Start Your Learning Journey

Total Rewards is the premier conference for HR and compensation professionals who want to create and deploy powerful rewards strategies that drive organizational success.  

 

We’ve built a robust program, so you customize your schedule based on your individual needs.  

Search Made Easy: Use the filters to search by Day, Track, Session Type and or Attendee Level. 

1:00PM
Sales Comp 101: Sales Compensation Fundamentals for the Total Rewards Professional
David Cichelli Revenue Growth Advisor, The Alexander Group, Inc.

Sales compensation: your turn is coming! You need to be ready when sales management asks for help with their sales compensation program!  It’s time to revisit sales compensation fundamentals. This 3-hour pre-conference session is perfect to help gain a foundation in sales compensation philosophies and principles. Learn basic terms, plan concepts and frameworks. Bring your questions and knotty issues too. Join sales compensation practice leader Dave Cichelli for this engaging session. 

Additional registration and fees are required. Preconference sessions are only available for Total Rewards’23 conference registrants.  

Designing Powerful Dashboards
Dianne Auld Founder and Principal Consultant, Auld Compensation Consulting

Do you want to tell better stories with visually appealing, efficiently updated HR/Rewards dashboards? Join me for an overview of dashboard design principles and an introduction to tools like Power Query, Power Pivot, and Macros. Gain hands-on experience building a dashboard with these tools in real time! Prerequisites include intermediate to advanced Excel skills, comfort creating/editing pivot tables and charts, Excel 2016 (or a later version), and the ability to add the Power Pivot tab to Excel. 

  • Understand effective dashboard design principles. 
  • Learn to use specialty tools and specific techniques to create a dashboard in real time.  
  • Recognize how this approach can be used for any type of HR or Rewards dashboard.   

Additional registration and fees are required. Preconference sessions are only available for Total Rewards’23 conference registrants.  

4:30PM
Champagne Welcome Reception
8:00AM
Community and Conversation Breakfast
8:30AM
Opening Session
9:45AM
Energizer Break
10:30AM
Keith McIntire Senior Manager, Global Total Rewards, Northern Tool + Equipment
Justin Truckenbrod President, Lockton Companies

In spite of rising healthcare costs, challenging market dynamics like specialty pharmacy, hyperinflation and a changing healthcare landscape, Northern Tool + Equipment has been able to deliver flat health and welfare costs and a richer benefits package for 3 years and running. Join this case study to hear about the methodological process they followed to design their long-term benefits strategy and how your organization can incorporate a similar approach.

10:30am-11:15am
Randy Tyson Principal, Digital Offerings, Buck
Kimberly Reeves Sr. Manager, Total Rewards Operational Excellence, Lockheed Martin
Leah Reynolds Principal, Engagement, Buck

Lockheed Martin has transformed the way our employees and their families derive value from Total Rewards programs. How? By rethinking the overall user experience with a consumer-centric approach. Join this session to learn about the journey we took to rethink and recast benefits and compensation service delivery from the consumer’s perspective. We’ll share how we established our business case, brought the right parties to the table and turned our vision into reality. Learn from our experience and unlock Total Rewards value for your workforce!

10:30am-11:15am
Amy Bruce Head of Financial Wellness Program, UBS

After almost two years of a strong job market, we entered 2023 with more uncertainty about the economic environment ahead. Fears of a global recession have caused employers to tighten their belts. Mandates to cut costs must be balanced with calls to assist employees during times of financial struggle. How can employers best support their workforce during this time? Join our session for hot-off-the-press actionable insights from your industry peers.

10:30am-11:30am
Steven Brink President, uFlexReward
David Turetsky VP, Consultant, Salary.com
Two experts with 70 years of combined experience the Total rewards consulting and software space tell it like it is in this informative and entertaining session. Drawing on real-life examples , they’ll share their benchmark data and advice for optimizing your return on investment in consultants and/or software providers. You’ll come out of the session questioning some of the beliefs you had when you went into it—and armed with a better understanding of how to collaborate effectively with vendors.
10:30am-11:30am
Sabina Mehmood Pay Equity Leader, Gapsquare by XpertHR
Kai Walker Head of Inclusion Transformation, Retirement and Personal Wealth Solutions, Bank of America
Kyle Holm Vice President, Total Rewards Advisory, Sequoia Consulting Group

Financial education, literacy, and inclusion means more than just addressing an employee's base salary. Various compensation components, workplace benefits and long-term financial planning are critical to the employee value proposition, and yet, not everyone begins at the same starting line. Companies who are successfully unleashing the power of diverse talent pools and facilitating diversity and inclusion progress have identified equity as core business priority across all employee programs. Let’s discuss how to overcome opportunity gaps across the employee value proposition and the ripple effects of pay inequity on long-term financial wellness.

10:30am-11:30am
Lynda Phenix Director Compensation, Intel Corporation
Carly Ackerman Director Customer Experience, Eightfold.ai
Molly Leeds Senior Principal Career Consultant, Mercer
Greg Stoskopf Managing Director, Deloitte Consulting

Most employees don’t view themselves as job holders. Instead, they see themselves as individuals bringing a toolkit of skills, applied to work to achieve business and career goals. Through lenses of workforce strategy, rewards and skills hubs enabled by AI, the panel will explore the operational shift from an antiquated job focus to an agile, skills-based model. This includes discovering, developing, and rewarding the application of valued experiences and portable skills, rather than attaching primary worth to the “pedigree” of title and education. We will explore rewarding what talent can do rather than solely on what they have done.

