There are thousands of books that attempt to pin down the subjective qualities that compose leadership, yet the world lacks an abundance of true leaders. With the increasing responsibilities and pressures that CHRO’s face, the question of how to nurture the characteristics that will have an impact on your organization has never been more important. Come prepared with questions for Jim Grosset, Mark Porter and Ferio Pugliese as they share experiences and insights from their combined decades of HR leadership.

Session discovery topics:
• How does a senior HR transformational leader drive major changes across a large organization
• How does an HR leader change an organization’s perception of human resources
• How do you get HR to change the perception of their role in the organization

Are your employees dedicated, engaged and fanatical? Peter Edwards of Canadian Pacific Railways believes that there are more similarities between a cult and a high performing organization than you would think. Rather than apologizing for it, embrace the sacrifice that employees must make in a successful performance driven culture. Join this session to hear how to select, communicate and ingrain your desired culture into the enterprise.

Session discovery topics:

• Define culture, performance and engagement for your organization
• Create a cult-like culture
• Demand excellence from your employees

Expectations for the head of human resources have changed rapidly over the last 10 years. With greater responsibility for driving an organization’s strategy, comes greater pressure to deliver to a variety of stakeholders. Brian Reidy of Towers Watson will be joined by an HR executive to share perspectives from a consultant and a practitioner on this important topic. Come to this session to hear about the skills necessary to move your function and organization forward.

Session discovery topics:

• Pressing issues facing HR executives
• Perspectives from research and hands-on experience
• Identifying and cultivating the required skills to be successful as a CHRO

Canada’s industries are headed toward severe and chronic labour shortages. Managing the pending labour crunch will require collaboration between corporate, government and training, and education institutions to develop strategies to further grow and diversify the skilled labour pool. The Petroleum HR Council’s Labour Market Information, which includes research on the oil and gas industry’s future labour demand, supply and gaps, is a key foundation to addressing such critical workforce issues. Join Cheryl Knight to learn about the oil and gas industry’s talent and skills scarcities and how that will impact your workforce planning.

Session discovery topics:

• Results from the 2012 Oil and Gas Labour Market Outlook study
• High-level workforce strategies relevant to any industry facing skilled labour shortages
• The role that enterprise can play in mitigating a talent crisis

The clear and significant cost drivers for drug plans and the increasing accountability faced by employers regarding workplace mental health are just two of several reasons why workplace health and benefits management require a more strategic and evidence based approach. This session will outline a framework to streamline and use key data points related to health programs and benefits to reduce low value expense, manage future as well as current risks, and implement a practical evaluation model.

Session discovery topics:

• Understanding what your current data can and cannot tell you
• A practical approach to determining key risks and opportunities
• Ensuring the implementation of a “business planning” and integrated evaluation framework for health programs and benefits

Recruiting high impact talent at all levels is a strategic imperative for organizations. However, in a recent Futurestep study, more than a third of HR professionals admit to measuring the impact of talent before individuals have the opportunity to deliver their greatest impact on the business. This approach places significant pressure on candidates to perform from day one and potentially overlooks the long term business value an employee can deliver. In this boardroom, we will discuss the importance of identifying and measuring the immediate, consequential and potential impact of talent.

Session discovery topics:
• Designing a measurement process that leads to a high performing workplace
• Measuring the real impact of new talent on your business
• Ensuring the long term value of a recruit is not overshadowed by short term pressure to perform

Due to the format of the Executive Boardroom session, there are a limited number of seats available. Seating priority will be given to CHROs and governing body members. To reserve your seat, please contact Kelly Scott at 503-972-2168, or kelly.scott@evanta.com. Sponsor participation is limited to Boardroom sponsor attendees only

Vancouver, BC is a destination for highly educated and willing immigrants from all over the world. While processes and training need to be implemented, cultivating an immigrant talent pipeline is a potential difference maker for organizations that commit to it. Learn from Mike Webb how HSBC Bank Canada has been able to lead cost efficiency among Canadian banks by leveraging the skilled immigrant workforce.

Session discovery topics:

• Hiring qualified immigrants makes bottom line sense
• Investments needed to tap into this workforce
• Managing talent from a diverse set of cultures

Businesses worldwide are facing a shortage of skilled talent. Thus, identifying and developing future leaders is an increasingly important part of any organization’s success. To be effective, the processes and organizational systems in place need to be holistic and include all facets of an employee’s life cycle. Join Graham Foyle-Twining in this session to learn about an integrated philosophy of talent management that leads to increased efficiency and improved business performance.

Session discovery topics:

• Identifying roles and competencies that are key to the business
• Recruiting a mix of high caliber graduates and experienced professionals
• Pinpointing high potential employees and plan the correct development and training opportunities

As companies have trimmed costs and their workforce, employees are being asked to do more with less and consequently report feeling less valued and more stressed for their efforts than ever before. Based on his award-winning book, “Keeping Up in a Down Economy: What the Best Companies do to Get Results in Tough Times,” Bob Nelson, Ph.D., will expand your thinking of how to best optimize the potential of your staff; even with little time, resources or budget. This session will be filled with specific real-life examples and techniques that can be immediately applied back on the job to systematically leverage, build and sustain a culture of engagement in the workplace.

Agriculture Financial Services Corporation made wholesale changes to their leadership team seven years ago. Brad Klak was brought in as CEO with a mandate to transform the relationships with clients, shareholders and staff. A vital step in this transformation was selecting a trusted partner as head of HR and prioritizing the function to report directly to the CEO. Join Klak to learn how this partnership enabled AFSC to change to a performance-based culture, overcome employee resistance and meet their goal of being named a ‘Top 100 Places to Work’ company within 4 years.

Session discovery topics:

• Relationship between CEO and HR is crucial for success in transforming an organization
• Communicate new accountabilities and ensure culture resonates with everyone
• What can a CHRO do to build trust with their CEO