Join us for our two-day virtual event presented by the Institute for Human Resources (IHR), Canadian Masters in HR Strategy and Execution. This introductory half-hour will provide you with an overview of the February 23/24 schedule. We will also review the IHR 12-month certification program, explaining how the process works.

The speakers we have gathered together for this 2-day event will cover a wide variety of topics from employee engagement, retention and team-building, through to the importance of being a trusted advisor. We'll focus on your company’s web reputation and it’s impact on HR, as well as review the best uses of psychometric assessments. We'll take a look at what our newest members to the workforce are thinking and expecting, and review a practical and personalized guide to being a more effective leader. Detailed information on each topic and speaker is available by clicking on the links below. Our engaging, knowledgeable and entertaining speakers are looking forward to the opportunity to present their material to you and look forward to interacting with you, virtually, during their webcast.

Attending all of the webcasts is free and there is a one-time fee only to write the final exam. Each webcast included in this 2-day Conference will be archived on www.hr.com shortly after it takes place and all sessions, whether you hear them live or through the archived version, are pre-approved for IHR certification and HRCI recertification credits.

We hope you enjoy meeting and learning from the experts we have assembled for these 2 days and we look forward to your feedback on the evaluation forms sent to you after each session. Thank you for your interest in our Canadian Masters community and enjoy the conference!

Doctors are supposed to pick a treatment based on the evidence of what works best. This isn't always the case, and hence the evidence-based medicine movement was born to improve professional practice.

HR leaders are supposed to make decisions based on the evidence of what works best. This isn't always the case, and hence the evidence-based HR movement has been working to improve professional practice.

This session explains what Evidence-based HR is; the pros and cons; and how you can start building more evidence-based approaches into your own professional practice as an HR leader.

Some people think evidence-based HR means hours reading scientific journals. Others presume that it’s all about better metrics and analytics. Both science and analytics have an important role, but we can go a long way towards more rigour without big investments of our time or in technology. Perhaps the most important thing is developing a mindset that recognizes where extra rigour is required and have the ability to use logical frameworks to guide decisions.

As John Boudreau has often noted, this is as much about helping managers make better decisions about people as it is about HR making better decisions internally. Managers may be experts in finance or IT or marketing but when it comes to people management they often fall victim to fads, inaccurate assumptions about human nature, or copying what was done at their last workplace. So evidence-based HR is a way of extending the impact of the HR function on people management throughout the firm.

Of course, this is not easy and we will discuss some of the barriers to a more rigorous approach to people management and how those barriers are slowly being eaten away.

Employee engagement has become ‘the’ HR buzz word. Every employer wants it. And yet, we still struggle to define and distinguish it from other things. It’s become everything and nothing to do with nearly all good employee attitudes and behaviours. As a result, we’re unable to harness what’s real and important.

It’s time to put on the brakes. Dr. Fairlie, an organizational researcher, takes an evidence-based look at employee engagement from over 300 peer-reviewed studies in the organizational sciences. No hearsay, opinions, nor folk wisdom. What does published research say? What is, and what is not employee engagement, and what is the evidence? Where did the term come from? How did it get applied to so many things, while ironically, the original employee engagement, a unique and powerful variable, was largely left behind?

Overall, the session will look at employee engagement in terms of what it is, what it isn’t, and why it matters, with the latter having a double meaning. 'Real' employee engagement matters more than some other things with which it is often confused. This is why it matters to separate it out, allowing you to correctly identify what drives it. Employee engagement, satisfaction, commitment, discretionary effort, burnout, and stay intentions are all different, with different drivers. Failing to make these distinctions could lead to changing the wrong workplace drivers, costing you time, money, and missed opportunities (examples provided).

As a bonus, a number of ‘must have’ workplace drivers will be identified from national research that associate all of the above employee outcomes.

DID YOU KNOW.... More than 76% of Canadian consumers (clients, employees) consult advice found on social networks prior to making decisions! How are YOU, as an HR leader, engaging in today’s social media landscape and why does it matter? Your reputation as a place of employment can be a major factor in your ability to attract and retain top talent, to win and maintain clients, to grow your business and to stay relevant in the marketplace.

How important is your firm’s image, traditional or online? The online presence of your business has become a cornerstone in building a prominent reputation. In this session, we will briefly cover what Web-Reputation is and how, within your reach and sphere of influence as HR, you contribute in protecting such an important and fundamental element of your business. More importantly, how you can make a difference.

