This course has been pre-approved for SHRM PDCs
15th Annual Conference for Managers, Supervisors, Team & Project Leaders
Last spring's conference is back!!
Winter 2024 Leadership & Management Conference: Cultivating an Engaged Workplace
As organizations emerge from a period of great change, implementing creative and sustainable employee and workplace engagement strategies will be integral to their continued success. Join UNH Professional Development & Training for a one-day conference focused on building a holistic culture of engagement. Hear from a dynamic roster of speakers on topics including hybrid work, employee retention, and inclusive and equitable engagement strategies. This conference is designed for executives, managers, and team leads that are invested in developing realistic and timely engagement strategies for their organizations.
Confirmed 2024 Conference speakers and presentations include:
Your 2024 Leadership & Management Conference enrollment includes full access to the conference including:
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.
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:
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.
Travis Palmer is the Metro Market Director for Robert Half’s finance and accounting practice group. In his role, he manages all contract teams in Manchester & Portsmouth, NH, and Portland, ME, serving both states and Vermont. Travis has been with Robert Half for more than eight years. He started his career as a Staffing Manager in January 2014 and has grown tremendously at the company. Prior to his work at Robert Half, Travis worked at BidClerk in the Greater Chicago area for three years. Travis attended Plymouth State University where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Musical performance and would later obtain his Master of Arts in Musical Performance from North Park University.
David Liddell is a seasoned leadership consultant with a remarkable career spanning over three decades. David's client-centric approach, informed by his deep understanding of diverse industries, has revolutionized businesses' strategies for transformative growth. A thought leader featured in prominent publications, he frequently speaks at conferences on strategic leadership, change management, and organizational transformation. David's impact extends beyond the professional realm, as he actively engages in philanthropy and mentors emerging leaders, shaping the future of leadership practices.
John P. Tansey has a history of guiding technical companies through compliance risk and/or commercial challenges. His Project Leadership approach (to Project Management) was developed after years of delivering strategic initiatives in the most highly regulated industries ranging from $30M Global Programs to $3M Small Businesses; including grenade launchers, aircraft parts, and medical device. John now helps companies control Cost, Quality, and Schedule through the PM Partnership; an outsourced Project Management business for companies who don't retain that expertise in-house. John holds a BSME from UNH in 2004, and an MBA from UNH in 2009; In 2008 he was a Holloway semi-finalist. Additional certifications include Six Sigma Black Belt, PMP, and Spanish Bi-lingual.
Krystal Hicks (UNH ’07) is a Career Strategist and the Founder of JOBTALK, LLC, a career counseling practice that provides inclusive and accessible one-on-one support to professionals in transition, as well as employer branding and recruitment consulting to companies looking to improve how (and who) they hire. Prior to starting her practice in 2019, Krystal spent 11 years in staffing, career services, and corporate recruitment, most recently overseeing all U.S. hiring for Lindt & Sprüngli in Stratham, NH where she helped expand diversity, overhaul their employer brand, and fill 220+ corporate roles without agency assistance. Krystal also served as UNH’s Director of Career Services and spent three years facilitating a weekly, pre-release employment program for inmates at the Strafford County Department of Corrections. In 2017, she was recognized as one of the Seacoast’s 10 to Watch winners for her economic development work and continues to teach her College to Career courses to undergraduate students at UNH’s Paul College. Her advisory, board, and committee history include Exeter’s Racial Unity Team, the Seacoast HR Association, BLM Seacoast, and Shtudy.co, a UNH alumni-founded platform that helps companies connect with recent graduates of color.
James McKim is a sought-after organizational performance speaker, coach, change manager, and author of the best-selling book The Diversity Factor: Igniting Superior Organizational Performance. Over his 35+ year career, he has helped small and large organizations, for-profit and non-profit, spark efficiency and growth through the aligning of people, process, and technology. Mr. McKim is known internationally for his current focus on organizational and individual performance through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). He is recognized by industry watchers such as Atd, Brandon Hall, Bersin Associates, Axelos, and PMI for his dedication to creating win-win situations between organizations and their employees. In addition to founding 2 companies, he has held senior leadership roles at or worked with organizations such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fidelity, Dartmouth Hitchcock, and the Massachusetts Partnership for Diversity in Education in defining and executing strategic plans with an eye toward organizational performance. As the Chair of the Episcopal Church’s National Executive Council Committee Anti-Racism & Reconciliation, Mr. McKim was the principal writer of the church's guidelines on anti-racism and reconciliation. As President of the Manchester Branch of the NAACP, he works regularly with governments and businesses to eliminate discrimination. He is a frequent conference presenter, a guest on radio and television shows, serves as Chair of the Finance Committee of the NH PBS Board of Directors, and delights in being the vocalist for the jazz band The Episcocats.
Brylye Collins, Founder of Rose Talent Consulting, is recognized as a top Talent Acquisition Partner in the Recruiting Industry. Prior to her successful professional recruitment career, she honed her skills in management for 15 years. Brylye has brought positive outcomes to her clients by maintaining a positive mindset, creating partnerships, and always striving for significant outcomes. Brylye's experience interviewing thousands of people throughout her career has helped her understand the importance of having a career that brings people joy and happiness. She is passionate about helping others find their authentic purpose on their career journey. She is a Certified Diversity & Inclusion Recruiter, Certified Technical Recruiter, and a Certified Career Coach. Brylye is on the Board of Directors for Community Action Partnership Strafford County, Ambassador for the Great Rochester Chamber of Commerce, and on the Business Program Advisory Committee for Spaulding High Roger Creatu Career Technical Center. She has rreviously volunteered as an Ambassador for the Dover Chamber of Commerce. While at the Dover Chamber, she participated in the Cocheco Arts Festival committee.
Jamie Clavet is a multifaceted professional with over a decade of experience, excelling in diverse domains. As a seasoned professional presenter, Jamie has a remarkable ability to engage and captivate audiences, fostering meaningful connections through effective communication. With a background as a licensed massage therapist, Jamie understands the importance of holistic well-being and brings this perspective into her various roles. Jamie's artistic spirit, nurtured through her theatre background, infuses creativity and innovation into her professional pursuits. Coupled with her marketing acumen, she crafts compelling narratives that resonate with diverse audiences and drive impactful results. Jamie's current role includes marketing, promotion, and recruitment for the Theatre & Dance Department at the University of New Hampshire. She is the co-founder of a theatre company called theatre.unmasked which produced numerous touring productions throughout the region, she is a presentation and performance coach for professionals having conducted numerous workshops in a variety of industries including tech and education.
Cultivating an Engaged Workplace
Winter 2024 UNH Leadership & Management Conference
8:30am: Registration & Continental Breakfast (Lobby)
10:30am: Break
10:45am: Concurrent Sessions A
12:00pm: Buffet Lunch (Lobby)
1:00pm: Concurrent Sessions B
2:15pm: Break
2:30pm: Concurrent Sessions C
*Conference concludes at 4:00 pm*