10:30am-11:30am
Nancy Romanyshyn Director, Pay Strategy and Partner Success, Syndio
Tamara Gordon Head of Global Total Rewards Programs & Process, PVH
What do you do when your employees suddenly become “comp experts”? What works? What doesn’t? Join us to discuss how companies are harnessing pay transparency to retain employees. Together, we’ll explore how to define transparency at your organization and what analyses and decisions are needed. We’ll also discuss how to prepare your team for pay discussions and common questions, plus lessons learned and how pay transparency is improving the employee experience.
10:30am-11:30am
Kenneth Kuk Senior Director, Work and Rewards, WTW
Andy Pezzino VP, Global Total Rewards, AES Corporation
Tiffany Jones Managing Director, Global Rewards, Recognition and Performance, Accenture
Monica Martin Senior Director, Global Total Rewards Leader, WTW

Organizations pursue ESG agendas to attract and retain the best talent, optimize employee well-being and more. Join this session to better understand the connection between significant ESG risks/opportunities and Total Rewards strategy/design. Hear from key leaders about their use of Total Rewards strategy to reinforce organizational ESG commitment, plus their experience with top ESG issues like climate change, DEI, employee well-being and cybersecurity. Learn how you can use Total Rewards strategy as a powerful tool to drive these critical business agenda items in your organization.  

10:30am-11:30am
Eric Hosken Partner, Compensation Advisory Partners
Yonat Assayag Partner, ClearBridge Compensation Group
Anna Natapova Principal, Semler Brossy
BETH MARTINDALE Director, Executive and U.S. Compensation, Principal Financial Group

Executive compensation professionals oversee pay processes for top leaders in their company or industry. What could go wrong? Learn from this panel of seasoned consultants and practitioners what the most common errors are across key areas, including design, the compensation committee meeting and communications/disclosure. You’ll come away with a wealth of strategies for preventing errors and mitigating the impact of mistakes when you do make them.  

10:30am-11:30am
11:45AM
Bryan Briscoe VP Global Compensation, Marriott International

Creating value for today’s organizations, which are bigger and more complex than ever, is a tall order for compensation functions. Adding to the challenge is this fickle labor market that can turn in an instant, and then turn back before your compensation surveys even have time to collect answers from other folks who are just as confused as you. Together, let’s take an honest, humorous, self-deprecating look at our profession and figure out how to stay relevant for the next 40 years.

11:45am-12:15pm
Anna Marley COO and Co-Founder, Merit Analytics Group
Helen Friedman CEO, Merit Analytics Group
The median pay gap is gaining support as astandard equity benchmark. This session gives step-by-step guidance for using this tool to ensure your company’s compensation practices are fair to all. We break down the gap into three parts: an “all-else-equal” gap, variance in representation across jobs within grades, and variance in representation across grades. You’ll learn advantages and drawbacks of each approach, plus tips for promoting pay equity when hiring, promoting and retaining workers.
11:45am-12:30pm
Lori Knowles SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer, Memorial Hermann Health System

Cultivating a healthy company culture requires constant care. The talent leaders at the Memorial Hermann Health System took a holistic rewards approach called The Well Together Human Capital Strategy, which draws on all their systems to deliver an exceptional employee experience. You’ll learn from their insights how to integrate the latest compensation trends, find new opportunities to recognize and thank workers and train your leadership to attract and retain top talent. 

11:45am-12:30pm
David Cichelli Revenue Growth Advisor, The Alexander Group, Inc.
Having a smart strategy for determining how much your organization’s sales representatives earn is critical to optimizing their performance—and yours. Yet challenges lurk around every corner. Learn how to address these classic sales-compensation program disrupters: company performance challenges, staffing constraints, escalating market pay rates, shifting buyer journey, rise of virtual selling and recurring revenue ambitions. Getting any one of these wrong can undermine your program, so don’t miss this opportunity to disrupt the disrupters.
11:45am-12:30pm
Justin Hampton Founder and CEO, CompTool
To better support your organization’s compensation program, you need to know how to effectively analyze salary surveys and leverage their market data. This session will provide several practical examples of how you can better utilize salary surveys with tools like Excel and Tableau or Power BI to achieve greater buy-in from business leadership for your compensation program. Learn to create and develop analysis that builds strong stakeholder support and understanding of how to use market data in compensation decisions.
11:45am-12:30pm
Dale Cook CEO, Learn to Live
The importance of workforce mental health is increasingly recognized by CHROs and CPOs. Why? Because it impacts company culture, employee satisfaction/retention and the overall bottom line. In this session, you will learn the components of a comprehensive suite of mental health offerings that address mild to moderate mental health problems, workers with high-acuity needs, general workforce mental wellness and more. Let’s explore how to evaluate appropriate interventions, track progress and results and determine ROI.
11:45am-12:30pm
Ye Zhang Director, Resolution Economics
Victoria Lipnic Partner, Resolution Economics, LLC
Gurkan Ay Director, Resolution Economics, LLC

Over 80% of U.S. employers use artificial intelligence (AI) for HR functions. AI can assist with everything from talent acquisition to compensation benchmarking to identifying employees at risk of leaving. As legal and regulatory requirements intensify for AI use, thissession will give youpractical guidance for navigating AI-related diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility issues and mitigating risk when using AI tools in employment decisions.

