NHRMA | Agenda / Concurrent Workshop Descriptions

Wednesday, October 3
3:45 pm – 5:15 pm

Stop Global Whining: Creating a Culture of Accountability
Track: Personal Credibility

Are the nay-sayers, grumpies, toxins and bullies affecting your workplace? Can we require employees to be positive, respectful, helpful, trustworthy and kind? Absolutely! Success is two things: what you do and how you do it. This workshop is designed for the courageous leader who is willing to take a stand for requiring “nice” in the workplace. Participants will be able to analyze and define inappropriate actions and create behavior shaping performance expectations that can turn employees around. This workshop is designed for the courageous leader who is willing to take a stand for requiring “nice” in the workplace. Participants will be able to analyze and define inappropriate actions and create behavior shaping performance expectations that can turn employees around.

The Savvy Owl – Politics, Power and Influence… What They Don't Teach You in School
Track: Business Knowledge

Accomplishing the goals and objectives of any organization requires more than just smart employees who work hard. It requires savvy employees who know how to forge alliances and avoid animosities in order to be effective. Participants will identify which of the rules of “positive politics” they are most likely to violate as well as obtain guidelines for being smart about their own conduct, about their business communication, about their relationships with co-workers and about their relationship with their supervisor. In addition, participants will learn 11 ways to recognize who really holds power, has influence and how to tap into the power structure within any organization.

Keeping Great Women
Track: HR Delivery

Sara Harvey Yao, MA, Founder, Elements of Power, LLC, Lake Forest Park, WA
Michele Christensen, MA, Founder, Elements of Power, LLC, Lake Forest Park, WA

According to Harvard Business Review, 43% of professional women with children take the “off ramp” from work. Can you afford to lose your best women? In this session you will learn the real reasons women leave and the secrets even they don’t know to make them want to stay.

HRMS: How Request for Proposals Don’t Accomplish Their Objectives
Track: HR Technology

After attending this session, attendees will know how to identify business needs through GAP and PAIN analysis to take control of the HRMS selection and implementation process. This presentation and short workshop will utilize tools to identify what your HRMS processes are lacking and what pains are caused by current business processes or lack thereof. Attendees will leave the workshop with the tools necessary to systematically identify HR business needs and have the ability to take charge and start down the path to solve those needs immediately.

The Changing World of Work: 5 Megatrends You Need to Know
Track: Strategic Contribution

Jim O’Connell, Ph.D., Vice-President, Government Relations and HR Policy, Ceridian Corporation, Washington, DC

Managing Leave and Disability in the Workplace
Track: Legal

Nick Beermann, Associate, Jackson Lewis LLP, Seattle, WA
Michael Griffin, Associate, Jackson Lewis LLP, Seattle, WA

Leave Me Alone!—Reduce common frustrations involving Federal and State leave laws. Learn key terms and concepts under the ADA. Come to an understanding about terms like impairment, substantially limiting, major life activity, and essential job functions.

Becoming Global: HR Management Across Cultures
Track: Global

Mark Frederick, Ph.D., Director, Global Performance Solutions, IOR Global Services,
Riverside, CA

Globalization is pushing fundamental HR functions like recruitment, selection, employee relations, and ethics into new directions. As companies interact with employees from other cultures, HR management must evolve and adapt for their organizations to become truly global. This session analyzes key cultural dimensions that impact HR functions and discusses strategies for working effectively with people from diverse cultures.

Thursday, October 4
10:30 am – 12:00 pm

5 Ways You Can Increase Your HR Effectiveness
Track: Personal Credibility

Nan Russell, President & Founder, MountainWorks Communications, Whitefish, MT

Sharing lessons learned over 20 years in management, while on both sides of the HR desk, former QVC vice President shares insights on how you can increase your Human Resources effectiveness starting today. Learn 5 uncommon practices that differentiate results, builds credibility and impacts careers.

How to Strike a Better Deal: Fearless Negotiating for HR Professionals
Track: Business Knowledge

HR professionals negotiate every day, whether it is with vendors, employees, outsourced providers, or others in management. In this interactive presentation, you will learn three tactics that, when applied, will give HR professionals the skills to bargain with confidence.

Seven Deadly Compensation Sins and How to Repent!
Track: HR Delivery

Catherine Dovey, SPHR, Principal, Compensation Works, Seattle, WA
Terri Allender, SPHR, Global Compensation Manager, Tektronix, Portland, OR

Are you struggling with trying to save employees who have received another job offer? Do you have pay compression between new hires and longer-term staff? If so, we have some helpful tips and tools to help. We’ll also be discussing what should be communicated about your pay plan, how to use on-line salary surveys, how to design more effective incentive plans, what to do about pay when hiring international employees, and how to deal with merit budgets. These tips and tools are being used effectively in other organizations, so come and see how they can be applied within your organization.

Stopping the Worker ID Theft Crime Wave
Track: HR Technology

Identity theft is the top consumer crime; an enormous financial threat. Worker ID theft is a major, escalating hazard. New privacy and notification laws, packing substantial penalties, threaten companies with huge costs. This workshop will provide a comprehensive framework for preventing and responding effectively to these threats, benefiting both employees and employers.

