Storytelling and the Power of Stories in Creating Organizational Culture
Workplace Application: In this workshop, you will learn about how to develop and better use stories to cultivate a culture that will engage your employees.

Stories are a powerful way of communicating and impacting organizational culture, and yet stories are rarely used to their full potential by HR professionals to achieve objectives. Join Dr. Robbins, a masterful storyteller, in learning how to develop and better use stories to create open-minded, inclusive cultures that fully engage employees with the mission and vision of the organization.

NEW SESSION! Leaves of Absence and Other Time Off Challenges in California
Workplace Application:  This session will educate you on the myriad California and federal laws regarding time off.

Having employees in California can present challenges in administering time off and leaves of absence programs.  This session will extend your knowledge of how various laws apply to complex time off scenarios.  We will cover practical issues such as absence notification, appropriate medical certification, fitness for duty examinations, and designation notices.   Bring your questions!

Presenter: Mary L. Topliff, principal, The Law Offices of Mary L. Topliff, San Francisco, Ca.

An employer who conducts a reduction in force (RIF) will often end up in one of three categories: the good, the bad or the ugly. Where will you be? Through engagement discussions of actual events, applicable laws and proactive action plans, you will be provided with suggestions as you prepare to embark on undertaking this pitfall-ridden process.

This informative and practical session will cover recent developments under the FMLA, including legal waiver issues and recent amendments to the law. In the face of widespread employee abuse of the Act through intermittent and reduced-hours leaves, our discussion will center on the most effective ways to control employee absenteeism and dishonesty through a fair but strict approach to leave policy implementation and application. We will also cover the new military leave provisions under federal law.

Presenter: David L. Swider, partner, Bose McKinney & Evans, LLP, Indianapolis, Ind.

A Peek Into Enemy Camp: What Plaintiff’s Lawyers Don’t Want You to Know
Repeated from Monday at 2:00 p.m.

Dealing with a company undiscussable is not as easy as pointing to the moose on the table, asking the 900 pound gorilla to step aside or showing the elephant in the room the door. Handling undiscussables requires an approach to how one would greet any formidable creature—use caution and exercise skill. Mr. Noonan offers techniques for how to approach the moose, gorilla or elephant in your organization.

Presenter: William R. Noonan, Ph.D., consultant, William Noonan Consulting, The Dalles, Ore.

Many HR organizations have been challenged to create relevant HR metrics to empower executives and managers to make better decisions. Creating those metrics isn’t easy, but is practical if you can avoid common pitfalls. Jeremy Shapiro will provide practical tips to design and deliver actionable metrics that expose hidden workforce trends, suggest new actions based on data, and ultimately link HR metrics to strategic business objectives.

Presenter: Jeremy Shapiro, vice president, Hodes IQ, Bernard Hodes Group, Inc., Hillsdale, N.J.

Recruiting and Retention through Adversity: A Pre-and Post-Katrina Study
Workplace Application: This panel discussion will demonstrate the mutually beneficial relationship between HR and the community in which it operates.

In 2005, New Orleans as ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. In the months that followed, there was an emergence of tactics and strategies to reacquire and retain talent. This panel of local HR practitioners will provide an overview of a year-long study, in coordination with the local New Orleans SHRM Chapter, which will highlights the successes, the lessons learned and how HR partnered with businesses to bring talent back home.

Facilitator: Geoffrey M. Dubiski, M.S., CIR, CDR, chief talent scout, principal & managing director, Sumner Grace & Associates.

Panelists: Carla Major, vice president HR & community relations, Harrah’s New Orleans; Tom Pyburn, director, HR, Emeril’s Home base; Danielle Lombard-Simms, director HR, Shell Oil & Production; and Amy Borell, director of Recruiting, Entergy, New Orleans, La.

Many professionals have started to take for granted the Violence Prevention mechanisms that were put into place when workplace violence was a relatively new phenomenon. Many organizations have stopped training on violence prevention and others no longer consider safety precautions when conducting high-risk meetings. This session will guide you through a Violence Vulnerability Audit and allow you to assess your company’s weakness and vulnerability in the area of workplace violence.

Presenter: Dennis A. Davis, Ph.D., director client training, Ogletree Deakins, Vista, Calif.