11:45am-12:30pm
Yolanda Draine Total Rewards Officer, The City of Memphis
Transforming culture is no easy feat; yet the City of Memphis Total Rewards team did just that in one year. Data from a Culture Fitness Diagnostic (CFD) survey, administered in 2021 and 2022, shows significant improvements over 12 months (e.g., a 14% increase in the culture of health). Overall workforce motivation increased, as did job enjoyment and the ability to serve customers. Join us to learn more about our transformation and ways to improve Total Rewards culture in your organization.
11:45am-12:30pm
Terry Adamson Partner, Infinite Equity
Bonnie Kelly VP, Avantor
Ken Wechsler Vice President, Total Rewards, Akamai Technologies

Curious how companies fared during the first year of disclosure under the new Pay vs. Performance rules? Join this session to find out. We’ll explore the alignment (or misalignment) of company financial performance with executive compensation and the most prevalent metrics selected by companies. In addition to reactions from shareholders and other stakeholders, we’ll share lessons learned and what they mean for your company, plus how to streamline compliance with these regulations going forward.

11:45am-12:45pm
12:30PM
Lunch
12:45PM
Kevin Gregory VP, Business Solutions, Health Action Council

Organizations are forever trying to reduce risk in affordable ways. This session will teach you to do just that by sharing proven best practices in health plan risk mitigation and a practical framework that any plan sponsor can implement without significant financial investment. Learn how this approach has already helped plan sponsors save more than $5 billion since 2010, and how it can benefit your organization today.

12:45pm-1:10pm
1:00PM
Lori Block Principal Consultant, emHrge consulting LLC
Nick Rettenmyer Founder, Pay Simplicity

Are you looking for straightforward guidance to revamp your total rewards program? Join this interactive session to take inspiration from the book Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten to identify and explore key principles for program design, operations, and communication (e.g., never stop asking “why”—as in “Why do we offer ‘XYZ’ program?” or “Why do we do it this way?”). Learn how getting back to basics can lead to key program improvements in your organization and have the chance to discuss with your peers on how you can implement these principals within your organization.

1:00pm-1:30pm
2:00PM
Bobbi Kloss Director, Human Capital Management Services, Benefit Advisors Network (BAN)
Pauline Sobelman Director, Client Experience, AHT Insurance
Employees are an organization’s most valuable asset, but they bring life experiences to work that impact productivity and revenue. Enter the concept of a Total Wellness Approach, which requires strong strategic coordination to efficiently scale solutions across different employee “buckets.” To date, many of these efforts have been implemented individually (and inefficiently), so how can employers think differently about integrating and coordinating various programs into a cohesive strategy that builds a culture of well-being and inclusive rewards? Join this session to find out!
2:00pm-2:45pm
Karen Vacchio SVP, Total Rewards and HR Operations, GXO Logistics
Garry Spinks Partner, Mercer
Allyson Kuper Sr. Principal, Mercer
In this age of economic uncertainty, understanding workforce needs is more critical than ever to build a better Employee Value Proposition; however, organizations must take a more holistic approach to truly drive value and ensure alignment. Join us to explore GXO Logistics’ experience leveraging data to understand workforce needs, convening HR leaders to drive decisions with data and refining total rewards strategy to ensure program investments that actually matter to workers. We will share our approach, findings, outcomes (including programmatic changes and KPI impacts) and practical applications for your organization.
2:00pm-2:45pm
Jordan Wilson Solutions Consultant, Equifax Workforce Solutions
Ralonda Jasper Account Executive, Equifax Workforce Solutions
Eighty percent of employers report that financial stress is negatively impacting employee job performance. How can Total Rewards professionals help employers support overall financial wellness for their workforces? In this session, we will leverage unique industry benchmarks and examine real-life examples to discover five ways you can help support your employees’ financial wellness (and potentially increase engagement, productivity, and retention) without increasing payroll.
2:00pm-2:45pm
Chris Dobyns Human Capital Strategic Consultant, National Security Agency
Adam Cardinal-Stakenas Data Science Lead, National Security Agency

On the heels of advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning come the evolutionary implications of the metaverse. Many organizations are working to establish early presence in the metaverse as part of strategies to strengthen customer loyalty and improve collaboration, engagement and/or market products and services. But will it really improve human capital management and Total Rrewards processes and practices? Join the National Security Agency to sort through the metaverse hype and understand its true potential for helping Total Rewards professionals like you.

2:00pm-2:45pm
Brian Marentette Director, People Insights Division, Biddle Consulting Group
Patrick Nooren President, Biddle Consulting Group

Pay equity is evolving at lightspeed for three key reasons: 1) employees are demanding more transparency, 2) state/federal agencies are intensifying their regulation of compensation decisions and 3) as compensation professionals, we have more complex analytical tools at our fingertips. As the pay equity landscape becomes more complicated, so do the ways we can fall victim to its perils and pitfalls. Join this session to unpack and learn how to avoid potential pay equity issues.

