Jump on the Cincinnati Brew Bus to experience the history and excitement of Cincinnati’s craft beer scene. The history of brewing is strong in Cincinnati, with breweries calling the city home for over 100 years and some of those same breweries operating today. The history of beer in Cincinnati continues today with great locations like Rhinegeist, Moerlein, Wiedemann, Northern Row, Fifty West and more.​

Additional fee and registration required.

Whether you’re considering a career shift towards executive compensation or currently managing related responsibilities, this quick and informative program is tailored to provide you with a foundational understanding of the essential elements, frameworks, and complexities of executive compensation. 

Don't miss your chance to acquire vital knowledge for navigating the realm of executive compensation confidently. Enroll now and build essential skills to thrive in today's business landscape. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Grasp the significance of executive compensation for organizations, shareholders, and stakeholders, and its media and governance implications. 
• Identify the components of executive compensation, including incentive design considerations, tailored for different organization types and their unique challenges. 
• Understand external reporting considerations, including proxy anatomy and the impact of company strategy on compensation decisions. 
• Explore how HR professionals can leverage executive compensation expertise and the opportunities a focus on this area can offer in their careers. 

Additional fee and registration required.

The Cincinnati Zoo is one of the oldest and best zoos in the nation. At its core lies an abundance of biodiversity, featuring over 400 species of animals and 3,000 plant species. It is also a world-renowned leader in the areas of endangered species reproduction, groundbreaking education collaboratives, and green practices.​

Additional fee and registration required.

Murder and blackmail are on the menu when six mysterious guests assemble at Boddy Manor for a night they’ll never forget! Was it Mrs. Peacock in the study with the knife? Or was it Colonel Mustard in the library with the wrench? Based on the cult 1985 Paramount movie and inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, CLUE is the ultimate whodunit that will leave you dying of laughter and keep you guessing until the final twist! *Recommended for ages 13 and up.

Additional fee and registration required.

Explore the historic Linck brewery tunnels that lie beneath the city's streets. Then, visit the location where Johnny Cash once filmed a movie, followed by a stop at one of Cincinnati's most important inclines. Next, get a rare glimpse inside the last remaining structures of the original Christian Moerlein Brewery complex, which has been closed to the public for decades. For guests 21+ we will end the tour with a beer at Northern Row Taproom​​.

Additional fee and registration required.

Get ready to step up to the plate when sales management turns to you for help with their sales compensation program! Whether you're new to sales compensation or a seasoned pro, it's time to revisit the fundamentals. In this 3-hour pre-conference session, dive into basic terms, plan concepts, and frameworks with sales compensation guru David Cichelli. Bring your questions and knotty issues for an engaging discussion. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Master essential sales compensation terms for effective communication and strategy. 
• Explore foundational plan concepts to optimize sales performance. 
• Learn practical strategies for addressing complex sales compensation challenges. 

Additional fee and registration required.

Experience an in-depth history & culture tour of Cincinnati's oldest urban market from 1855. Enjoy foods from 9 different vendors from a NY style bagel and schmear to a fresh smoothie to a German Butcher shop to empanadas, Belgian waffles, gelato and more! ​

Additional fee and registration required.

Are you a Total Rewards conference rookie? Join us for an onboarding session on Sunday afternoon before the Welcome Tailgate to get to know some fellow participants and put some words of wisdom from our experienced Conference Coaches to use. We’ll end the session by walking over to the Welcome Tailgate together.

Kick off the conference on Sunday by tailgating with your fellow TR professionals on the iconic Fountain Square in the center of downtown Cincinnati. Get into the tailgate spirit by wearing your favorite team's gear and showing your hometown or alumni pride.

Powered by Fifth Third Bank and BetterComp

Powered by Trusaic

Employee engagement has never been more important—or less understood. The workforce has changed profoundly over the past few years, but the fact remains: Despite investing a lot of money and conducting a lot of surveys, few organizations have made real progress in activating engagement. Disengaged employees still cost the U.S. a whopping $550 billion each year.

In the first part of our energizing opening session, behavioral economics expert Jeff Kreisler explores the promising potential of behavioral science—which draws from psychology, sociology, and economics to shed light on human behavior—to drive employee engagement. Could this fascinating field hold the key to unlocking a long-elusive metric? 

Then, WorldatWork CEO Scott Cawood kicks off an electrifying conversation with soccer legend and pay-equity champion Megan Rapinoe! They’ll discuss leading through transformational times, including how to build resilient teams, drive real results, and strive for equity. Get the ball rolling on Total Rewards’24 with this unforgettable opening session! 

Powered by Trusaic
 

Explore how best to invest your sales compensation dollars to grow revenue, increase productivity, reward results, and retain talent. Joe Krsul and Sam Wilke of Aon will review the financial impacts of top and middle performers and show how incremental gains in their performance can drive significant growth in sales.

Takeaways

• Explain the importance of aligning incentive programs with performance management systems.
• Understand and harness the impacts of top and middle performers to drive sales growth.
• Know how to link sales compensation and performance management to growth and overall return, including decision criteria for making sales compensation investments.

Pay equity is coming under increased scrutiny and oversight at both the state and federal levels. The challenge for HR and compensation professionals is to stay ahead of emerging compliance risks and expectations. Our panelists will provide a crash course on key regulatory changes you’ll need to be aware of and will equip you with the knowledge to protect your organization from potential risks.

Takeaways

• Be fully aware of current regulations governing pay equity at both the state and federal levels.
• Identify which of these regulations apply to your organization and be ready to prepare an appropriate organizational response to them if and when needed.

Are you ready to establish a career architecture for your organization but are facing a blank slate? Or do you want to toss out the current design and start again? During this session Elli Pippin, Americas Compensation Leader at IMI, will describe her journey — the path and pitfalls — as she developed a new career architecture. You’ll also discover the organization-wide benefits and efficiencies that can be driven with this type of compensation planning.

Takeaways

• Gain organization-wide support for career architecture, find new efficiencies in compensation, establish a baseline for pay equity, and create a foundation for career mobility.
• Be able to describe to stakeholders the key benefits of career architecture and the process steps to launching such a project.
• Anticipate common pitfalls and barriers to launching an effective architecture.

With more companies allowing employees to work remotely from any location, companies are facing more complexity with varying state withholding and reporting requirements, especially for equity awards. Jeff Swerdlow, Managing Director for Alvarez & Marsal, will discuss the interplay of various state rules on allocating income from equity awards, how to manage processes when systems don't allow for tax in multiple states, and developing internal policies and procedures to track employee mobility.

Takeaways

• Understand key areas that should be incorporated into decision-making processes on whether and to what extent to allow employee mobility.
• Understand types of necessary tracking and withholding for employee compensation and determine if you have set it up properly.
• Learn how to develop company policies to help manage employee movement while minimizing risk.

Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

In a hotly competitive skills marketplace, Samsung Semiconductors (SSI) deployed a creative Total Rewards communications strategy that improved overall employee engagement. Tanya Chan, Director of Compensation for SSI, and Steve Brink, President of uFlexReward, will demonstrate how they gathered disparate data into one place to create an efficient and cost-effective online Total Reward communications platform — including a long-term incentive program.

Takeaways

• Leverage examples of creative, effective rewards communications to improve your organization’s own online rewards communications.
• Attract, retain, and motivate employees and candidates in a hot skills marketplace.
• Engage employees with state-of the-art rewards communications.

In this session, legendary HR Tech analyst John Sumser and Salary.com Principal Compensation Consultant Rebecca Gorman will aggressively debate the implications of AI for the future of the compensation function in organizations. Together they will explore how AI is already seriously disrupting the work of compensation teams by automating data, analysis, job architecture and communications. Yet the aspirations of Tech visionaries may be missing critical factors, especially those relating to people – both those who staff the compensation function and the broader employee population. Sumser and Gorman will seek to disentangle hype from reality in a debate that promises to be provocative and action-packed.  Using Salary.com’s recently published “Attributes of a World-Class Compensation Function” as a framework, the duo will present a point-counterpoint discussion about the realities of AI in compensation. You won’t want to miss this lively, entertaining, and informative debate.

Sponsored by Salary.com

The results of the latest Mercer Survey of Employee Benefits have arrived. If you think you know what employees really want, think again! The search for a common thread in the tangle of employees’ expectations is underway, and Marybeth Gray has a jumpstart on the process. Join us to learn how to satisfy the increasing demand for personalization while continuing to battle your budget.

Takeaways

• Deconstruct the signal from the noise via case studies and survey data fresh from the Mercer Survey.
• Customize total rewards packages that appeal to all five generations while balancing cost against effectiveness and demand.
• Use survey data to help prioritize what to take on, in what order, and to what outcome.
   

Sponsored by Trion-Marsh McLennan Agency

Compensation has undergone a seismic shift, transforming from a back-office analytical role into a strategic force in talent management. Our panel of compensation practitioners from Expedia, Western Digital, McKinstry and Payscale will explore the path of professional growth needed to become leaders in the Total Rewards and compensation fields. Through valuable and candid lessons, this session will provide insights to navigate change within your organization, adapt to evolving compensation expectations, and advance your career.