Succession Planning for Retention
Track: Strategic Contribution

Nancy Edwards, MSW, Vice-President, Leadership Consultant, Lee Hecht Harrison, Portland, OR

People do not plan to fail, they fail to plan. How are you managing your high potential workforce? If one of your key leaders resigned today, who would fill his or her shoes? More importantly, is the successor truly ready? This workshop provides participants with a blue print for building a formal succession management process and examines common mistakes companies make. Specific succession management phases and their outcomes will be presented, along with strategies for retaining current talent and developing them for future leadership roles.

Standing Up to the Competition
Track: Legal

Standing up to the Competition helps HR professionals and their companies protect their workforce, customer base, and trade secrets through legal and practical tips, simple documents, and a PowerPoint. It covers:

Operating in an Uncertain World: New Opportunities for Global HR
Track: Global

Lisbeth Claus, Ph.D., SPHR, GPHR, Associate Dean, Associate Professor of Global HR, Willamette University, Salem, OR

This session (including a question and answer session) discusses the patterns of the new 21st century global external reality that affect organizations and the management of human capital. HR practitioners, whether they have domestic or global responsibilities, must upgrade their competencies to respond to the external global context in which their organizations operate. This session also provides a general overview of the international body of knowledge or the six domains that form the basis of the GPHR (Global Professional in Human Resources).Using a set of research-based vignettes from companies around the world, the presenter will illustrate that building global HR competencies is a must for every HR practitioner whether domestic or international.

Thursday, October 4
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Managing Your Time and Multiple Commitments – Without Dropping the Ball
Track: Personal Credibility

Are you running as fast as you can to keep up? Do you have too much to do and too little time? Trying to balance work commitments with having a life? Learn to take control over endlessly changing priorities and never ending “to do” lists. Learn effective techniques to manage your time and commitments that will support your personal and career goals based on your commitments and daily schedule.

Tying Compensation to Business Strategy
Track: Business Knowledge

This presentation will discuss how strategic business goals and metrics are tied in to the development of strategically based incentive/ variable pay (i.e. “bonus”) programs. Too many incentive programs today are done with little thought as to how they tie in and promote the overall strategic objectives of the organization.

Healthy Employees, Healthy Bottom Lines
Track: HR Delivery

Participants will learn successful methods for designing and maintaining effective wellness programs. We will share how to engage diverse populations, change health behaviors and demonstrate the affects on healthcare spending as well as productivity (reduced absenteeism/presenteeism). We will use actual case studies to demonstrate the result of the wellness program.

Tracking HR Technology Trends: What’s Hot, What’s Not
Track: HR Technology

By reporting on survey/visits of leading local companies, participants will learn which technologies are currently being used by Northwest companies to help recruit, retain, inform and compensate employees. Presentation will include demonstrations and/or examples including websites, HR intranet sites and on-line HR services.

Aligning Talent and Business Strategy
Track: Strategic Contribution

An employee’s supervisor is the most important factor in whether he/she will be engaged with the work of the organization. Participants will learn:

Failures in the Interactive Process with the Disabled Employee
Track: Legal

Recent surveys suggest that the most frequent issue facing human resources managers involves accommodating disabilities in the workplace. This is a video-interactive workshop. Through the use of video reenactments, you will hear one of Washington’s leading employment lawyers give practical advice on proactive steps employers must take to avoid violating disability accommodation laws.

Breaking into the BRICs – India
Track: Global

India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and a prime target for expansion. But as with all international assignments, there are specific requirements and challenges attached to doing business in India, particularly from a financial perspective. This presentation will explore some of the tax and legal challenges facing companies as they move into or expand operations in India. Participants will review a case study, and then focus on the practical aspects of establishing a presence in India. This seminar will review the basics of structuring an international assignment in India, review key taxation and planning opportunities, outline common contract elements including benefits and leave policies, and highlight emerging trends.

Thursday, October 4
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Creating Cultures of Integrity: Moving Values Into Action
Track: Personal Credibility

Ann Beltran, JD, MA, Director, Leadership and Organizational Development, Center for Ethical Leadership, Seattle, WA

Managing culture is a strategic leverage point. Yet, no one person owns organizational culture. Rather, each employee contributes to it. Learn more about shifting from cultures of compliance to cultures of integrity fueled by organizational shared values, individual values and the values of the common good. Identify ways to foster a values-based culture through strategic planning and human resource practices and in measuring organizational performance.

Using Process to Improve Business Knowledge
Track: Business Knowledge

In this interactive presentation, participants will receive a lively overview of the four key elements necessary to create and sustain a high performance mentality and process throughout any organization. The presenter will focus strongly on the role of organizational leadership to create, emulate, communicate and reinforce the non-negotiable strategies necessary to sustain business success. This presentation will look at the real-world business challenges facing organizations today, as well as give participants a specific implementation methodology to begin practicing immediately upon returning to the workplace.