2:00pm-2:45pm
Asha Nataraja Director, Total Rewards, Shopify
Fernando Rodrigues de Souza N Compensation Lead, Shopify
Saheb Singh Director, Compensation Partners, Shopify

Compensation structure and delivery decisions have traditionally been made by employers. At Shopify, we tend to challenge traditional business practices, so last summer we launched Flex Comp: the first-ever compensation model that lets our employees choose how they get paid with custom combinations of salary, stock options and restricted stock units. We’ve seen such high adoption of this model that we’re expanding compensation choices to include additional benefit programs. Join us to learn how flexible compensation could help your organization!

2:00pm-3:00pm
Shane Meredith Vice President, Total Rewards, CDW
Doug Friske Managing Director, Executive Compensation, WTW
Jan Koors Senior Managing Director, Pearl Meyer
Athar Siddiqee Vice President, Total Rewards, Micron Technology
Kim Lupo SVP, Global Total Rewards, Walmart
Michael Perloff Managing Director, Global Head of Total Rewards, Apollo Global Management
Daniel Laddin Founding Partner, Compensation Advisory Partners
Gregg Passin Senior Partner, Mercer
Ever wonder what’s the fastest way to lose credibility in a compensation committee meeting? Or when you should arrive? For answers to these and other related questions, watch our executive compensation practitioners compete against our executive compensation consultants to guess the most popular answers to a series of compensation committee survey questions. One “family” has a duty to management while the other serves the compensation committee. In this “feud,” who will win? Join us to find out!
2:00pm-3:00pm
3:15PM
LuLu Seikaly Sr. Corporate Employment Counsel, Payscale
Hannah Williams CEO, Founder, Salary Transparent Street
Ryan Fowler Director, Compensation & People Analytics, Symetra

Today, many people are ready and willing to publicly say their pay, with or without their employer’s approval—as TikTok sensation Hannah Williams can attest. Williams went viral when she asked strangers on the street how much money they make, forming the basis of the popular “Salary Transparent Street” project.  You don’t want to miss Williams’ one-of-a-kind conversation with Total Rewards professionals and employment law leaders about the growing pay-transparency movement, changing legislation, salary negotiation, rewards communications and more. 

3:15pm-4:15pm
Featured Sessions
4:15PM
Cocktails in the Connection Zone
4:30PM
Rob Whalen Co-Founder and CEO, PTO Exchange

Over the last several years, employers have gotten creative with their flexible benefits to attract and retain top talent. Like other employer-sponsored spending accounts (e.g., HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, etc.), life planning accounts (LPAs) give employees a subsidy to spend on designated wellness services. These customizable accounts offer ways for Total Rewards professionals to increase employee engagement, create competitive differentiation and promote overall well-being—without incurring significant cost. Join this session to understand how LPAs can benefit your organization.

4:30pm-4:55pm
4:45PM
Mona Abu Shaban Director, Global Total Rewards, Right To Play, International

Total Rewards professionals face significant challenges when designing global strategy. This session maps out and provides high-level approaches to overcome those challenges. In addition, you will be given a quick and easy checklist to use when developing and communicating a global total rewards strategy. This checklist will help you consider different needs in varying groups/countries and provide a global total rewards umbrella that can be contextualized by diverse groups.

4:45pm-5:15pm
8:00AM
Community and Conversation Breakfast
9:00AM
Main Stage Session
10:00AM
Energizer Break
10:30AM
Shailesh Ganu Managing Director; Global Leader – Executive Compensation & Board Advisory, WTW

Conventional performance-management models are built on “carrot or stick” approaches, such as rewarding star employees via bonuses, profit-sharing and equity. While pay-for-performance has its place, is it the best way to motivate and retain all your workers? In this interactive session, we’ll unpack the psychology of pay to examine the effectiveness of current models and share innovative alternatives. You’ll also learn from the wisdom of the crowd through anonymous live-polling and an engaging facilitated discussion. 

10:30am-11:00am
Wendy Glaser Director, Pay Equity, KPMG

Interactive dashboards are powerful tools for analyzing and promoting workplace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). HR and rewards professionals can use them to visualize real-time compensation metrics, identify and correct salary gaps, and understand sources of systemic bias within their companies so they can prioritize actionable change. In this session, you’ll learn to create data visualizations that will drive better business decisions, improve collaboration and mitigate legal risk.

10:30am-11:15am
Steve Moss Global Compensation Leader, Recognition, IBM
Amy Stern Managing Director of Research & Strategy, BI WORLDWIDE
Want to take your rewards system to the next level? Join us to learn how! We’ll show you new research on the impact of effective rewards programs and exactly which levers drive results. You’ll see creative examples of how IBM effectively evokes passion and action from its 260,000 global employees, including “spurt campaigns” to increase participation through bracket-style competitions with a goal of 1.25 million recognitions. We’ll also share our unique ambassador program that further embeds rewards strategy into organizational culture.
10:30am-11:15am
Richard Polak Senior Advisor, Global Affairs, American Benefits Council
Lauren ONeill Global Consultant Lead, Vice President, Alliant EB

This interactive session will inform and arm you with actionable, essential information about operating a global benefits strategy. We will address current global issues affecting the workplace in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, including inflation, quiet quitting, purpose, family benefits, leave, remote work, engagement and more. Additionally, you will learn about legislative and cultural differences that influence your day-to-day business decisions in the ever-changing world of global HR/benefits.