The Ultimate HR Booster Shot: 2009 Cases, Trends, Impact
Workplace Application: This session will enhance your 2009 HR decision-making skills by increasing your awareness of critical federal and state courtroom decisions, current EEOC and DOL strategies and best HR practices to avoid personal liability and minimize employment-related risk in the workplace.

Do you need to instantly “immunize” yourself and your organization from liability today? Need to quickly acquire the “best HR skills” for 2009? Then you need a dose of this highly engaged and fast-paced “bottom line” employment law review. Learn the most crucial EEO case, current HR best practices and EEOC news updates. Understand the impact they must have on your practical everyday HR decision dilemmas. Get vaccinated against the costly lessons other employers have learned regarding federal and state compliance laws. 

Presenter: Mindy H. Chapman, Esq., MSW, president, Mindy Chapman & Associates, LLC, Chicago, Ill.

Rumors, stereotypes and misconceptions about disability all translate to one thing: discrimination. For you: potential litigation. Learn about people with disabilities, their buying power as customers and their untapped talent as employees. Leave with tools and practical tips to change the way your organization interacts and communicates with customers and employees with disabilities, prevent liability and litigation and erase negative stereotypes and misconceptions.

Presenter: Glenn McIntyre, executive director, McIntyre & Associates, Camarillo, Calif.

Workplace Application: This session will provide you with a research-based method and strategies for intervening with global nomadic leaders to identify, attract and retain them.

A new and different type of corporate executive, global nomadic leaders are more adaptable, successful and willing to work in constantly changing environments. But their nomadic life has a downfall. Unlike expatriates who travel and live abroad as adults, they spend a significant part of their developmental years in other cultures, with a sense of belonging in host and home cultures yet ownership in none. Dr. Burrus will share her findings on how to identify, attract and retain them to be rooted to your companies.

Presenter: Katrina Burrus, Ph.D., president and founder, MKB Conseil & Coaching, Geneva, Switzerland

Making a Difference™
Workplace Application: This presentation is aimed at helping the HR leader deliver results.

Steve Gilliland, CSP, who showed us how to Enjoy The Ride™ in Chicago 2008, now uncovers the secrets to Making a Difference. In his down-to-earth, humorous style, Steve shares fresh perspectives and practical strategies to help you become strategic partners, administrative experts and employee champions. He gives you personal antidotes and useful tools to meet and defeat the challenges at work and what it takes to perform better and more consistently as an HR professional. Discover the secrets to unlocking all the doors and reveal your hidden abilities.

Presenter: Steve Gilliland, CSP, Steve Gilliland, Inc., Winston-Salem, N.C.

The only constant in business these days is change. Human creativity and humor is the essence of all change and reinvention that leads to progress. The victories in business will go to the highly imaginative and creative business person. You will get more reward for your creative effort, turn mistakes into opportunities, master change through innovation, enhance productivity and decrease burn-out.

Presenter: Craig Zablocki, founder, Positively Humor, Denver, Colo.

Building A Culture of Sustainability with the “Personal Sustainability Project”
Workplace Application: This session will reveal the valuable ways in which grassroots activation of employees can help to create a culture of sustainability while increasing company profitability. 

While climate change is a driving force behind the sustainability renaissance, it is also about opportunity, inspiration and innovation. By creating “Personal Sustainability Projects”, companies like Walmart, WellPoint, and FritoLay can not only empower, educate and motivate their employees to generate a “culture of sustainability,” but they can yield tangible business value as well, including increased engagement, reduced turnover, and lower health-care costs. Ultimately, it is the employees of the world’s most respected companies that have the potential to make the greatest impact on the global population and reverse the effects of climate change. 

Presenter: Judah Schiller, executive vice-president and co-founder, Saatchi & Saatchi S, San Francisco, Calif.

In this challenging and thought-provoking presentation, Clinton Wingrove will challenge you to delve into unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory in order to effectively experience the power of “HR Renewal.” Clinton will show the value created by building HR anew and show where just mere refurbishment only masks the real issues at hand.

Presenter: Clinton Wingrove, Bsc, DMS, MCIPD, MCMI, CEO & principal consultant, Pilat (North America) Inc., Lebanon, N.J.

The face of the public sector workforce is changing rapidly, as baby boomers begin to retire and new generations of workers with completely different skill sets and workplace requirements are being recruited. State, local and federal government agencies are facing critical challenges in managing the shift between the current and future workforces. Learn what Tennessee and others are doing to target and recruit new workers, prepare current middle management for leadership roles, and keep institutional knowledge intact in order to continue providing mission-critical services while looking at a paradigm shift in the culture of public sector employment.

