This two-part event will start with peer-led, face-to-face dialogues over breakfast where YOUR mental first aid is the focus.  Share experiences and gain practical tools to reset together with fellow people and culture leaders who can relate to the uniquely challenging road you have travelled. 

Part two dives into a strategic presentation about how workforce expectations have changed and that it is essential to rethink how you support the well-being of your employees by implementing a sound strategy first.  

7:30 – 8:10 Breakfast & Peer Connections. A time to assess ‘How are YOU doing?

As leaders it is critical that you take care of your own well-being. Unpack some of the challenges you have been through with other delegates and participate in an optional mental health check-in to assess your own stress and well-being.  Stepping back to assess your own mental health may be the best way to help others in both your private and professional life.

8:10 – 8:30 Tackling Employee Wellness Head On – Building Organizational Health in a Changing Workforce

As workforce expectations shift, employers need to adapt to provide holistic support for the well-being of their employees to build a more resilient workforce.

This session will explore the new definition of employee wellness and challenge HR leaders to re-think their workforce support to build organizational health for an unpredictable future. Attendees will learn:

• How the definition of employee wellness has changed
• Considerations for building organizational health and fostering a culture of well-being
• The role of leadership in supporting employee health & wellness
• Where to invest resources to improve the quality of life and work for employees

Limited capacity. Pre-registration required.

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Companies of all types are fighting to attract and keep talent, but for technology firms, the causes of this new reality—huge demand, limited talent, options to work from anywhere—are driving jaw-dropping salaries. For companies that can’t pay Google-sized paychecks, don’t despair. The best employers can and should offer more than just pay and benefits to attract and keep great people. In this session culture guru Josh Levine will show you how with The Employee Hierarchy of Needs.

In This Session You’ll Get:

• A new framework to understand of what tech talent want
• The reason people will always want more than money from a job
• A 5-step guide to develop a modern talent strategy

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A recent McKinsey report shows that the #1 reason individuals were leaving their roles was lack of development and that an estimated 85% of the jobs available in 2030 don’t exist yet.  It is more important than ever to evaluate employee skills to retain talent, and to future proof your organization by identifying the adaptability of individuals to new ways of working or moving into entirely new jobs. Many companies struggle to understand the breadth of skills of their workforce, outdated processes fail to track the most sought-after abilities of future talent (such as critical thinking, mental flexibility and relationship building) and leaders fail to understand how valuable this data is for reaching future business goals and building your competitive edge.  This session will look at data with a skills lens and uncover the top abilities you should be tracking, how to measure them and tips to maximize the ROI on this information.

 Takeaways:

• Apply learnings towards developing a plan for your organization to move towards being driven by skills (and how to sell this plan to your leadership team)
• Move from having training as a perk to using training to drive the right growth, upskilling and reskilling
• Hear the top 7 skills you should be seeking to fill your future talent needs
• Learn how skills data is the key to merging HR analytics with business analytics

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Have you ever found the perfect candidate, but shied away because they don’t live in Canada and the prospect of hiring internationally felt too daunting? It’s true that going global can get messy fast, but it doesn’t have to!   

Get an insider’s look into hiring and onboarding global employees. Hear the top considerations you need to know and learn options to navigate the complexities of hiring abroad from scale-sized companies who don’t have dedicated teams or resources to deal with the international expansion of their workforce. 

• Key topics companies need to consider  (eg. tax, immigration, employment law, employment options such as EORs) 
• Broader business considerations such as people and culture when going global 
• Data outlining which countries should be at the top of your global expansion wish list from a people management perspective.

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Leading teams in asynchronous and hybrid environments are here to stay. The transition to hybrid and distributed teams continues to push the limits of trust, inclusion, effective communication, accountability, and the ability to create a strong team culture. Learn how to cultivate remote work competencies and lead all team members effectively and equitably in terms of pay, career advancement opportunities and feelings of inclusion.