10:30am-11:15am
Lauren Mutz Director, Employee Experience & Engagement, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.
Jessica Dahl Director, WTW

Organizations can’t succeed if their employees are struggling. Talent leaders at biopharma company Daiichi Sankyo knew they needed to act after experiencing high turnover and survey results showing workers felt burned out and dissatisfied with work/life balance. They conducted cross-functional design-thinking sessions, which use creative, people-focused problem-solving techniques, with employees and leaders, and then launched a forward-thinking initiative to build work/life harmony. Follow their journey to re-engage their workforce—and then launch your own!

10:30am-11:15am
Blair Jones Managing Director, Semler Brossy Consulting Group LLC
Laura Swartzmiller Director, Total Rewards, Ford Motor Company

The goal of any compensation committee meeting is strong engagement and effective decision-making. But these meetings can be daunting to plan! How do you ensure the best outcomes and constructive discussions? What should the agendas include? Who needs to be involved (and when) in the preparation? How should the materials be presented? How do you work most effectively with the committee chair? This session will answer those questions and more through shared best practices and real-life lessons learned about facilitating successful compensation committee meetings.  

10:30am-11:30am
Angie Riddell Manager, Compensation, OSF HealthCare
Allen McMillin Compensation Consultant, Retail Business Services
Sara Hillenmeyer Director of Data Science, Payscale
Megan Surdo Director of Compensation, IHG Hotels & Resorts

Today, industries with an abundance of front-line workers are at the front lines of the talent crisis. Learn how compensation professionals in the hospitality, health care and retail sectors are designing rewards strategies that respond to volatile talent markets. Panelists will share engaging visualizations and case studies that highlight successes and challenges. You’ll come away with an understanding of how to use traditional and non-traditional market data to optimize your approach.

10:30am-11:30am
Therese Sebastian Associate Director, Equity Methods
Takis Makridis CEO, Equity Methods
Are you being asked to perform a pay equity analysis in your company? Perhaps your leadership team is actually pushing for it. Either way, you need to know how to introduce this topic to your Board and senior management, especially since proactive compensation committees are expecting greater insight into pay equity and other aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Join us for an overview of the most common pay equity analysis frameworks and learn how to communicate with your leaders about this key issue.
10:30am-11:30am
Natalie Smyth Principal, ClearBridge Compensation Group
Erica Schohn Partner, Executive Compensation and Benefits, Skadden
Mark Beatty SVP, Global Total Rewards, Paramount
It’s time to dive into the rules and requirements of the new SEC pay vs. performance and clawback policy provisions. Join this session to discuss learnings from the spring 2023 proxy season and explore potential compensation implications of both new rules. You will gain a deeper understanding of these regulations and best practices to help your organization balance related technical requirements, investor preferences and practical realities.
10:30am-11:30am
11:45AM
Lizzy Kolar Co-Founder and CEO, Scope Zero

Total Rewards professionals play a key role in companies’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts. How can we best engage employees in this important work? This session shows you how to boost your sustainability through innovative benefits like the Carbon Savings Accounts™ (CSAs), which are structured similarly to HSAs. CSAs fund environmentally friendly modifications for people’s homes, technology and transportation. Learn how the innovative framework of CSAs enable it to serve as a financial wellness tool for employees, a smart corporate sustainability strategy for employers, and a win for the planet!

11:45am-12:15pm
Patrick Blanchard Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal Taxand LLC
Patrick Simmons Vice President, Global Compensation & Benefits, Ecobat Resources

The past few years have upended business as usual, with companies undergoing radical shifts to their structure, processes and workforce. Yet many organizations’ retirement plans haven’t kept pace with the changes. If you’re a plan sponsor looking to catch up (and catch your breath), this session is for you! You’ll learn a range of forward-looking strategies, from outsourcing certain tasks to a complete program overhaul. You’ll emerge feeling refreshed and ready to modernize your plan for today’s talent market.

11:45am-12:30pm
Graziele Rodrigues Total Rewards & Global Mobility Manager, iFood
Lilian Kazama Total Rewards Director, iFood

Compensation decisions can be made with a great deal of bias, conscious or unconscious, depending on the decision maker. As Total Rewards professionals, what can we do to combat this all-too-common problem? Using algorithms and technology, we can reduce that bias and help managers be fair, ensure equity and save time. In this session, we will share the complete rationale behind the intelligence we’ve created that can be applied in any company around the world.

11:45am-12:30pm
Steven Brink President, uFlexReward
Marjorie Williamson SVP, Global Total Rewards & HR Operations, RTI International

With a change in leadership and a newly revised long-term vision for the organization, we needed to change our strategic rewards to align with the newly stated goals of the organization. Upon a strategic review, we identified the first step was to enhance and expand our incentive program. Learn how we designed, received approval, and implemented this new program across 46 countries at the same time. Learn the barriers that we faced, how to ensure the plan was effectively communicated and the importance of automation of the global incentive plan was needed to ensure a successful rollout.

