Detailed 2010 Information Now Available!    

Thursday 8:15 am - 12:00 n                  

Joseph Whelan, Partner, Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLC

The increased use of use of social media poses potential legal implications for employers and HR professionals as they wrestle with the complexities of this new technology. Joe Whelan will discuss the basics of social networking and media sites, what laws govern this area and recommend policies and guidelines HR professionals should consider to protect their organizations from liability. As employers use social networking sites as a recruiting tool and to assist them with the hiring process, they need to be aware of the potential liabilities and exposure they may face under federal and state discrimination laws as well as concerns for electronic monitoring and privacy issues.

Mary T. L. Bannon, SVP and General Counsel, ConnectiCare, Inc. & Affiliates

Bruce Barth, Robinson & Cole, LLP

Christine Ferguson, JD, Associate Research Professor, Department of Health Policy at The George Washington University

Amy Gallagher, Vice President of Major Accounts, Cornerstone Group

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Affordable Care Act”) was signed into law on March 23, 2010. On March 30, 2010, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the “Reconciliation Act”), was signed into law amending key provisions of the Affordable Care Act. This law will apply to employer sponsored group health plans and require HR professionals to understand how this Act will impact their healthcare plans and their employees. Learn more about how this law will be implemented, the implications for HR professionals and how you can have an impact at the state level as we navigate this complex issue.

Michael P. Aitken, Director of Government Affairs, Society for Human Resource Management

Joseph M. Carbone, President and Chief Executive Officer, The WorkPlace, Inc.

Joseph Whelan, Partner, Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLC

Mark M. Whitney, Partner, MORGAN, BROWN & JOY, LLP

As strategic leaders, one of your key roles as an HR professional is to educate, inform and influence business leaders in your organization on public policy issues that are important to the business and human resources. It is also critical that you are informed on the issues and their impact in the workplace so you can strategically advocate for the HR profession and keep your elected officials informed on public policy issues and how they affect the HR profession and your organization. Your point of view provides a unique perspective that your member of congress may not have heard or even considered. We have assembled this panel of expert in the fields of labor relations, healthcare policy and workforce development. They will provide you with their professional perspectives on the latest legislation in the tri-state area and on the national scene as well as their predictions for the upcoming year.

Michael P. Aitken, Director of Government Affairs, Society for Human Resource Management

As President Obama and the Democratic Congress head towards the mid-term elections, HR public policy issues will continue to be at the forefront of the public policy agenda by congress and the federal agencies. This includes efforts to enhance union organizing rules, initiatives to expand civil rights protections and proposals to require paid leave---the outcomes of these issues could dramatically affect the workplace in 2010 and beyond. Learn about continuing legislative initiatives of importance to HR professionals in the areas of health care reform, paid parental leave, comprehensive immigration reform, employment eligibility and job creation. The presentation will also provide an up-to-date discussion on current federal regulatory activity.

Thursday 12:00 - 2:00 pm                  

China Miner Gorman, Chief Global Engagement Officer, Society for Human Resource Management

The worst recession since the Great Depression is now technically over following two consecutive quarters of economic growth in the second half of 2009. However, all signs point to a slow “jobless recovery,” with unemployment expected to remain close to 10 percent throughout 2010 and around nine percent in 2011. In this presentation, you will explore four major challenges HR professionals will face in this difficult post-recession economy and a two-part strategy for turning the challenges into opportunities for your organization. In addition, you will look at two case studies – SAS and Southwest Airlines – where the strategies have brought impressive bottom-line results, as well as employee retention, engagement, and productivity.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Thursday 2:15 - 3:45 pm                  

John Sullivan, Ph.D., Dr. John Sullivan Associates

When the housing bubble burst and financial institutions around the globe started wavering, many in the recruiting profession felt that it was only a matter of time before throngs of recruiters were laid off as organizations attempting to weather the economic downturn shed every cost possible. Fortunately for many fearing the worst, recruiting functions in general were not decimated as in past recessions. This time, many organizations demonstrated through action that strategic recruiting capability is a core business capability and one that cannot be easily eliminated and started up again simply as conditions turn more favorable. Instead of being laid off, recruiters in talent management best practice organizations have increasingly been tapped to play a role in broader talent management activities. During this session with world renowned thought leader and HR strategist, Dr. John Sullivan, you will learn:

