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Thank you for registering for the 2008 Great Place to Work® Conference.
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008
7:30 - 6:00 PM
Registration
Continental Breakfast
8:30 - 2:00 PM
Pre-Conference Workshops
Foundations of a Great Place to Work®
This introductory seminar provides an overview of two essential frameworks for understanding the best companies to work for. This workshop is a perfect introduction to the Great Place to Work® Model and methodology including our Trust Index® and Culture Audit and is ideal for participants wanting to start by developing this core knowledge base. Also, this seminar will examine the motivation and business rationale for investing in creating a great place to work. The workshop includes both individual and group learning experiences designed to help you explore how you can create a great place to work and spotlights the ways other companies have built great workplaces.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the five dimensions of a Great Place to Work® based on the employee experience
- Deepen your understanding of the nine management practice areas for creating a great workplace
- Learn several best practices of the Best Companies and those of your peers, and discuss how to apply them to your organization’s unique culture
- Identify opportunities for change in your organization
Focus Level: Presentation/Interactive - 50%/50%
- Erin Liberman Moran
Director of International Operations, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
- Randy Young
Consultant, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
Leadership in Action: Your Role in Creating a Great Workplace
This highly interactive session will provide you withthe opportunity for in-depth learning and knowledge sharing focused on the essential practices and behaviors required by every leader committed to this journey. The primary methodology will be peer consulting, peer coaching and group exercises. Whether your organization is striving for greatness or working to sustain it, understanding your unique role as a leader is crucial to your organization’s success. This session will connect you with like-minded leaders across industries, equip you with an understanding of your own trust-building abilities and behaviors, and support you in creating a framework for leading your organization to new levels of trust.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify unique leadership qualities found at the best companies to work for
- Assess your own leadership strengths and areas for improvement
- Hear stories from leaders at the best companies
- Develop connections with leaders at peer organizations - Give and receive coaching on current leadership challenges
Focus Level: Presentation/Interactive - 25%/75%
- Hal Adler
President, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
- Pam Bilbrey
President, The Baptist Health Care Leadership Institute
- Susan Eyvazzadeh
Executive Vice President of People Services, Brooks Brothers
- John Hrabusa
Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Publix Super Markets
- Brent Ross
Consultant, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
Best Practices of the Best Companies: Ideas and Action Plans for your Business from Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work for®
This Workshop will introduce you to Best Practices at FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work for®and the 50 “Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America” and teach you not only about the incredible practices and programs they offer to keep employee satisfaction at an all-time high (and turnover at an all-time low!), but how and why these practices work. Our consultants and guest speakers will walk you through exercises and group discussions that will help you uncover which practices can help you create a great place to work at your organization.
Learning Objectives:
- Review the frameworks for understanding the best companies to work for
- Learn about a variety of practices and programs at distinguished workplaces
- Understand how and why those practices work
- Deepen your understanding of your company’s unique culture
- Improve your existing practices to make them more relevant and rewarding for your employees
Focus Level: Presentation/Interactive - 25%/75%
2:00 - 4:00 PM
Dine Around Sign Up
3:00 - 3:45 PM
Speed Networking Event
Make connections with other conference attendees in this lively networking session led by Great Place to Work® facilitators. This event will give you a chance to get to know other leaders in your interest group or industry before the official start of the conference.
- Suzanne Vickberg
Senior Consultant, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
- Jane Weiss
Senior Consultant, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
About the Great Place to Work® Trust Model®
Great Place to Work® Institute has been analyzing workplaces for over 25 years. Our time-tested assessment tool is used by thousands of organizations each year to analyze and assess their workplace cultures. Join us to learn how we define and measure great workplaces, what the key drivers of great workplaces are, and the basic business benefits of creating great workplaces. In addition, we will provide some specific data points and best practice examples from our research and assessment of best companies for FORTUNE and SHRM. This session will provide a brief overview of our research and Trust Model©.
- Lindsay Nelson
Associate Consultant, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
4:00 - 4:10 PM
Opening Remarks
4:10 - 4:45 PM
Awards Presentation
Each year, five companies are presented with the Great Place to Work® Award for best practices that contribute to building a great place to work. The Awards ceremony will introduce you to these Best Companies and their Award-winning people practices; Leaders from these companies will host breakout sessions throughout the conference on the best practices they have been recognized for.