Session takeaways:

• How to implement location-based pay and determining it is good for your organization
• Competencies to prioritize and tips for hiring remote workers
• Tips and tools for asynchronous communication and working in different time zones
• Building culture and feelings of inclusion amongst distributed teams
• Data on remote work from both the employer and employee perspectives

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Your workforce is continually more diverse, attitudes toward work are evolving, and employee preferences are changing … but when was the last time you did a critical assessment of the pay, incentives, and benefits you offer?   What people value in terms of employee benefits packages has changed, although the fundamentals of most corporate rewards have not. Many employers offer the same menu of choices—health benefits, pension contributions, gym memberships, cash incentives—without bothering to ask employees which ones they prefer and which ones they value most.  Explore some of the main areas to rethink your total rewards strategy to attract and retain talent such as:

• Equity across benefit coverage
• New ideas for rewarding employees (that don’t cost a lot!)
• What benefits today’s talent REALLY wants
• Work–life balance options and training and career development

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Removing barriers and bias for recruiting, onboarding, meetings, workspaces, and recruiting can open floodgates of opportunities and help solve your talent shortage. Learn tactical ways to make people feel more at home at work, present information in a way that is more accessible to all and increase productivity and staff engagement by reviewing the language, tools and processes you use to embrace neurodiverse talent.

Session takeaways:

• Explore the unique value neurodiverse individuals can bring to your tech team
• Learn how to successfully hire, onboard, and support neurodivergent staff
• Understand how to conduct job interviews and write job descriptions that are inclusive and accessible. 
• Strategies for overcoming workplace stigma and discrimination

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Dive into the real world 4-day work week: explore the pros, cons and what to consider in terms of the impact on staff, retention, productivity, and your bottom-line.  Learn about the different implementation options and how to assess if a condensed work week is right for your organization… or not.

Session takeaways:

• Scope of the shifting mindset of the traditional 9 to 5, Monday to Friday grind
• Effective structuring of a 4-day workweek
• Data on the impacts of reduced workweek on productivity, wellbeing, gender equality and competitiveness.

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Over the last few months, we’ve all been witness to, or directly affected by changes in the tech world. Whether it’s been hiring freezes or layoffs, we have all felt the shift. This session asks us the question, if diversification is the majority of your DEI strategy, what happens when you cannot hire? Sharon Nyangweso, QuakeLab CEO and Founder argues that diversity is crucial, however now more than ever is the time to build equity into your systems and processes so when diversification happens, you will not be causing harm to marginalized employees.

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Most people with strong technical skills get promoted because they are good at their job. But these “functional” experts often struggle in their new role as leader. The good news is that it is likely not their fault. They were probably never taught to lead.

In this session, you will learn:

• The top three reasons why great tech talent often struggles to become savvy leaders.
• The key leadership skills that every tech manager needs to learn
• How HR can help managers to develop core leadership skills
• A three-step model to enhance leadership competence and develop even the most reluctant leaders
• A process to implement leadership training that sticks

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Compensation is a scary topic, but everyone knows that the time of keeping silent until a candidate gives you a number is over. Hear how to use this fear to propel you into building a compensation program that’s transparent and flexible by default. Recognize that what employees value most is an understanding of how you pay and how you came to this decision – then give candidates the opportunity to be involved in it too. From internal equity to what growth looks like, there’s too much that can go wrong otherwise.

In this session, we’ll breakdown: 

• The journey of building a compensation strategy from scratch 
•  What to share to get employee buy-in 
• How HR can partner with Recruitment 
•  The formula method for compensation 

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Today’s talent expects workplace practices that acknowledge “the uniquely human qualities of the workplace”. This session will inspire you to create your own secret sauce for humanizing the employee experience.  Hear from some of Canada’s leading tech culture leaders on how they are navigating corporate growth by focusing on the individual experiences, skills and values of their employees.  You will quickly come to learn that there is no one size fits all.  

• How employee experience paints the backdrop for your corporate branding and culture
• Ideas for employee recognition and engagement that will have a significant and measurable impact on building your culture and brand
• Tactics that can be applied to build an effective workplace and create better employee experiences.
• Innovative methods for employee feedback, empowerment and understanding of the meaning of their work and how it contributes to wider organizational goals

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The recent surge in tech layoffs has shown that a “growth at all costs” approach to company building is not necessarily efficient or scalable. CEOs, investors and employees want their companies to have long-term sustainable growth, profitability, and positive ROI. Hear how HR leaders can help optimize value creation with human capital and organizational change strategies. 