• What strategic activities recruiters are taking on in leading talent management functions
• How social networks, generational divides, globalization, and a constant demand for innovation and workforce productivity are changing the game of world-class recruiting
• How to make the business case for broadening the scope of a recruiter’s responsibilities in your organization
• How to evaluate the effectiveness of broader talent management initiatives and
• How to drive sustainability of talent management initiatives when economic recovery begins stretching resources

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - General Credit

Philip Berry, President, Philip Berry Associates, LLC.

Bill Sheridan, Vice President, National Foreign Trade Council

As businesses expand their operations abroad, the complexity of operating effectively and profitably requires the active involvement of HR. Whether dealing with acquisitions, mergers, geographic expansion, new product development, or plant rationalization, the role of HR is indispensable to making these efforts successful. HR must take an active leadership role in these efforts to insure that the business achieves its objectives. This session will:

• explore 5 critical areas where providing leadership to ensure HR alignment with the business can spell success or failure for future business operations.
• identify 3 major pitfalls to avoid when operating globally.

Bill Sheridan will share the trends acknowledged by the National Foreign Trade Council and Philip Berry will lead participants to apply global HR strategy alignment.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - International Management Credit*

Colin F. Jackson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Strategy and Policy, U.S. Naval War College

The U.S. Naval War College is home to some of the greatest thinking our nation possesses on the creation and execution of strategy. So significantly, that numerous leading educational institutions (e.g. Yale, Harvard, Penn, Johns Hopkins University, and Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy of Tufts University) are now featuring former War College professors to provide students with the military’s strategic thinking, planning, and implementation capability. With increasingly rapid and complex change facing corporate environments, it is opportune for us to learn from military expertise in managing more advanced levels of change and ambiguity.

Center to the military’s creating winning strategy is the understanding that survival of organizations in competitive environments depends on their responses to a perennial set of choices. In the words of James March, organizations must decide how much effort to invest in the “exploitation” of existing ideas and processes and how much to devote to the “exploration” of genuinely new ones. The answers to these questions depend on the organization’s explanation of past events. What explains the dramatic rise and subsequent collapse in energy prices over the past 24 months? Why did security conditions in Iraq improve in 2007 and 2008? Such explanations are shaped not only by objective characteristics of the historical events, but also by the organizations’ shared beliefs about the nature of the environment and the laws of cause and effect in that domain – in short, the organization’s operational code.

American military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrates formidable obstacles to historical inference and strategy formulation on the part of large organizations. And, our experience with counterinsurgency since 2003 underlines the perils of organizational explanations that overstate the strategists’ control/influence and understate the role of competitors’ actions and chance. Commercial military organizations must grapple not only with changes in their competitive environments but also with the influence of their existing causal beliefs on the interpretation of performance and the development of effective strategies. Drawing on recent military and commercial cases, Dr. Jackson’s session will highlight the practical importance of valid, historical inference – the process of explaining past outcomes and relating those explanations to prospective choices.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Friday 7:30 - 9:00 am                  

Gregg T. Barratt, Vice President, Frontier Corporation

Michelle Carpenter

With terrorism and war, recession, corporate restructuring and layoffs, mergers & acquisitions, and a turbulent, global economic environment, increasingly we are relying on both individual and organizational resiliency to not only help us to survive, but ultimately, to succeed. Our 21st century workplace, spilling over with unrelenting, complex and fast paced-change, organizational churn, extreme cost cutting measures, non-stop demand to do more with less, and intense global competition ---has left us with a workforce that is over stressed, over loaded, over tired, and struggling to problem-solve and respond to serious business issues. Individuals’ and organizations’ ability to cope, produce efficiently, serve customers effectively, and to innovate/create new products and services is seriously challenged. Our ability to compete and win on the global stage is being impacted and threatened. This interactive work shop will provide the background and identify the drivers of what has created this perfect storm. Those of you who have goals around building a workforce that can adapt to constant change and respond quickly to competition, while thriving under continuous job pressure, will not want to miss this highly interactive session.