4:45 - 5:50 PM
Opening Keynote Panel: Google and Wegmans - Two Great Companies on Being #1
In 2008, Google has once again been named the Best Company to Work for in America. Wegmans Food Markets, a supermarket chain based in Rochester New York, was the #1 Company to Work for in 2005. What does it mean to be the "best" company to work for, and how have two companies with different industries, locations, and employee profiles both topped the list? A lively discussion with leaders of both companies will kick off this year's conference.
- Laszlo Bock
Vice President of People Operations, Google
- Jack DePeters
Senior Vice President of Store Operations, Wegmans Food Markets
5:50 - 7:00 PM
Welcome Reception
Thursday, April 03, 2008
7:30 - 8:30 AM
Continental Breakfast
Registration
7:40 - 8:20 AM
About Great Place to Work® Institute
Great Place to Work® Institute believes that any company, of any size, and in any industry can create a great place to work and that being a great place to work yields significant business benefits and competitive advantage including higher productivity, greater retention, and increased innovation and creativity.
Join us to learn more about Great Place to Work® Institute, our employee-centered Great Place to Work® Model©, and the tools we use to evaluate and transform workplaces, including our Trust Index© Survey, Culture Audit©, 100 Best Benchmarking, and Action Planning Tools. Whether your company is interested in how we evaluate submissions for our Best Companies to Work For lists or how Great Place to Work® Institute can help you transform your workplace, this information session will introduce you to the Institute and the people who can help answer your questions.
8:00 - 12:00 PM
Dine Around Sign Up
8:30 - 9:15 AM
Keynote: Leadership, Uncertainty and Decision Making
Leadership requires that difficult decisions be made quickly and thoughtfully, even when more time and information might be ideal. Yet it’s rare that those ideal conditions will ever exist. So how do leaders gather the right information in a timely way and process it quickly enough to make the best decision possible given the circumstances? Great leaders rely on a number of strategies, including being selective about the data they use to make decisions and paying close attention to their beliefs and values during the decision making process. Join Amy Lyman, co-founder and Director of Corporate Research at Great Place to Work® Institute, and David Blom, CEO of OhioHealth, for a discussion about leadership under uncertain conditions and the values that influence decision-making in great workplaces.
- David Blom
President and CEO, OhioHealth
- Amy Lyman
Co-founder and Chair of the Board, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
9:30 - 10:30 AM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
A Conversation with the #1 Small & Medium Companies to Work for
What differentiates the #1 companies to work for? This year, the top companies on our “Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for” list are a small mining corporation based in Berlin, Wisconsin and a 346-employee construction company in Georgia. Why did people at these companies vote them as the best employers in the nation? Join leaders at both of these companies for a conversation about what they do that keeps their employees looking forward to coming to work each day.
Moving Past Complacency: Creating a High-Performance Culture
High performing organizations are those that have learned how to move beyond the status quo and out of the comfort of complacency. When you create an environment where everyone is engaged in moving the organization forward you will achieve results beyond any you could imagine. Join Pam Bilbrey for a compelling discussion about creating a shared sense of urgency and inspiration across your entire organization.
- Pam Bilbrey
President, The Baptist Health Care Leadership Institute
Mass Career Customization: Supporting Individuals' Career Development
At Deloitte, a “career path” no longer follows the traditional upward career ladder. Instead, the company has defined the concept of a career “lattice” - a path that offers employees a structured, transparent approach to both upward and lateral career progression measured in terms of pace, workload, location, schedule and role. Join Anne Weisberg, co-author of a recent HBS Press book on the subject, to learn more about Deloitte’s approach to aligning the workplace with today’s non-traditional workforce.
Best Practices: Strategic Efforts to Expand Diversity
Great Place to Work® Award Winner 2008
Diversity has been a fundamental corporate value at Herman Miller since the company’s founding in the early 20th Century. More recently, the company has been working to build diversity into its system-wide strategy and operations in a meaningful and measurable way. The company’s Corporate Inclusiveness and Diversity Team is working to achieve specific metrics in five internal and external areas by 2010.
10:30 - 11:00 AM
Refreshment and Networking Break
Workplace Culture Session - Flexibility at SC Johnson
Take a break and experience the workplace culture of one of our Best Company sponsors. Refreshments provided.
