Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Working Mother 100 Best Application Forum
3:00 - 5:00 Come on in and find out what's new for next year's application - and while you're at it - let us know what was wrong with this year's application! New: special addition to his year's session: benchmarking preview. Find out key factors that differentiate top companies across industries.
Carol Evans, President, Working Mother Media
Suzanne Riss, Editor-in-Chief, Working Mother magazine
Tammy Palazzo, Vice President of Research and Women's Initiatives, Working Mother Media
Jennifer Owens, Special Projects Editor, Working Mother magazine
WorkLife Congress Welcome Reception & Exhibit Hall
5:30 - 7:00 Join us as we kick off our 11th Annual 100 Best Companies WorkLife Congress- Sponsored by Accenture, Bon Secours/Richmond Health, Credit Suisse, Schering-Plough & Wal-Mart/Sams Club
Featuring Dell & Verizon Wireless' Technology Zone
100 Best Companies WorkLife Congress
Wednesday, October 29th
**For session presentations, click on the session name**
7:30 – 8:45 Registration - Sponsored by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina
7:30 - 7:00 Silent Auction to benefit The Women's Alliance
7:30 - 8:45 Continental Breakfast - Sponsored by KPMG
8:45 – 9:30 Signature Opening - Sponsored by Grant Thornton, McGraw Hill & Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, The Procter & Gamble Company & Sanofi-Aventis
Anita Renfroe has gone from "stay-at-home-mom" to "YouTube comedic Phe-mom-enon" - and it's been a wild ride. Anita will officially kick off this year's WorkLife Congress with her unique brand of estrogen-flavored musical comedy and blend of sass, edge and slightly offbeat takes on All Things Female. Anita says she just tells it like it is. Some would say she just tells what everyone else is thinking, but won't say out loud.
"I'd rather people laugh because they relate to something I say than because I wrote a clever punchline," Anita says. "All my stuff is about my life - it's real and it connects people - and that's a wonderful thing."
Anita Renfroe's brand new DVD, It's Probably Just My Thyroid, does just that - making people lauch with her off-the-wall insights and music, including her hilarious parody of Carrie Underwood's No. 1 smash hit Before He Cheats, cleverly retitled Before I Eat. Filmed in her hometown of Atlanta, GA before a sold out crowd, It's Probably Just My Thyroid was released in April 2008.
9:30 – 9:45 Welcome Remarks--Carol Evans, CEO & President, Working Mother Media
Co-Emcee: Joan Sheridan Labarge, President & Publisher, Working Mother magazine & Integrated Sales
9:45 – 10:15 Opening Keynote - Dee Dee Myers, Political Analyst, Commentator, Author of "Why Women Should Rule the World"
10:15 -10:45 Networking Break - Sponsored by Pearson
10:45 -12:15 ThinkFest Solutions: Learning Teams - Sponsored by American Express & Johnson & Johnson
We're taking a NEW approach to our ThinkFest Solutions! Based on feedback from our attendees we're grouping people into Learning Teams to discuss "must learn" topics - those issues you need to know more about the minute you get back to the office. Keep an eye out for updated sessions. Several small learning teams will work on solutions and develop follow-up plans.
For ThinkFest Solutions summaries and other presentations, please click on the links below:
1. The Multigenerational Workplace: How Different Generations are Redefining WorkLife
Jennifer Brown, Principal, Jennifer Brown Consulting LLC
- As a work/life professional, where do you learn about the needs of different generations in the workplace as they pertain to work/life balance? What are your sources for information and best practices?
- Has your company gathered and analyzed data and feedback from employees based on their generation, and how have you done this? If you haven't, why not?
- In developing your corporate work/life strategies, has your company attempted to customize its work/life solutions according to different generations and their needs? What has worked well? What hasnt' worked well?
2. Providing Everyone at Every Level with WorkLife Support
Stacey Gibson, Senior Director, Policy, Work/Life and Employee Relations, Bristol-Myers Squibb
- When you think about your organization, what does "work/life support at every level" look like?