You will learn: 

• What ‘responsible’ growth looks like for 2023
• The investor perspective on efficient headcount growth 
• How HR can create value and influence from an investor’s perspective 
• Innovative alternatives to layoffs such as reskilling, upskilling, and temporary cost cutting ideas
• Tips for building a capacity to deliver on changing company objectives with a creative, adaptive, and antifragile workforce. 

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The micro in microaggressions is a bit of a misnomer. Because when you experience one, it doesn’t feel very micro. In fact, it can feel like death by a thousand cuts. It might be one of the reasons an astonishingly low number of Black employees (3%) say they would want to return to the office full time. This session helps us understand where microaggressions come from, how to recognize when they are happening, how to speak up when you observe one, how to cope when you experience one and lastly, how to respond when you have committed one.

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By 2025 Gen Z will account for nearly 30% of our workforce, and many will be starting their first full-time jobs in remote and hybrid environments. Known as the diverse digital generation, how Gen Z works, communicates, and navigates their careers challenges the legacy norms of our workplaces, including the career growth systems that Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y are used to. 

Rather than rushing to climb the same ladder as their parents, Gen Zers are eager to move through a playground of professional opportunities that lead to skills development, dynamic work experiences, and career exploration. Because most workplaces need more time to be ready for this change, how we develop and retain our future leaders is at risk.

Organizations and their HR Leaders should work toward finding the answer to this critical question: How do our workplaces support the career needs of Gen Z while navigating four vastly different generations working together? This session will explore how swapping the career ladder for a career lattice is part of the solution. By providing steps to building a new career growth system, attendees will leave the session with a framework for alleviating development pain points, preparing our future tech leaders, and even narrowing the generational divide.

Learning outcomes:

• Action steps for designing a career lattice that supports the career needs of Gen Zers and aligns with organizational goals
• Uncover generational biases that impede team dynamics, an integral component of effective employee development
• A greater understanding of what Gen Z professionals seek in employers and people managers

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(pre-registration required)

You’ve seen it yourself. The challenge for Human Resource professionals has never been greater to hire, engage, retain top tech talent and stay on top of your game. Pressures are on to cut costs making it critical to leverage data to get more engagement and ROI out of your benefit spend! Join Faizal Mitha, Chief Innovation Officer and Ingrid Gailler, Vice President Benefits Consulting at HUB International, to provide hard data on the key challenges facing tech talent today and what your organization can offer to help keep its employees engaged. In a world of personalization, it is critical to offer programs and benefits that not only meet the individual needs, they must enhance the quality employee experiences.

 During the presentation you will learn how:

•  The use of personalization in your benefits program can promote inclusivity and improve employee experiences
• Data from top employee benefits tech companies has been shifting over the past three years and focus for 2023 
• To create a benefits package that addresses key challenges in the current environment
• To leverage evidence-based benefit planning in your organization
• To promote quality employee experiences as part of a total rewards strategy.

Join us as we explore how data-driven benefit planning can help you create a meaningful value proposition – addressing key challenges and helping your organization differentiate itself for success.

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Join us for an insightful and tactical session which navigates the complex landscape of pay transparency, including complying with emerging regulations. Hear the best practices and hard lessons learned from other tech companies that have integrated pay transparency into their organizations. Discover how it can drive employee morale, trust, retention, and satisfaction, while enhancing the industry’s reputation for fairness and inclusivity.

Takeaways:

• What is Pay Transparency: Understand the spectrum that is pay transparency, and what options you may have for your business. 
• Navigating the Change: Gain practical insights on addressing concerns related to privacy, competition, and potential resistance from both employees and leadership.
• Building a Strategic Framework: Learn how other tech companies have built their framework for introducing pay transparency initiatives that align with their company’s values and long-term objectives.
• The Data-Driven Approach: Explore the power of data analytics and discover how HR professionals can leverage data to identify and rectify disparities, ensure internal alignment, and make informed decisions that drive equitable compensation practices.
• Communication & Overcoming Resistance: Learn about the art of communicating pay transparency to employees at all levels. Explore real-world case studies and best practices to overcome resistance, gain buy-in from stakeholders, and foster a culture where transparency is embraced.