Presenter: Deborah Story, commissioner, Human Resources, State of Tennessee, Nashville, Tenn.

The right use of technology can help free you from administrivia, allowing you to focus on your organization’s strategic goals. This session will give you a seven-step framework for selecting the right technical solution, and then show how to justify the investment to your decision makers by writing an effective business case. Discover the structure of a business case, explore your own needs to support HR, and learn why technology is important to today’s HR professional. Learn to calculate ROI to support your business case.

Presenter: Joseph Rotella, SPHR, chief technical officer, Delphia Consulting, Columbus, Ohio

One way to cut down health care costs is to reduce the overall demand for medical services. This is in light of the fact that approximately 55% of all emergency room visits are for non-urgent problems and about 25% of all physician visits could have been treated at home. Demand can be managed by providing self-care information that helps employees become more knowledgeable about when they need medical assistance and when they can take care of themselves.

Presenter: Don R. Powell, Ph.D., president and CEO, American Institute for Preventive Medicine, Farmington Hills, Mich.

Employment Branding: Branding Your Organization To Attract and Retain A-Level Talent
Workplace Application: This session will provide you with a synthesized understanding of employment branding.

Employers are forced to become creative when it comes to attracting/retaining A-level talent. Central to effective recruitment marketing strategies is the employment brand. This program will address the steps necessary to develop an employment brand and emphasize creative and strategic approaches to attract and retain the talent needed to  accomplish key business objectives. You will be engaged, challenged and presented with ideas that can affect your organization immediately.

Presenter: Ryan Estis, VP and chief talent strategist, NAS Recruitment Communications, Minneapolis, Minn.

Money may bring employees through the front door, but poor working environments drive them back out. Build a high-retention workforce that reduces employee turnover and helps people reach high levels of productivity leading to higher job satisfaction. This session will show you how to retain talented performers and transform the entire workforce into a high-retention culture—saving you countless thousands of dollars. This session is packed with tips, ideas and easy-to-implement advice.  

Presenter: Gregory P. Smith, president and lead navigator, Chart Your Course International, Conyers, Ga.

If you are not changing, you are dying. Are you stuck in your comfort zone or are you challenging the system? Do you ask why on a daily basis? This thought-provoking session will inspire you to challenge the way you think about business and the HR function. You will learn easy ways to improve your HR practices and processes.

Presenter: Regina M. Clark, CSP, president, Left Brain Leverage, Goshen, N.Y.

• The downsizing planning process: what to include that many forget
• Communication plans dos and don’ts
• Logistics on notification day
• Services to support the organization and those being laid off
• Re-engaging remaining employees
• Lessons learned

Facilitator:  China Gorman, chief operating officer, SHRM, Alexandria, Va.
Panelists: Barbara Barra, Executive Vice President, Lee Hecht Harrison; John Challenger, Chief Executive Officer, Challenger, Gray & Christmas; Steve Ford, Director, OI Partners; Douglas Matthews, President & Chief Operating Officer, Right Management

Most employment trends begin in California and float east to one degree or another. California employment laws are truly unique. Whether confronted with Paid Leave, Bounty Hunter, nuances of At-Will employment, special protected categories, class action lawsuits, or the expansive definition of disability, California employment laws are challenging, complex and extremely costly to ignore or misapply. This session is a must for anyone with operational accountability for California facilities.

Presenters: Michael J. Lotito, J.D., SPHR, partner, Jackson Lewis, LLP, San Francisco, Calif.; and Jonathan Siegel, Esq., partner, Jackson Lewis, LLP, Newport Beach, Calif.

Mark Toth will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about employment law in this high-energy, interactive session. He will update you on all the latest developments and then tackle the world’s toughest employment law questions in an entertaining and educational quiz show.

Presenter: Mark E. Toth, J.D., chief legal officer, Manpower, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis.

Examining Cultural Differences: Intercultural Skills for Global Leaders
Repeated from Monday at 10:45 a.m.