• Hear how experts define resiliency, share your personal stories and insights, learn how HR can truly add value to their organizations in ways not previously understood, and leave with a plan to meet with your business leader upon your return. List and describe the three critical characteristics of being truly resilient
• Learn how to hire talent who are resilient and develop that skill in existing staff
• Learn how you can support your business leaders in fostering resilience in their organizations

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - General Credit

Alan Fine, President, InsideOut Development

It’s a challenging time for leaders, managers, and HR professionals to build and sustain employee engagement and resilience during intense pressure to perform amidst serious cost-cutting, declining resources, and staff reductions. Learn how to:

• highlight and underscore the leader’s role in building employee resilience and performance during challenging times
• provide a coaching framework to educate leaders and managers to be able to effectively coach their direct reports’ core strengths and minimize weaknesses
• engage leaders and managers to want to coach their direct reports
• develop methodology and tools that leaders and managers can utilize to boost performance and morale

Participants will gain a coaching framework, rollout practices, and low cost ways to boost employee satisfaction that can be put in to practice immediately.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - General Credit

Alison Shipitofsky, Global Mobility Advisory Services, KPMG

Bill Sheridan, Vice President, National Foreign Trade Council

Cecilia Paschall, Vice President, Global Mobility, State Street Corporation

The pace of change and volatility of the economy present organizations with many complex challenges to effectively manage global mobility programs. This interactive session features a discussion that focuses on assignment program benchmarking, covering a broad range of international assignment topics that will bring you up to speed on the latest trends and practices in the field, as well as differentiation of "best practice" from "common practice" in cost-of-living allowances, premiums, housing, definition of family, and spousal support. The presenters will focus on key international issues using data from KPMG's Global Assignment Policies and Practices (GAPP) survey and will look back at how international assignment programs have changed since 1999.

Participants are encouraged to bring their questions and concerns and to take KPMG's online GAPP survey prior to the session to receive immediate feedback on international trends and practices at no cost at www.kpmglink.com.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - International Management Credit*

Michael London

In times of turbulence, timely and consistent communication from senior leaders is key to supporting enhanced business performance, key employee retention, and more rapid and successful turnaround to correlate with enhanced market and financial performance. Today’s top HR leaders are experiencing greater demand to steward effective organizational communications strategies, messaging, and tools that:

• are reality-based and consistent, integrating and aligning leadership and HR initiatives;
• present powerful concepts through compelling language and logical thought patterns to support the organization’s strategy and culture;
• carefully select media, messages, and tone to engage the intended audience; and
• measure and guide the enhancement of communications’ effectiveness.

Participants will enjoy a highly interactive session with Duane Cashin! A communications tool kit designed to assist HR leverage its role as a key communications player and communications’ best practices in times of rapid change will be provided to attendees.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - General Credit

Friday 9:30 - 11:00 am                  

Michael London

Every business organization, sooner or later, has a “significant corporate event.” Sometimes it is a crisis… earnings unexpectedly tumble, there is an explosion in a factory, or a drive toward union organization. Sometimes the “significant corporate event” is inherently positive… an operation is being expanded, there is a need to hire new workers, acquire another company, or add a product line. Whether at the core the event is positive or negative, it is critically important for an effective internal communications plan to be in place and in operation – in advance, long before the significant event is even a remote possibility. Without effective internal communications, the organization sits on the precipice of crisis.