- What are the key challenges that get in the way of providing "work/life support at every level"?
- What can you better leverage internally and externally to provide greater "work/life support at every level"?
- Do the concepts of equal versus equitable treatment have meaning in your organization?
- Is "work/life support at every level" an aspiration we should be reaching for?
3. Global WorkLife Strategies and Local Implementation - ThinkFest Solutions Summary
Danielle Hartmann, Director of Corporate Partnerships, Boston College Center for Work & Family
- What is yoru Global HR/WorkLife organizational structure? What are the pro/cons of this structure in terms of strategy development and policy deployment?
- How do you develop your global work-life strategy? In what ways do you solicit the critical involvement of regional HR and line professionals in your planning efforts?
- What are some of the most significant process or content challenges to developing and implementing work-life strategies in a global organization?
- What are some approaches for overcoming these challenges?
- Have you found work-life programs that may be universally appreciated and accepted by employees and managers around the globe?
4. Changing WorkLife Strategies in an Evolving Economy
Marci Koblenz, Co-Founder & President, Center for Companies That Care
- How has the economy affected your work life function's role and responsibilities over the past year? The last month? (Strategies? Programs? Employee needs? Funding? etc.)
- How have you changed your strategy in the last year? The last month? Looking forward?
- If funding and chain of command approvals were not an issue, what would you like to be doing right now to address your employees' work life needs? What new challenges has the evolving economy created?
- How has your business case for implementing work life strategies changed due to the economy?
5. Managing at a Distance
Peter Linkow, President, WFD Consulting
- What are the key challenges - for organizations and managers themselves - of managing a dispersed workforce?
- What are the special challenges of managing across differences in language and national culture?
- What successes have participants' organizations had at addressing the challenges identified?
6. The Roadmap for Implementing Child and Elder Care Solutions that Make an Impact - Solutions Summary
Lucy (McClellan) English, Ph.D., Consultant, Bright Horizons Family Solutions
- How do we investigate whether dependent (child/elder) care offerings are a good fit for our organization?
- What is the range of dependent care options we should consider?
- What data can be used to make the business case for creating and sustaining dependent care supports?
- What challenges might we face in the process of our dependent care initiative and what are some successful strategies for working through them?
7. Addressing Workload, Work Processes and Productivity
Sharon Melnick, President, Horizon Point Consulting, Inc.
- What new challenges are emerging from developments in how work is executed, how organizations are re-structuring, and how communications are 'round the clock?
- What do you think are the "real" issues causing "overwork" and other workload challenges?
- Whose responsibility is it to manage workload and productivity - the individual's and/or the team/organization's?
- What are the best practices that you personally or your organization utilizes to achieve satisfactory work/life balance? What personal and organizational changes would need to be made in order to significantly improve the workload and productivity challenges faced?
8. Flexibility - Siloed or Central? - What Makes Flex a Reality
Karol Rose, Chief Knowledge Officer, Center of Excellence, FlexPaths
- In what parts of the organization does flex need to be integrated for it to be truly viable?
- In your organization, in what ways is flex siloed and in what ways is it central?
- What would it take to make flex more integrated across the organization?
- What stakeholders would be involved that are not now?
- What resources would facilitate this integration?
9. Designing Creative Career Strategies for Women
Richard Westphal, Director, Retain Talent, Accenture
- Are your women in the right roles for advancement? If not, what are you doing to address this gap?
- Do you know the individual values of the women in your organization and how can you help them use that information to develop their career plans?
- What programs does your company have in place, which allows for variability in career paths?
- What kind of resources/support do you offer to women who want to grow and/or stay current in their current role regardless of career growth or career stabilization mode (e.g., networking, training, experiences, etc.)?
- How important are mentors/networks and do you have a program to support this relationship building?
