2023 Virtual Employee Engagement Forum Agenda

11:00 AM-11:20 AM

Welcome and Introductions
Bob Kelleher - President & Founder | The Employee Engagement Group
Meg Anderson - Virtual Employee Engagement Forum Producer |  The Employee Engagement Group

11:20 AM - 12:10 PM

Keynote Presentation
Gridlock, Grace, and GPT:  AI as an Accelerator for Engagement
Tonya Long – Chief AI Sherpa | Quantum Crow Advisory
Leaders face an unprecedented time of uncertainty for organizational change without a clear view of the future. Navigating gridlock requires collaboration – and a fair amount of grace – as we build new working models for organizations, industries, and ultimately society. We’ve been growing apart – disconnected by technology, ideology, and pandemic impact that continues on multiple fronts. AI will do more than improve efficiencies – it will be the catalyst that reunites humanity. In this talk, Tonya J. Long – author of “AI and the New Oz” – discusses how leaders can use AI to accelerate engagement and make AI a forcing function to rally our teams with creativity, connection, and a belief that we all own our path on the Yellow Brick Road to a better future. That future starts now.

12:10 PM - 12:20 PM

Break

12:20 PM - 1:10 PM

Keynote Presentation
HR Professional's Employee Engagement - Do the Cobbler's Children Have Shoes?
Dr. Salvatore Falletta - Director and Professor, HR Leadership | Drexel University and HR Intelligence Org.
In this session, Dr. Salvatore Falletta will share the summary results of the largest study to date on employee engagement and talent management practices for HR professionals. Specifically, you will learn what matters most to HR professionals beyond the “usual suspects" in terms of engagement drivers. Participants will also learn how to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to moving the needle on engagement. Lastly, participants will learn the importance of managing HR professionals as a talent segment deserving of attention.

1:10 PM - 1:20PM

Break

1:20 PM - 2:10 PM

Keynote Presentation
Navigating the Future of Work: Strategies for Engaging a Dynamic Workforce
Loren Rosario-Maldonado - Chief People Scientist | Cultura, Inc.
A transformative speaking event designed to help business leaders, HR professionals, and managers adapt to the ever-changing landscape of the modern workforce. With an increasing focus on remote work, generational shifts, and rapidly evolving technologies, keeping employees engaged, motivated, and productive is crucial. This session will offer actionable insights and tools to foster a more dynamic, inclusive, and engaged workforce.

2:10 PM - 2:20 PM

Break

2:20 PM - 3:10 PM

Keynote Presentation
Engaging in These Times
Bob Kelleher - President & Founder | The Employee Engagement Group
Recently, we’ve seen a global pandemic, social unrest not seen since the civil rights movement, working parents having to home school, and a country divided. We’ve seen a changing workplace, with remote employment being the norm in many locations, and employees demanding that DEI becomes a corporate initiative. The boundaries between work and life have never been less clear. Has this impacted your engagement? Do you even know what engages you anymore? Is it life-related? Is it work-related? This impactful talk includes real-time participant polling, the latest research, and pragmatic best practices and takeaways while reinforcing that today's leaders need to engage the ‘whole’ person, demonstrate empathy, and lead change even when the destination is uncertain.

3:10 PM - 3:15 PM

Closing Comments

Day 2 Welcome
Bob Kelleher - President & Founder | The Employee Engagement Group
Meg Anderson - Virtual Employee Engagement Forum Producer | The Employee Engagement Group

Keynote Presentation
5 Components of Engaged Teams
Lee Rubin - Speaker
Machines are evaluated based on the output of the entire unit, not the impressiveness of their individual parts. Engaged teams, like great machines, require certain components that hold their pieces together. While most organizations focus exclusively on building the skills of their individual members, elite organizations invest in the “stuff” that transforms a collection of talented individuals into engaged, machine-like teams.

Break

Keynote Presentation
Engagement Drivers of Business Success in a Post-Pandemic Work World
Craig Ramsay - Principal People Scientist | Microsoft
In this session, Craig will share his journey leading a three-year linkage research project to establish a new employee engagement model and practices that best drive a high-performance organization. Based on 350 million data points across 1,200 global customers, these findings will highlight those critical few employee experiences you need to focus on that best drive important talent outcomes and predict business success.

Break

Keynote Presentation
Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want and Organizations Need
Dr. Beverly Kaye - Author, Speaker, and Thought Leader | Bev K & Co.
Career development is ranked among the top global drivers for engagement and retention. Great leaders know that they can't take the development of talent for granted. Employees want their managers to understand their talents, challenge them, open channels for their development and link them to resources in their organization. They want someone to be attentive to their needs for growth. How leaders pay attention to and talk with the members of their teams is critical in the perception, feeling, and reality of whether the organization is concerned and interested in an individual's growth and career success. This session tells how to do this in a "no-time-to-do-it" environment.

Break

Keynote Presentation
Five of the Hardest "Soft" Skills Every Leader Needs to Increase Engagement
Dr. Shirley Davis - President & CEO | SDS Global Enterprises, Inc.
The new generation of talent has become more vocal about the kind of leaders they want to work for. And it's not the technical and other "hard" skills that matter to them most.  The reality is that soft skills are the hardest to demonstrate and the most difficult to recruit for, yet they have the greatest impact on the employee's experience. In this engaging session, global workforce expert Dr. Shirley Davis will explore the key drivers of how leadership skills and competencies have shifted over the past three years.  She will identify the expressed needs, expectations, and values of the new generation of talent, and describe the five most important and commonly identified soft skills that every leader should possess if they want to achieve high performance and high engagement from their workers.

Closing Comments