Best Employers in Canada -
Conference Agenda
DAY 1 – TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2010
8:00
Registration Opens – Coffee Served
8:45
Opening Remarks from the Chair
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Ted Emond Senior Consultant Hewitt Associates |
9:00
Getting the Most Out of the Survey: Understanding What the Best Employers Study Is – And What it Isn’t
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Colin Platt Consultant Hewitt Associates |
This session will introduce you to the Best Employers study and give you the tools to participate. Hewitt Associates will teach you how they define employee engagement and what your business can gain from the study, in addition to preparing your HR team to administer the study and involve your employees.
- Analyzing the Hewitt definition of “employee engagement”
- How is the study conducted? Reviewing the individual components of the study
- Return on investment: what do you get out of participating in the study?
9:45
From Recession to Recovery: How High Employee Engagement Sustains Business Through Good Times and Bad
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Kim Knapp National Leader of Peopleworks Flight Centre Canada |
How did having high employee engagement help to pull Best Employers through the economic downturn? Now that the economy is beginning to recover, how is high employee engagement helping companies to ensure the greatest success during the recovery? Learn tips from the top on how to engage your employees through trying economic times and how the Best Employers are benefiting from their diligence.
- Best practices for maintaining high levels of employee engagement during an economic downturn
- Top tips for involving employees and meeting challenges together
- Sustaining trust and confidence in leadership and management during trying economic times
- Successful strategies for communicating during a crisis
10:45
Networking Refreshment Break
11:00
Developing an Effective Recruitment Strategy to Attract Top Talent
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Tom A. Merianos Principal, Edward Jones Advisor Recruiting and Hiring – Canada Edward Jones |
With so many people looking for jobs, finding the right employee can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. How do Best Employers identify, source and recruit the people they need? This session will provide you with tips to recruit the top talent and highly skilled workers for your organization.
- Planning for your workforce: identifying current and future gaps among your employees
- Best practices for development an employee value proposition
- Hiring for ‘fit’: hiring employees to fit into individual organizational cultures
- Sourcing: thinking outside the box to recruit different generations
- Successful strategies for attracting highly-skilled workers
11:45
Hanging Onto Your Best Employees: Proven and Effective Retention Strategies
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Peter McAdam VP of Employee Experience TD Bank Financial Group |
If you have identified certain employees as your top talent, chances are that your competitors may also see them as someone they would like to have on board. How can your organization hang onto the people you need to succeed? Learn tips from a Best Employer on how to retain employees through engagement and other tested strategies.
- Understand what engages key employees
- Getting feedback: what is the importance of ‘stay’ and ‘exit’ interviews?
- Creating flexible work arrangements to manage retention
- Best practices for coaching managers to help retain employees
- Keep in touch after a top employee has left: how can this be beneficial down the road?
12:30
Networking Luncheon for Delegates and Speakers
1:45
The Link Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement
Moderator:
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Barb Steele Director, Membership Canadian Business for Social Responsibility |
Panelists:
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Willa Black VP, Corporate Affairs Cisco Systems Canada Inc. |
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Neil Crawford Principal Hewitt Associates |
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Sofia Theodorou Locke Vice President, Human Resources LoyaltyOne |
Corporate social responsibility is important in building firm value, reputation, and managing risk. New research indicates that corporate social responsibility also plays an important role in engaging employees and making them feel part of something bigger. Attend this session to hear about the business case for investing in CSR programs and how sustainability can help your organization engage and retain your employees.
- Understanding how corporate social responsibility can engage employees
- Navigating the generational differences: how are generations impacted by CSR differently?
- Analyzing the growing importance of CSR internally and externally
- Innovative ideas for corporate social responsibility: how are companies leveraging CSR creatively?
2:45
Yoga Stretch Class
Presented by:
3:00
Networking Refreshment Break
3:15
The ROI for Wellness Programs: How High Engagement Affects Employee Health and Well-Being
| Pritma Dhillon Manager, Health and Wellness WestJet |
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Rochelle Morandini Senior Consultant, Organizational Health Hewitt Associates |
Healthy employees will lead to fewer insurance claims and less money spent on legal costs, so there is incentive for companies to focus on the health and well-being of employees. This session will examine the challenges of promoting a healthy workplace and provide you with tips to create health and wellness programs for your employees in order to help your bottom line.
- Analyzing whether engaged employees are healthier
- Are healthier employees more engaged at work?
- Building a business case for investing in wellness initiatives
- what is the return on investment?
- why are health and wellness programs beneficial for your organization?
4:15
Chair’s Closing Remarks
Conference Adjourns
