Winter 2024 Leadership & Management Conference: Cultivating an Engaged Workplace

Succeeding in a Hybrid Work Environment | David Liddell

Like it or not, the hybrid workplace is here to stay in some form or another. Whether it is working from home or providing greater flexibility for employees, leaders must learn to adapt if they want to achieve effective levels of employee engagement and productivity. Managing in a hybrid environment brings real challenges. Leaders have reduced visibility into workloads and processes and have fewer opportunities for spontaneous conversations with their direct reports. This creates a sense of losing control, lack of collaboration, and places limits on camaraderie within teams.

Leading successfully in a hybrid work environment requires clear and consistent communication, flexibility, collaboration, trust, and empowerment. A few subtle, but focused, adjustments in leadership behaviors will help mitigate the risks.

1. Focus on and manage to outcomes, not hours worked.
2. Define success for each employee and measure it.
3. Be generous with responsibility and authority. People like some autonomy.
4. Learn how to really trust people and build sense of team togetherness.
5. If things aren’t working, don’t be afraid to change it up. 

Organizational Culture and Retention Issues | John Tansey 

Peter Drucker said "Culture eats strategy for breakfast". It will also eat your technology for lunch, your production for dinner, and your processes for dessert. Culture is the informal boss at work, and most companies are smart enough to know it these days. The dilemma is, how can we steer the culture toward being a positive force within our business, delighting customers and shareholders, while also motivating employees to stick around? This solution is found in the design of your organizational culture. Design is an important consideration that is often overlooked in the haste to react to retention urgencies. Balancing important vs. urgent is a constant business dilemma, but having awareness of the important stuff is Step #1.

No Cost+ High Impact: How to Improve your hiring process | Krystal Hicks

With so many trainings, platforms, tools, and consultants to choose from, it doesn’t take long to blow out your budget on trying to “fix” your hiring or retention challenges. This session will skip the theoretical lecturing and get right down to the brass tax by outlining several actionable steps you can take right now that can help improve your organization’s recruiting & hiring processes, candidate experience, and overall employer brand in the market.  If you're genuinely worried about retaining the people you know you can’t afford to lose, this session is for you. 

DEI for Managers | James McKim

"Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) is a proven way to elicit superior performance from teams and individuals. But that performance does not just happen by itself. Even if there is a DEI Plan, that plan needs to be carried out day-to-day. So, how do you bring diversity into your group? How do you engage everyone equitably so that they perform at their best and your team performs at its highest level? This workshop explores how to embed DEI into your daily work as a manager.

By the end of this session, participants will know how to:

• create a culture for your group to live into DEI
• include DEI in the talent life-cycle (attract, recruit, hire, and retain)
• encourage DEI in your team’s communication, decision-making, and general project management"

Nurturing Wellness: Recognizing Employee Stress and Cultivating a Positive Work Environment | Jamie Clavet

This session will focus on understanding and addressing employee stress to foster a workplace that thrives on wellness. In "Nurturing Wellness," you will gain the tools and strategies needed to identify signs of stress in your team members and create a supportive atmosphere that promotes positivity and mental well-being. Access tools to cultivate a workspace where stress is acknowledged and managed effectively, leading to increased productivity, engagement, and overall satisfaction. Discover how to empower your workforce and build a resilient, harmonious environment that places employee wellness at the heart of your organizational success

Building a Winning Workplace | Brylye Collins

Join our "Building a Winning Workplace" seminar to learn essential strategies for attracting top talent, retaining employees, and gaining a competitive advantage. Discover the key factors that create an appealing workplace, such as fostering a positive company culture and offering growth opportunities. Join Brylye as she shares experiences and best practices to transform your organization into an employer of choice, ensuring success in today's dynamic business landscape.

Cultivating an Engaged Workplace
Winter 2024 UNH Leadership & Management Conference

8:30am: Registration & Continental Breakfast (Lobby)

• 9:00am: Welcome (Wentworth Ballroom)
• 9:15am: Keynote Speaker | Travis Palmer (Wentworth Ballroom)

10:30am: Break

10:45am: Concurrent Sessions A

• Wentworth Ballroom:  Succeeding in a Hybrid Work Environment | David Liddell
• The Grand Ballroom: Organizational Culture and Retention Issues | John Tansey

12:00pm: Buffet Lunch (Lobby)

1:00pm: Concurrent Sessions B

• Wentworth Ballroom: No Cost + High Impact: How to Improve Your Hiring Process | Krystal Hicks
• The Grand Ballroom: DEI for Managers | James McKim

2:15pm: Break

2:30pm: Concurrent Sessions C

• Wentworth Ballroom: Nurturing Wellness: Recognizing Employee Stress and Cultivating a Positive Work Environment | Jamie Clavet
• The Grand Ballroom:  Building a Winning Workplace | Brylye Collins

*Conference concludes at 4:00 pm*