Online social media enables people to connect with each other, to share ideas and information that often critically shapes an organization’s reputation and performance. It is another communication channel, often misused and under the misconception of anonymity. HR leaders make a difference, optimize business results and acquire a significant competitive advantage – from a people standpoint – and align to the overall strategy. You want to take advantage of this exciting opportunity, don’t you!

We will look at how the landscape changes, understand key stats and facts about consumers and employees, highlight case studies, share hints & tips as well as tackle the Return On Investment question. An ambitious plan which will leave you with a final thought: “Time well spent”!
This session is an essential opportunity to raise your awareness of your firm’s image, discover tools and techniques to find out what your online image is amid today’s scene. Take the lead, come join us and learn about the “art & science” of shaping your business’ image and optimize results.

Though we might like to think otherwise, most of our actions and reactions are done at the subconscious level. Our tone of voice, facial expressions, words, preferences, even the thought processes that govern our decisions and valuations are controlled, for the most part, by our subconscious mind. We live in the age of reason, yet it is still our non-conscious biases and preferences that dictate how we perform our daily functions and which either elevate us to success, or lower us to mediocrity.

While this happens in the background and without our conscious awareness, we can still tap into this subconscious wiring and use it to the advantage of both individuals and organizations alike.

Psychometric assessment instruments have been around for decades, but in recent years they have been refined to where they can provide valuable and useful information to assist companies in placing the right people in the right roles. People are complex. And even the most skilled interviewer can’t pull everything out of a handful of meetings.

In today’s highly competitive talent market it is the companies that leverage key information regarding the subconscious makeup of their people that tend to do the best at selecting and developing their talent. Only by digging deeper into the mind and makeup of a candidate can we identify the hidden genius in everyone. In this webinar we’ll examine the role of assessment tools in the selection and management of talent.

We’ll discuss,
•       How subconscious wiring affects job fit and performance,
•       what to look for in a psychometric assessment instrument,
•       why hiring for aptitude beats hiring for skill,
•       how much weight to put on psychometric assessments, and
•       the issue of job/role realignment in the overall talent management strategy.

Whether you are an HR professional, a hiring manager or a senior executive looking for a competitive edge in the race for the best talent, this webinar is for you.

Human Resources is one of the most important departments within any organization. Unfortunately, members of the HR team are often viewed as little more than administrative overhead. In this powerful webinar, Adrian Davis clearly articulates the steps the HR department should take to move away from being seen as simply administration, and instead, to be viewed as a strategic resource by its internal customers.

In a world of rapid change, unrelenting challenges and continuous upheaval, trust changes everything. Becoming a Trusted Advisor will show you how to exert greater influence in all executive decision-making.

Your value to your internal customers is dramatically enhanced by the degree of trust they have in you and in your advice. Trust may not be what you think it is. In this compelling webinar, Adrian Davis shows you the real definition of trust and how to move your relationship from vendor status to Trusted Advisor and Strategic Ally. He demonstrates the power of harnessing emotions in the decision-making cycle and shows HR professionals how they can enjoy greater alignment with line executives.

Adrian will share a framework for strategic dialog that will enable you to immediately engage with line executives at a much higher, more meaningful level. You will gain clear insight into the internal motivations of your client. As a result, your work will be placed in the context of the executive’s strategic objectives and will be immediately perceived as having much higher value. Trust will increase and you’ll become part of the inner circle.

Learn how to enhance trust with your business relationships

Studentawards Inc. has been helping Canadian students find sources of free money (scholarships, bursaries and awards) for over 14 years. The company operates the websites www.studentawards.com and www.boursetudes.com and with over 500,000 members, Studentawards has Canada's largest community of the country's future employees. Students tell us they are pursuing higher education in order to find a good job—so, in addition to matching them with money for school, students want us to help match them with jobs. In late 2011, we launched our recruitment services division. In order to find out more about students’ perspective on the topic of their future employment, we launched a survey with over 1,000 members. The Studentawards Class of 2012 Employment Report contains insights into how students feel about their future job prospects, where they are searching for their jobs, what is important to them in an employer and how much money they expect to make. This study was completed in January of 2012 -- there's nothing more up to the minute available in Canada! In addition to the data from the study, Suzanne Tyson, President of Studentawards Inc. will share additional insights into the values and aspirations of your future employees, including the importance of connecting the dots between the HR department and the Marketing department. Attracting an employee is similar to attracting a customer (and sometimes your best customers would make great employees!), therefore adopting engagement approaches used by Marketing departments makes good sense. Visit www.studentawardsinc.com for more information on youth engagement and other studies conducted by Studentawards Inc.