At SC Johnson, flexibility is built into how we operate each and every day. Through programs like job-sharing, flexible work hours, no meeting days and summer hours, SC Johnson aims to give employees as much flexibility as possible. Plus, initiatives such as our concierge service, vanpool and overnight hotel program help ensure that employees make the most of their personal time thanks to the many conveniences at work. Join us for a "day in the life" session and experience for yourself the unique programs we offer our employees to help ease their day.
11:00 - 12:00 PM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Creative Approaches to Recruiting and Retaining Talented Employees
Infosys has appeared on the “Best Companies to Work for” list in India. Similar to the US, India faces an impending labor shortage, including a shortage of skilled talent. Infosys has taken a creative approach to this challenge by supporting universities in rural areas to run programs that increase the educated population in India. Nandita Gurjar will discuss Infosys’ work in this area, along with its impacts both in the wider community and within the company.
Communication as a Linchpin to Change
In 2007, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s iconic CEO announced he was leaving after 20 years of creating a vibrant culture. This transition was handled the same way as other major transitions -- with careful, audience-focused planning and communication. By addressing the needs of employees in a proactive and transparent manner, Children’s focused employees on the excitement ahead instead of ruminating on the past. Linda and Tim will share practical tools and approaches, and a key insight most companies miss, that help ensure successful widespread change.
- Linda Matzigkeit
Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
- Tim Whitehead
Director of Internal Communications, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Maintaining a Great Workplace During Periods of Change
VSP Vision Care has been listed as one of the “100 Best” for the past eight years in a row. Join Elaine Leuchars, a leader at VSP since 1995, to learn how the company has managed to remain a great workplace amid periods of intense change over the past several years. Elaine will discuss how VSP has been able to leverage its unique cultural strengths to build and retain trust with employees through a CEO transition and several acquisitions.
Best Practices: Collaborative Decision-Making - Top/Down, Bottom/Up
Great Place to Work® Award Winner 2008
At Root Learning, employees from all levels of the organization participate in company decisions. Root Learning makes it clear that all programs, plans, and initiatives affecting employees (“Rootizens”) are to be created using opinions and viewpoints derived concurrently from the top down (management-driven) and bottom up (grassroots-driven).
12:15 - 1:00 PM
Keynote: Connecting, Caring, Celebrating - How to Keep a Close Culture as Your Company Grows
Tom Folliard took the helm as CEO at CarMax in 2006, after being with the company for 13 years. CarMax has enjoyed strong growth since its founding, from one store in 1993 to 83 in 2007. The company now employs 15,000 associates and builds about 12 new stores per year. CarMax was founded on the principles of integrity, respect and honesty for customers and associates, and continues to live these values with both associates and customers. Tom will discuss how CarMax has managed to rapidly expand the company and associate size without sacrificing the “small company culture” that associates enjoy.
1:00 - 2:00 PM
Networking Lunch
2:15 - 3:00 PM
Keynote: Culture Club
Dave Lissy and Mary Ann Tocio work closely together to lead Bright Horizons as a team, creating a culture rooted in a passion for their mission and a deep respect for all employees. Dave and Mary Ann have experienced their own complex work/life balancing acts, but know that they are no more compelling than the challenges faced by any of the more than 18,000 driven, compassionate and hard working educators who provide child care and early education at nearly 650 child care centers and schools across for more than 70,000 children around the world. The company has achieved extraordinary growth by seeking partners who share the passion and vision for work/life integration, an employer of choice mindset, community involvement and awareness, and high ethical standards.
- Dave Lissy
Chief Executive Officer, Bright Horizons
3:15 - 4:15 PM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
CEO Panel: Measuring Success across Multiple Indicators
Dwight Cooper, Tim McTavish and Paul Spiegelman are chief executives of three of the best small and medium companies to work for in America. Join this session for a lively panel discussion around various measurements of success. Other than and including bottom-line indicators, how do these leaders measure achievement, and what advice do they have for companies trying to improve both trust and shareholder value?
Building a Great Place to Work at Mattel
In 2008, toy company Mattel made the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list for the first time since 1998, receiving kudos from employees for the swift and responsible actions it took regarding a highly-publicized product recall in 2007. Join Alan Kaye to learn how Mattel maintained a culture of trust through integrity and consistent communications throughout the process, and celebrated its return to the list in 2008.