10. WorkLife Awareness: Branding and Communicating Work/Life Programs Internally - Solutions Sumary
Linda Christiansen, Manager - Work/Life, American Express
- What are the key issues or roadblocks keeping you from branding and communicating work/life programs internally?
- Who are the stakeholders and what resources do you have available to you to help communicate and brand work/life?
- Success stories - what has worked for you and how did you do it?
11. Stress. Burnout. Resilience - Solutions Summary
Andrea Rose-Legatt, Senior Director, Research and Development Operations, Johnson & Johnson
- What is the picture of stress in your organization? Does your organization use any mechanism to measure/monitor stress? Since you have been tracking stress have you noticed it go down?
- Everywhere in industry, employees are voicing that they are burned out. At your company, are they really burned out or stressed and frustrated with the current work environment?
- What does a resilient employee look like in your organization? What would these employees say is the key to their resilience? What tools are available to promote resilience/ Are there any that you have found to be particularly successful?
12. WorkLife Solutions for the Mature Workforce
Marian Stoltz-Loike, CEO, SeniorThinking LLC
- Have you identified the unique work/life needs of your mature workforce? What are they?
- For your mature employees who are also part of the sandwich generation , i.x., simultaneously involved in childcare and eldercare, what are the challenges that they face? What is your organization doing to address their needs?
- Six percent of children under the age of 18 are living with a grandparent. Do you have work/life programs for grandparents who are caring for their grandchildren?
- Do your technology solutions that address concerns of work/life balance work across generations?
- Why are work/life solutions specifically designed for Traditionals and Baby Boomers a low priority for many organizations?
12:30 – 2:00 Keynote Luncheon - Sponsored by Morgan Stanley
Tough Times Never Last, Resilient Companies Do
Nate Booth, Author/Consultant, President, Nate Booth & Associates
2:15 – 3:45 Concurrent Case Study Sessions – Round I - Sponsored by General Mills
“100 Best Companies” Presenters provide conception-to-execution details plus ROI on their most successful and innovative solutions.
Track 1: Impacting Corporate Culture
Developing Trust Between Managers and Flex Workers
Though flex represents a shift in the cultural mindset of companies, flex schedules still carry a stigma for managers, who worry about productivity when it is not possible to directly monitor the work process. What are companies doing to keep the focus on results, and nurture trust and respect between managers and their flex workers?
Moderator:
Andrea Moselle, Senior Manager, Work/Life, AstraZeneca
Panel:
Paula B. Hietpas, Section Supervisor/Recruting Coordinator, DuPont Engineering
Richard Vintigni, Senior Diversity and WorkLife Consultant, DuPont Engineering
Meryl Rosenthal, CEO & President, FlexPaths LLC
Deborah H. Barrett, North America Diversity Practice Leader, Procter & Gamble
Track 2: Communicating WorkLife Strategies
Making the Case for WorkLife in an Evolving Economy
Even in a volatile market, employers bear the responsibility of ensuring work/life needs are met in order to remain competitive in the war for talent. Find out how companies make work/life work by retaining the value of programs and benefits most efficiently and effectively.
Moderator:
Andrea Wicks Bowles, Senior Consultant, Bright Horizons Family Solutions
Panel:
Keith Olson, Director, Organizational Development, Children's Memorial Hospital
Stacey Gibson, Senior Director, Policy, Work/Life and Employee Relations, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Track 3: Finding & Keeping Top Talent
Leading Generational Workers
Innovative thinking is critical in the development of strategies to recruit fresh talent and retain the wisdom of aging workers in today's competitive environment. Find out what companies are doing to meet the divergent needs of the multigenerational workforce.
Moderator:
Nina Madoo, Senior Director of Workplace Strategies, Marriott International, Inc.
Panel:
Bonnie Shelor, Senior Vice President Human Resources, Bon Secours Richmond Health System
Sadaf Parvaiz, Inclusiveness Champion, Ernst & Young
Track 4: Competing in the Global Economy - Sponsored by IBM
Retaining Talented Women on a Global Scale
Barriers that women face during recruitment as well as during the career advancement process can impact retention. Find out what companies are doing to attract, develop and empower women for success on the 24/7/365 global stage.