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In an era where the tech industry plays a pivotal role in shaping the global landscape, the imperative for fostering truth, reconciliation, and decolonization has never been more profound. Join us for a transformative session as we delve into the heart of a critical conversation – and explore what organizations can do to deliver on the TRC’s 94 calls to action and what it means to decolonize our work.

This session aims to bridge the gap between intent and action by delving into how tech organizations can authentically address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 94 Calls to Action. The TRC’s mission to address the historical injustices against Indigenous peoples resonates beyond national borders, extending into industries that wield substantial influence, such as technology.

Learn how to challenge the status quo by examining what it truly means to decolonize work within the tech sector. Participants will critically evaluate current practices, structures, and biases that may perpetuate systemic imbalances, and will collaboratively envision pathways toward decolonized, inclusive, and equitable workplaces. Join us in this vital conversation that has the power to reshape the trajectory of the tech industry and its impact on society. Be part of the movement that leverages innovation, compassion, and social responsibility to create a future where truth, reconciliation, and decolonization are not just ideals, but lived realities.

 Key Takeaways:

• Insightful understanding of the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action and their relevance to the tech industry.
• Practical strategies for tech organizations to integrate reconciliation efforts within their corporate frameworks.
• Exploration of decolonization principles and their application to tech workplaces.
• Real-world case studies showcasing successful integration of reconciliation and decolonization efforts.
• Empowerment to initiate important dialogues within your organization about fostering meaningful change.

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The Future of Work is here, we’re told. We can take Zoom calls from the beach, with flip flops and board shorts on the bottom and a blazer and button down on top. Our talent pool is bigger. Our salary spreadsheet is more complicated. And all our teams are fighting.

On the heels of one impossible ask after another, people teams are now asked to solve everything from isolation to misalignment to the org-wide sense that something’s amiss.

This session is about that something. That nagging sense that for all the advancement, we haven’t quite cracked it (yet). World experts on management, Melissa and Johnathan Nightingale, have worked with thousands of leaders in every configuration of organization. They’ll share practical tips for building sustainable, engaged orgs, wherever you are. And they’ll talk about the unlikely allies who can lighten your workload.

Takeaways:

• Understand why so many teams are experiencing high levels of org-wide interpersonal strife right now and the surprising solution.
• Learn how to build a remote, hybrid, or in-office culture that actually sets your teams up to thrive, and why it won’t work to copy someone else’s.
• Identify the allies and co-conspirators you will need to usher in a better present of work for your entire org. 

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Since the start of 2023, over 300 tech companies have laid off 100,000+ workers. These decisions to layoff or furlough employees are not easy for the employers, laid-off workers, or the staff that remains. Maintaining and enhancing company culture after personnel cutbacks may be as challenging to a business as operational downsizing. The ‘new normal’ after layoffs are often littered with feelings of mistrust, burnout, ‘workplace survivors’ guilt, employee disengagement, and high staff turnover.  This session will explore tactical tips on what employers can do to reinforce their commitment to their remaining employees, boost morale, and capitalize the opportunity as a catalyst to improve company culture. 

Takeaways:  

• Boosting employee morale, trust and persuading your remaining employees to emotionally reinvest in your company after making workforce cuts 
• Strategies to reduce employee turnover and retaining top employees during restructuring 
• The importance of transparency, open communication, and commitment to your corporate values and purpose during restructuring 

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It’s bigger than burnout. Remain capable, composed and resilient through times of stress and overwhelm

In the face of uncertainty and threat, we often become overwhelmed and respond reactively. Navigating a World of Overload provides participants with practical methods for tapping into the most capable and resilient part of themselves so they can better navigate through any inevitable storms.

We’ll explore the tools necessary for regulating our emotions and build a long-term self-care plan aimed at strengthening your awareness, resilience, and ongoing well-being.

