LEAD Roundtables: Invest in Your Capabilities, Enhance Cultural Influence

Gain an understanding of key responsibilities, laws, terms, and well-established practices as a person responsible for human resources. This session is a high-level overview of what it means to work in the HR field and sets the stage for the rest of the year in LEAD.

Employment recruiting and retention is evolving. This session covers leading practices and tactics on how to brand your opportunities and promote your recruiting needs in ways that get noticed.

Once a person is recruited and hired, the person needs to be onboarded! This session covers modern methods and steps businesses use to connect, prepare, and retain new employees through a quality orientation process.

Engaged employees who are proud of their workplace — the key words for any business leader. These two areas are the hallmarks of a successful organization. This session covers tools and techniques for knowing when, why, and how to actively engage and connect with employees.

Written policies can support a growing, healthy business. Members will look at essential tips, language, and approaches to the design of handbooks considering current employment laws and climate.

Employees want (and should receive) feedback, yet there are times when feedback is not done on a timely basis — maybe not even at all. We hear it all the time, “Document, document, document!” But how much is the “right amount?” When is it necessary to document? This session engages members in learning about the essential components of an effective performance feedback process.

Employers can’t compete on pay alone — they must communicate more value. Finding quality talent can be difficult and retaining it even harder. This session looks at the other forms of compensation that employers provide — and employees sometimes forget about.

Legislation abounds and you are responsible for complying with it. Regulations evolve as courts render decisions that interpret laws. Members will look at many federal and state laws and how they interact and impact their business.

This session brings all previously studied areas into a single session of questions and answers as needed by members. The time will serve to provide perspectives and insight to lingering questions on any Foundation-level section.

Organizations spend time and money recruiting top talent. This session discusses practices centered around employee retention interviews and the actions that follow. Participants will leave with tools and techniques that can help them identify mismatches between person and position and take steps to reduce the chances of “bad” turnover.

Every leader has accumulated their “toolbox” over their working career. This session leverages dozens of papers, books, and practical experience to summarize five essential skills of an influential leader. This session teaches, discusses, and applies each tool — giving participants the opportunity to practice them during the session.

Leaders are challenged to look beyond today and think more mid-term. But just how do you do that with the “swirl of the day”? This session walks through a tool and approach to thinking about a leader’s “year at a glance.” More importantly, the session discusses how to share, apply, and live the document once it is built.

Some organizations believe that successfully retaining employees requires a “magic sauce” of pay, flexible scheduling, and time off. Yet there is more! More organizations are realizing that employees who consider their workplace cultures positively are more productive and tend to stay longer. This session discusses how leaders build, demonstrate, and sustain positivity without compromising accountability.

In the ’80s it was redefining the manager, in the ’00s it was all about great leadership. Today, influential leaders need to be strong partners. This session:

• Defines the similarities and differences in managers, leaders, and partners
• Discusses behavioral differences in managers, leaders, and partners
• Identifies when to apply a manager, leader, or partner approach

With virtual work more common, the need to communicate clearly is elevated. When do you text, email, call, or bring the person on-site? And even when that is decided, what can be done to communicate clear points, limit “mixed” messages, and keep people productive? This session discusses and provides tips to answering the question “Am I making myself clear?”

Onboarding, developing, and evaluating staff are among the most important roles of a leader. This session looks at some of the leading practices and approaches in each of those areas, enabling a leader to clearly identify and distinguish staff in a way that keeps them challenged and retained.

Because each person is different, from time-to-time they can disagree. Yet having “constructive disagreements” seems to be harder than ever — which can lead to avoiding the situation at a time when conversation is critical. This session provides a framework and techniques for having constructive disagreements with peers that can result in healthy, respectful interactions.

Some leaders say they “just do not have the ear of senior leadership.” Part of the reason can be a lack of understanding of the behaviors that create those opportunities, or perhaps there is a gap in the skills needed to maintain the influence earned. This session explores how elements from multiple scenarios either contribute to or act against earning and retaining the ear of senior leadership. Participants will walk away with additional insight on when and how to handle circumstances where influence was required.