Agenda

10th Annual
Winning HR Practices of the
Best Employers in Canada

DAY ONE

8:45
Opening Remarks from the Chair
Ted Emond, Senior Consultant, Hewitt Associates

9:00
Getting the Most Out of the Survey: Understanding What the Best Employers Study Is – And What it Isn’t
Colin Platt, Consultant, Hewitt Associates

This session will introduce you to the Best Employers study and give you the tools to participate. Hewitt Associates will teach you
how they define employee engagement and what your business can gain from the study, in addition to preparing your HR team to
administer the study and involve your employees.

Analyzing the Hewitt definition of “employee engagement”
How is the study conducted? Reviewing the individual components of the study
Return on investment: what do you get out of participating in the study?

9:45
From Recession to Recovery: How High Employee Engagement Sustains Business Through Good Times and Bad
Kim Knapp, National Leader of Peopleworks, Flight Centre Canada

How did having high employee engagement help to pull Best Employers through the economic downturn? Now that the economy is
beginning to recover, how is high employee engagement helping companies to ensure the greatest success during the recovery?
Learn tips from the top on how to engage your employees through trying economic times and how the Best Employers are benefiting
from their diligence.

Best practices for maintaining high levels of employee engagement during an economic downturn
Top tips for involving employees and meeting challenges together
Sustaining trust and confidence in leadership and management during trying economic times
Successful strategies for communicating during a crisis

10:45
Networking Refreshment Break

11:00
Developing an Effective Recruitment Strategy to Attract Top Talent
Tom A. Merianos, Principal, Edward Jones Advisor, Recruiting and Hiring – Canada, Edward Jones

With so many people looking for jobs, finding the right employee can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. How do Best Employers
identify, source and recruit the people they need? This session will provide you with tips to recruit the top talent and highly skilled workers
for your organization.

Planning for your workforce: identifying current and future gaps among your employees
Best practices for development an employee value proposition
Hiring for ‘fit’: hiring employees to fit into individual organizational cultures
Sourcing: thinking outside the box to recruit different generations
Successful strategies for attracting highly-skilled workers

11:45
Hanging Onto Your Best Employees: Proven and Effective Retention Strategies
Peter McAdam, VP of Employee Experience, TD Bank Financial Group

If you have identified certain employees as your top talent, chances are that your competitors may also see them as someone they would
like to have on board. How can your organization hang onto the people you need to succeed? Learn tips from a Best Employer on how to
retain employees through engagement and other tested strategies.

Understand what engages key employees
Getting feedback: what is the importance of ‘stay’ and ‘exit’ interviews?
Creating flexible work arrangements to manage retention
Best practices for coaching managers to help retain employees
Keep in touch after a top employee has left: how can this be beneficial down the road?

12:30
Networking Luncheon for Delegates and Speakers

1:45
The Link Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement
Moderator:
Barb Steele, Director, Membership, Canadian Business for Social Responsibility
Panelists:
Willa Black, VP, Corporate Affairs, Cisco Systems Canada Inc.
Neil Crawford, Principal, Hewitt Associates
Sofia Theodorou Locke, Vice President, Human Resources, LoyaltyOne

Corporate social responsibility is important in building firm value, reputation, and managing risk. New research indicates that corporate
social responsibility also plays an important role in engaging employees and making them feel part of something bigger. Attend this
session to hear about the business case for investing in CSR programs and how sustainability can help your organization engage and
retain your employees.

Understanding how corporate social responsibility can engage employees
Navigating the generational differences: how are generations impacted by CSR differently?
Analyzing the growing importance of CSR internally and externally
Innovative ideas for corporate social responsibility: how are companies leveraging CSR creatively?

2:45
Yoga Stretch Class

3:00
Networking Refreshment Break

3:15
The ROI for Wellness Programs: How High Engagement Affects Employee Health and Well-Being
Pritma Dhillon, Manager, Health and Wellness, WestJet
Rochelle Morandini, Senior Consultant, Organizational Health, Hewitt Associates

Healthy employees will lead to fewer insurance claims and less money spent on legal costs, so there is incentive for companies to focus
on the health and well-being of employees. This session will examine the challenges of promoting a healthy workplace and provide you
with tips to create health and wellness programs for your employees in order to help your bottom line.

Analyzing whether engaged employees are healthier
Are healthier employees more engaged at work?
Building a business case for investing in wellness initiatives
- what is the return on investment?
- why are health and wellness programs beneficial for your organization?

