The AA, Jaguar, Vodafone, Canon, Arup, Currys, Norwich Union, Woolworths and The Children’s Trust are just some of the blue-chip organisations whose HR directors will be speaking at the HR Directors Business Summit later this month.
Other speakers include Jim Murphy, minister of state for employment and welfare reform, and Falklands veteran Simon Weston.
Presentations and discussion topics will cover:
- How to engage staff and create value.
- Working well with unions.
- Aligning HR and business policy.
- The business case for diversity in the workforce.
- Bridging the skills gap.
- Using shared services to make HR more efficient.
As well as a three-stream speaker/discussion programme, there will be plenty of networking opportunities, workshops, case studies and a supplier exhibition.
More than 150 senior HR professionals are already booked to attend.
Personnel Today is supporting the HR Directors Business Summit, which takes place on 29 and 30 January at the Celtic Manor resort in south Wales, and has negotiated a special discounted rate of £595 for its readers.
To book online, go to www.hrevent.com, quoting RB106.
GlaxoSmithKline rethinks reward
Only three in 10 companies believe their rewards programme is effective in attracting and retaining people, according to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). And only two in 10 believe it is effective in influencing employees’ behaviour.
Richard Higginson, director, international benefits at GSK, is presenting to the HR Directors Business Summit on why organisations get their reward packages so wrong. “And I am going to share the results of a major international study GSK has just carried out into what people really want,” he said.
Google’s pyjama party
Google doubled its number of employees last year across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and has similar growth to manage in 2007.
Liane Hornsey, HR director at Google UK, is speaking at the conference on attracting and developing talent. She told Personnel Today: “Even with those tough targets, we are very rigorous in our recruitment.
“We’re only looking for real high-potential talent that can thrive within the Google culture.”
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To explain that culture, Hornsey revealed that one recent Friday was ‘Pyjama Day’ for Google employees across the world.
“There was hot chocolate and marshmallows all round and some people brought their teddy bears to work. It’s very conducive to creativity,” she said.
