniques to instill a data-driven mindset within your HR team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having a significant impact on many aspects of our professional and personal lives. This couldn't be more true for you, the HR Leader. According to research, it will revolutionize a number of industries with an incredible growth rate in the next decade. As AI continues to grow it has become more important than ever to understand how it can help you improve your HR operations, processes, and procedures.  This live, interactive event aims to unravel the complexity surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) within the realm of Total Rewards. It will provide clarity and understanding regarding how AI can enhance and optimize the design, implementation, and management of employee compensation and benefits.

Learning Objectives:

• We'll start with providing an overview of the principles and applications of AI, focusing on its potential to optimize compensation strategies, benefits administration, and overall Total Rewards management.
• We'll also offer hands-on guidance and best practices to analyze employee data, design customized compensation packages, automate routine tasks, and improve decision-making processes through AI-driven solutions.
• Finally, we'll discuss ways to foster a culture of responsible and ethical AI adoption within Total Rewards, emphasizing fairness, transparency, and the elimination of biases.

Employers must display labor law postings required by federal, state, and local agencies, and misunderstanding or overlooking this obligation can be costly. We'll cover five keys to keeping your posters in compliance:

• Knowing the numbers
• Keeping it local
• Location, location, location
• Remembering remote employees
• Understanding updates.   
  
  We'll highlight some new state posting obligations and explain how to lower your risk of noncompliance.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn which labor law posters you need to display.
• Be informed about recent mandatory posting updates.
• Ensure posters are properly displayed (What does visible and conspicuous mean?).
• Understand the risks of noncompliance, including fines and employee lawsuits.

Repeated from Monday at 12:30pm

Who's exempt? Who's an employee versus an independent contractor? Are you are a joint employers? What are the penalties for errors? These and other issues have recently undergone major regulatory and policy reforms. This program will provide an overview of these developments and best practices for responding to them. In addition, the program will address some errors that, despite their best intentions, employers all too commonly make with respect to overtime compliance, determining who's exempt, what time is compensable, and nuances regarding calculating overtime pay. Knowing more on these topics and understanding what needs to be audited and modified will allow employers to better conform to the complex and ever-evolving rules regarding overtime, and thereby lessen -- if not avoid --  avoidable and substantial liability due to noncompliance.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding new and pending FLSA regulations and the latest on their legal status, as well as the DOL's current FLSA enforcement initiatives.
• Appreciating mistakes commonly made by employers with respect to overtime compliance, and thereby getting a better a sense as to issues to watch out for while developing and administrating pay and payroll policies.
• Learning steps employers can take to avoid, or at least minimize their exposure to, common overtime pay violations by knowing what to look for while auditing policies and practices and then modifying them to better conform to the law.

This session will delve into the crucial aspects of fair compensation practices within an organization. It will cover the various components of pay philosophy, compensation design,  including salaries, bonuses, and non-monetary benefits. Additionally, the session will explore the concept of pay equity, highlighting the importance of ensuring fairness and parity in wages among employees regardless of gender, race, or other differentiating factors. Strategies to analyze, address, and mitigate pay disparities will also be discussed, emphasizing the significance of creating an inclusive and equitable workplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss: What is an organizational pay philosophy and why does it matter?
• Learn: Best practices for sustainable and competitive compensation design.
• Learn: How to infuse pay equity into your compensation philosophy and plan design. What does pay equity really mean?
• Backtrack: What should I do now? Discuss ways to mitigate pay disparities to create an equitable workplace, regain trust from your employees, and position the company to acquire and retain top talent.