Takeaways

• Understand the pivotal role of compensation as a strategic talent driver in the contemporary workforce.
• Explore real-world experiences of compensation and rewards leaders, learning from their journeys in adapting to change.
• Gain practical knowledge and timely examples of how to respond to changing expectations and approach challenging situations.

As humans, we all want to be well. It’s in the organization’s best interest as well. In an uncertain economy and with evolving employee needs and expectations, organizations are rethinking the value of their employee benefit programs. Learn how a holistic, individual well-being strategy can optimize organizational performance. This panel of experts from Korn Ferry, PTO Exchange and E4E Relief brings unique perspectives so organizations can meet the distinct needs of their populations to drive workforce strategy.

Some compensation committee meetings need extra care and preparation. Maybe a pay philosophy is being overhauled, or a major shareholder is pressing for changes after a poor performance year. In this session, our seasoned panel will share data, war stories, and advice to ensure your materials, analysis, pre-calls, “seed planting,” and processes are all air-tight for managing a productive committee meeting. 

Takeaways

• Collect best practices from leaders with more than 60 years of collective experience to take back to your organizations.
• Learn how to meet the high expectations of compensation committees by mastering the basics (e.g., Board materials, clarity of analysis, and developing consensus behind the scenes)
• Access a concise list of dos and don’ts for preparing for major compensation committee meetings. 

A simple Chat GPT tool can put you on the road to more effectively managing medical leaves and accommodations in the workplace. This session will demonstrate how this easy-to-use AI resource offers a comprehensive view of the employee life cycle, seamlessly integrating policies, performance management, and managing transitions from FMLA to ADA. Gain specific guidance on concurrent medical leave management, empowering you to navigate the intricate landscape of compliance effortlessly.

Takeaways

• Acquire the knowledge to navigate concurrent medical leaves effectively when multiple leaves overlap.
• Enhance your understanding of complex medical leaves and receive valuable insights into best practices for compliance management.
• Learn the benefits and the boundaries of ChatGPT with HR leave and accommodation management strategies

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Harnessing the transformative potential of AI can amplify sales motivation and maximize revenue performance, unlocking unparalleled business growth. Andrew Morales, Senior Director, GTM Strategy and Operations for CaptivateIQ, will share three new opportunities afforded by AI that are helping compensation leaders and go-to-market teams save time, improve performance, and boost their incentive compensation ROI.

Takeaways

• Understand how to use AI in incentive compensation management to speed up workflows, motivate sales teams, and surface robust insights to better inform decision making.
• Clearly understand AI use cases and benefits in the world of incentive compensation management.

“Organizational climates” describe the themes and tones of beliefs, thoughts, and emotions across groups of employees. Such climates can be measured and used to guide and facilitate better individual and organizational outcomes in many areas of importance — in particular, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). In this session you will learn what climate is, how it works to influence people in organizations, how it's measured and changed, and how it relates to DE&I outcomes.

Takeaways

• Understand organizational climates, with a focus on DE&I, and their effects on organizational outcomes.
• Recognize the primary drivers of DE&I perceptions and start a measurement program to assess aspects of DE&I climate.
• Modify your DE&I climate by understanding how targeted and consistent signals can change perceptions, expectations, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

As compensation leaders, we spend a lot of time and energy explaining to our executives, managers, and employees — with varying levels of success — that compensation is driven by cost of labor, not cost of living. Eric Weinberg, VP for Compensation at Prudential, proposes a better way to assess and demonstrate to stakeholders how your organization's investment in people might actually be matching or beating inflation.

Takeaways

• Run analyses that show— despite discrepancies in comparing merit budgets with inflation statistics — the organization is actually doing far more than it may appear.
• Deliver a clear message demonstrating how employee investments outpace inflation.
• Give better answers to questions or challenges suggesting the merit budget is not adequate amid current inflation.

What makes a workplace equity Dream Team? Nancy Romanyshyn from Syndio will share research on leading practices in Total Rewards and talent management to advance workplace equity. You’ll also hear from Dream Team leaders, Lynn Moffett at BMC Software, Hywel Jones at TD Synnex, and Warren Mueller at FTI Consulting on their global plans for addressing workplace equity and how they are driving change across HR, legal and the business.

Takeaways

• Learn how to build cultures of trust through solutions like pay equity, Fair Pay Workplace Certification, transparent pay decision processes, career progression, global reporting, and employee listening.
• Examine three different approaches by global companies and understand the challenges and solutions available for addressing them.
• Gain access to resources to help you build and execute on the strategies for your own company.

Transition seamlessly from a compensation expert to a versatile team leader with the ability to navigate between technical expertise and broader leadership responsibilities. This session will help you hone your interpersonal skills and business acumen, enabling you to become a more effective business partner and leader. Explore the art of leading in every direction across the organization in this interactive session.

Takeaways

• Develop the skill to assess problems and situations with a leadership mindset, shifting from subject matter expert (SME) to a strategic leader and use your new executive presence to influence up and across the organization.
• Empower your team with the freedom and responsibility to solve problems and make decisions, knowing you have their back.
• Utilize business partnering skills to inform, educate, and influence clients, enhancing your role as a strategic leader in the organization.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Employers lose billions each year to unidentified waste in the form of low-value healthcare, abusive or improper billing, and claims errors. Preventing wasteful healthcare spending is an easy, high-return win for benefits leaders. Employers need access to employee claims data and an independent partner without financial ties to carriers or PBMs. Hear how the City of Fort Worth returned more than .5 million to its plan with methods available to all employers.

Takeaways

• Learn to use data to reduce spending on items like low- and no-value care, pharmacy overpayments and schemes with disrupting benefits.
• Know how to critically review your healthcare spending plan and third-party administrator contracts to find areas to reduce spending.
• Use data analytics to uncover waste in the form of overpayments, duplications, low-value care, and fraud and realize savings without having to change employee behavior or reduce benefits.

Generative AI (GenAI) may be the buzzword of the year, but when and how can it be used effectively for rewards and performance? Get a crash course from AI/HR experts at Accenture on navigating the different types of AI and see what you can do now, what's next, and what to avoid. You'll even have an opportunity to try some of the tools live!

Takeaways

• Speak confidently about the different types of AI and their applications and uses.
• Know how to ensure “Responsible AI” is considered as your team proceeds on its AI journey.
• Consider immediate use cases for different types of AI in your Total Rewards plan you can implement fast — and how to get started.

Research shows that a strong sense of belonging positively correlates with engagement, commitment, productivity. Benefits is an area where we see vastly different experiences in how employees perceive employer support based on their individual characteristics and circumstances and plays a crucial role in driving a positive sense of belonging for individuals and company culture overall. How can employers advance DEIB priorities with benefits?

Sponsored by Aon

With the proliferation of pay transparency, much is changing for the compensation practitioner. Justin Hampton, Founder and CEO of CompTool, will discuss the many ways the field is changing and will continue to change. Through a blend of theoretical insights and practical case studies, this session will showcase the new realities of pay transparency and provide strategies for implementing greater transparency within your organization.

Takeaways

• Gain skills to build a clear, actionable roadmap for navigating the inevitable growth of pay transparency in your organization.
• Develop a strategy to roll out greater transparency within your organization, including the likely inevitable future need to post salary ranges.
• Craft a plan for managing the employee experience as your employees become more keenly aware of internal rates of pay as well as pay opportunities outside the organization.

Innovative approaches to compensation planning require more than a simple merit matrix. But adding too many metrics and formulas can easily overwhelm managers and confuse employees. In this session, you'll hear about Instacart's journey to educate and engage managers and maintain a clear focus on rewarding results. RedCAT Systems’ Chad Atwell and Instacart’s Mia White and Andrea Ayala will give their first-hand perspectives on rewarding employees for their contributions, simplifying manager decision-making, and promoting transparent pay practices.

Takeaways

• Understand how organizations can utilize modernized tools and communication strategies to train and engage managers in the compensation planning process, accommodating more sophisticated and complex metrics without overwhelming managers and confusing employees.
• Reinforce a pay-for-performance philosophy with meaningful metrics that connect to pay recommendations.
• Learn how compensation practitioners work with vendors and their internal teams to put these strategies into practice.

RTI International is a nonprofit research institute dedicated to improving the human condition. It recently announced an ambitious goal: to positively impact 1 billion people across the globe by 2030. With this strategic imperative came an opportunity to develop a compelling People Strategy that will ensure staff fully understand how they contribute to this ambitious undertaking. During this session you'll learn about the organization’s rigorous cross-functional process of creating a People Strategy that empowers people and enhances culture.

Takeaways

• Think and act more strategically as HR and Total Rewards leaders and professionals.
• Know how to create a comprehensive People Strategy— not just an HR strategy — that enables an organization to fulfill a big ambition.
• Learn about the process to begin the development of a Culture and Organizational Health Dashboard for your organization.