This presentation will focus on:

• Why it matters
• Regulation and compliance
• The difference between “tell,” “sell,” “consult” and “involve”
• Organization marketing begins inside
• Internal communications techniques
• What do you want them to hear – and what do you want them to do
• Line managers as human billboards

Mr. London will highlight the importance for HR leaders to have a key “seat at the table” when significant organization events, including corporate strategic planning, are being discussed.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Margaret-Ann Cole, Senior Consultant, Towers Watson

Kathryn Yates, Director, Towers Watson

Business strategies shift with reasonable frequency, reacting to the competitive environments in which companies function. Organizational structures also will change to accommodate the needs of the business. In the past, culture changes occurred over prolonged periods of time. In our current business climate this change period is being dramatically compressed. This session will provide practical solutions and leading thinking on how to assess and design the culture your organization needs to best support the achievement of strategy and facilitate sustainable leader championship. Participants will gain knowledge on:

• Best practice methodologies utilized to conduct  cultural assessments
• How to examine your culture in context with business strategy and external forces’ trending
• Critical practices (and those to avoid) to successfully present your findings and recommendations to leadership
• How to prioritize culture shifting needs

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Todd Manas, Senior Consultant, Towers Watson

Tom Wilson, President, The Wilson Group

We’ve all been impacted by economic upheavals of the recent past where largely, business survival has been dependent on retention or replacement of customers and extreme cost control. To remain financially viable, many have completed a reduction in force and major shifts in base and variable pay at all levels of their organization. This session is designed to explore what’s next. If organizations are to be successful for the long haul by building and retaining their ranks of top talent, pay and benefits strategies must become more focused over the short/retrenchment term as well as the long/re-emergence or growth term… while dealing with the operational mantra, “do more with less.” From the “front lines,” some critical questions have emerged:

• Are traditional assumptions about pay still appropriate as we move forward into the “new world” (e.g. merit pay, pay-for-performance, market competitiveness)?
• What have companies used to deal with the economic downturn?
• What new pay practices are emerging?
• Has the economic downturn changed the way companies are positioning variable pay plans? More? Less?

A focused team exercise will provide attendees with a toolkit to assess, analyze, and strategize solutions related to challenges of talent attraction, retention and motivation as well as provide an opportunity to problem-solve their issues during the session.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - General Credit

Mark Feurer, Director, Bunge Limited

Kathleen Molloy, M.A., MBA, Founder & Principal, ChangeWorks International

While workplace communication is a frequent and basic activity, it also can be complex and difficult to do effectively when operating in a global context. A primary reason why even local and regional projects fail or don’t achieve intended results is that the various parties don’t understand each other, and the communication process breaks down. Global communication adds even greater complexity because of language, cultural, geographic, and time difference factors that are part of the communication process. Work teams serve as the back bone of global projects and are used to launch products, develop new designs, implement new information technology systems, improve customer processes, and communicate organizational change. In this forum, attendees will learn about:

• corporate scenarios involving global communications and virtual global teams,
• the challenges they faced and lessons learned,
• specific guidelines on how to globally engage country managers and HR colleagues,
• effective steps in global communications, and
• successful practices for global virtual teams. 

Attendees will be challenged to participate in a group exercise to determine which best practices will be most useful to their own organizational initiatives.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - International Management Credit*

Friday 11:15 - 12:15 pm                  

Scott Cawood, Ph.D., SPHR, Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources for Synygy, Inc.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Friday 1:30 - 3:00 pm                  

Robert Cenek, Director, Minerals Technologies, Inc.

Businesses cannot expect to remain viable in fluid markets when they cannot anticipate and rapidly adapt to new conditions, including today's rapid pace of change as a leading cause of stress (and distress) for leaders and employees at every level. Most global organizations today acknowledge experiencing disruptive change and leaders agree that vital competence is needed in effective leadership of organizational change and management of the reactions to it among employees. During times of turbulence, HR plays a critical and strategic role in organizational transformation by providing leadership in planning and implementing carefully orchestrated change efforts in support of business strategy. This session will define a strategic and well-orchestrated change process for use in navigating an organization through a process of transformation. Attendees will gain:

• a ‘Best in Class’ transformational process;
• best practices to mitigate transformational derailment/resistance;
• a tool to map a course for transformation that highlights key HR infrastructure/practice levers; and
• a relevant case study with lessons learned.