4:15
Chair’s Closing Remarks - Conference Adjourns

DAY TWO

8:45
Opening Remarks from the Chair

9:00
Lessons from the Top: A Fireside Chat with Three Best Employer Executives
Moderator:
Neil Crawford, Principal, Hewitt Associates
Panelists:
Kish Kapoor, President, Wellington West Holdings Inc.
Nitin Kawale, President, Cisco Systems Canada Co.
Paul G. Douglas, President and CEO, PCL Constructors Inc.

Participate in the discussion! Email your questions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and help contribute to the content
of this session. This is your chance to ask the Executives from three of the 50 Best Employers in Canada to share their strategies
and leadership techniques with you.

Best practices for developing a senior management team
Promoting effective two-way communication between management and employees
What does executive management expect from its HR personnel?
Understanding how employee engagement is encouraged and supported by executive management
Learning the programs and practices that can have a high ROI

10:15
Networking Refreshment Break

10:30
Winning Leadership Practices and Creating Leadership Development Programs
Andrée Mercier, Principal, Hewitt Associates
Brian Toda, Senior Vice-President, Global Talent Management, Scotiabank
Jane Lewis, Country HR Manger, Procter & Gamble, Inc

Analyzing the common characteristics of leaders at Top Companies for Leaders
Best practices for developing a succession plan for your organization
Top tips for identifying top talent
Growing future leaders from within your organization: how can this be accomplished?
Ensuring knowledge transfer and retention in your organization
- how do you determine what constitutes ‘essential knowledge’?
- creating institutional memory to guarantee knowledge transfer
- developing flexible knowledge transfer and retention strategies to counter retiring workers

11:45
Leveraging Existing Tools to Increase Employee Engagement and Improve Employee Onboarding
Dan Pontefract, HR Director, Telus

Attracting and retaining top talent, engaging employees and providing continuous employee development opportunities – 3 goals that
every HR professional strives to achieve. That much hasn’t changed. What has changed is how to get there and how to get there fast
by leveraging emerging trends which the next generation entering in the workforce have come to expect. In this session you will learn
how companies like Electronic Arts and Telus have leveraged existing tools in their organizations to increase employee engagement
and improve employee onboarding.

12:15
Networking Luncheon for Delegates and Speakers

1:15
Increasing Employee Engagement in Unionized Workplaces
Moderator:
Todd Mathers, Principal, Hewitt Associates
Panelists:
Deen Maharaj, Director, Human Resources, G&K Services Canada Inc.
Bill Pallett, Sr. Vice President of People Resources, Delta Hotels and Resorts
Janet Byrne, Director, Employee Services, Nova Scotia Community College

Contrasting the similarities and differences between employee engagement in union and non-union workplaces
What are the challenges of engaging employees in unionized workplaces?
Innovative ideas to promote engagement within the confines of a collective agreement situation
Balancing engagement with union and non-union workers in the same organization
Developing a strong relationship between the union and the HR department: how will this be beneficial?

PLEASE NOTE:
The second breakout session "The Winning Practices of Small and Medium Enterprises: Overcoming HR Challenges to Optimize
Your Organization" listed at 1:15pm in the conference brochure is not being webcast.

2:30
Networking Refreshment Break

2:45
Navigating the Minefield of Change Management and Developing Winning Communications Strategies
Moderator:
Julie Raines, Principal, Hewitt Associates
Panelists:
Jay-Ann Fordy, Chief Human Resources Officer, Coast Capital Savings Credit Union
Jacquie Gibney, Director, Corporate Communication and Change Management, Farm Credit Canada
Scott Smith, Director, Corporate Human Resources, Aecon Group Inc.

Maintaining high employee engagement through significant organization change requires a strategic communications plan. In this session,
Hewitt’s Julie Raines will interview Best Employers and discuss three different scenarios where change management occurred and communication
was required: (1) transitioning to a new leader, (2) progressive, ongoing change, and (3) change due to a merger or acquisition. Learn best practices
for change management and how to keep in contact with your employees and ensure they are kept up-to-date and engaged.

Establishing your company’s communication objectives during periods of change
- how to measure your communication success
Using a multi-media approach to communications
Enabling leaders and managers to share consistent messages with employees
Aligning internal and external communications
Dealing with terminations and transitions during corporate changes

4:15
Chair’s Closing Remarks - Conference Concludes