Moderator:
Jennifer Brown, Principal, Jennifer Brown Consulting LLC
Panel:
Mary Tatarian, Program Manager, Global Dependent Care, IBM
Vera Chota, North America Leader, Workforce Partners, IBM
Monica Diaz, Diversity Director - Global Constituency Groups & Work Environment, Merck & Co., Inc.
3:45 - 4:15 Networking break - Sponsored by New York Life Insurance Company
4:15 – 5:30 Concurrent Case Study Sessions – Round II - Sponsored by General Mills
Track 1: Impacting Corporate Culture
Facing the Challenges of Workload and Productivity
With employee burnout and stress at the forefront of work/life concerns, companies are looking for ways to help employees work smarter, rather than longer hours. Find out what companies are doing to increase efficiency and productivity, while avoiding the effects of burnout, stress and overwork.
Moderator:
Marci Koblenz, Co-Founder & President, Center for Companies That Care
Panel:
Nina Madoo, Senior Director of Workplace Strategies, Marriott International, Inc.
Maria Curran, Vice President Human Resources and Family Care Services, VCU Health Systems
Track 2: Communicating WorkLife Strategies
Getting Managers to Get It
Flex schedules and work/life programs give companies a competitive edge, but management buy-in is critical. What steps are work/life champions taking to communicate the value of programs to managers, and present work/life policies and flex arrangements as profitable change agents?
Moderator:
Nancy Costikyan, Director, Office of Work/Life Resources, Harvard University
Panel:
Rolando R. Balli, Work/Life Strategiest, Dell Inc.
Lynette Chappell-Williams, Director, Office of Workforce Diversity, Equity and Life Quality, Cornell University
Track 3: Finding & Keeping Top Talent
Flex as a Recruiting Tool
Hear from companies who are leading the way in flex about what it takes to remain competitive and how to structure work/life policies and programs to attract and retain top talent.
Moderator:
Randee R. Rubin, President, Collega Communications
Panel:
Vicki Mirandah, Senior Director, Human Resources and Diversity, Capital One Financial Corporation
Carol Dudley, Corporate Vice President Market Facing, Business Development & Licensing, The Dow Chemical Company
Track 4: Competing in the Global Economy - Sponsored by IBM
Creating and Supporting a Culture of Flex with a Global Workforce
What are the goals and challenges of a flex culture, and how can managers best support them on a global scale?
Moderator:
Danielle Hartmann, Director of Corporate Partnerships, Boston College Center for Work & Family
Panel:
Julie Baskin Brooks, Global Team Leader, Work/Life Integration & Flexibility, IBM Corporation
Mary Tatarian, Program Manager, Global Dependent Care, IBM Corporation
Kuppuswamy (K) Murali, Senior Human Resources Manager, GE Global Research
6:00 – 8:00 Opening Cocktail Reception - Sponsored by Ernst & Young, JC Penney, Prudential, S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. & WellStar Health System
Thursday, October 30th
7:30 - 7:00pm Registration - Sponsored by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina
7:30 – 8:45 Continental Breakfast - Sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP
8:45 - 9:00 Opening Session - Vitality & Stress
Living in the world today means being bombarded by external challenges causing us to feel "stressed." We find ourselves living with stress. While the external circumstances are often unavoidable, it is possible to master our responses to stress leading to effective stress management and increased vitality. Learn the concept of stress resistance and how you can achieve and sustain balance regardless of the external circumstances.
Kelley Black, Founder/President, Balancing the Executive Life, Inc.