You are impacting business results through strategic contribution. What are the actions needed and behaviors to build those skills? This interactive session will focus on:

• Defining organizational consulting and internal consulting
• Constructing an organizational model for HR consulting
• Managing phases of consulting and the consulting contract
• Defining and overcoming barriers for success

Presenter: Catherine D. Fyock, CSP, SPHR, employment strategist, Innovative Management Concepts, Crestwood, Ky.

Understanding not only yourself but understanding your staff and your clients is key to your success. During this session you will learn to know more about yourself and how to understand your client/staff. The session is highly relevant for HR managers who are being called upon to advise the C-suite ways to instill optimism, a “can-do mindset” among the workplace. One severe setback or multiple small ones instill doubt. People learn helplessness. They lose confidence in upper management. They lose confidence in themselves and feel that effort and persistence are all but useless. HR managers who attend this session will learn the scientific underpinning of resiliency in the workplace.

Presenter: Gary Latham, professor of Organizational Effectiveness, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The ROPI Effect
Workplace Application: You will understand the essential dynamics and elements found in those organizations that have soared to profits by focusing on their people as their competitive advantage.

In the same way that business leaders examine ROI, you should be implementing the ROPI (Return on People Investment) Effect. HR oversees the largest expense category—people. Getting a better return on your people investments can often mean the difference between profit and loss. This session discusses innovative (yet realistic) ways of linking people and business—creating that special culture where profits happen as a result of an intentional and direct focus on your people as a competitive advantage.

Presenter: Scott Cawood, vice president, Worldwide Human Resources, Synygy, Wilmington, Del.

Effective corporate social responsibility strategies provide companies an essential advantage in today’s competitive marketplace. It is critical that you position yourself at the leadership table and participate in designing programs that leverage and engage employees through leadership, communication and relationships. This program will define CSR and provide insights on how to link HR as a vital leader in CSR efforts.

Presenter: Michelle Sterling, CPLP, president/owner, Building B Solutions, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Seeing Benefits with New Eyes: Adjusting Your Focus To Unleash the True Potential of Benefits in the 21st Century
Workplace Application: This session will help you see more relevance for your benefits dollar, and provide a practical framework to realign benefits strategies with 21st Century business realities.

This presentation offers a fresh conceptualization of benefits as a strategic investment for increased competitive advantage. The next decade promises major changes on the business and benefits landscape that will require radical shifts in thinking. Learn how you can reframe and recalibrate your benefits approach through the perspective of four unique “benefits lenses.” Customize these insights with appropriate strategies based on your score from a simple competitive self-assessment tool.

Presenter: Ronald S. Leopold, M.D., MBA, MPH, vice president and national medical director, MetLife (Institutional Business), Long Island City, N.Y.

Exceptional People + Exceptional Service = Extraordinary Profits
Workplace Application: This session will show you how to reduce complaints, increase customer satisfaction, reduce staff turnover and complaints, and increase profitability by hiring the right people for the right jobs. 

In this information-packed program, Mr. Richardson shows your organization how to use problem-solving teams, leadership involvement, and service quality models to stand out in an overcrowded marketplace. The content for this session was primarily developed while he consulted onsite with the staff of a luxury hotel for an entire year. Using Mr. Richardson’s research and piloted methods, which are applicable to nearly every industry, this property achieved its goal of becoming a 5-Diamond hotel. This session shows you how your organization can achieve equally impressive results by leading with people, service and profits.  

Presenter: Tim Richardson, speaker, author, Knoxville, Tenn.

You can keep yourself out of court and improve productivity and morale at the same time by avoiding the eight deadly sins of mismanagement and practicing the corresponding eight virtues. These include overcoming “dissing” them (direct-immediate-specific), asking the three key consistent questions, practicing “E-A-R” listening (explore-acknowledge respond) and connecting employee expectations to the big picture.

Presenter: Jathan Janove, attorney, Ater Wynne, LLP, Portland, Ore.

Please Sue Me, 2009
Repeated from Monday at 10:45 a.m.

Preparing Your Workforce and Yourself for Corrupt Environments
Workplace Application: This session will help you prepare for stepped-up enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and European anti-bribery legislation.

Corruption is endemic in many parts of the world but the United States and European countries cannot risk being sucked into that behavior. The legal and reputational risks are far too great. In this session, we will review the legal requirements you need to understand, what you should do to prepare your workers, and what you need to do beyond the workplace to help your company avoid this very dangerous risk area.

