2017 Schedule

Keynote Panel

Brian Gittens, Ruthanne Chun, Jenny Faust, and Sheronda Glass

Motivating Exceptional Performance through Transformational Leadership

Alex Stajkovic. PhD (UW-Madison’s School of Business) 

Most organizations are over-managed and under-led. Why? Because the nature of leadership is not immediately obvious – otherwise, organizations would have more leaders than managers, and leaders would be easy to find.

If you are an HR manager interested in maximizing your effectiveness, you must progress from being a manager to being a leader. In this session, you’ll learn how to begin. We’ll explore the following:

• Why should we care: Why are highly skilled performers not necessarily effective leaders?
• What do managers do? What do leaders do? Is it different?
• Knowing yourself is a first step before trying to lead others
• The path of leadership development: Laissez-faire, Transactional, and Transformational
• The philosophy of leadership and classic dilemmas

Transformational Leadership is about winning the hearts and minds by transforming the way employees feel and think about work. Come explore how you can begin to transform your own way of working as a leader in HR.

Partnering with Managers: Intakes for Successful Recruitments

Erica Fini-Marten & Lauren Bowers (OHR Talent Recruitment & Engagement)

Do your recruitments take too long? Does your applicant pool lack the skills you’re really seeking? These are symptoms of an incomplete pre-recruitment process. What’s that, you ask?

Partnering with managers to have thoughtful, productive intake conversations is a critical step in the recruitment process to ensure that you recruit candidates who are not just a “yes” but a “HECK YES!”

Join this interactive session to learn:

• What an intake meeting is
• Why intake meetings are essential for successful recruitment outcomes
• When the meeting should occur and how it’s structured
• Techniques to get started and/or enhance current practices

Solid intake is much more than a checklist. Come learn about best pre-recruitment practices and have fun in the process!

Partnership: The Opportunity of Conflict

Patrick Sheehan, JD (OHR Workforce Relations) & Sherry Boeger, MSE, LCSW (Employee Assistance Office)

In human resources, it is essential to address conflicts in the workplace. How can we human resources professionals foster environments in which people work well together and meet their departmental goals and objectives?

In this session, you will learn how you can encourage managers/supervisors and other non-supervisory employees within your division/department(s) to display respect, appreciation and curiosity when handling personnel matters – and how you can lead by example. We will work through several scenarios ranging from subtle disrespect to bullying and discrimination, and review policies, such as the Hostile and Intimidating Behaviors Policies, which serve as important guides for how we in human resources should respond. You will also come away from this session with an improved understanding of campus resources available to support you and others in your divisions.

Throughout the session, we’ll emphasize the costs of not addressing conflict and personnel matters in a timely and direct manner; how you might work through apprehension when dealing with difficult situations; and the benefits for everyone (you included!) of working proactively to create healthy environments.

Introduction to Plain Language

Jennifer Sell (OHR Cultural Linguistic Services)

Have you ever wanted to get your message across faster? Have you wanted to feel more confident that you were understood correctly – the first time? Using “Plain Language” strategies may be the answer!

Effective communication is vital in all aspects of our personal and professional lives. This interactive workshop will introduce you to strategies ranging from word choice and font selection to “teach-back” and grammar tweaks. Develop a toolkit of techniques to communicate more smoothly in conversation and writing with both native and nonnative English-speaking colleagues.

Come learn how people across campus—and across the globe—rely on effective Plain Language strategies to save time, money, work, and frustration by promoting better understanding and customer satisfaction.

* Introduction to Plain Language is the first step in a three-part series to earn the new Plain Language Certificate offered by Cultural Linguistic Services

Partner with Your Body for Optimal Wellbeing

Kavita Poddar, PhD (School of Medicine & Public Health)

Are you confused about the kind of foods you should be eating for optimal health? Is it possible that what you eat can contribute to how your body is able to manage stress?

In this session, you’ll learn:

• Different diet strategies that can cause more harm than good….
• Mediterranean versus DASH diet for heart health…
• Stress management – how does food fit in?
• What is optimal diet?

Join Kavita Poddar, a clinical nutritionist, to learn how you can eat in ways that will optimize your wellbeing.

Conflicted About Conflict?

Jessica Swenson (OHR Learning & Talent Development)

Does conflict inspire a fight or flight response in you? Something in between? A little bit of both?

It is impossible to succeed in your career and never experience conflict.  As HR professionals, we not only experience our own conflicts, but must also coach other on how to handle conflict. Being able to navigate conflict and determine how best to handle it is an essential skill for career and professional success.

