This session focuses on the actual experience of IMS Health, which implemented a major change within its organization in 2008, involving a new client approach, substantial outsourcing and significant restructuring. Discover how a review of best practices and a coherent, consistent and impeccably executed change management plan enabled the organization to improve its competitive and HR positions, as well as earn positive feedback from its employees. You will also learn how the HR function can be a critical player in a successful change process, through its strategic approach and actions, as a front-line partner within the organization.

Workplace application – This business case shows how the HR function can play a strategic role in an organization in the midst of a major change.

What are the challenges – and the rewards – for companies who commit to workplaces of high indigenous recruitment, retention, and advancement? Drawing on both her experience and the Council’s, the speaker will demonstrate how workplaces are transformed and invigorated by Aboriginal inclusion. Long recognized as one of the most formidable indigenous voices in Canadian HR, Diane will describe her experience in developing human resource strategies to increase and improve indigenous inclusion in a corporate setting. The surest paths drawn from her body of experience can be mapped in the Council’s Inclusion Continuum, a seven-stage guide to the growth of indigenous inclusion. The presentation will track some of the pathways up each stage of the Continuum, giving real examples: for example, how a large mine at the heart of a volatile dispute wound up opening with a 52% indigenous workforce; and how a sophisticated plastic molding facility came to be built on an Indian reserve. The workshop will include many recommended steps to take, tools and tip sheets to incorporate within your organization.

Workplace application – This session will describe the values of indigenous inclusion in the workplace for the organization and employee by offering insight and practical applications based on proven models and successes.

Shared services centres (centres of expertise) located all over the world are supporting larger and more geographical regions. Frontline HR practitioners are positioned as strategic business partners in business units, while traditional roles are stretched as boundaries are blurred. These complex delivery models have become the standard rather than the exception in providing the highest quality of HR service with the lowest cost base. Unfortunately, as HR organizations become more complex, they also start to slow down. As the internal world of HR slows down as people struggle to navigate ambiguous boundaries to determine the appropriate levels of involvement, their external world moves faster than ever. Every year, they are expected to deliver better services, faster, and at lower cost.

This session will present participants with some challenging ideas and practical tools to simplify the way people work together in order to avoid the negative consequences of complexity.

By un-learning some of our traditional management skills, we can simplify the way we work together in complex companies to increase speed, make them easier and less expensive to run, and provide a more satisfying place to work – with a focus on speed, simplicity, and satisfaction.

Workplace application – This session will highlight the competencies critical for teams to collaborate across complex global organizational structures to achieve their goals faster, more easily and with less frustration. Participants can apply this framework to improve operating efficiency within the HR function, or offer it as a solution to any function in a global matrix organization dealing with the inefficiencies of a complex structure.

Many companies have created business models around their corporate culture. Known for its unique corporate culture and outstanding guest service, WestJet Airlines has achieved a lot since its beginning in 1996. Now, with a market value at more than $2 billion, the carrier flies more than 70 Boeing Next Generation 737s, employs 7,000 people and has played host to more than 12 million guests. At a time when many airlines are struggling, WestJet continues to be highly successful.

This session will share how WestJet strives everyday to maintain an unparalleled corporate culture, known as a “culture of care” (care to plan, care to share, care to listen, care for guests [passengers] and care to celebrate and have fun). Ferio Pugliese will discuss the role he plays in building and nurturing a winning culture, and how this culture has enabled the organization to succeed in a highly competitive and volatile industry. He will also discuss how WestJet’s culture has stood up in a challenging business environment, and how culture can build resilience that equips organizations and their people to navigate change.

Workplace Application – Through WestJet’s story – one of the most admired corporate cultures in Canada – participants will learn how great business results can be the result of great consumer experience that is supported by a strong corporate culture.

When you look to Europe do you see a single place or 47 independent, sovereign countries with widely differing workplace law rights and obligations? Such a traditional view represents far too wide a generalization nowadays as the European Union continues its drive towards the harmonization of workplace regulations. While there are many areas where the approach of Member States is consistent, there are others where there will be regulatory differences.

If your role covers any or all of Europe then you need to appreciate how wide those differences in regulation actually are, not only within Europe but between Europe and the rest of the world. Some of those differences are fundamental and have real-life application. In this session we will look to highlight those areas where the “European approach” is most different to that which you might be familiar with and use case studies to demonstrate how different real-life scenarios would play out in different countries. We will also explore how Europe makes new laws and why employment and labour law forms such a significant part of the development of the European model.

Workplace application – In this session, participants will acquire a greater understanding of the differences in workplace regulations, and the extent of such differences, within Europe itself and between Europe and other regions. They will also learn about the creation of legislation and the role of employment and labour law.

Don’t miss this session if you want to explore long-term trends and its regressive path to near-term HR issues! This session will help you think about macro themes (economics, politics, mother nature, etc.) from a strategic thinker viewpoint, using two lenses:

• Five megatrends: the future of population effects on mother nature, geopolitics and security, globalization, democratization and governance, and science and technologies.
• The new global economic disorder.

This session is intended to expand HR professionals’ knowledge and sensitivity to the global trends and uncertainties confronting humanity and shaping the future success of their organizations. It will help HR leaders develop the skills and mindset to anticipate the future business environment through specific thinking tips. They will also acquire a framework to assess the legacy of the 2008-2009 economic turmoil, exploit the post-crisis marketplace and stimulate planning and action in recruiting and managing a talent pool.

Workplace application – This session will help participants define their own scenarios, considering five megatrends and global uncertainties awaiting world-class organizations, and draft action plans that mitigate risks and maximize opportunities in terms of human resources management.