- Alan Kaye
Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Mattel
Maintaining a Great Workplace in a Challenging Economy
The real estate market has faced an abysmal market this past year, and several other markets have suffered difficult economic conditions as well. In an age of budget cuts, lost revenue and overall uncertainty, how can organizations continue to build upon cultural strengths and maintain a solid foundation of trust with employees? In this session, Mike Brezina of David Weekley Homes and John Pazzani of Timberland will share stories of building continued trust with employees amid stressful conditions.
Best Practices: Professional Development - Culture of Apprenticeship
Great Place to Work® Award Winner 2008
Learn about Boston Consulting Group’s professional development process and its culture of apprenticeship. Far from a traditional training process, professional development at Boston Consulting Group involves pairing junior consultants and new hires with more senior consultants and experienced employees, which allows people to learn on the job through experience and observation.
4:15 - 4:45 PM
Refreshment and Networking Break
Healthier Better Lives: Wegmans Food Markets
Take a break and experience the workplace culture of one of our Best Company sponsors:
As a great place to work, Wegmans helps their people make measurable, meaningful, sustainable change in their behaviors & provide support in order for them to live healthier better lives. It’s estimated that 50 - 70 percent of health care costs are related to lifestyle choices. One of the things people can do to control these costs is live a healthier, better life. Eat Well Live Well helps Wegmans do that, and the Employee Challenge is a fun, easy way to get started. The Challenge is an eight-week company-wide competition that has employees all over Wegmans counting their steps and cups of fruits and vegetables. Wegmans Food Markets is also one of the 2008 Great Place to Work® award recipients. Refreshments provided.
4:45 - 5:30 PM
Keynote: Three Decades of Leading an Innovative Enterprise
SAS is the world’s largest privately-held software company and a worldwide leader in enterprise intelligence solutions and services. As co-founder and CEO of SAS since 1976, Jim Goodnight has led the company to an unbroken record of strong revenue growth that reached $2.1 billion in 2007. The company has also been named one of the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® each year the list has been published. In this keynote, you’ll learn how SAS has successfully fostered innovation and creativity among its 10,000 employees in 53 countries.
6:00 - 9:00 PM
St. Louis Dine-Around Event
Friday, April 04, 2008
7:30 - 8:30 AM
Continental Breakfast
7:40 - 8:20 AM
About Great Place to Work® Institute
Great Place to Work® Institute believes that any company, of any size, and in any industry can create a great place to work and that being a great place to work yields significant business benefits and competitive advantage including higher productivity, greater retention, and increased innovation and creativity.
Join us to learn more about Great Place to Work® Institute, our employee-centered Great Place to Work® Model©, and the tools we use to evaluate and transform workplaces, including our Trust Index© Survey, Culture Audit©, 100 Best Benchmarking, and Action Planning Tools. Whether your company is interested in how we evaluate submissions for our Best Companies to Work For lists or how Great Place to Work® Institute can help you transform your workplace, this information session will introduce you to the Institute and the people who can help answer your questions.
8:30 - 9:30 AM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Instilling Pride and Camaraderie through Philanthropy
NetApp has established a strong base of pride among employees through extensive philanthropy and volunteer efforts. The company encourages employees to get involved in community efforts they are passionate about, offering a Volunteer Time Off program and a global Volunteer Network that connects the organization, and individuals, to their global communities. These programs also promote a healthy work-life balance for employees that are interested in reaching out in their communities. Join this session to generate ideas for developing philanthropy efforts in your organization through dynamic award-winning programs, and as a tool for building pride and camaraderie among your employees.
Meeting the Needs of Older Generations
As the large population of “Baby Boomers” approaches traditional retirement age, companies run the risk of losing talent, skills, cultural savvy and client relationships that may have been a part of the business for years. More and more companies are realizing the importance of developing a strategy to retain the knowledge and stability of the older generations. American Fidelity Assurance has begun setting the foundation to meet the needs of this generation. Join this session to learn strategies and solutions that this “100 Best” company has employed.