Executive compensation is a hot topic — and everyone has an opinion. Our panel of consultants and leaders in the field will tackle key topics, including, are RSUs an effective tool? Are mega-grants ever warranted? Are CEOs really worth their pay packages? This sure-to-be-lively forum is designed to show participants that exec comp is as much art as it is science. There is not always a right answer, and reasonable minds can disagree.

Takeaways

• Gain a clear understanding of the arguments for and against some of the most controversial executive compensation practices.
• Be a stronger participant in internal discussions on the merits of different executive compensation practices.
• Understand the rationale underlying executive compensation practices where there is no clear consensus on what is viewed as a best practice.

Powered by Culpepper

Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress, often related to work or personal life. In today’s fast-paced, always-connected world, individuals are facing increasing demands and pressures, making them more susceptible to burnout. Factors like remote work, extended work hours, and blurred boundaries have contributed to this issue.

Common signs of burnout include persistent fatigue, a sense of cynicism or detachment from work, reduced productivity, and even physical symptoms like headaches and sleep disturbances. Recognizing these signs early can help individuals take proactive steps to address burnout.

It’s essential for both individuals and organizations to address burnout. Individuals should prioritize self-care, set boundaries, and seek social support. Organizations should promote a healthy work culture, encourage work-life balance, and provide resources like employee assistance programs. Recognizing and tackling burnout requires a multi-faceted approach.

Are you concerned that AI and evolving technology will make the jobs of tomorrow less human? Then join job description expert Don Berman from JDXpert, and Katie Jenkins, Skills-Edge Product Director from Mercer, as they answer your most burning questions about the evolution of job roles, impact on the labor market and the adjustments needed in our talent toolbelt to stay ahead. You’ll discover the chilling challenges and thrilling opportunities that lie just over the horizon. Multiple viewpoints will be presented, and attendees will have the unique opportunity to drive the conversation by voting for the narrative they agree with. Whether you're concerned about the future of job work, the integration of AI in talent management, or adapting to the changing workforce, this session promises to arm you with actionable insights and strategies to navigate the future of work confidently.
 

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Consider the Impact of AI and Technology on Job Evolution: Participants will gain insights into how traditional job roles are expected to change and the impact that will have on the labor market. Also, learn about the types of work and skills that may be important in the future.
• Strategize Adaptations to Talent Management Tools: Attendees will learn options to critically evaluate and adapt their current talent management tools—including job descriptions, recruiting practices, and skills distribution mechanisms—to better prepare for the dynamic future of work.
• Anticipate and Plan for Industry Challenges and Changes: Participants will be exposed to expert predictions on the major challenges and exciting changes facing our industry in the next 5-10 years. Concerns like privacy, change management and the fate of human decision making.

Sponsored by JDXpert

In this quick skills-building session, participants will learn to think through what an effective compensation philosophy looks like for their unique organization and how to develop one.

Total Rewards is integral to shaping an organization's employee experience and reflection of culture. Establishing a well-defined total rewards philosophy and strategic framework is essential to ensuring each program consistently reflects a positive and sustainable employee value proposition. This session dives into the critical elements of compensation, benefits, time off, retirement, career development, and workplace experiences, aligning them with employee needs and business objectives. Join us to discover how to effectively engage senior leadership in defining the current and future state of total rewards, explaining market dynamics, and implementing program-specific strategies to attract and retain high-performing talent.

Takeaways

• Define a Total Rewards philosophy and strategic framework to reflect a consistent, sustainable, and positive employee value proposition.
• Learn how to engage senior leadership in defining the current and future state of Total Rewards.
• Understand and explain the market and program-specific strategies to help attract and retain the very best talent ensuring alignment with both employee needs and broader business goals.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

With healthcare costs continuing to rise at an alarming rate, many employees aren't financially equipped to address their immediate health concerns. Today's HR professionals are tasked with bringing the topic of short-term financial planning to the forefront of employee benefits programs and education. Hear how organizations can help employees to thrive at the intersection of health and wealth, and improve overall engagement with their wellbeing. 

Takeways

1. Examination of the "wellbeing circle" and the interconnectedness between financial and physical wellbeing
2. Exploration of holistic, comprehensive strategies and methodologies aimed at fostering behavior change and promoting wellbeing across the entire organization
3. Actionable tips and strategies for effectively engaging employees across all dimensions of wellbeing to create a culture of wellbeing, not just a program
    

Sponsored by bswift

Being an American healthcare consumer is difficult; there is no GPS for navigating our complex system. Advocacy services can provide guidance to help people move through the intersection of healthcare, benefits, and insurance. How do these services work? What level of quality and price transparency insights are available today? How can employers use this as a strategy? Reid Rasmussen, Cofounder and CEO of freshbenies will explore these questions using real-life case studies.

Takeaways

• Articulate the many types of employee frustrations with benefits.
• Better understand why quality and price transparency are so difficult to find.
• Have a clear understanding of the level and quality of concierge services available to employees.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court held that certain college admission practices favoring underrepresented groups violated the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. Although seemingly removed from the field of Total Rewards, this decision will have major implications on corporate compensation programs, messaging, external reporting, and internal modeling and tracking. This session will walk through how D&I, pay equity, and related activities may (or may not) need to change after the Supreme Court ruling.

Takeaways

• Learn to critically assess pay equity programs and to revise compensation programs that have problematic metrics.
• Adjust CSR and 10-K language pertaining to D&I.
• Update strategies for promoting D&I in a sustainable manner, maintaining and growing D&I progress while avoiding litigation as laws evolve.

Employees who say they have a great company culture more often stay, work hard and feel inspired. However, about one in three are not happy with their culture. BI WORLDWIDE will discuss their latest research on culture and its business impact. Carl Saunders will then share how The Coca-Cola Company uses strategic communications, targeted recognition, non-cash rewards, and ongoing measurement to impact culture and drive key, global enterprise initiatives. Hear how this results in higher engagement and a true culture of recognition.

Takeaways

• Understand key drivers that build a strong culture.
• Gain the tools to develop and evaluate a recognition and rewards program to reinforce and build the culture globally.
• Learn how to use data to maximize the effectiveness of your recognition program.

Business is global, and organizations often face the challenge of compensating a multinational salesforce. However, sales compensation professionals are not always sure when to implement a global design, and when to leave sales incentives to local country management. Even when the decision is clear to “go global,” getting the process started is not easy. Two sales comp leaders from Siemen’s will draw on their experience of building a global center of expertise.

Takeaways

• Learn how to identify, anticipate, and address challenges of implementing a global sales compensation framework.
• Find out what aspects of a sales compensation framework should be defined at the global vs. local level.
• Learn what to watch for when rolling out a global framework.

Join this captivating conversation on merit-based compensation and its impact on work. Explore the pros and cons, discover its effect on employee motivation and performance, address fairness concerns, and learn best practices for designing and implementing merit systems. Our panel will challenge your assumptions and position you to unlock the potential of merit-based compensation for your organization.

Takeaways

• Evaluate the effectiveness of merit-based compensation, including the advantages and disadvantages and potential impact on employee motivation, performance, and organizational success.
• Understand and address fairness and equity concerns with a merit-based model to create a compensation system less likely to have inherit bias.
• Address the challenges of limited compensation budgets and historic high market compensation increases.

Learn how Schneider Electric wove elements of local and global approaches to create a Family Leave Policy that felt inclusive for all and helped position Schneider Electric as a Caring & Responsible employer.

Takeaways

• Learn how to navigate enhancing certain benefit policies in spite of cost pressures
• Understand how to apply benefit policies with minimum standards, allowing for local “flavour”
• Leverage policies that balance global needs and local perspectives to demonstrate care as an employer and enhance attraction and retention

Join us for an insightful session where Anuj Mongia, Executive Vice President of Products and Revenue will lead a discussion on integrating pay equity strategy into global pay data reporting. Our expert panelists, including Andy Cripe, Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, will provide invaluable insights into navigating the complex legal landscape and compliance considerations surrounding pay equity. Stefan Gaertner, Partner and Innovations Leader for Talent Analytics at Aon will offer analytical approaches, showcasing the significance of statistical modeling and key metrics in pay equity analysis. The session will conclude with a panel discussion and Q&A, providing attendees with actionable takeaways to enhance their pay equity strategies and ensure compliance with global pay data compliance and reporting requirements. Don't miss this opportunity to gain comprehensive insights and expert guidance to help you achieve your global pay equity goals.

Sponsored by Trusaic

Bristol Myers Squibb recently created an enterprise-wide job architecture and leveling approach and streamlined its job catalog. Building upon this foundation, BMS is now establishing starter job descriptions for each role to support more efficient talent acquisition and provide relevant content for career discussions. Join this conversation to learn how BMS teamed up with WTW and used their data science methodology to identify skills, accountabilities, and qualifications across the job catalog.

