Get details on the illuminating workshops and presentations of the first 100 Best Conference in September 2008, focused along executive, human resource and legal tracks.

EXECUTIVE TRACK DESCRIPTIONS

HOW TO BE A GREAT BOSS

Becoming the kind of leader who attracts and retains the best
Are great bosses worth the effort of finding and developing? How do you avoid the bad ones? Too often companies promote and hire supervisors, managers and even CEO for the wrong reasons. And when they do it can be very costly. Find out what to really look for, avoid damaging the business and be able to predict if you have the right person for the job before you hire them.

Speaker: Tamsen Wassell

LEVERAGING A POSITIVE CULTURE

How good morale affects the bottom line
Learn how to increase your bottom line by keeping employees happy. A positive company culture can reduce turnover, absenteeism and theft while increasing productivity. You’ll learn how to create a culture that attracts better employees and keeps them. Build morale by transforming your company into a thriving work environment where employees want to be.

Speaker: Renee Spears

BETTER BENEFITS WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK

Providing meaningful employee benefits in the face of rising costs.
Employers have traditionally used a variety of methods to control the cost of their employee health and welfare benefit plans. Unfortunately, those methods often caused employee dissatisfaction and, ultimately, may have provided little more than temporary relief. This session will briefly discuss the forces driving employee benefit costs but will focus on opportunities for effective management to achieve cost savings and maintain employee satisfaction within the marketplace and regulatory environment.

Speaker: David Uyemura

HR TRACK DESCRIPTIONS

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ETHICAL

Doing the right thing really matters
The session will give an overview of state of ethics management and explore the relationship ethics has with the HR cycle of acquiring motivating, developing and retaining the best people. Attendees will get a number of simple tools that they can use at their companies to assess and build an ethics program, and the reasons why they should consider instituting such a program.

Speaker: David Layzell

UNLEASHING YOUR EMPLOYEES’ POTENTIAL

Coaching and training your workforce
What do you do to keep your top performers? Top performers want to work for companies that invest in them. Give your top performers relevant development opportunities that motivate and help retain them. This presentation explores the relationship between competitive advantage, employee satisfaction, profitability, and successful employee development approaches. Benefit from the experience of top companies and find out what they do for employee development. How do you know when your company is doing a good job with employee development?

Speaker: Karin Kolodziejski

BALANCING ACT

How to achieve work/life balance for you, your company and your employees
According to a recent survey by the Association of Executive Search Consultants, 85% of recruiters have seen candidates reject a job offer because it wouldn’t include enough work-life balance, and 90% of recruiters say work-life balance considerations are more important now than they were five years ago. This session will explore the relevance of creating a balanced workforce and how top performers and successful organizations make work-life balance a priority. Participants will gain valuable tools to assist in creating a work-life balance for themselves, their company and their employees.

Speaker: Trevor Lockwood

LEGAL TRACK DESCRIPTIONS

EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK PROVISIONS FOR BEST COMPANIES.

This workshop, which is aproved for one HRCI credit hour, will address:
•    What should be in your employee handbook.
•    Inexpensive employee policies that can help make you one of the “Best” companies.
•    Checklist of best practices for your company employee handbook.
•    Proposed handbook language.

Speaker: David Hosenpud

BEST LEGAL PRACTICES TO CREATE BEST COMPANY PERFORMANCE

This workshop, which is approved for one HRCI credit hour, will address:
•    What should be in your performance review programs. 
•    The legal and cultural importance of a performance management system.
•    Top legal mistakes managers make in performance reviews.
•    Best practices in drafting the performance review for better employee and courtroom performance.

Speaker: D. Michael Reilly

BEST COMPANY PRACTICES TO MANAGE THE CHALLENGING EMPLOYEE

This workshop, which is approved for one HRCI credit hour, will address:
•    A step-by-step process in managing problem performance.
•    Choosing legally defensible corrective action tools.
•    Managing unique challenges: accommodation and retaliation issues.
•    Documenting counseling meetings and follow-up.

Speaker: Leah Lively

BREAKFAST KEYNOTE

GRACIOUS AND RUTHLESS

Author and wine industry pioneer Susan Sokol Blosser shares the wisdom she’s compiled in her recent book, which is aimed at helping small business owners realize their dream, follow their values and achieve success. “You don’t’ have to be the classic cutthroat business person to be successful,” says Susan. “You need just a bit of that.”

LUNCH KEYNOTE

THE POWER OF LAUGHTER

In this interactive session, Gail Hand will share her success strategies and ideas to build a more energized, cohesive workforce by incorporating more fun and communication on the job. She will demonstrate her laughter and key communication exercises that participants will be able to take back to their office and utilize immediately. A happy workplace involves more employee engagement, instills trust in your employees that you value their impact to the organization and care about their overall job satisfaction. Management that is committed to creating an environment of open communication in the office by offering creative time for fun will see a significant increase in employee productivity, as well as employee retention. Laughter used proactively and appropriately helps relieve stress and builds more cohesive teams.