- Jeanette Rice
Senior Vice President, Corporate and Human Resources, American Fidelity Assurance
Building on Cultural Strengths during Periods of Rapid Growth
Sustaining a great workplace culture can be a challenge in the face of organizational growth. Join two leaders at “Best Small & Medium” companies to learn how each managed to maintain a foundation of trust during growth periods. Whether due to expansion or acquisition, it is possible to retain cultural strengths while other elements of the business change. Learn from these two leaders how they handled this simultaneous challenge and opportunity.
- Nancy Meech
Partner, Heinfeld, Meech and Company
- Lee Vikre
Vice President of Tremendous People, McMurry
From Broke to Best Company: The Shared Technologies Journey
Enjoy as President & CEO, Tony Parella, recaps the remarkable journey of Shared Technologies, a company that, in just a 3-year period, emerged from bankruptcy to become recognized as one of the 2008 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For®.
9:30 - 10:00 AM
Refreshment and Networking Break
Workplace Culture Session - Ernst & Young
Take a break and experience the workplace culture of one of our Best Company sponsors.
One of the ways that Ernst & Young makes a difference is by giving its people opportunities to create positive change. For example, major Ernst & Young meetings often include time for education-focused community engagement activities. Ernst & Young is bringing this aspect of its workplace culture to the Great Places to Work Institute Conference. In a hands-on session, participants will be asked to help assemble "care packages" that will be distributed to disadvantaged St. Louis students. Refreshments provided.
10:00 - 11:00 AM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Strategies for Building Trust with Younger Generations
A lot of press attention has been paid to younger generations recently. “Generation Y,” “Millennials,” “Generation Me” - younger workers have been revered and reviled, but nonetheless make up a large portion of current and future employees. PwC is a company with a large number of younger employees, and has been working in creative ways to build capacity, performance and trust with this demographic. Michael Fenlon will share challenges and strategies PwC has used to work with this group of employees.
Avoiding Entitlement by Supporting an Ownership Mentality
Employees who feel a sense of ownership of the company are able to contribute more freely, build strong relationships with clients and create innovative solutions. How does a company foster a sense of ownership that allows people to flourish and act with the organization’s best interests in mind? Join Barbara Baker from Umpqua Bank - #13 on the 2008 "100 Best" list - to learn how this has translated into organizational culture and success at Umpqua.
- Barbara Baker
Executive Vice President, Cultural Enhancement, Umpqua Bank
Removing Obstacles to Wellness
Organizations are paying attention to wellness. Not only does it keep future health care costs low, it demonstrates a sense of caring for employees as people - not just as employees. In this session, Nina Chomak Donnelly will discuss how Nike, dedicated to supporting the well-being of its employees as well as its customer base, has removed the obstacles to employee wellness at their Oregon based World Headquarters to support their health over the long term.
- Nina Donnelly
General Manager, Nike Sports Centers and Wellness Center, Nike
Best Practices: Hiring for Culture Fit
Great Place to Work® Award Winner 2008
W. L. Gore designed its hiring practices to ensure culture fit along with talent and skills. Gore’s unique culture demands that associates be team-oriented, self-motivated, and able to succeed without traditional managers or structure. The company uses extensive interviewing and reference checking, peer involvement and group problem solving exercises to ensure that new associates will thrive in its unstructured environment.
- Anand Narayan
East Coast Technology Leader, Medical Products Division, W.L. Gore & Associates
- Barbara Pizzala
Global Recruiting Leader, W.L. Gore & Associates
11:15 - 12:00 PM
Keynote: Back to Basics - Maintaining a Long-term Culture of Respect and Collaboration
Edward Jones is a privately held financial services firm that doesn’t offer extravagant or attention-getting perks, yet it has scored high on the “100 Best” list for nine years -- ranking No. 4 in 2008 and earning No. 1 rankings in 2002 and 2003. Edward Jones associates enjoy a challenging work environment that fosters professional growth without sacrificing personal life. In 2008, the company had the highest percentage of employees, of all companies on the list, who felt “encouraged to balance their work life and personal life.” The firm thrives with a Midwestern culture that stresses respect for the individual, a collaborative partnership structure, and candid communication. Managing Partner Jim Weddle will explain how this growing firm maintains its back-to-basics culture that keeps associates satisfied and motivated toward a common purpose.
12:00 - 12:30 PM
Closing Remarks
- Hal Adler
President, Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
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