Room: more info link

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Scott Cawood, Ph.D., SPHR, Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources for Synygy, Inc.

The role of culture permeates all aspects of organizational life. This session will explore the role of culture as a strategic contribution to your business from both a people and profitability perspective. There is compelling evidence to suggest that organizations and the cultures they create will ultimately have enormous implications to the business. The information shared will be pulled from extensive research that has examined the unique ways culture has helped (and sometimes hindered) organizational performance for many of the best places to work in the US. Participants will learn:

• The role culture can play in creating a sustainable advantage for the business;
• How to link the culture with the strategic direction of the business and make modifications where needed;
• What elements of culture help or hinder organizational performance;
• How some of the best places to work in the world have built cultures that help them reach their goals while not compromising on their employee experience;
• How having the right culture can provide protection from economic  downturns and other external threats to your business; and
• That a great culture can be built without high cost if managed appropriately.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Bruce Barth, Robinson & Cole, LLP

Mary Borba, Vice President Compensation and Benefits, Boehringer Ingelheim

David “Brad” Morse, Market Head and VP Sales and Service, Aetna, Inc.

Employer funded healthcare has been, and continues to be, a major fiscal and social challenge for all organizations in this country… further complicated by major changes in federal and state healthcare legislation. This session will provide timely insight on how the current economic, political, and social environment is shaping the “new” healthcare model for employers and employees, including how the “generational mix,” location, and experience-ratings will shape company healthcare plan(s) in the future. Our panel of experts will provide a model for change inclusive of a(n) assessment of an organization’s healthcare situation (including new laws at both federal and state levels) and design and implementation strategies for our new reality. Attendees, by way of an interactive exercise, will gain an assessment tool to enable them to set priorities according to both their business and the new regulatory environment (universal healthcare or not!).

• Understand the social, political, and economic forces that are shaping the impacts on health care for businesses, individuals, and society during a very critical time in U.S. history;
• Learn about recently enacted, major changes in federal and state healthcare mandates including concepts, funding, and rationale behind these mandates as well as implications for HR and their organizations; and
•  Learn how to assess, identify, and lead your organization’s healthcare priorities during this time of radical change in healthcare structure and regulations.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - General Credit

Kimberly Bates McCarl, Vice President, Thomson Reuters

Paul Bly, Senior Director, Thomson Reuters

One of the biggest challenges in implementing a corporate-wide initiative is balancing the goals, processes and systems of the corporation with those of the local businesses. This challenge is even more difficult when the organization is global and in 92 countries like Thomson Reuters. Implementing a global, corporate-wide performance management strategy is one of the best models to demonstrate this balance since it must be grounded in the local and cultural contexts within which it must operate to be successful.

Global Talent Executives from Thomson Reuters will walk you through their efforts to implement a corporate-wide performance management strategy and share what local adjustments were made to help support its success. They will describe the Corporate and Business Unit partnerships they forged and highlight their successes and lessons learned, including:

• Leveraging the performance management best practices from two previously independent global companies
• Aligning the newly formed Thomson Reuters organization under a single performance management strategy, process and system
• Supporting local business needs and cultural nuances
• Continuing to adapt and refine performance management processes, tools and resources to the changing needs of the organization

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - International Management Credit*

Friday 3:15 - 4:45 pm                  

Ed Hammett, Northeast Utilities

With competing pressures to move quickly to address turbulent economic, social and global markets, stringent financial performance demands, achieve strategic imperatives, and the continuing need for people to innovate and perform at ever higher levels, HR must carefully assess, reconfigure and re-commission how it delivers value to organizations… including structure, roles, competencies, and practices to ensure continuing positive bottom line impact in the midst of an increasingly turbulent global economy. As we have evolved from an industrial, to a technological, and now an intellectual capital era, coupled with rapidly escalating change, information overload, growing ambiguity, and the need for greater individuality and employee contracting, the continued breakneck pace of evolution in the HR profession is required now more than ever before.