Takeaways

• Understand how global job architecture and job leveling serve as an effective foundation for building job documentation and skills taxonomies that align with career pathways and experiences.
• Learn how to leverage the power of data science to quickly build job description and skills content across your job catalog.
• Review the steps and approaches used to generate and validate job descriptions and skills content with the business and across the job catalog.

Where and how can exec comp pros free up time spent on activities that add less value? Additionally, where can you invest saved time to maximize impact? Join this roundtable discussion designed for experienced executive compensation professionals and walk away with concrete steps to maximize your effectiveness. Possible areas of discussion include –

• Streamlining Preparation of the Comp Sections of the Annual Proxy Statement
• Innovations in Proxy Design
• Compensation Committee Annual Calendar of Topics
• Compensation Committee Materials

Takeaways

• Exchange ideas for minimizing low-impact activities and prioritize high-impact ones for executive compensation professionals.
   

Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Want to take your compensation programs and processes to the next level? Join us to learn how! Marina Vassilev, VP of Rewards for Schneider Electric, will talk about how her organization has used AI to create job descriptions, job postings and determine FLSA and EEO classifications. You'll see creative examples of how IT and HR teams partnered to gain efficiencies and position the company as an employer of choice.

Takeaways

• Learn about Schneider Electric’s internally developed AI tool and the impact it has on attracting and retaining key talent and realizing cost savings.
• Explore ideas on partnering with your IT team and develop an AI-based compensation model.
• Make compensation processes efficient, fair, and compliant and position your organization as an employer of choice.

Learn from the successes of industry giants like Walmart, Pepsi, and Apple, who recognize the pivotal role of emotional connection in motivating a workforce through change. Utilizing Kotter's “See-Feel-Change” model, in addition to neuroscience-based research on behavior adoption, this session will demonstrate the critical correlation between rationality and emotionality to drive lasting behavioral change.

Takeaways

• Grasp the significance of crafting a compelling change narrative to ignite engagement within your organization.
• Learn to appeal to both rationality and emotionality to drive truly sustainable behavior adoption.
• Leverage real case examples and draw on data-backed insights to develop and utilize tactical strategies that encourage emotional connectivity to drive transformative objectives with lasting impact.

Amidst the widespread adoption of employee-centric benefits, a significant challenge remains prevalent – benefits packages frequently include underutilized programs, leading to inefficient capital allocation, especially during challenging economic periods. Join Forma as we delve into the current state of the benefits market and examine why Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs) have emerged as a groundbreaking solution to address the individual needs of each employee.

You’ll leave the session with actionable insights and data-backed recommendations from Forma’s 2024 LSA benchmark report – collected from over 200 companies and 450K employees worldwide – so you can design best-in-class LSAs that employees love.

Sponsored by Forma

With rapidly shifting employee expectations and market upheaval, leaders and organizations are trying to catch their break, take a beat and rebase line. Workplace culture has evolved, and some leaders and organizations are clinging to obsolete practices with others feeling overwhelmed and disoriented.

This panel will discuss evolving trends in Strengthening the Employee Experience

• · As the world and work becomes more agile and rapid, the new social contract between employer and employee is to create a work experience that allows you to bring your whole self and create a work experience that addresses the whole self. Hear from global leaders who leveraged AI, conjoint analysis and other tools to deliver a tailored Total Rewards offering to their employees.
• · Panel Discussion underscores the necessity for a reimagined employee experience due to the widening gap in employee relationships, expectations, and loyalty.
  •  It highlights the need to build modern employee experiences that invite, empower, and inspire, by connecting meaningful work to those who seek it, balancing the needs of all parties involved, and strengthening trust throughout the employee journey.
  • The presentation also emphasizes the importance of keeping all employees at the center, understanding employee preferences, and the role of trust in the use of data and technology.
  •  It further stresses that pay, meaning, skills, and culture are crucial for attraction and retention efforts, and that great tech enables great work.
  • The presentation concludes by outlining an approach to employee experience transformation, which involves listening, designing meaningful experiences, continuously turning insights into action, prioritizing what is valued, and measuring and improving.

While group rewards acknowledge employees for collective efforts, they often fall short in driving individual behavior. Individual incentives motivate higher performance and monetary recognition. In Japan, the longstanding practice of team bonuses is giving way to new approaches after three decades of flat GDP growth. This session will explore how to make course corrections — and avoid pitfalls — when adding individual measures to supplement team measurements, using examples from Japanese companies.

Takeaways

• Effectively engage with leadership to target employees with individual incentives in a way that will drive corporate performance.
• Learn how to increase individual performance, reduce the “free rider” risk, and transition from a team bonus to a system that includes individual incentives.
• Avoid pitfalls when implementing individual incentives.

The bottom-line value of workplace mental health is impossible to ignore. Untreated conditions lead to reduced productivity, increased absenteeism, and higher turnover. This workshop empowers you to recognize the real costs of unaddressed mental health struggles. Learn to quantify the costs of absenteeism, attrition, and lost productivity, and measure the value of mental health programs. Join us to access customizable models that help build an irrefutable business case for supporting mental health at your organization.

Takeaways

• Understand the costs associated with untreated mental health conditions in the workplace.
• Learn how to calculate the ROI of implementing mental health initiatives, clearly articulating the numbers behind mental health to quantify effectiveness.
• Enable ongoing optimization by tracking ROI over time to determine appropriate scale and identify areas needing adjustment.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

This session will delve into the transformative potential of human connection and its impact on shaping the future of work. By challenging conventional approaches to recruiting and retention, Charlie Saffro, CEO of CS Recruiting, will unveil the immense power of authentic interactions in attracting top talent and nurturing a thriving workplace culture. Join us on a journey to humanize the workplace, empowering companies to embrace a new paradigm that values people as the cornerstone of organizational success.

Takeaways

• Leverage unique company values to clearly define what makes your company unique in the hiring market, identifying areas of strength and potential improvement compared to competitors.
• Learn actionable tactics to create and maintain a strong company culture.
• Understand why employees stay, why employees leave, and the importance of putting your people first.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Automation is one of the most powerful tools available to compensation professionals, and it can be used to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and fairness of compensation programs. Zach Basich of Alvarez & Marsal will guide you through the tools and resources you need to streamline tasks and processes, developing an automation strategy that meets organizational needs, freeing up your time to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Takeaways

• Fully understand the benefits of using automation to improve compensation programs.
• Identify the news-breaking trends in compensation automation.
• Implement specific automation tools and processes to improve your compensation programs.

Pay equity is a crucial aspect of a holistic talent strategy — not a siloed activity only focused on statistical analysis and pay remediation actions. This session will challenge you to reconsider and broaden your role in fostering overall workplace equity, understanding that pay (thus pay equity) is an outcome of organizational culture, people strategy, talent management processes, and the capabilities of people managers.

Takeaways

• Gain insights into the principles of inclusive design and learn how to identify root causes of talent and pay inequities.
• Learn to use these principles to transform pay equity processes and develop sustainable workplace equity.
• Understand how to utilize advanced analytics to pinpoint drivers of inequity and develop a strategic mindset to build equitable Total Rewards strategies that resonate with the modern workforce.

The Executive Compensation team at American Airlines is taking a deliberate, technology-first approach to its work. Recruiting tech talent has been a key initiative to support that approach. Seven years into this initiative, almost half of American's Exec Comp roles are technical. Learn the benefits American has gained through hiring tech talent, its key projects, how to attract tech talent, and how to leverage your team's tech talent for success.

Takeaways

• Explore specific examples of creative and effective technical solutions at American Airlines to boost their executive compensation team's productivity, accuracy, and capability.
• Learn how to recruit tech talent and how to determine which projects are most appropriate for your embedded tech professionals to engage.

Moving to become a skills-based organization will come with a number of roadblocks. Understanding the challenges is the first step on implementing a skills-based transformation. Join Aon leader Muir Macpherson, North America Performance & Analytics, and Scott Reithel Director, People Analytics, for real-world examples and tested tools that will equip you to initiate a skills transformation and set your company up for future success. 

Takeaways

• Grasp the reasons behind the growing emphasis on skills in organizations and how it addresses key business and talent issues.
• Acquire practical knowledge about the potential obstacles and roadblocks organizations may encounter when transitioning to a skill-based model and understand the persistent challenges organizations face in effectively managing nurturing skills over the long term. 
• Gain actionable insights and practical examples on how to kickstart a skills transformation, leveraging real-world use cases and experiences.

Your severance strategy is not just a policy — it's a statement of your organization's values and commitment to your talent pool. Join Eun-Mee Jeong, VP & General Manager of Career Slate, and Susanne Harris, SVP, Total Rewards & People Operations at LendingClub to navigate the complexities of severance — balancing cash severance, benefits continuation, and career services with organizational goals. Together, we'll unpack how to infuse your severance framework with intention and empathy, ensuring alignment between your culture and goals.

Takeaways

• Learn how to avoid common mistakes which can compromise your employer brand, employee morale and talent attraction.
• Evaluate whether your current severance strategy supports your company's goals and aligns with your culture.
• You’ll be able to articulate ideas or options to explore for adjusting your company's severance strategy.

Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Today the best compensation teams in the world are turning to offer data to stay ahead of market trends. This data can help identify market premiums for emerging roles, uncover market trends, and drive impact with signing bonuses. Dive in with Charlie Franklin, Co-founder and CEO of Compa, and Supriya Bahri, VP of Total Rewards at Roblox and Priya Padmanabhan, Director of Compensation, at Roblox, to learn how the digital gaming company leverages offer data from Compa to build a competitive benefits strategy.

Takeaways

• Incorporate offer data into new and existing compensation strategies to gain an edge in the talent market.
• Enhance collaboration between compensation and talent acquisition teams to ensure more data-driven decision-making.
• Learn how to equip yourself with real-time market intelligence data while talking about emerging roles and compensation concerns with business leaders.

Since beginning their fair pay journey in 2021, Morningstar has publicly evaluated their pay gaps, sharing results internally and externally. Tyler Huddleston, Total Rewards Solutions Leader for Morningstar, and Mariann Madden, North America Pay Equity Co-Lead for WTW, will discuss Morningstar’s pay equity roadmap, including plans for sharing individual pay ranges with employees globally in 2024. Learn tangible steps for providing clarity and visibility into your organization's own pay programs and processes.

Takeaways

• Learn about global pay transparency trends and what’s driving the demand for pay transparency.
• Be ready to build a business case for greater pay transparency within your own organization.
• Understand key components of a pay transparency roadmap and the steps toward shining more light on your pay programs and processes.

Learn how leading organizations are moving from simply reporting about pay equity audits to truly advancing workplace equity at their compensation committee meetings by presenting a robust, data-driven framework. In this session Maria Colacurcio, CEO of Syndio, and Athar Siddiqee, VP of Total Rewards at Micron Technology will show you how to build the business case that will inspire your leaders to advance workplace equity efforts.

Takeaways

• Create customized workplace equity frameworks/scorecards with the right human capital metrics to advance the conversation at your compensation committees and other meetings.
• Learn how to advance pay and opportunity equity efforts with executives in a robust, data-informed manner to obtain the buy in needed and meet growing shareholder, regulatory and employee demands for disclosure.
• Plan for steps taken at each point of the journey as you build a framework for your organization, including predicting outcomes and demonstrating progress.

Dive into a world where work meets play! Explore how gamification is revolutionizing traditional Total Rewards strategies. Join Sharell Thomas, Total Rewards Director for the YMCA of Metro Atlanta to discover how incorporating game elements and mechanics can turn everyday incentives into an exhilarating adventure, fostering employee motivation and driving peak performance.

Takeaways

• Explain why and how gamification in Total Rewards can contribute to higher employee retention and overall workplace satisfaction.
• Effectively implement gamification strategies, using the tools and knowledge gained to transform the workplace into a high-energy, rewarding game.
• Leverage this engagement to boost employee morale, improve performance, and create a more engaging and enjoyable work environment.

Join Martha Cook of EY and Peter Newhouse of uFlexReward as they present strategies and solutions to surf the Digital Wave for Total Rewards. The digitalisation of Rewards is inevitable – are you ready to surf the wave or will it sweep you aside?

Hear about the Digital Reward Cube – a navigational tool to help you develop your strategy and prioritise where to apply technology and AI to Total Rewards with intelligence.

Hear about Global Total Reward & Digital Optimisation trends and data driven insights – to help you stay ahead of the wave.

Takeaways

• Gain insights into how companies are approaching Reward Optimisation through data driven insights
• Learn how to apply a practical tool to help you develop your company’s Digital Reward Strategy

Sponsored by uFlexReward

In our data driven world, our intuition often takes a backseat in our decision making and analysis. But should it? Grant Berthold, Director of Sales Planning and Performance for Workiva believes that our intuition is actually our superpower and should be used alongside data and processes consistently. Join this session to learn how to trust and incorporate your intuition into your work in a way that elevates your capacity and influence within your organization.

Takeaways

• Be able to present intuitive ideas in a way that conveys professionalism and expertise.
• Reconcile differing viewpoints between data and your “gut feel” so you feel confident with the insights/recommendations you’re bringing to the business.
• Gain confidence in trusting you intuition and leaning on it when applicable.

As the use of AI proliferates across HR technology, compensation practitioners will become exposed to a greater breadth and depth of data to advance outcomes within their organizations. In this forward-looking discussion, leading consultants and data innovators will help compensation and rewards professionals prepare for changing regulations and technological innovation. Moderated by Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer of Lighthouse Research & Advisory and Artificial Intelligence for HR author, this panel will explore how AI-powered innovation leads to informed and predictive compensation management.

Through this session, practitioners will be able to:

• Understand how AI has impacted HR and compensation data.
• Learn where the market is today and what the next 5 years may hold.
• Identify ways an organization using AI may enhance its strategy even further to achieve business outcomes in line with AI-ethics.
• Identify the steps, processes, and tools needed to implement AI-driven solutions.
   

Given that economic and social realities are constantly evolving—and increasingly unpredictable—how can we create Total Rewards programs that will engage and retain tomorrow’s workforce? That’s the question four global rewards leaders will explore in this lively, Oxford-style debate. They’ll discuss the state of Total Rewards, from design to communication to measurement, and weigh in on whether current systems are sufficiently “future-proof.” By the end of the session, you’ll be able to gauge your own readiness for the uncertain road ahead.

Have you asked any of the below questions?

• How does the cooling labor market and high inflation rates impact compensation programs?
• Is my job architecture optimizing the organization's future by including emerging roles like AI?
• Is my company a technology company?
• How do I best compensate your critical workforce segments while pursuing cost optimization efforts?

Please join Expedia Group, Empsight, Humana, and Deloitte Consulting as we discuss recent research findings on navigating cyclical change.

Takeaways

• Analyze the interconnectivity between labor market trends and the broader economy.
• How to create and optimize the organization's strategic compensation positioning.
   

Whether it’s due to financial challenges, caregiving demands, or polarizing politics, long-term stress is driving increases in chronic illness and mental health diagnoses among Americans. It’s also hurting workplaces, since stressed-out employees are less engaged and productive. In this practical session, you’ll explore a state-of-the-art well-being program designed to promote workers’ well-being and learn how to develop your own effective plan, regardless of company size. You’ll leave ready to achieve the ultimate win-win—healthier workers and a better bottom line.

Powered by Peoplefluent, US Bank, Mercer, Compport, Bank of America andTrusaic

The After Party has moved to Monday night this year as Total Rewards takes over the Great American Ballpark. Join us for an unforgettable night of nostalgia, games, and ballpark fare at the Cincinnati Reds stadium.

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Bodyweight Strength + Metabolic Conditioning
Join us as we play through an energetic and powerful combination of bodyweight strength and cardiovascular intervals. After a solid warm-up and mobility set, we’ll alternate blocks of functional strength and high intensity (HIIT) movements creating a full-body training session. 

The class will be accessible for all fitness levels.

There is no fee to participate in the class, but a small donation to the WorldatWork Foundation is encouraged. A QR code for donations will be displayed at the class location.

Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app. 
 

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The pressure is on Total Rewards professionals to optimize the return on the single biggest investment their companies make today—in total rewards—while navigating a constantly changing labor landscape where exceptions have become the rule.

In this must-attend Main Stage Session, three chief people officers at top global companies—Greenhouse Software, HubSpot and Patagonia—will share their secrets on creating successful rewards strategies amidst so much disruption and uncertainty. They’ll cover how to:

• Meet business goals and provide value
• Structure your Total Rewards function
• Leverage data effectively
• Incorporate leading technologies like artificial intelligence to enhance decision-making

In a dynamic discussion moderated by WorldatWork board member Courtney McMillian, this diverse panel of transformative leaders will deliver insight and inspiration in equal measure. You won’t want to miss it!

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In this presentation, we will explore White Castle's development and implementation of a comprehensive employee incentive & recognition program designed to consolidate performance measurement tools across various divisions into a single, centralized platform. We will discuss the challenges of integrating diverse data sources and the solutions that enabled a unified system offering a wide array of rewards. The outcome of this initiative has significantly enhanced employee engagement by simplifying the incentive & recognition processes and providing a variety of reward options that cater to different employee needs. The presentation will conclude with insights into the ongoing improvements and future direction for White Castle's recognition strategies.  

Even the most diligent plan sponsors occasionally run into operational errors in their qualified retirement plans. Timely identification and correction of these issues is key to maintaining compliance. Michael Schmit and James Deets of Alvarez and Marsal will walk you through the many correction programs, procedures, and requirements, which can be confusing to navigate. During this session, you’ll gain the knowledge to properly correct (and potentially avoid) errors and failures which can save money, time, and resources for everyone.

Takeaways

• Identify common operational, fiduciary, and filing issues with retirement plans.
• Understand the differences in IRS and DOL correction programs and the common methodologies for resolving issues as well as alternatives.
• Mitigate potential resource burdens associated with identifying and correcting operational failures in qualified plans.

