About the Sessions
We are delighted to announce the lineup of educational sessions for the 2024 HR Conference, curated by the AK State SHRM Council. This year, we have assembled a comprehensive array of presentations aimed at providing valuable insights and knowledge to our attendees.
As session descriptions become available from our esteemed presenters, they will promptly be added to the agenda. We encourage you to check back frequently for updates and to ensure that you don't miss out on any valuable content.
Rest assured, the agenda will be finalized at the earliest opportunity and published for your convenience, allowing you to plan your participation in advance.
We look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be an enriching and informative conference experience.
Unlock Genius for Increased Engagement, Retention, & Recruitment
What if tapping into your genius is the key to finding meaning, joy, and fulfillment in your work?
Imagine a culture where people are deeply engaged producing their best work. Collaboration happens with ease, and team synergy creates innovative outcomes. At the end of the day people leave inspired, fulfilled, and are looking forward to tomorrow’s work.
This is not a fantasy. It’s the natural outcome of connecting what people love to what they do.
A Thought Leader in the Positive Psychology of Peak Performance, Violinist Diane Allen shares her three-step Flow Strategy™ system in this highly experiential program. You’ll learn three simple questions that unlock genius and how to utilize them to improve employee engagement, retention, and recruitment.
The Changing Landscape of Protected Employee Speech and Religious Expression
Recent legislation, court decisions, and NLRB opinions have expanded employees’ rights to freely disclose and discuss a wide variety of topics that were once off limits under many employers’ policies and agreements including wages, alleged harassment or discrimination, and other unlawful working conditions. In addition, the US Supreme Court recently recognized what it calls “superprotections” around employee religious expression in the workplace and enhanced entitlement to religious accommodation. This presentation will cover the range of protections that employers need to know to balance what are sometimes competing legal obligations at play in todays’ workplace and offer practical strategies and best practices for employers to maintain compliance in this ever-changing area.
Unlock Genius for Increased Engagement, Retention, & Recruitment
What if tapping into your genius is the key to finding meaning, joy, and fulfillment in your work?
Imagine a culture where people are deeply engaged producing their best work. Collaboration happens with ease, and team synergy creates innovative outcomes. At the end of the day people leave inspired, fulfilled, and are looking forward to tomorrow’s work.
This is not a fantasy. It’s the natural outcome of connecting what people love to what they do.
A Thought Leader in the Positive Psychology of Peak Performance, Violinist Diane Allen shares her three-step Flow Strategy™ system in this highly experiential program. You’ll learn three simple questions that unlock genius and how to utilize them to improve employee engagement, retention, and recruitment.
Elevate Potential: The Art of Igniting Flow Through Skill & Challenge Mastery
Dive into the essence of purpose based peak performance and discover the transformative power of aligning skills with challenges to unlock the hidden genius within your teams. This isn't about sporadic success; it's about consistently achieving fulfillment and excellence in the workplace.
Join Diane Allen, Flow State Speaker & Violinist in this dynamic session that transcends conventional approaches, leaving you with a profound understanding of how to invoke the state where genius thrives – and the know-how to turn it into your competitive advantage.
Account Based Health Plans
Health Savings Accounts and HSA-qualified health plans have grown exponentially in the last several years and most experts agree that the rate of growth will continue to increase under health reform. The number of client questions about these tax-advantaged accounts will almost certainly increase as well. This course is designed to provide agents with the information they need. The highlight of the presentation will be the examples we will run through to make sure attendees understand the eligibility and contribution rules as well as the frequently and not-so-frequently asked questions about account based health plans HSAs, HRAs & FSAs.
Economic Forecast
Join us for a presentation by the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) as they provide a comprehensive economic forecast for Anchorage and its surrounding areas. Gain valuable insights into the current economic landscape, emerging trends, and projections that will shape the future of our region. Don't miss this opportunity to stay informed and strategically plan for the future of your organization.
Total Rewards "Unplugged": Wired for Today's Workplace
Discover Total Rewards strategies in the modern workplace as we delve into innovative approaches to compensation, benefits, recruiting, and recognition tailored to the needs and expectations of today's diverse workforce. We will explore how to energize your rewards programs, fostering engagement, retention, and organizational success in a rapidly changing landscape.
The 3 Bs: Breaking Down Bias, Barriers, and Creating Belonging for your Workforce and in your Recruitment Strategy
How do you get people to love where they work? It starts with a culture of continuous conversations and education that positively impacts your hiring practices and engagement. In this session you will hear stories and strategies on how to break down bias and barriers that prevent growth, retention, and attaining top talent. We will also embark on a journey on how to create a place of belonging and how AI can support or demote this cause. Join this interactive advocacy conversation that is so imperative to the future of recruitment in your workforce and the continuation of driving diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Are You a Wise Helper or Wounded Healer?
So what makes a great HR leader in our current climate and culture? They are women and men who are aware of their wounds, abilities, and needs while preparing themselves not for the comfortable predictability of yesterday but also for the realities of today and all of those unknown possibilities of tomorrow. Unfortunately, in the process HR folks tend to incur wounds and become exhausted in an often thankless job. It’s easy to experience feelings of loneliness and aloneness discouragement and frustration. If you live in those feelings, you’ll end up reacting to the future instead of making it. Further, you won’t benefit from a broadened perspective that includes different cultures, perspectives, and people. This is the start of great leadership. The healing of our wounds and maximization of our abilities gives birth to freedom in our lives. We still deal with the same difficult people but how we deal with them and the results are dramatically different. The kind of freedom involves attention, awareness, vulnerability and discipline. By the end of this talk the participants will understand how changing their thinking, healing wounds leads, and living four key concepts leads to a life of freedom, loss of stress, increased passion and productivity.
The Power of Coaching
Learn the benefits and building blocks of coaching and practice it real-time with your peers, using listening and powerful question skills. Darci and Diane are two independent leadership coaches and HR consultants who team up together to run the Align: Women in Leadership group coaching cohorts.
The Emperor's New Clothes
There is sometimes the need to have difficult conversations with difficult people under difficult circumstances in every company. It is unlikely you'll have a good outcome when those conversations are with leaders above you in the organization's hierarchy. Working with leaders who are narcissistic or at the very least have significant blind spots can dramatically impact an employee's effectiveness. This workshop offers practical tools for working with leaders who: "forget" conversations; preach collaboration but do not live it; refuse to accept responsibility and blame others for their mistakes. The skills learned in this workshop will help change interactions with you as seminar participants learn about their dysfunctions and improve their mental health, preventing blowback on you and other innocents.