Filtered Sessions

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.

Long COVID is the condition that describes the long term health effects of a COVID-19 infection. By now many employees have been infected with the COVID-19 virus, perhaps more than on variant, and while they may have recovered and returned to work some still suffer from lasting health challenges as a result of that infection. Those conditions may qualify as disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, as well as various state laws. Employers may therefore need to engage those employees in an interactive process focused on their ability to perform the essential functions of their jobs with or without reasonable accommodations. This session will review the potential health issues from Long COVID and the accommodation process that may need to be activated.

Learning Objectives:

• Better understand how COVID-19 infections impact employees.
• Review current reports on Long COVID cases and the impact on the workplace.
• Review the accommodation process and pitfalls to avoid.
• Discuss possible accommodations.
• Receive guidance on how to handle health inquiries and document accommodation process.

A high percentage of our time as HR Professionals is spent managing our managers.   This session will help you spend less time managing and more time on the strategic outlook of your organization.  Hear from an HR Professional that has over 2 decades of boots on the ground experience in optimizing the HR profession.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to move from transactional to strategic, by leveraging your consultation competency.
• Help leadership understand, believe in and support the HR role in your organization.

Over the past year, the DOL has been grappling with changes to who may be treated as independent contractors, who may be exempt from being paid overtime, how tipped employees may take the tip credit, and other initiatives that are critical for employers to understand and respond to. This program will not only address these issues, but also identify some of the errors all too commonly made with respect to overtime compliance, despite the best of intentions. Knowing more on both of these fronts and understanding what needs to be audited will allow employers to better conform to the complex rules regarding overtime, and thereby avoid avoidable and substantial liability resulting from noncompliance.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding the new FLSA regulations and the latest with respect to DOL enforcement initiatives under the FLSA.
• Understanding common mistakes employers too often make with respect to FLSA compliance.
• Learning steps employers can take to avoid, or at least minimize their exposure to, common overtime pay violations, through changes in practices and audits.

Every employer needs to display labor law posters, and not understanding or overlooking this obligation can be costly. Understanding what to post and where to place posters may be complicated, but this presentation clears up the confusion with five simple steps:

1. Knowing the numbers.
2. Keeping it local.
3. Making things visible.
4. Understanding updates.
5. Remembering remote employees.
   
   We'll outline the risks of failing to properly display required posters and provide tips for staying in compliance.

Learning Objectives:

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

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 10:30am

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.  Know YOUR rights so you can effectively manage FMLA leaves with the least amount of 'cringe' for you and your managers!

Learning Objectives:

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

The world at large is ever changing, and our organizations and employees are doing all we can to keep up.  The days of going off to a strategic planning retreat, planning a 5-year vision and executing it are gone. We now operate in a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA).  What do you as the leader have to do to adapt to this new and ever changing world and competing business priorities? We will identify what causes a VUCA environment and how you can identify where your organization is on the continuum.  Then we'll give tips to address your situation - whether Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous or all four.  Looking through the lens of HR, we review the common needs of your workplace today and give tips and suggestions to align HR with the changes in the organization, ensure that you gain the resources you need, and establish yourself as the visionary team member that is helping to drive your organization forward.

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.

As an HR professional, you are expected to be knowledgeable on a wide breadth of topics.    Join this session to gain a basic understanding of the rules and requirements of offering a retirement plan.  Whether you are new to this role or looking for a refresher, this is a great way to ensure your plan is compliant while also looking for ways to improve your offering to employees.  We will explore regulatory requirements, vendor management, non-discrimination testing, plan design options, fiduciary governance and investment management decisions. And of course can answer questions that may be top of mind to you.  The 401k/403b industry has experienced tremendous change in the last few years; now is the time to update your education!

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the basic requirements for a retirement plan to be qualified for tax benefits.
• Understand the core responsibilities of the plan sponsor (i.e. employer) when offering a plan to employees.
• Outline the primary decisions that an employer must make when establishing a plan.
• Consider best practices for strong fiduciary governance, investment management, plan administration & employee experience.

HR in small businesses is often pulled in so many different directions that it's easy to lose sight of the new priorities facing our profession. Based on a survey of actual small business HR professionals, this session is a collection of your voices bringing to light the issues you face. This collection of research from practitioners will include practical and inexpensive (even free!) solutions.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn top 5 Priorities (in order) facing HR in small businesses..
• Hear why they are priorities; including changes in laws, business environment, and economic drivers.
• Discover practical and inexpensive (even free!) solutions to the Top 5 Priorities that small businesses can use right away.