Not getting the desired results from your financial wellness programs? While most companies boast a financial wellness initiative, achieving optimal outcomes and engagement remains a challenge for many. Join this session for an insider's look into the financial wellness marketplace. You’ll gain invaluable insights on how to design or transform a program that supports your organization's business objectives, drives awareness, and actually improves the financial lives of your employees.

Takeaways

• Understand the current financial wellness marketplace and vendors with specific examples of how the most successful financial wellness programs are designed and implemented.
• Understand how a properly designed financial wellness program can support and drive awareness of your benefits offering.
• Be ready to evaluate the various financial wellness vendors with key questions to ask yourself and your potential partners.

During this session learn about Tractor Supply Company’s (TSC) year-long immersive learning experience for high potential associates, Leadership EDGE. Christine Belknap, VP of Talent & Leadership Development for TSC, and Ken Kunkleman, Senior Client Partner for Korn Ferry, will describe the program’s design and creation, delivery and execution, and ongoing impact, with a particular focus on the strategic Total Rewards intent, inputs, and impact of the program.

Takeaways

• Be inspired to build out a more holistic value proposition for your Total Rewards program.
• Connect strategic Total Rewards to employee development.
• Demonstrate the business case and linkage to measurable Total Rewards outcomes.

Ensuring pay equity is not just a regulatory requirement – but a strategic imperative for companies. Join our speakers Aria Glasgow, Partner and Rewards Practice Leader at Aon, and Stefan Gaertner, Leader in People Analytics at Aon, for this compelling session on why organizations need to prioritize pay transparency now for a more equitable tomorrow. Attendees will learn actionable strategies to navigate legal requirements with a roadmap to kickstart your pay transparency program and foster a culture of fairness and inclusion. Lead the change for pay transparency within your organization and unlock the benefits of equity and excellence.

Sponsored by Aon

What does it really take to be successful in executive compensation? Join our group of experts as they take you through a day in the life of a busy exec comp practitioner. Whether it's discussing bonus targets with the CFO, reviewing equity grant agreements with legal, or explaining the Pay for Performance disclosure to the investor relations team, this career is never dull and requires certain skills our experts deem essential to your success. 

Takeaways

• Explore and understand the varied nature of the exec comp role and where you may have a gap in your own skill set. 
• Understand current hot topics in executive compensation and which key stakeholders you engage.
• Identify key skills required for exec comp practitioners and be able to apply to your own career growth.

Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

ESG metrics is a hot topic in the boardroom, but many organizations are still in learning mode. Brooke Fernandez, VP & General Manager for MainData Group, and Jannice Koors, Senior Managing Director for Pearl Meyer, will separate fact from fiction through an analysis of Russell 3000 ESG proxy disclosures. This session will help you understand the latest ESG metrics, emerging trends, and which metrics are gaining popularity in compensation plans — or losing ground.

Takeaways

• Identify which ESG measures are being included in compensation plans and prevalence trends by sector.
• Understand which measures are gaining ground in terms of impact and inclusion in executive compensation plans and which are falling out of favor.
• Have a more educated discussion with your Board and management on how to approach ESG measures for inclusion in compensation plans and why it may or may not make sense for your unique circumstances.

How much budget do you really need to deliver on a pay for performance strategy? Recent studies indicate that we have finally broken the stagnant 3% annual budget increase and may expect more. So how can you get the most bang for your buck with a pay-for performance program? Our panel will explore practical ways to differentially reward top performers now that budgets seem to finally be on the rise.

Takeaways

• Leverage performance management tools and strategies to assist in differentially rewarding top performers.
• Think more strategically in executing your compensation planning cycle, utilizing lessons learned in other organizations.
• Understand best practices around equity and market adjustments, paying for performance while also addressing pay equity, utilizing company assets like stocks as a vehicle for rewarding performance, and more.

Join Gail Greenfield, Trusaic’s EVP of Pay Equity and Total Rewards for a deep dive into the most challenging conversations in compensation and Total Rewards. Our panelists from Marriott International, FTI Consulting and Humana will offer a sometimes serious, sometimes lighthearted look at their most hair-raising encounters. Each story will provide practical takeaways to improve communication with non-compensation/Total Rewards colleagues. Prepare to laugh as we take a walk on the wild side of workplace interactions.  

Takeaways

• Effectively communicate complex pay equity and pay transparency concepts to colleagues who may not be well-versed in these areas. Navigate challenging conversations with confidence, addressing tough questions and concerns.
• Be equipped to prevent misunderstandings related to pay equity and transparency by providing clear and accurate information to your colleagues, reducing the risk of conflicts and disputes arising from miscommunication.
• Build stronger workplace relationships with colleagues in various departments by improving communication and understanding of compensation-related topics.

Join Paul Smithivas, Managing Director and Solution Advisor at WTW, for a panel discussion on optimizing Total Rewards amid a volatile and uncertain economic landscape. Hem Patel, VP of Total Rewards for Moderna, will explain how the company is using analytics and AI to make Total Rewards decisions and drive business performance. Learn how they and other entrepreneurial companies are embracing the future to create a modern Total Rewards experience for employees today.

Takeaways

• Gain both strategic and practical applications of analytics and AI to use at your company.
• Understand how to use analytics and new digital technologies such as generative AI as a Total Rewards professional. 

In the evolving landscape of employer branding, demonstrating pay and workplace equity is critical. When faced with a significant pay gap, the challenge lies in correcting it promptly. Join Margret Bjarnadottir, Associate Professor of Management Science and Statistics at the University of Maryland, as she unveils a nuanced approach to closing pay gaps. This session focuses on dissecting specific segments of the salary structure contributing to pay gaps and addressing inequity at its roots.

Takeaways

• Explore the complexities of closing pay gaps and understand why solutions may not be immediately apparent.
• Understand the limitations of focusing only on employees who have the largest negative differences to close pay gaps.
• Apply diverse and specific approaches to effectively address and close pay gaps within your organization.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

The life of a rewards professional can no longer be centered on spreadsheets and formulas. Today, building influential human connections is critically important; we need to be less data technician and more strategic partner to the whole HR function and business leaders. Magdalena Bugallo, Director of Total Rewards Experience, for VCA, will present a new way to approach Total Rewards that will help you re-think the skills and capabilities you need to conquer the future of work.

Takeaways

• Re-think the role of the Total Rewards function within your organization evaluating your team’s capacity for strategic partnership.
• Create an action plan on how to up-skill rewards professionals for the future.
• Resource your Total Rewards function with the right talent to face the challenges of the future.

HSAs are 20 years old while 401(k)s are 45. It is long past time for strategies that blend them together to gain a competitive cost advantage in the war for talent. HSAs offer maximum utility while 401(k)s provide liquidity — and both improve financial resiliency. Give your workers access to America's most valuable tax-preferred benefit by creating a synergistic combination of HSA and 401(k) benefits that work better together.

Takeaways

• Create a plan that lowers employer-paid and worker-paid medical expenses while increasing financial resiliency as well as aggregate retirement savings and retirement preparation.
• Learn how to leverage available transition provisions and innovations to improve associate engagement, as well as real and perceived perceptions of improved value.
• Significantly improve retirement preparation (especially with respect to retiree medical and long-term care risk exposures) by leveraging tax preferences.

Jamie Newton, Managing Director for Total Rewards Search, has spent over a decade guiding careers to new heights. The Total Rewards industry is always short on talent, and companies often just throw money at the problem rather than offering genuine career opportunities. In this session, learn how to navigate through the traps of sideways moves while actively increasing your skill set and overall market appeal.

Takeaways

• Understand your market positioning and worth and why this assessment of your value is crucial to navigating your career.
• Gain a roadmap to success by avoiding pitfalls, expanding your skill set, and escaping siloed positions.

Dive into the evolving landscape of organizational rewards with Korn Ferry, drawing insights from a comprehensive study encompassing 4000 organizations worldwide. In the face of compounding challenges—ranging from high inflation and a competitive talent market to gloomy economic outlooks—organizations are compelled to reimagine their reward program strategies. Join us in this session as we delve into the 'what,' 'why,' and 'how' behind organizations reshaping their employee reward programs to navigate unprecedented levels of uncertainty.

Takeaway

• Walk away with a profound understanding of the current state of reward strategy trends, empowering you to elevate the reward strategy within your own organization.

Danielle Luz, Reward Manager, GRP and master student in IT and HR areas at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, will offer advice and tips for HR and Total Rewards professionals who want to use modern tools, API's and AI to generate predictive analysis and elevate their compensation strategies, increasing productivity and data quality. This session will provide you practical insights and guidance.

Takeaways

• Realize the benefits of using AI and new technologies as strategic tools and reduce the fear that AI will threaten your career.
• Gain knowledge and strategies to effectively navigate the integration of AI in compensation practices and advance their professional capabilities.

Do you own the sales compensation process? Depending on structure, size, industry, and even personalities involved, the team or individual who owns sales compensation, from strategy to execution, can vary wildly. During this session learn what it really means to own sales compensation and the massive professional and organizational benefits you will gain from taking full control of the end-to-end process.