11:45am-12:30pm
Manika Turnbull SVP and CHRO, Health Care Services Company
Felicia Cummings Executive Director, Compensation, Health Care Services Corporation
Pay equity is essential to the overall employee value proposition. At Health Care Service Corporate, we work hard to ensure equity—especially pay equity—among our 25,000 employees. Join us to learn how we proactively identify and remedy potential pay inequities and how you can apply our approach in your organization. Beyond our Total Rewards philosophy, this work is part of our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion as we establish best practices and live our purpose in all aspects of our business.
11:45am-12:30pm
Lori Block Principal Consultant, emHrge consulting LLC
Elaine Davis Chief Human Resources Officer, HealthComp
Nick Rettenmyer Founder, Pay Simplicity
What makes a Total Rewards program "equitable and inclusive" (E&I)? And why examine your rewards programs through an E&I lens? Join us for answers to both questions and learn how embedding your organization’s commitment to E&I within your Total Rewards offering requires an “activist management” approach—across your benefits and compensation programs, performance management processes, and career development practices. We’ll share what our wide range of experience has taught us about “activist management” for E&I and how it can benefit your organization.
11:45am-12:30pm
Bob Nelson President, Nelson Motivation Inc.
Today’s workers feel less valued and more stressed than ever. Only 32% of workers felt engaged in 2022, with engagement declining for the first time in a decade. But those statistics need not define your organization. In this inspiring presentation, Bob Nelson, Ph.D., will draw on recent engagement research to share simple, specific tips you can use to cultivate employee recognition—a strong driver of engagement—and other aspects of motivating work environments, even with limited time, resources and budget.
11:45am-12:30pm
Scot Marcotte Chief Technology Officer, Buck
With portability supplanting retention in employer-sponsored savings plans, long term incentive plans have become the de facto tool to retain our best and brightest. Yet these plans are often confusing and overly complicated. The intended retention and motivation value then falls flat, as participants lack adequate understanding of personal impact and reward. This session tackles how to best design and communicate these potentially rewarding programs, showcasing proven employer examples and providing tools to measure ROI.
11:45am-12:45pm
Teresa Bayewitz Partner, Mercer
Juliet Archer Principal, Mercer
Veronica Wissel Partner, Davis Polk & Wardell

Increasingly, companies are using very large, one-time equity awards called “mega equity grants” to motivate and retain founder CEOs after significant monetization events. The question is: Do they work? In this spirited, Oxford-style debate, consultants and organizational leaders will argue for and against this popular form of executive compensation. Throughout the dialogue, participants will share research and case studies that will empower you to make your own informed decision. 

11:45am-12:45pm
Robert Blohm Senior Partner, OpenSymmetry
Mark Briggs Senior Manager, Compensation, Waste Management
Rick Butler Vice President, Global Sales Compensation, ServiceNow
Ryan Hanrath Sales Compensation Manager, Direct Supply
Join this panel of leading sales compensation practitioners as they discuss evidence-based best practices for sales compensation communication—and how those lead to improved sales performance! Prior to this session, each practitioner completed a survey to gauge their own team's effectiveness. You will see results of that survey and real-world examples to illustrate good vs. bad communication and how both affect sales productivity. Example reports and dashboards will inspire you to optimize compensation communication within your sales organization.
11:45am-12:45pm
12:30PM
Lunch
12:45PM
Justin Truckenbrod President, Lockton Companies
Matt Jarvis Vice President, Pharmacy Practice Leader, Lockton

Medications are rapidly increasing in both complexity and cost. How is that impacting employee benefits plans? What’s driving today’s trends and what treatments can we expect in the future? Let’s review the current state of specialty pharmacy and what employers need to think about in terms of managing costs—now and going forward. We’ll also explore innovation in personalized medicine and review new tools like pharmacogenomics that help patients and providers know if a drug is working.

12:45pm-1:15pm
1:00PM
Thomas McMullen Sr Client Partner, Korn Ferry

If pay transparency is such a great idea, why are most organizations so tight-lipped about it? A majority get failing grades in openly communicating their compensation philosophies and salary ranges with employees. Let’s discuss the reasons why and review lessons learned by employers in New York City, California and Washington about the new pay range transparency regulations. We’ll also review research on the impact of such regulations on organizational attraction, retention and reward strategies.

1:00pm-1:25pm
2:00PM
Julie Deane CPO, KCAS Bioanalytical & Biomarker Services

Are you searching for a blueprint for your Ttotal Rewards package? Look no further than your own employees! This session will focus on the value of engaging with them and listening to their feedback to guide your company’s strategic Total Rewards initiatives. Learn practical steps and gain resources to implement a bottom-up approach that promotes physical, mental and financial well-being.

2:00pm-2:30pm
Joseph DiMisa Senior Client Partner, Global Sales Force Effectiveness & Rewards Advisory Leader​, Korn Ferry

If you struggle to know if your sales compensation plan is driving value, you’re not alone. Even when companies run analytics or have standard reporting and performance metrics, they often fail to present findings in logical, organized ways that leverage industry trends and benchmarks. Join us to learn how to create effective sales compensation messaging and commercial presentations for executives. Understand the most critical financial and business sales analytics to run, plus sales compensation industry ratios/benchmarks to use when performing your own industry comparisons.

2:00pm-2:45pm
Margret Bjarnadottir Associate Professor of Management Science and Statistics, University of Maryland

Recently, we have seen explosive growth in the use of People Analytics tools. Features like automatic collection and large dataset analysis offer the promise of improving every phase of the HR pipeline, including measuring productivity and making important personnel decisions. Unfortunately, many potential pitfalls exist. To help you avoid those, we will highlight the challenges of People Analytics tools and demonstrate how to use them fairly.