9:00– 9:15 Day Two Remarks--Carol Evans, President, Working Mother Media
9:15– 9:45 Opening Keynote: Turning the Tide - Culture Change & the Bottom Line
Susan Chambers, Executive Vice President, People Division, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
9:45 --10:15 ThinkFest Report Backs
Wendy Breiterman, Director, Work/Life Programs, Johnson & Johnson
Jim Rottman, VP, Workforce Transformation, American Express
10:15 -10:45 Networking Break - Sponsored by DuPont
10:45 – 12:15 Concurrent Case Study Sessions – Round III - Sponsored by General Mills
Track 1: Impacting Corporate Culture
WorkLife Partnerships that Help Change Companies
Partnerships within an organization are the critical vehicle for improvement and evolution. Learn about the innovative connections and integrated approaches companies are utilizing to foster collaboration and impact cultural change.
Moderator:
Susan MacHolda, SPHR, Senior Director Human Resources, Carlson
Panel:
Maureen Corcoran, Vice President, Diversity, Prudential
Kjirsten E. K. Mickesh, Director, Corporate Diversity-Workplace Diversity and Inclusion, General Mills
Sandy Haddad, Manager-Flexibility and Inclusion, General Mills
Track 2: Communicating WorkLife Strategies
Using Technology as a WorkLife Messenger
Find out how companies are utilizing technology to facilitate communication of improve access to, and expand resources for worklife policies and programs within their organizations.
Moderator:
Cindy Sutherland, Director, Diversity & Inclusion-Global Human Resources, Abbott
Panel:
Wendy Breiterman, Director, Work/Life Programs, Johnson & Johnson
Kathy Kacher, President, Career/Life Alliance Services, Inc.
Christine Fossaceca, WorkLife Director, JPMorgan Chase
Track 3: Finding & Keeping Top Talent
Multiplying Employee Career Path Choices
In the war for talent, career development is of primary concern. Employees want to know they have options, and companies want to attract and retain the best. What innovative steps are companies taking to offer opportunities that meet the individual career aspirations of their workforce?
Moderator:
Sara Meyer-Davis, Director-Global Diversity & Inclusion, Credit-Suisse
Panel:
Joe Maiorano, Executive Director, Human Resources, KPMG LLP
Helen Slaven, Chief Learning Officer, WellStar Health System
Track 4: Competing in the Global Economy - Sponsored by IBM
Effective Strategies for Communicating WorkLife Globally
Having an impressive work/life menu is of no use to a company if employees aren't aware of the offerings. Communicating available options becomes trickier when you're talking about granting access to a 24/7/365 global workforce. Find out what companies doing to establish and maintain a robust communication vehicle for work/life on a global scale.
Moderator:
Danielle Hartmann, Director of Corporate Partnerships, Boston College Center for Work & Family
Panel:
Julie Baskin Brooks, Global Team Leader, Work/Life Integration & Flexibility, IBM
Beth McCormick, Director, Group Diversity, UBS
12:15– 1:45 Awards Luncheon - Sponsored by Abbott, Wal-Mart & Sam's Club
Hall of Fame Awards Induction
Ted Childs Life Work Excellence Award
Family Champion Awards
1:45 -3:00 Top Ten Forum on Women: Does Anything Work:
Will anything change the downward trend of women in senior positions? What does it really take to make it at this time in our top 10 companies? Join our Top Ten forum as they share insights, strategies and detail the ways they're changing the workplace to make sure it engages diverse groups of women in leadership and ensures they're in pipeline positions.
Moderator:
Betty Spence, Ph.D., President, NAFE
Panel:
William Lee, Director of Corporate Diversity, Inclusion & Compliance, Abbott
Anne Streeter, Strategic Advisor, WorkLife, Marketing & PR, Baptist Health South Florida
Suzan McDaniel, Ph.D., VP Global Talent Management, Strategic Staffing and Diversity, Bristol Myers-Squibb
Billie Williamson, Americas Inclusiveness Officer, Ernst & Young
Julie Baskin Brooks, Global Work Life Integration & Flexibility Team Leader, IBM
Sandra Bushby, Director, Women's Initiatives, KPMG
Deborah Baum, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Joanne McDonough, Director, Office of Diversity, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Kelley Semrau, VP Global Communications and Public Affiars, S.C. Johnson & Son
Rosemarie Lanard, VP-Employee Engagement & Diversity, The McGraw-Hill Companies
3:00-3:30 Networking Break - Sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline
3:30 – 5:15 WorkLife Sampler Workshops
Work with 100 Best WorkLife practitioners and walk away with real solutions.
