A reality-based leader is able to quickly see and radically accept the reality of the situation, conserve team energy and use it to impact reality instead. A great reality-based leader anticipates upcoming changes and capitalizes on the opportunity inherent in a situation without drama or defense.

Cy Wakeman presents the principles of her new wave of leadership — Reality-Based Leadership — a revolutionary look at how transforming an organization’s leadership competencies can drive success in profoundly changing times.

Join Wakeman to learn why reality-based leaders should refuse to argue with reality, value action over opinion, lead first, manage second and more.

A slowly improving job market and an economy seemingly poised for a rebound, has HR leaders nervous about retaining their top talent. Organizations are being challenged to think outside the box when it comes to keeping their most valued employees and future leaders. Sound, strategic talent management and succession plans can help HR leaders navigate these unpredictable times of change with relative ease. Join this panel discussion as Kathleen Barclay, Tim Massa and Michael Womack discuss their companies’ succession plans and the goals, strategy, and thought-processes that went into developing them.

Session discovery topics:

• The importance of building organizational strength
• A plan for success — tools and best practices
• Communicating the plan

Adam Zuckerman and Towers Watson are using data in new ways to measure leadership and success. Zuckerman’s three-pronged exponential engagement approach measures workforce efficacy from three angles: engagement, enablement and energy. Join Zuckerman as he introduces Towers Watson’s emerging validated model of delivering engagement, and illustrates their success measurement data, derived from the responses of a 45-million person subject pool.

Session discovery topics:

• Using data to measure success and efficiency
• Motivating your workforce and setting them up for success
• Fostering physical, psychological and social well-being in the workplace

Believing that healthy employees better contribute to providing quality healthcare, Elkhart General Hospital implemented their ‘Integrated Health Advocacy Program’ (IHAP) — a comprehensive, value-based health and wellness plan — in 2000. Rather than dealing primarily with prevention and risk management (where a majority of employees use healthcare), IHAP focuses on the highest cost employees — the smallest group of employees who represent the vast majority of healthcare costs. Since its implementation, the program has seen significant results in the health of its employees — a multitude of weight-loss and improved-health statistics — and its budget — a remarkable average savings of $106,000 per participant over three years and a staggering a 501% ROI. Kurt Meyer and Lola Brysz will discuss this tremendously successful program and the impact of wellness plans on your people and your bottom line.

One of the challenges facing HR executives today is the effective recruitment of top talent. With more than ten years of experience studying Fortune 1000 clients, Rosemary Haefner has gained significant insights into the key influencers of effective recruiting that impact every company’s recruitment process. In this session, Haefner will examine real-life examples of effective recruitment campaigns and discuss what made each of them a success.

Session discovery topics:

• Evaluating where your company stands in hiring the best talent
• Making changes to improve quality and reduce cost
• Monitoring your plan and making continuous improvements

The Kroger Co., one of the nation’s largest companies, recently overhauled their corporate human resources team. As Chairman and CEO David Dillon rebuilt his staff, he did so with certain criteria in mind. Dillon sought out leaders with strong business acumen and the ability to think strategically about how HR could help advance Kroger’s overall goals. In this luncheon keynote session, Dillon will discuss his strategic decisions in revamping Kroger’s corporate HR team and the critical role he sees them playing in driving the organization.

Session discovery topics:

• The ideal HR leader
• What CEOs value most from their HR team
• From support staff to value-added business partners — how HR can elevate its corporate perception

Training and development programs contribute to an organization’s competitive advantage by fostering innovation, leadership development and change. No small task, the ideal program should be strategically designed, appropriately executed and quantifiable. Join this panel discussion, moderated by Lisa Beutel, as Jaclyn Smith and Elisabeth Baldock discuss their organizations’ commitment to training and development.

Session discovery topics:

• Aligning employee training and development to corporate goals
• Identifying skill gaps in your workforce and planning program objectives accordingly
• Selecting the appropriate design for optimal performance
• Quantifying the effectiveness of your program

A working partnership between HR and the executive team can add unique value to the development of corporate strategy and help it take root within an organization. Join Karen Weisz as she shares challenges and triumphs experienced at The Standard, and how a deep understanding of the corporate direction helped HR articulate and drive to a clear value proposition for employees and candidates.

Session discovery topics:

• Using organizational capability assessment to proactively influence strategic plans
• Building an employee value proposition that aligns to the corporate value proposition and strategy
• Motivating the workforce to accomplish corporate goals and objectives

SIRVA CEO, Wes Lucas, has never met a ‘human resource.’ He has, however, met plenty of people with potential to be developed into leaders. Lucas truly cares about the development of his employees, “people are our product,” Lucas says. SIRVA’s People Initiative is based upon providing the best product possible. Join this session to learn how, by developing his employees throughout the company into ‘Chief People Officers,’ Lucas has built a high-performance organization.

Session discovery topics:

• Why we should all want to become better
• Helping front-line leaders become ‘Chief People Officers’ of their team
• The necessity of rebranding HR
• Operationalizing people development