Takeaways

• Know how to work with all cross-functional stakeholders involved and be at the center of major decision-making processes.
• Gain the skills to own and take control of the sales compensation process to drive optimal financial results. 

More than 40% of Americans’ lives are disrupted daily by digestive issues. Not only does this cost 6 billion in annual spending — more than heart disease, trauma, and mental health together — but people are suffering in silence, painfully navigating a fragmented care system that leads to anxiety, frustration, and lack of relief. Chris Nordman, Senior Vice President, Commercial Team, of Vivante Health, will discuss how employers and benefits leaders can implement GI health solutions that tackle this growing problem.

Takeaways

• Know how to integrate GI health into your wellness and benefits programs, reducing rising healthcare costs and bringing employees the digestive care they need to feel better, gut first.
• Better understand how gut health and wellbeing increases employee productivity and participation in the workplace.

The SEC released new guidance on pay vs. performance in late 2023, sending many companies back to the drawing board in preparing for their second round of disclosures for the 2024 Proxy. With proxy season now wrapped up, Jannice Koors from Pearl Meyer and Nate O'Connor from Equity Methods will recap key themes and best practices that emerged in the second round of disclosures, plus a rundown of changes companies made in year two.

Takeaways

• Prepare your next proxy with an understanding of how other companies approached their recent proxy on several methodological questions that impact the current proxy
• Understand how to prepare an important disclosure in the proxy and receive a pay vs performance disclosure development checklist

Total Rewards can be strategically utilized to achieve broader organizational goals during and after a merger and acquisition. Dive into the dynamic world of M&A with Jeremy Hollander, CEO of Milio, Cory Rose VP for Total Rewards & People Programs at the Aspen Group, and Greg Roche VP for Compensation at UnitedHealthcare. They’ll unveil their M&A playbooks, along with strategic insights and proven tactics for a harmonious and rewarding journey through M&A.

Takeaways

• Equip yourself with strategies to align and optimize compensation structures effectively ensuring fairness and equity within the newly merged organization and gain strategies to align disparate benefit programs.
• Strategically plan and leverage Total Rewards as a powerful tool to achieve broader organizational goals throughout the M&A process.
• Identify and employ Total Rewards strategies to mitigate resistance to change, fostering a positive attitude among employees during organizational transitions utlimately driving employee satisfaction and retention during and after M&As

Geographical differentials have an undeniable impact on pay transparency and equity initiatives. Today, it’s an issue every organization with remote workers must understand. Shari Nornes, Principal Consultant for MorganHR, Inc., and Wilma Beaty, CHRO and Legal Officer for BioTouch, will share how you can help your organization shift from a complex geographic differential approach to one that is culture-driven and simpler, resulting in a more cost-effective way to attract and retain talent.

Takeaways

• Have the ability to strategically review your organization's geographic landscape using data and be able to explain the impact on pay administration.
• Gain insights on leveraging data to support leadership involvement in the solution.
• Recognize the importance of partnering with talent management to enhance employee attraction and retention.

Digestive conditions are the fourth-largest driver of employee healthcare costs. Patients often move from low to high acuity over the course of their disease, making caring for this population complex and ripe for solutions. Brent Westra, Director at the Mayo Clinic, and Sam Jactel, Founder and CEO of Ayble Health, delve into an innovative solution that matches patients with virtual and in-person care based on acuity, offering cost-effective, multidisciplinary care and leading to better outcomes.

Takeaways

• Understand the challenges of managing chronic gastrointestinal conditions in the workplace.
• Learn about streamlined processes for employers and health plans to implement integrated digestive health care.
• Explore the benefits of a hybrid care model in optimizing outcomes and costs and delivering seamless care for employees with chronic gastrointestinal conditions.

After a decade of exceptional performance, Zebra Technologies’ revenue dropped suddenly and dramatically. The compensation team stepped in to help right the ship. In this real-life case study learn how they redesigned incentives, creatively adjusted merit pay, retained talent, motivated the management and employee teams, and remained competitive in a very tight talent market. This session will inspire you to level up your compensation game to help solve challenging business problems affecting the entire company.

Takeaways

• Learn how to use all the compensation tools at your disposal when your company faces a significant event or challenge.
• Understand how to engage the Board in being part of the solution. 

There’s a new standard for pay transparency, driven by expanding global legislation, disclosures, and employee demands.

Learn how to build an effective response and strategy from Beth Leff, Senior Compensation & Mobility Consultant at Dow and Rebecca Scully, VP of Product at Workplace Equity Analytics Platform, Syndio. Hear how Beth generated buy-in for pay equity investments and lessons she learned along the way, as well as the role of analytics and technology in moving from a reactive approach to fair pay and transparency to one that’s embedded and proactive. 

During this session, you’ll hear:

•  How this global material science company with over 37,000 employees in 160 countries created their pay transparency strategy. -
• The impact on their approaches across rewards and talent management -
• Lessons learned along the journey

Sponsored by Syndio

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: 

1. Upload your spreadsheet with your formulas, formats, and validations. 
2. Add user-defined security that controls precisely what users can do with the data. 
3. Share one SecureSheet with no risk of multiple versions.

Data is updated immediately in real-time, and updates during the process is easy.

Sponsored by SecureSheet

The impact of AI on our workforce today goes beyond automation.​ It must also consider how AI will substantively change job responsibilities and what new skills will be required. In this discussion, Aon leaders Chris Brown, Chief Operations Officer for Talent Solutions, and Marc Pajarillo, Partner for Talent Solutions, will discuss the significance of AI on Human Resources and guide the audience on how to get started to up-skill their workforce today and prepare for the future.

Sponsored by Aon

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The latest Excel updates have propelled its utility for Total Rewards professionals to unprecedented heights. By harnessing the power of Excel's new and advanced features, you can effortlessly tackle complex tasks in mere minutes. During this hands-on workshop you’ll discover the ins and outs of Excel's new features — including FILTER, SORT, UNIQUE, XLOOKUP, IFS, INDEX, XMATCH, INDIRECT, Goal Seek, Map Charts, dynamic ranges and wildcard characters — and learn how to apply them to typical Total Rewards scenarios.

Takeaways

• Use the INDIRECT and SUBSTITUTE formulas to calculate compa-ratios and range penetrations for employees in different salary structures.
• Use the XLOOKUP formula to determine each employee’s correct quartile based on their respective range penetrations.
• Use the INDEX and XMATCH formulas and the Goal Seek function to build out merit matrices.
• Use the IFS and DATE formulas to assign different effective dates to different employees based on a myriad of unrelated factors.
• Use the FILTER and SORT formulas and the Data Validation tool to build interactive, filterable charts.
• Use the UNIQUE formula and the Map Chart feature to create maps with employee information by state.

NOTE: The target audience for this workshop is Total Rewards professionals who already have a working knowledge of Excel. Mastery over common functions and formulas, such as Pivot Tables, VLOOKUP, SUM, and MEDIAN,  prior to attending the workshop is recommended.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Join us for an engaging skill-building session that will empower you to modernize your hourly pay strategy. In this session, we will challenge conventional benchmarking approaches and introduce emerging techniques tailored to the unique dynamics of hourly pay.

Gain invaluable insights into the art of "getting real" about your true competition for hourly talent, taking into account the broad skill sets required, the transferability of those skills across industries, and other influential factors in the local labor market. Discover how to leverage essential data to shape a competitive and sustainable hourly wage that sets your organization apart, leveraging new ways of benchmarking and strategic market positioning.

Furthermore, we will delve into the intersection of pay and career development strategies in the era of rapid reskilling and pay transparency. Explore how to craft a differentiated and compelling EVP that resonates with both career and transitional hourly workers, ensuring your organization stands out as an employer of choice.

During this 30-minute, hands-on skill-building session you will learn how to effectively attract and retain frontline hourly workers by using meaningful and effective rewards programs. Lori Wisper, a WorldatWork faculty member and Managing Director for WTW will share her deep experience in developing rewards programs for hourly frontline workers along with extensive rewards program data.

Takeaways

• Develop a strategy to more effectively use rewards to attract and retain frontline hourly workers
• Gain perspective on why you need to treat frontline hourly workers differently then professional/knowledge workers and how best to do this
• Discuss considerations for what rewards programs need to consider for frontline hourly workers to be effective

The landscape of the workforce is rapidly evolving, and by 2030, a staggering 150 million jobs will be held by individuals over the age of 55. Notably, midlife, and older women are playing an increasingly significant role in this transformation. You can slow down the loss of women from leadership positions and address talent shortages by better supporting midlife and older women with an age-friendly approach. Equip your organization to adapt and thrive by staying ahead of the female age curve of your workforce.

Takeaways

• Discover the pivotal role women play in bridging talent gaps and enhancing leadership within organizations and understand the issues that cause them to go missing from top roles.
• Learn how to cultivate an environment conducive to the growth, success, and retention of midlife and older women.
• Explore practical tools and strategies for crafting age-inclusive benefits, with a special focus on well-being offerings that cater to the needs of midlife and older women.