1. Stress Resistance: Keys to Unlocking Greater Vitality, Productivity and Creativity
Managing your energy and mastering your response to stress is essential to maintaining balance in the face of external challenges. Sustained balance in turn leads to optimal health, productivity and greater vitality.
This workshop provides a toolbox of meditations, breathing exercises and mudras (hand seals) that empower the practitioner to alter negative physical, emotional and mental responses to stress at will. Because these tools utilize the systems of the body for personal benefit, they are mobile and can be applied in the office, at home or on the road.
This workshop is experiential, transcending theory to provide real tools that change the physiological response to stress. The tools are fun, practical and may be applied immediately. Benefits include greater balance, vitality, increased cognitive ability and greater receptivity/creativity. Participants will receive a mini-toolkit via email following the workshop.
Kelley Black, Founder/President, Balancing the Executive Life, Inc.
2. Time in a Bottle: Cut to the Chase and Maximize Your Day
Recent studies show that the most important career element for employees, and a key differentiator that individuals look for when choosing an employer, is the ability to maintain a challenging career as well as have time for work/life balance. To achieve organizational strategic goals, companies must provide employees with tools to manage their time in a way that improves productivity and effectiveness, encourage creativity and innovation - but also enables employees to create and achieve both career and life balance. How do you find more time in each day and how do you make that time work for you?
Tools and concepts from the bestselling book, Cut to the Chase, is the basis for this presentation, which provides specific steps on ways to manage time differently, gain improved insight on how individuals may be unconsciously wasting time, and ways to gain more control over the greatest commodity in today's workplace: time.
Key Learnings - Participants will be able to:
- Manage their time more effectively
- Jump start each day with priorities clearly in mind
...and much more
Companies will be able to better understand how to:
- Engage workers through increased job satisfaction
- Improve employee retention
...and much more
Stuart R. Levine, Chairman and CEO, Stuart Levine & Associates, LLC
Sharon Klun, Director - Work/Life Initiatives, Accenture
3. A New Approach To Talent Management: Aligning Individual and Organizational Career Management Strategies
The evolving nature of work, the workforce and families have all profoundly impacted the structure of careers. Today, many feel there is a disconnect between the way employers structure jobs/careers and what individuals need in order to achieve their professional and personal aspirations. Progressive organizations recognize this trend and are helping individuals develop the skills needed to navigate their career and maintain work/life balance within the context of a flexilble workplace. Taking such an approach should be an explicit goal for employers who want to retain top talent.
This session will describe approaches organizations can take to facilitate successful career management for employees and ensure effective talent management for the organization. Dr. Harrington will provide an overview of the changing nature of careers and discuss the training organizations can provide to empower employees to take greater control over their careers. Ms. Weisberg will describe Deloitte's Mass Career Customization program (MCC), which provides an excellent case example of how one company is addressing the disconnect between the traditional workplace and the new, nontraditional workforce. This program allows individuals to customize their careers so they can fit their work into their life and their life into their work.
Brad Harrington, Ed.D., Executive Director, Boston College Center for Work & Family
Anne Weisberg, Director-Talent , Deloitte
5:15 - 6:00 Break
6:00 – 7:00 Gala Cocktail Reception - Sponsored by Allstate, Deloitte & Touch, LLP, Goldman Sachs, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, Microsoft & Novartis Pharmaceuticals
7:00 – 10:00 Gala Awards Dinner: Working Mother 100 Best Companies* - Sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, GE & MasterCard Worldwide
*Black Tie Optional
Agenda Subject to Change