2:00pm-2:45pm
Barrett Scruggs VP of Workplace Financial Wellbeing, SoFi at Work
Facing a potential recession, organizations may be tempted to reevaluate some of the employee well-being perks rolled out over the last two years. But that could drive employee disengagement and turnover. How can we balance the needs of our organizations with those of our employees? In this session, you will learn to use a financial wellness toolkit to build a vendor-agnostic, cost-effective action plan that includes financial education, emergency savings, student loan benefits and creative 401(k) contributions to support employee financial well-being, engagement and retention.
2:00pm-2:45pm
Rosaria Sasso VP, Total Rewards, UKG
Staisha Momaney Senior Benefit Specialist, UKG
Empowered employees are engaged employees, and nothing empowers workers more than being able to make their own choices. Learn from leaders at UKG how to implement equitable total rewards programs tailored to meet every employee’s needs at all stages of their careers. In January 2023, UKG switched their 15,000+ employees from a traditional program to U Choose, which allows workers to select the benefits that best serve them and their families. Find out why this approach worked for them—and can work for you too.
2:00pm-2:45pm
Turn Your Compensation Spreadsheet Into a Secure, Multi-User Business Application
Kara Reester Vice President of Customer Success, SecureSheet Technologies
Joe Holland Co-Founder, SecureSheet Technologies
Joe Leary VP of Sales, SecureSheet Technologies

During this live demo, we’ll walk through an annual merit process to collect ratings and merit increases. You’ll see how SecureSheet guarantees real-time, secure, centralized data and enforces company budget and business controls. There will be plenty of time for interactive questions and answers. 


With SecureSheet, it's easy, fast, and secure. Simply: Upload your spreadsheet with your formulas, formats, and validations. Add user-defined security that controls precisely what users can do with the data. Immediately share one SecureSheet with no risk of multiple versions. Data is updated immediately in real-time, and updates during the process is easy.

Scott Pechaitis Attorney, Jackson Lewis PC

With all the current focus on equity and closing wage gaps, a pay equity analysis has become an essential tool for US companies. But are you taking the time to ensure your various analyses are consistent with applicable pay equity laws? If not, you could be creating or exacerbating serious legal problems for your company. Join this session where an employment law attorney will explain the patchwork of legal requirements, common pitfalls, and best practices you need to know to ensure your pay analysis approach is legally compliant.

2:00pm-3:00pm
Eric Hosken Partner, Compensation Advisory Partners
Takis Makridis CEO, Equity Methods
Gillian Moldowan Partner, Shearman & Sterling

Late last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued new rules  governing executive incentive compensation recovery (or “clawbacks”) for public companies in the event of a financial restatement. Don’t miss this critical overview of the new rules, which mandate clawbacks for a broader category of financial restatements and impose stringent disclosure obligations. While most companies have clawback policies in place, chances are they aren’t fully aligned with these rigorous new requirements. 

2:00pm-3:00pm
Michaela LEO Head of Compensation & Benefits, NA, Ipsen
Cheryl Swidrak Senior Manager, Total Rewards Strategic Projects & Benefits, North America, Ipsen
Erin Sheehan Associate Director, Compensation and Benefits, North America, Ipsen

If speed is of the essence and you need to learn to fly a plane while building it, join the Ipsen Total Rewards team as we share our variety of techniques to automate processes, empower HR colleagues and provide competitive rewards programs for our employees. In just twelve months, we streamlined compensation benchmarking and salary offer processes, enhanced parental benefits and simplified mobility practices—not to mention several additional enhancements. Learn to put our efficient approach to use in your organization!  

2:00pm-3:00pm
3:15PM
Sheila Sever Sr. Manager, Compensation, Deloitte
Denise Quaco Director, Total Rewards North America, Colgate-Palmolive Company
Jeremy Feinstein Managing Director, Empsight International, LLC

This panel will help you navigate the quickly changing legal landscape around pay transparency while staying true to your organization’s talent philosophy. Learn from expert compensation specialists how to address key questions, including:

  • How wide of a payrange should you publish and to whom?
  • Should you disclose information by request for internal/external postings?
  • Should your compliance be geographically based or universal? You’ll come away ready to engage leadership and determine the best strategy for your company.
3:15pm-4:15pm
Featured Sessions
4:15PM
Cocktails in the Connection Zone
4:30PM
Lauren Mason Senior Principal, Mercer
LaCinda Glover Senior Principal, Mercer

Time is money—at least for hourly employees. FLSA standards protect non-exempt employees, but what’s in place to govern workloads for the exempt population? The pandemic blurred the boundaries between our work and personal lives, which has significantly impacted mental health and rates of burnout. This has led to employees highlighting the importance of better-balanced work schedules. Let’s talk about the intersection of workload and compensation and where we can positively impact the employee experience.

4:30pm-5:00pm
7:30PM
After Party
8:00AM
Breakfast
8:45AM
Featured Sessions
10:00AM
Joanna Colosimo Vice President of Workforce Equity and Compliance Strategy, DCI Consulting Group, Inc.

