In a workplace that agonizes over how to deal with Millennials (and the even scarier kids who will follow), while dealing with a looming demographic challenge of unprecedented proportions and trying to master social media and digital technology trends that change faster than Madonna’s look, women’s leadership may not be THE answer, but might well be part of the answer.

Women – and the companies that trust them – stand to reap key benefits from these opportunities for at least two reasons. First, the emerging focus on skills and strengths which were, until fairly recently, typically undervalued and which women often possess. Second, ongoing technological advances are creating work environments where jobs can fit women’s lifestyle demands more closely than ever before.

This presentation will be an opportunity to discuss and explore one potential, albeit partial, solution to some very real and basic issues faced by many companies in today’s economy.

Workplace application – This session will provide insights into new opportunities arising from the changes marking the past decade and address how they impact ways to attract, motivate, mobilize and engage a new breed of employees.

The greater engagement of employees in their work has been identified as a critical ingredient in high level performance. Great claims are frequently made about the benefits of such engagement, although a lack of clarity has often characterised related discussions. Is the reference to a sense of engagement on the part of employees or, for instance, to their participation in workplace decision making? What are the links between engagement and performance and how reliable and robust are they? What is the fit with other critical functions such as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, workplace culture and leadership? What are the obstacles that make it difficult for managers to achieve the high levels of staff engagement that they seek? This paper will discuss international experience and report on recent Australian case studies. The case studies indicate the rationale for management pursuit of employee engagement and point to the array of factors that influence engagement and organisational performance.

Workplace application – This session will explore what is meant by employee engagement and its fit with leadership and managing people. It will examine the range of obstacles which frequently undermine managers’ efforts to lift employee engagement and identify strategies with some success in overcoming them.

This session is intended to increase participants’ knowledge about the effects of stress on the body and brain and will discuss simple and effective ways to manage stress in our lives, with implications for HR professionals on its impact on performance.

Stress is not specific to the workplace; our home lives are also greatly affected by stress. In both of these contexts stress first and foremost affects our performance and over time can have a detrimental impact on our health. One thing is certain, intense and chronic stress is the worst enemy of performance! This workshop will discuss ways to detect stress and to counter its impact on your performance and that of your employees.

What is stress and what are the four factors that induce stress in humans? How does the body respond? Different people….different stress? How does stress affect performance? Do men and women respond differently? What is the first step in coping with stress? More importantly, how can we control stress and improve performance? This presentation will answer all these questions, and more!

Workplace application – At the end of this workshop, participants should be able to better prevent the negative effects of their day-to-day stress and simply and effectively manage the stress in their lives.

Are you a NICE person? You may not want to be after learning what NICE stands for and how it contributes to what Dr. Robbins calls “Unintentional Intolerance,” the manner in which nice, well-meaning people go about potentially excluding others, even when they want to include them. Research and experience tell us that we all have biases of which we are often unaware, or think little about. Yet, these biases guide our decision making, behaviours and attributions on a daily basis.

Could we unknowingly be making "bad" decisions and engaging in exclusive behaviour? Find out by attending this engaging, interactive and humorous workshop from one of the most powerful speakers you will ever hear.

An open mind is a terrible thing to close… learn to move beyond unintentional intolerance!

Workplace application – This session will make you more aware of the concept of “mindfulness” and how it can help you and your organization overcome individual and organizational acts of “Unintentional Intolerance.” It will provide participants with a framework for understanding how exclusion and intolerance take place, even with individuals and in organizations that are committed to diversity and inclusion.

The hallmark of learned professionalism in medicine, law, and accounting is the establishment of and devotion to consensus-driven standards. These standards reveal exclusive expertise in the arts and sciences that are essential for effective performance in these professions. Through the efforts of engaged stakeholders, the HR function will define such standards for itself. Practitioners and academics look to standards to eliminate wasteful HR transactions and to focus resources on delivering truly unique and proprietary HR solutions, while HR customers look to standards to rationalize the structure of HR in their organizations and to measure the outcomes of these operations. The appetite for global HR standards is so strong that a Global Human Resource Management System, much like the ISO9000 Global Quality Management System, is also actively under development. During this session we will explore an initiative to raise the profile of HR professionals through the development of global organizational HR standards that will contribute substantial and tangible social, economic, and financial returns on investment (ROI) to their adopters.

Workplace application – This session will describe the individual and business value in developing global professional performance standards for HR organizations and how the attendee may participate in the standards development process.

Your current success as an HR practitioner, the achievement of your HR department and your career ascent all depend upon your understanding of the CEO top of mind and your ability to align everything you do with what keeps the C-Suite up at night. This session will:

• Reveal the CEO responses to these pivotal questions.
• Discuss three reasons why positioning as a true strategic is a requisite for every HR Practitioner.
• Elucidate the four global trends impacting both top and bottom lines of the business – a CEO top of mind.
• List five expectations every CEO has of his/her HR Department.
• Review six core competencies each HR practitioner must possess in building the new HR model
• Examine the 12-step process for being a true strategic partner to the C-Suite.

This high-energy, interactive presentation is geared toward clear-eyed HR practitioners who want to move their HR function to the next level. A presentation you DO NOT want to miss!

Workplace application – This session will introduce participants to a 12-step process for being a true strategic partner to the C-Suite and moving their HR function to the next level.

Feedback allows people to know “where they stand” in relation to personal and organizational objectives. In other words, feedback provides information about one’s strengths and weaknesses. Research is unequivocal about the importance of feedback for individuals in organizations. Most of this research, however, has been dominated by a focus on ratings, or the use of numerical indices to quantify performance. As a result, very little is known about the usage of narrative comments in these processes. This is surprising given the fact that comments are a staple of most performance appraisal processes.

Using research from the fields of industrial-organizational psychology, communication, and human resource management, and results from a survey of over 500 human resources managers, this session will explore the implications of using narrative comments for the various stakeholders in the performance appraisal process, i.e. the HR department, the evaluator, and the evaluatee. The psychological processes underlying the production of narrative comments are explored. The presentation will also discuss the processes related to the reception and the impact of receiving performance information in this format for evaluatees.

Workplace application – Participants will learn about the implications of using narrative comments for the various stakeholders in the performance appraisal process.