A Practical Plan to Develop Employees
Track: HR Delivery

Professional development starts with, problem-based learning, one reviewing current situation as a basis for analyzing end-state goals (vision of where one wants to be in 1-year, 5-years, 20-years). Moving from current situation to future goals involves a potpourri of professional development: social networking, professional certification, advanced degrees, lifelong learning and flexibility to adjust one’s path to capitalize on unexpected opportunities that may lead one toward original goals or toward revised future goals.

From the Compass to GPS: Web 2.0 and Recruiting
Track: HR Technology

In the last five years, advanced technology has radically transformed the recruiting function. Both candidates and recruiters have more access to information and resources than at any other time in history. This interactive and informative session will guide HR professionals through the maze of the latest and greatest recruiting tactics and web-based technologies. Participants will learn about how big and small companies are using blogs, text-messaging, social networking, pod casts and other Web 2.0 technologies to attract and recruit today’s plugged-in talent.

Diversity – Going Beyond Tolerance
Track: Strategic Contribution

Research and experience tell us that we all have biases and assumptions that we are often unaware of, or don’t think about. Our biases and assumptions can affect our behaviors and impact our decision-making process and ultimately how we interact with others – positively and negatively. This workshop will walk you through the process of identifying your biases and assumptions and reviewing the business benefits related to creating a climate of inclusion.

Is Your Workplace Investigation Fair Game?
Track: Legal

Elizabeth Van Moppes, JD, President/Counselor-at-Law, Workplace Counselor, LLC,
Seattle, WA

Employers often need and want to investigate incidents of wrongdoing but they generally have a desire to avoid widespread dissemination of the investigation’s results. Accordingly, employers should understand and consider applicability of the attorney-client privilege, work product and self-critical privileges to their investigations.

Doing Buiness in China from an HR Perspective
Track: Global

A significant challenge for HR in a global marketplace is the widely varying cultural and legal requirements in other countries. Margaret will cover recruiting, hiring and retaining local employees, including understanding the market culture and current laws and regulations, ensuring IP protection, and avoiding employment disputes. She will also talk about dealing with obligations and rights of foreign owned operations in China; FCPA and HR's role in establishing company compliance and internal control in order to optimize their company's position, and mitigating factors; and the Chinese Labor Ministry's 2007 Work Plan and different drafts of a proposed "Law of China on Labor Contract" and its likely impact on foreign-owned operations in China.

Friday, October 5
10:15 am – 11:45 am

Encouraging Cooperation: Can’t We Just Get Along?
Track: Personal Credibility

Most people think they have a very collaborative style of working with others; in this session you will discover a very interactive and insightful experiential activity that shows who truly walks that talk. The group will discuss the lessons from the activity and how that fits into our work world, and then move on to ways to encourage communication. The session will end with ways HR professionals can help their organizations be more collaborative.

Finance Basics for HR Professionals
Track: Business Knowledge

This finance session will explain key concepts underlying the income, balance sheet and cash flow statements as well as various ways to measure related data. Participants will learn about opportunity costs, cost/benefit analysis, project reporting and individual profitability impact as they relate to measurement of financial success or failure.

Effective Open Enrollment
Track: HR Delivery

Nancy Kokenge, Vice President/ Senior Benefits Consultant, Gallagher Reppond, Bellevue, WA

With the costs ever on the rise, employees value their health & welfare benefits more than ever and name a robust benefit package the key reason for staying with or joining a company. In this workshop, we will discuss the elements that make up effective open enrollment, and accuracy. The goal of the workshop is to provide participants with a comprehensive overview of today's best practices in open enrollment in the Northwest and nationwide.

Revealing the Truth--What Access to HR Data Can Tell You About Your Company’s Health
Track: HR Technology

Albert Torres, Director, Information Technology and Research and Development, Pay Plus Solutions, Kennewick, WA

The presentation will explore how technology can be used to uncover and consolidate HR data that is stored in fixed and disparate environments to ultimately reveal a more accurate view of your company’s health. With technology, companies can improve how HR data is retained, extracted, analyzed and shared; resulting in the ability to improve certain aspects of overall business operations.

5 Keys to Successful Recruiting Leadership
Track: Strategic Contribution

John Vlastelica, Recruitment Management Consultant, Riviera Advisors, Inc., Redmond, WA

Join John Vlastelica for an informative and entertaining presentation on 5 of the keys to leading a corporate recruitment function. You’ll learn practical approaches and strategies to help you:

Religion In the Workplace
Track: Legal

This presentation will focus on the legal requirements under state and federal law for accommodating religion in the workplace. This will include a discussion of Sabbath observance, dress/clothing issues, proselytizing and other religious accommodation issues. The definition of "religion" and who is legally protected will also be reviewed.

Trends and Practices of International Assignment Management
Track: Global

This session will examine the findings of a recent Cartus survey conducted in conjunction with the U.S. National Foreign Trade Council. The survey reflects the responses of 184 practitioners based in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. The findings provide in-depth insights into some of the new challenges being faced by organizations, and solutions being developed.