Organizations are facing pressure from internal and external stakeholders to be more transparent in the ways they approach pay. Although many organizations are examining their pay practices to ensure fairness, some are reluctant to publicize what they find. What is the “right” level of information to share? How transparent should your organization be? Let’s discuss the challenges and opportunities along the continuum of pay transparency, as well as how that transparency can help or hurt your organization’s reputation.

10:00am-10:30am
Haithem Albalawi CHRO, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare
Bassmah Bakhsh Senior HR Policy Analyst, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare

Any Total Rewards offering should align with its company’s strategic direction and market. Upon realizing ours did not, we decided to reshape it with significant policy downscaling, all while keeping legal compliance and employee well-being in mind. This required design, engagement and change management plans to ensure a successful rollout to 4,000 healthcare workers. In total, our transformation involved 52 policies and 12,000+ points of engagement—and was worth the effort. Learn how our transformative approach can work for you.

10:00am-10:45am
Shaun Drawdy Senior Compensation Manager, HD Supply
Neil Sandefur Customer Success Director, Professional Services, Salary.com
In today’s tight labor market, tailoring salary structures to support organizational goals and manage local labor market movement is critical. This session will take you on our salary structure journey as we worked with Salary.com to address market volatility and resulting wage compression. Join us to learn how to lead with data when balancing internal equity and external competitiveness, and how establishing salary structures is essential to paving the way for pay equity.
10:00am-10:45am
Melinda Morimoto Senior Benefits Director, Genentech, Inc. A Member of the Roche Group
Michon Caton Reward Partner, Genentech, Inc. A Member of the Roche Group

Learn how Roche/Genentech is optimizing the employee experience and how our approach could work in your organization. We will share our unique US benefits strategy and the internal and external forces that shape our priorities around employee health, wealth and life. Through an integrated, strategic change/communications approach that includes both digital and traditional platforms and channels, we are grounding our work in data and metrics to measure success and shape our strategic roadmap.

10:00am-10:45am
Allen McMillin Compensation Consultant, Retail Business Services
Amy Stewart Executive Editor, Payscale Research and Remote Work Report Author, Payscale
Krystal Praast Senior Manager, People Operations, Catalate

Remote work continues to evolve for employers and employees alike. Join our panel of compensation and people leaders who manage diverse workplace modalities  to learn how they navigate the challenges (and benefits) of remote, hybrid and in-person workplaces. We’ll provide original data and insights into the current state of remote work, plus offer concrete case studies for you to assess and apply within your own organization.

10:00am-11:00am
Chris Dohrmann Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Global Shares
Billy Vitense Director, Stock, Starbucks Coffee Company
Grant Peterson Associate Partner, Aon

Most of us participate in some kind of loyalty program (e.g., Starbucks Rewards, Hilton Honors, Emirates Skywards Miles, etc.) so is it farfetched to think of equity compensation in the same way? Let’s explore innovative ideas to refresh stale employee stock plans, including the possibility of running them like loyalty programs—complete with rewards and participation points that contribute to other benefits. We’ll look at the practicalities of creating a new kind of plan that encourages increased employee participation and engagement through a points system.

10:00am-11:00am
Kim Shaw Global Director, Diversity and Inclusion, The Coca-Cola Company
Doug Tapp Rewards Consulting Leader, Deloitte Consulting
Kendall Waller Manager, Deloitte Consulting
Jim Bagley Manager, Deloitte Consulting

Once you’ve conquered pay equity, what comes next? A lot! Consider what other unintended biases live in additional rewards programs and how to address them. Are you charged with connecting the dots between strategies for rewards equity, DEI and ESG initiatives? Have you considered a rewards equity analysis to advance DEI outcomes and help with critical metrics for ESG strategies? Join The Coca-Cola Company and Deloitte Consulting for answers.  

10:00am-11:00am
10:45AM
Energizer Break
11:15AM
Closing Session - 4 Ways YOU Can Change the World at Work
Kristen Hadeed ,

Today, we are experiencing the greatest test the working world has faced in generations: The Great Resignation, quiet quitting, career cushioning, social and political unrest, a generational divide, a potential recession…and more. Kristen Hadeed believes that if we want our organizations to continue thriving, now and in the future, the ways we think about leadership, culture and business need to shift—soon and in a big way. Why? Because standing still in a rapidly changing world is the fastest way to slip backwards.  

As a leadership thought leader, author and entrepreneur, Kristen has spent the last decade working with high-performing teams, executives and boards all over the world. She has helped them tackle some of the biggest challenges organizations currently face:  

  • How do we know what the future of leadership and business look like?  
  • How do we build cultures of belonging and connection?  
  • How do we build trust amongst our teams?  
  • How do we bridge the generational gap?  
  • How do we stay competitive when it comes to attracting talent?  
  • How do we give people more than just a job (i.e., how do we REALLY engage and inspire them)?  

In this session, Kristen will challenge traditional leadership approaches that simply don’t work in today’s world and share actionable steps YOU can take to build the best version of your organization! 

 

Session Takeaways Include: 

  • Explore 4 key elements of culture that will be critical as we look to the future: passion, freedom, growth and care/belonging. 
  • Understand the shifts needed to spark engagement, increase retention and decrease unnecessary turnover. 
  • Learn how to inspire a higher level of buy-in. 
  • Identify what mindsets, approaches and mentalities must shift to remain competitive. 
  • Discover how to bridge the generational gap.