• Experience The Energy Audit® for Individuals revealing how well people are managing their own energy across four dimensions: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual
• Develop resilience rituals to strengthen the immune system, increase emotional reserves, and improve the quality and clarity of decision making
• Understand how moving into “Survival mode” – fight-or-flight – dramatically diminishes our capacity
• Utilize a set of specific self-regulation tools and strategies to deal with fear and overwhelm when they arise in the moment

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First came the great resignation, then came the quiet quitting and then layoffs. Are you ready for the great re-shuffle? Your low attrition numbers aren’t low because employee satisfaction is at an all time high – the economy, tech layoffs and interest rates are playing a major part. Tech employees are anxiously waiting for the economy and hiring to kick-start again and when it does, a great re-shuffle of talent will happen across every major player in tech. What will this mean for retention of top performers? What will this mean for your onboarding? The current lull gives smart HR teams an opportunity to look at people practices and hone in on what’s needed to welcome a new batch of talent, arm leaders with change management skills to navigate flux and prep the organization for knowledge loss.

Attendees will leave with practical approaches to start discussions with business leaders on how to properly prepare every part of the employee offering including perks/benefits, talent attraction, leader development and onboarding for the swift in and out of talent that will take place over the next 18-24 months.

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(pre-registration required)

 To get the most from your people, you need to use data where it counts.

Your organization is currently in possession of an enormous wealth of data. From turnover to retention to scheduling trends, there’s a massive amount of information just below the surface that, interpreted and employed properly, can make a huge difference in the lives of your employees and the health of your business. By leading with data, you can inspire action at every level and help your workforce operate with trust and transparency, embrace proactive change, and focus on the right tasks at the right time.

Takeaways:

• Tactical ways to understand and utilize data to unleash the power of people in your tech organization
• Achieving a holistic view of your data from all angles
• How to present the right facts to the right audience to make the biggest impact and effect change
• Demonstrating the benefits of data-driven decision making

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Nearly 90% of job seekers and employees alike value “workplace culture” as vital. At the same time, decentralized hybrid and remote work setups are increasingly becoming the norm in the future of work. But one does not have to cancel the other out. If your teams predominantly interact with each other virtually, then your virtual culture IS your company’s culture. Once we understand this, we can do what’s necessary to make that culture great. We all want vibrant organizational cultures where our people have good relationships, are engaged, and feel their work matters. When hybrid and remote workplaces are done well, these things can happen along with a boost in productivity and wellbeing. But how do we translate our offline values and culture to an online world? How do we foster collaboration and relationship-building when people don’t see each other anymore? How do we make these tools work FOR us? In this interactive session, Bailey Parnell combines her years of experience advising workplaces on culture (and the skills needed to do it well) with her background in online communications to truly provide you with a holistic take on creating a good culture in your organization. She will explore strategies for working effectively when remote and hybrid, key differences in online culture-building, action-oriented strategies for improving this yourself, and consider other changing elements such as generative AI and generational differences. 

By the end of this talk, you will be able to:

• Recognize how organizational culture is built in remote and hybrid environments.
• Understand the strategies to seamlessly transfer an organization’s core values and culture from traditional settings to virtual settings.
• Implement practical techniques to enhance collaboration, communication, and camaraderie within remote and hybrid teams.
• Understand the link between a robust digital culture and its direct impact on productivity, employee satisfaction, and overall well-being.
• Consider how changing tech (like generative AI) and different generations may relate to this.

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In today’s tech landscape, experimenting with AI has become the norm. The real story isn’t about AI’s ubiquity,but the profound implications it has on our organizations. HR leaders stand at the forefront of this revolution, and their role goes beyond mere adaptation. They are tasked with reimagining and reshaping organizations for an AI-infused future, ensuring they remain relevant, resilient, and ready.

Leaders will come away with the ability to:

• Apply futures thinking to their talent strategy, crafting a vision that anticipates and aligns with evolving tech trends
• Simplify the AI ecosystem, pinpointing the areas of greatest impact and opportunity for HR leaders
• Secure an AI-playbook tailored for People and Culture to make your organizational DNA transformational

In this disruptive era of AI-driven tech, discover how to be more than just a participant—be the torchbearer that guides your organization towards a future defined by foresight, innovation, and human-centric AI utilization.

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