In this session, we’ll define the five modes of conflict and explore the pros and cons of each approach. We’ll then explore real-life conflict scenarios and discuss how to determine which mode is most appropriate for you.  The process will map out concerns and considerations for yourself and others to help you determine the most appropriate conflict approach, which will help you determine when it’s appropriate to tackle a conflict head on and when it’s appropriate to let something go.

Additionally, you’ll complete a conflict inventory to determine your natural conflict style.  Knowing what comes naturally to you and where you need to put in intentional effort can help ease some of the tension and anxiety we often feel when dealing with conflicts.

Lunch, Networking, and Presentation by Laurent Heller

A Look Ahead: Building the Operational Capacity for Growth at UW–Madison

Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller will provide an overview of plans to grow revenue at UW–Madison so that new investments can be made in our academic mission. These growth plans will present both opportunities and challenges for the human resources community. Vice Chancellor Heller will review the steps we have already taken to build capacity and increase efficiency in human resources. Finally, he will share his thoughts on how human resources professionals across campus can prepare their operations for anticipated growth in enrollments and revenue over the next five years and beyond.

Allyship in HR: Providing Culturally Responsive and Inclusive Customer Service

Laura Minero (Department of Counseling Psychology)

In this workshop, we’ll focus on exploring various aspects of and ways to develop cultural responsiveness and relational skills that are crucial to enhancing relationships with the diverse clientele whom you serve as human resource professionals.

Culture is broadly defined and can encompass differences related to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, generational differences, sexual orientation, gender identity, documentations status, etc. Relational competence on the other hand, emphasizes the interpersonal skills that can facilitate the acquisition, development, and maintenance of mutually satisfying relationships.

Laura will share from her own experiences as a therapist, mentor, scholar, and racial equity specialist and engage attendees in conversation and activities in hopes that sharing of knowledge that ensues can serve as a stepping-stone towards fostering equitable and inclusive human resource services and developing stronger and flexible relationships with consumers.

Civics 101 and the Process of Rule-Making

Brian Vaughan, JD (Office of Legal Affairs) & Jennifer Taylor, JD (OHR International Faculty & Staff Services)

How do proposed bills become laws? What does this have to do with me in HR?

In this session, we’ll discuss how local, state, university and federal rules that the university must follow are created.  You’ll learn:

• Who proposes and creates administrative rules and laws
• How an administrative rule (or regulation) is different from a law
• How proposed laws become codified
• The differences between an executive order and a state statute
• Which rules and laws supersede other rules and laws, and
• How rules and laws can be changed

Finally, we’ll explore how all of this affects you and your work in human resources.

Navigating the Muck: Leading Change in HR Service Delivery

Brian Gittens, EdD, MPA and Kristen Vieth (School of Medicine & Public Health)

This interactive lecture provides an update to the School of Medicine and Public Health’s (SMPH) efforts to improve HR services and change the customer service culture of SMPH HR. Using John Kotter’s 8-Step Change Management framework, we’ll provide an update to the change process and real world application of the change concepts.

While we’ll focus on HR service delivery, we’ll also highlight a team approach that promotes increased staff engagement. Empowering staff has the potential to not only facilitate implementation, but also empower staff in support of a culture of continuous improvement.

In this session, you’ll explore the “muck” of change, including competing priorities, different organizational cultures, and individual interests, all which comprise a delicate balancing act that must be led through effective leadership and employee engagement.

Come benefit from our lessons learned in the HR service delivery change process.

“Wait, that’s not what I meant!”: Understanding & Addressing Microaggressions in the Workplace

Jacob Klett (OHR Learning & Talent Development)

Microaggressions are brief, commonplace, verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights or insults to a target person or group. Often unintentional, these microaggresions can have a negative, cumulative impact on the experiences and well-being of employees and communities.

This interactive session will provide an introduction and overview around the concept of microaggressions in the workplace. Participants will be provided with opportunities to practice the recognition of microaggressions and will also explore strategies to address and respond to challenging workplace situations and tensions in order to effectively work toward creating more inclusive workplace communities.

Building Inclusion and Diversity through Mindfulness

Ed Maxwell, MBA (Third Left Wellness, LLC)

Harvard research shows that traditional ways of fostering diversity backfire. This is because the underlying problem – unconscious biases – aren’t addressed. These biases cause a host of workplace problems.

The good news is that research from Central Michigan University points to a promising solution: mindfulness practice. Mindfulness been shown to reduce both bias and discrimination.

In this session, you’ll learn about the evidence for the impact of mindfulness on bias, have a chance to experience mindfulness first hand with two brief practices, and learn how you can create your very own workplace mindfulness program. Not only will you be able to achieve greater diversity and inclusion, but you will also be able to reap the other benefits of mindfulness, such as increased happiness and emotional intelligence, and reduced stress.

Join us to learn how mindfulness can foster partnerships and benefit everyone – both you individually and your organization.