Individuals have an opportunity to further their own success if they learn to adapt effective leadership skills to varied situations and help others and their organizations meet their greatest need today - significantly increasing the complement of effective leaders. Everyone can be more successful and help their organization at the same time with a clear, short guide to what works.

With staff levels pared back drastically, innovation and development is challenging even for top notch leaders and studies show nearly 82% don’t have the people skills to manage such a complex task. Here’s what it takes in a plain, simple, practical outline. The truism that ‘leaders develop leaders’ has never been more accurate – without skill in leadership, it is impossible to fully recognize it or develop it in others.

Recruiting, no matter how effective, can close only part of the gap. Even assuming your organization can identify its leadership needs there’s no point recruiting the best if they are dumped into an uncreative environment set by weak leaders.

Leadership inspires innovative efforts beyond the routine and unleashes the combined creativity of every single employee. Companies can no longer afford to limit their innovations to those dreamed up by a small research staff or a creative CEO alone. To compete effectively, the only route to survival in our turbulent, challenging environment, requires leadership from every person capable of providing it at every level of the organization on a daily basis, not occasional efforts approved by laborious bureaucratic processes.

Only by spreading leadership skills widely around the organization and creating an environment where people are willing to take reasonable risks can innovation occur steadily and reliably. Effective leaders encourage trial and error and don’t penalize people for taking calculated risks and making suggestions that don’t always pan out. Knowing how to balance risk and return at a grass-roots as well as at the enterprise level is an essential skill for leaders today. Understanding what it takes to engage employees fully, including their emotional needs to contribute, to be respected and to grow their skills, is key to developing the highest productivity on a continuing basis.

Participants can expect to learn to understand and assess technology based learning and how to apply it within their own organizations.

If you are looking for ways to increase impact and effectiveness of learning while decreasing cost and logistics this course is for you.

During this webinar we will look at case studies where online solutions have significantly impacted learning efficacy. When you factor in improvements in employee engagement and employee retention you make quantifiable inroads towards breaking the hire-train-repeat cycle.


You will learn -

How to move training beyond the “check box” – the list of courses learners have completed to meaningful learning they retain and can use

Why online case story based learning?

The science behind how adults learn and the brain

How online case story increases learning engagement and retention

How to integrate online learning into other learning methodologies

Ways to develop meaningful and practical solutions for your organization rather than off the rack programs that address someone else’s needs

Developing progressively complex situations to build competence and confidence

Providing an opportunity for learning and discovery through multiple games

Developing online learning to appeal to different learning styles and abilities

Cost effective ways to provide learners with an opportunity to practise perfectly in a safe environment

Case comparisons that combine learning, practise and evaluation

Lessons learned from case comparisons

Measuring both knowledge and ability – pre and post

Engaging learner behaviour and creating learner motivation through gamification

Developing long term change through habit formation

Measuring learning and retention in each case situation

Incorporating quantifiable performance results into performance appraisals and compensation systems

Tracking and scoring individual results and team results

Promoting and sharing best practises

Teamwork by Design... Not by Default: Building healthy and effective teams in workplaces is essential to surviving the conflict and changes. Healthy and resilient teams will be most prepared for an economic upturn and ongoing organizational dynamics. Many teams, such as project teams and human resource departments, are designed for one specific purpose, and are diverse in their composition. All teams experience challenges with specific aspects of difficulty such as communication, trust, synergy, authenticity, relationship, accountability, process, and results. This session will provide an overview of Charmaine Hammond’s insights on eight team challenges, practical strategies to build a learning culture, and the essentials for moving through the various challenges by design, instead of by default. By attending this webcast participants will: 1. Discover the big eight hurdles that each and every team encounters at some point 2. Explore how to create healthy productive collaborative teams and move beyond these challenges 3. Identify their Working Style and learn how that information can help them to work more effectively and efficiently with others 4. Be introduced to five essentials for building successful winning teams by design (not default) • Participants will be provided ideas they can use with their teams such as job aid cards and team checklists • Three case examples will demonstrate practical strategies for moving through three of the eight specific challenges • Participants will also discover five approaches to building teams that stand the test of time. This will be a unique insightful presentation for all human resource departments.