While marijuana remains federally illegal under the Control Substances Act, 38 states have legalized medical marijuana and 18 states have legalized recreational marijuana. This piecemeal state legalization along with the removal of hemp from the Control Substances Act (CSA) due to the passage of the Agriculture Improvement Act more commonly known as the 2018 Farm Bill, has led to the propagation of CBD and other hemp derivatives such as Delta 8 and Delta 10. This has caused a legal conundrum for the workplace and confusion for the human resource professional.  The testing and labeling of CBD and hemp derivative products are confusing and impacting employees in the workplace. Testing for these products may create a false positive or negative lab result and employees who believed that they were using legal products are testing positive for illegal Delta 9 THC.  A 'CBD Oracle Lab Study shows some Delta-8 products Are 7700% over the legal Delta-9 THC limit which still remains illegal.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the differences between marijuana, CBD and hemp derivatives.
• Identify developing appellate case and statutory laws regarding the use of medical marijuana, CBD and hemp derivatives across the country.
• Identify the legal status for the use of medical marijuana in the workplace across the country.
• Analyze how CBD and hemp derivations are causing confusion in laboratories and testing.
• Analyze how CBD and hemp derivative products are falsely labeled.
• Identify potential workplace policy considerations for the use of medical marijuana, CBD and hemp derivatives in the workplace.

REPEATED FROM MONDAY AT 10:30am

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.  Know YOUR rights so you can effectively manage FMLA leaves with the least amount of 'cringe' for you and your managers!

Learning Objectives:

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

When you get a seat, can you handle the heat? It's not enough to get a seat at the C-suite table but you need to know how to handle the opportunity. Knowing the language of C-Suite involves the ability to speak in 3D--data, dollars and decisions.   Beyond having the ear of executive level leaders, you need to have a game plan. Your struggle in connecting with C-suite is over. Gain practical steps in this session to help you leverage your value proposition in making a successful pitch to your leadership. COVID-19 has created situations requiring leaders to make decisions driven to dollar-based and people-based impact. Money talks and so does big data when it comes to decisions.  There are 4Cs that are critical to your communication success at this high leader level: Credibility, Confidence, Clarity, and Connection. This session covers the 4Cs model and walks you through its application. It's time for you to nail your next C-suite conversation.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the importance of data, dollars and decisions at the C-suite level.
• Identify the do's and don'ts in talking data, dollars and decisions with high-level leaders.
• Discover ways to incorporate data without overwhelming your audience.
• Apply a 4C's model to strategic C-suite conversations.

A million fewer people *every year* are enrolling for 2- or 4-year degrees than were 5 years ago—so if, as an HR leader, you’re not expanding how you’re assessing talent and aptitude, you’re falling behind. And who wants that? In this session, hear about new research on the advantage of looking past degrees to assess whether someone will thrive in a job, and walk through solid case studies of how HR leaders in small, midsize, and large companies are pivot to embrace Whole Human Hiring—looking not only at degrees, but skilled credentials, aptitude testing, inherent talent and interests, and more—and how they’re benefitting as a result. There is no talent shortage, if you change the way you’re assessing prospective talent, so join us to see how you can become a hiring hero, take charge of the shifting educational landscape, and get and keep the talent you need!

Learning Objectives:

Hear why and how employers are embracing a whole human hiring frame. Explore strategies, from easy to advanced, you can implement to access more talent and keep your company ahead of the curve. Learn about new research, emerging technologies, and solid techniques you’ll need to become a hiring hero. Take home specific, immediate actions you can use to change how you find, assess, and keep talent in your company.

Being the only HR employee in a company is both daunting and exciting. It's an experience that can accelerate your growth as an HR professional. You will need to be resourceful, agile, accessible, strategic, and tactical. If you are inheriting a previously-established structure, the experience may be less challenging.  However, if you are expected to build the HR department from the ground up, you will need to withdraw from your bank of HR competencies and organizational and interpersonal skills to be successful.   

Learning Objectives:

• Learn ways HR can contribute to the bottom line.
• Discuss the complete HR strategy.
• Implement your strategic plan.

HR Department Of One -  How to navigate the daily in and outs of the Human Resources role when you are a party of one.  Juggling legal compliance, employee relations, recruitment and strategy, payroll and benefits, performance management, enforcing company policy and getting buy in from C-suites when you are on on your own.  How to market yourself, where to focus your time and energy effectively and to meet your maximum potential - show your value and worth

Learning Objectives:

• Evolve along with the needs of your growing company.
• Move beyond a focus of HR fundamentals and into more strategic, long term goals and aspirations.
• Thinking strategic VS tactical.
• Hear how automation can help you become a successful department of one.
• Technology is your best friend! Where to look for help and guidance in all the right places.
• Become a trusted representative to the workforce in (or outside) of your office.

No more HR baby-sitting practices like treating everyone the same, use-it-or-lose it, banning workplace romance, keeping salaries a secret or probationary periods. This session blends best practices, humor and case law to confront the legal risks of managing employees. Compliance is only part of the answer. Don't let the attorney be the loudest voice in the room. Take away sample policies and learn how strategic HR is really about better decision-making.

Learning Objectives:

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