Integrity in Real-Time

Sarah Young (Zing Collaborative)

Integrity. It’s a concept that most of us can get behind pretty easily, and a concept that most of us try to uphold. But what does integrity look like in real-time? When we are asked to communicate a decision that we completely disagree with? When we overhear gossip in the breakroom that we do completely agree with? Or when we feel our personal values may be in conflict with the values of our leader, our team, or our organization?

During this interactive and thought-provoking session, we’ll nurture honesty as we explore the concept of integrity in real-time; examine situations when it can feel challenging and confusing to know whether we are in alignment with our integrity; and uncover what we can do moving forward.

The session will include discussion, storytelling, application, and actionable strategies to apply after the session.

Diverse Brains: Accommodations and Acceptance

Morton Ann Gernsbacher, PhD (Department of Psychology)

Humans differ. Most of us read with our eyes, but some of us read with our fingertips. The majority of us communicate by speaking and listening, but a minority of us communicate by signing. Humans are diverse, and so are our brains. When should neuroscientists accentuate these differences and when shouldn’t they? Why should individuals, themselves, accept their brain differences? And how can we as human resources professionals accommodate those brain differences?

In this session, we’ll explore the positive effects of accepting disability as diversity, techniques for reframing the way in which you might tend to view situations involving employees with disabilities, and the ways in which accommodations intended for people with disabilities ultimately serve people without disabilities.

Power Up Your Productivity: Practical Tips and Tools for Pruning, Prioritizing and Processing Everyday Work Life

Amanda Thornton (Space Science & Engineering), Brenda Spychalla (School of Education), Sandee Seiberlich (DoIT), and Sara Hagen (College of Engineering)  

Is your inbox overflowing? Have you ever lost track of a request or missed a deadline? Is everything top priority? Effectively managing your time is crucial to your and your organization’s success. Your work groups and your staff are challenged with many competing priorities that include meeting regular operational deadlines, providing quality service to your organization, and engaging in project work at divisional and university-wide levels that will fundamentally reshape our HR landscape. All of these responsibilities and more must be achieved while dealing with constant incoming requests, navigating roadblocks, completing training to continue your professional development, and taking on new initiatives.

In this practical how-to session, you’ll learn techniques and tools for managing your to-do lists, setting priorities, designating time to complete routine tasks, creating uninterrupted time to think and plan, and best practices for more effective meetings. Participation in this session will develop your core competencies in priority/ time management, balancing the often competing demands to provide high-quality service, manage projects efficiently, and sustain positive relationships. The panelists for the discussion bring a variety of perspectives based on their unique experiences on campus and beyond.

OHR Retirement Services: A Closer Look…

Katelyn Howen and Thomasin Propson (OHR Benefits Services)

Do you or your employees have questions about the State’s retirement process?  Do you want to understand more about the retirement resources offered by UW-Madison Office of Human Resources (OHR) and the tools and services provided by Employee Trust Funds (ETF)?  If so, this is the session for you!

This presentation provides you a preview of OHR’s monthly Pre-Retirement Session, and will address the following questions:

• What is the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS)?
• How do OHR and ETF work together to provide retirement information?
• What tools exist for helping employees to calculate and choose their WRS annuity?
• How can sick leave credits pay for retiree health insurance?
• What are the supplemental retirement plans (403b and 457b) offered to UW-Madison employees and how do they work?

We will role play a mock retirement counseling appointment with future retiree “Katelyn,” who is planning her post employment adventure in Hawaii, and will finish with a short Q & A.

DIP: Supporting, Developing, and Growing our Campus Community in Diversity and Collaboration

Torsheika Maddox, PhD (Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement)

The Diversity Inventory Program (DIP) is a searchable online database of UW-Madison diversity programs, activities, resources and research. As the direct fulfillment of Initiative 8 of the Diversity Framework, DIP is designed to help improve coordination, planning, and the visibility of activities at the university that focus on diversity, inclusion, and climate. Learn how to navigate the DIP database, identify resources on campus for expanding your department’s awareness of and commitment to diversity and inclusion, submit initiatives into the DIP database, and engage in a platform that will strengthen future campus and community partnerships.

Negotiating Up

Lynn Freeman (OHR Learning & Talent Development)

Negotiating is about resolving differences and problem solving. People who master the process of negotiation develop a higher degree of satisfaction at home and at work, and earn greater respect in their communities. Studies have repeatedly shown that men use negotiation to promote their own interests far more often than women do. This has significant implications for individuals AND for organizations.

This workshop will provide you with the basics of negotiation, including a variety of strategies and techniques to promote effective communication and problem solving in negotiation; and a discussion about how to use these techniques in the workplace.