Presenter: Adam Turteltaub, vice president of Membership Development, Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, Encino, Calif.

Heil Trailer International re-established its leadership capability across a global organization with the development of a Leadership Institute. Our four Forums are focused on leadership skills and competencies required for HTI’s future growth and innovation through 1) Leadership 2) Business Acumen 3) High-Performing Work Team/Customer Quality and 4) Building the Brand Called You—a self-discovery personality, motivation and cultural journey assessing future success.

Presenter: Daniel Snell, M.S., GPHR, vice president people & provide support circle (IT and Quality), Heil Trailer International, Dover Resources, Chattanooga, Tenn.

  

Silence Fails: The Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution
Workplace Application: In this presentation, you will learn practical, actionable skills for engaging more effectively in these emotionally and politically risky conversations.

The success of an organization is directly determined by how well people in that organization execute on their high-stakes projects, programs, and initiatives. In the groundbreaking study by VitalSmarts and The Concours Group, researchers found that project failures are almost always preceded by conversation failures. Specifically, they found that success and failure can be predicted with 85% accuracy based on how well participants—from the executive suites to cross-functional teams—perform in five crucial conversations. More importantly, these five conversations are not just a predictor of but an inoculation against shockingly high rates of failure to execute on ambitious and otherwise right-headed plans. When leaders are skilled at holding these five conversations, the odds of success increase 50-80%.

Presenter: Joseph Grenny, co-founder and co-chairman, VitalSmarts, L.C., Provo, Utah

This session will provide 10 strategies for communicating across functional lines and up and down the chain of command—messages of both substance and style. The principles provide strategies for anyone who wants to communicate clear messages, increase credibility, and build stronger relationships. You will walk away with guidelines for deciding what to communicate, when to communicate, and how to communicate both routine and highly sensitive messages.

Presenter: Dianna Booher, M.A., CPAE, president, Booher Consultants, Inc., Grapevine, Texas

The Differentiated Workforce: Transforming Talent into Strategic Impact
Workplace Application: Attend this session and learn more about deciding when, where, and how to invest in the workforce.

Given the financial and managerial resources needed to attract, select, develop, and retain high performers, companies simply can’t afford to have “A” players in all positions. All too often, companies invest in their best and worst employees in equal measure. The result is often the departure of “A” players, discouraged by their treatment, and the retention of “C” players. This session will show how a “Differentiated Workforce” can help create those strategic capabilities which drive strategy execution and business success.

Presenter: Mark Huselid, Ph.D., professor of HR Strategy, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.J.

What’s more potent than any business model, product pipeline or breakthrough technology? It’s human behavior—the one thing that cannot be copied or turned into a commodity; the ultimate source of sustainable, competitive advantage. CEO, business leader and acclaimed author Dov Seidman argues that how we do things—rather than what we do—is the most powerful differentiator in business and every other part of life. Dov will illustrate how companies, and individuals, can thrive in the hyper-transparent and hyper-connected 21st century.

Presenter: Dov Seidman, chairman & chief executive officer, LRN, Los Angeles. Calif.

The Great Game of Business is a management style that motivates employees through business education and open-book management techniques pioneered at Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation (SRC). The Great Game of Business is a total management system that turns business into a game, fosters and motivates employees to succeed. This session will help you learn how to have employees think and act like owners, understand the financials, and gain respect for all aspects of the business.

Presenter: Bill Fotsch, business coach, The Great Game of Business, Springfield, Mo.

Losing quality people hurts. Organizations that built effective processes into their talent management strategies cultivate environments that attract and develop talent, foster satisfaction, increase loyalty, and drive bottom-line revenues. Combining years of research and experience, this session will detail the roles of three critical stakeholders and present the five essential phases of successful talent initiatives. This proven process strengthens organizational capabilities, maximizes internal practices and impacts talent results for the greatest ROI.

Presenter: Beverly Kaye, founder/CEO, Career Systems International, Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Companies wanting to get a handle on how to reduce costs and absences covered by short-term disability (STD) need to take a look at their plan design. The predominant plan design features can have a direct impact on how long employees are off work. Understanding how aspects of design have both intended and unintended results can help you produce more effective disability management programs and better understand your outcomes when benchmarking with other companies.

Presenter: Maria Henderson, M.S., CRC, CDMS, CCM, founder and principal, HDM-Solutions, Kittredge, Colo.