This session will provide insight as to how one HR leader after joining his new company found himself in an HR-transactional world where HR was more typically dismissed or ignored by his senior management team. Ed set about transforming it to a function where business leaders won’t hold meetings without HR. Ed will share his vision and value proposition that aligned HR with the business strategy and will share his story of how he led and implemented a process of restructuring and re-commissioning HR including the business strategy, culture and decision making criteria, how he selected the right model, pros and cons, lessons learned, and the results to date. Additionally, he will provide an HR competency outline and process review tool that he used as a part of his successful HR transformation and recommissioning process to all attendees.

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Kathleen Molloy, M.A., MBA, Founder & Principal, ChangeWorks International

Culture change initiatives, whether organizations are building high performance and accountability, diversity and inclusion, customer –centrism, or globalization, seriously hiccup or fail more often than succeed. As organizations are rapidly re-examining their strategies, re-positioning, and restructuring to remain viable in the future, significant culture change will be unavoidable. Learn from a notable expert on how to plan, lead, and implement a successful culture shift and gain the effectiveness of tools she will share. Learn answers to:

• How do cultures change, really? 
• How do you build a realistic and flexible culture change plan?  How do you build the right communications strategy and action plan? 
• Who has what role?  What is the role of HR in culture change? 
• How can you best measure your success?

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - Strategic Credit*

Amy Richman, Senior Consultant, WFD Consulting

Eileen Lavin, Senior Business Program Manager, Aetna, Inc.

Kerry Moyer, Senior Manager, Deloitte Consulting

Michelle Carpenter

The nature of the workforce and the workplace has undergone profound and complex changes over the last 30 years, including an increase in the diversity of our employee base, a more decentralized workplace, enhanced technologies, and a multi-generational workforce with a shift in values and standards that define what people will contribute and what they expect from their employer. At no point in our work history has the pressure for employers to manage their employees with greater flexibility been greater.

Join us in this workshop to learn how HR can drive the leveraging of flexibility as a key management tool for meeting business goals while contributing to cost containment during these turbulent economic times. The studies support that companies who manage their workforce flexibly reap benefits of reduced absenteeism & turnover, increased employee engagement, increased revenues & cycle times, better client service, stronger employee commitment, and reduced stress.

• the business case for workplace flexibility
• critical cultural components that are required for successful flexible work environments
• how you can assess your own staff, including hourly workers to find opportunities to manage them more flexibly and improve business results!
• Aetna’s evaluation of their teleworkers’ results as compared to the general population. 
• Deloitte’s unique approach to a successful communication/negotiation between employee and supervisor. 

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - General Credit

Donald C. Dowling, Jr., Attorney, White & Case, LLP

Terry Kelly Sheridan, Director of Human Resources, William J. Clinton Foundation

In this workshop-format session, learn how a multinational employer can successfully develop, implement, and launch a global employee handbook or global code of conduct. Spotlighting real-world case studies from practitioners and international employment counsel, our interactive program will explore both global handbook/code :

• content (what a multinational employer’s global handbook/code should -- and should not -- say) and 
• implementation (launching a headquarters-issued handbook/code across foreign local operations). 

The workshop will wrestle with the toughest questions multinational employers confront in this area: What are the pitfalls in transplanting provisions from a U.S. handbook? Is a single headquarters-issued global handbook/code ever preferable to aligned, locally-tailored versions? What U.S. laws must a global handbook/code enforce abroad -- and how does compliance with U.S. law dovetail with the need to follow local laws and practices? How does a multinational employer account for its local affiliates, local employee representatives, and local work rules? Don’t miss this important session!

This session pre-approved by HRCI for 1.5 recertification credits - International Management Credit*

*A PHR may obtain General Credit by attending any session approved for Strategic Credit or International Management Credit.

To learn more about PHR, SPHR, and GPHR certification and recertification, visit the Human Resource Certification Institute web site at www.hrci.org