Learn how J.Crew and Level listened to their employees and designed benefits that were easier to use and more accessible. 

In this interactive exercise, you will also have a chance to inventory your own benefit offerings by answering these questions:

• Are the benefits we offer accessible to all?
• How simple is it to use our benefits?
• Are my benefits affordable for all my employees?

We’re entering a golden age of people analytics and HR applications, where the increased demand for insights around work, the workforce, and the workplace is intersecting with the availability of emerging technologies and capabilities. We unveil Deloitte's latest research around people analytics maturity and how Total Rewards professionals can realize business value and make evidence-based decisions from their people analytics investments.

Takeaways

• Understand the current state of people analytics maturity in the marketplace and how to analyze and apply insights through a Total Rewards lens.
• Identify leading people analytics practices and how Total Rewards professionals can leverage these insights.
• Create actionable plans to integrate people analytics into Total Rewards applications to maximize value of human capital investments and increase employee satisfaction.

The volatility of the labor market and wages makes real-time intelligence an essential tool for any compensation team.

Takeaways

• Understand tools available and insights from real-time labor market intelligence.
• Ensure wages remain competitive to retain and attract talent.

Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Amidst the sea of discussions on 'Business Transformation,' 'Innovative Business Models,' 'The Future of Work,' and 'Future of Rewards,' we've delved into the crossroads of multi-industry business model dynamics and the evolving landscape of work. These forces have undeniably left their mark on Compensation strategy and execution. Within this context, the Compensation Role finds itself in a perpetual state of evolution. What lies ahead for the Compensation Role in this dynamic landscape? Join us for an exclusive session with John Radford and Navneet Rattan to uncover the unprecedented and reshape your understanding of the Compensation role 2.0.

Takeaways

• Uncover the expansive landscape shaping the Compensation role, placing it within the broader context of transformative business and talent forces.
• Explore the future Key Result Areas (KRAs) and anticipated outcomes, providing a roadmap for the evolving responsibilities of the role.
• Delve into the upcoming skills and competencies demanded by the future of Compensation landscape, ensuring you're equipped to navigate the evolving demands of the profession.
• Acquire actionable insights on strategic focus areas for professional development. Discover how to leverage these insights to make a profound impact on both organizational success and employee engagement.
   

In today's labor market, maintaining a strong pay equity structure is more than a retention strategy — it's crucial to the longevity and profitability of your company. In this session, an I/O psychologist and a labor economist will explain why and how your organization should be building its compensation structure on one simple foundation: market analysis data. Too many companies overlook this small investment, leaving them without a defensible compensation philosophy. Is yours one of them?

Takeaways

• Be ready to effectively communicate to key stakeholders the vital importance of market analysis and make the case for investment in this fundamental component of pay equity.
• Understand the connection between market analysis and a strong compensation structure.
• Make your case for investing in market analysis to cost-effectively lower your risk of pay-related litigation and elevate retention by paying your employees fairly.

Organizations often find they are not paying employees a living, let alone a thriving, wage. But achieving this ambition can feel like an insurmountable undertaking both operationally and financially, even though philosophically, most organizations agree it’s the right thing to do. Learn how the Ford Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation had the courage to do something about it. You’ll also gain an understanding of how to talk about it and how you can determine and implement a living wage for your own workers.

Takeaways

• Understand how paying a living wage is part of a comprehensive equity program
• Assess whether your organization is paying all employees a living wage.
• Understand the difference between paying a living and thriving wage.
• Get tips for approaching leadership to consider a living wage program and how to navigate the administrative complexities program design, including financial navigation.

Over the past decade CHG Healthcare has been through a Total Rewards transformation, evolving programs to be flexible, inclusive, and competitive. In this session, Jennica Christiansen, Head of People Operations, will walk through the practicalities of CHG’s choices and how these decisions impacted the business. We will help you think about rewards in new and flexible ways, using a step-by-step process to evolve your Total Rewards program.

Takeaway

• Understand how to tie your investment in rewards programs back to the business, creating a case for ROI.

Today’s uncertain economic climate can have a significant impact on a company's equity compensation program. A depressed stock price leads to share pool constraints and challenges the overall effectiveness of the equity program. During this session, learn how two companies — Moderna, Inc. and Anika Therapeutics, Inc.— navigated these challenges and took a path forward, fully aligned with the business strategy, the compensation philosophy, and shareholders.

Takeaways

• Proactively prepare your company for the challenges that come with operating equity compensation programs in a volatile environment.
• Learn approaches companies apply to equity-granting practices to conserve shares
• Find out how to design a motivating, competitive, and compelling equity compensation program in volatile environment (e.g., underwater stock options, decreased holding power, unattainable performance goals, etc.)

Join us for a dynamic session led by pay equity expert Gail Greenfield, Executive VP of Pay Equity and Total Rewards Strategy and Solutions for Trusaic. She will explore key topics covering compliance with global regulations, effective pay transparency, measurement frameworks, and strategies for proactive prevention of pay inequities. This session will provide you with the strategic insights and actionable strategies needed to develop a comprehensive global pay equity strategy.

Takeaways

• Develop a comprehensive global pay equity strategy tailored to your organization's needs and values in preparation for enhanced pay transparency, including a measurement framework for key performance indicators.
• Navigate global compliance requirements effectively, including regulations such as the European Union Pay Transparency Directive.
• Learn proactive strategies, including pay equity audits and specialized software, to prevent future pay inequities and ensure unbiased pay decisions aligned with internal equity.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Pay equity and pay transparency legislation is here to stay. But most of the regulation revolves around base pay. What does that mean for roles reliant on variable pay? During this session learn how to ensure regulatory compliance and fairness in Total Rewards beyond conventional boundaries. Gain valuable tools to assess and address bias in sales compensation programs, spanning target setting, territorial opportunity, incentive plan design, job documentation, and governance. Elevate your understanding of the broader impact on take-home pay and navigate the complexities of pay equity in variable compensation.

Takeaways

• Learn where to look for unintentional, structural, and perceived inequities in your compensation program.
• Use an evaluation checklist to audit and appraise your compensation programs for fairness.
• Understand how to formulate changes that will reduce risk and bias across your sales compensation design and processes.

Effective, tailored incentive plans are critical to motivating employees and ensuring alignment with shareholder interests. High-performing organizations design long-term programs that complement the company's structure and key objectives, which change over time. Using case studies, this session will cover the key features and unique characteristics of effective long-term incentive plan designs for companies in specific situations — start-up or high-growth phase, anticipating a value-realizing event in the future, turnaround, and management successions. 

Takeaways

• Identify appropriate long-term incentive design alternatives for companies in various scenarios and understand the linkage to the company's strategy and key objectives. 
• Weigh the pros and cons of each approach and identify the key indicators to know the right time to proactively consider incentive re-design.

Amidst the rising prominence of AI and generative AI in HR discussions, the prevailing narrative often focuses on the limitations of AI and liability risks. This session challenges that narrative by showcasing AI's power as a catalyst for equity and fairness. Join William Self, Workforce Strategy & Analytics Leader for Mercer, to learn about AI breakthroughs in the compensation, talent acquisition, and employee experience spaces and explore strategies for targeted AI solutions for your equity initiatives.

Takeaways

• Identify opportunities for using AI to promote equity, recognize common pitfalls in AI implementations, and understand best practices for governing AI in HR.
• Become more confident introducing AI into your HR strategies by dispelling myths about AI's limitations and liability risks and understanding practices that mitigate AI-related risks in HR strategies.
• Equip yourself with real-world examples of organizations responsibly using AI to promote equity.

The British Columbia Lottery Corporation knew that to attract and retain employees, they had to balance competing needs and requirements: what are employees looking for? What does the organization require? And what do talent competitors offer? But not all employees have the same needs and building traditional, role-based personas risk generalizations and stereotypes. Instead, working with Korn Ferry, BCLC used advanced analytic techniques to identify clusters of employees with similar motivation profiles, and built employee value propositions designed for each.

Takeaway

• Build a stakeholder engagement and management strategy for a company with a strong culture of listening.
• Understand how to avoid the risks of traditional persona work, such as generalizations and stereotypes, by using motivation profiles as an alternative.
• See examples of how BCLC is communicating their enhanced Employee Value Proposition.

As employee well-being becomes a priority for organizations, innovative solutions are emerging to gauge and improve the mental and emotional health of the workforce. In this engaging session, we'll explore the use of AI-powered chatbots to take the pulse of your organization and gain insights into how employees truly feel. You'll also learn about the potential of smart chatbots in enhancing employee wellbeing, including ethical considerations and challenges.

Takeaways

• Explore the role of AI-powered chatbots in monitoring and improving employee wellbeing.
• Gain insights into real-world use cases of AI chatbots enhancing employee emotional health.
• Understand the ethical considerations and challenges in deploying AI chatbots for employee wellbeing and strategies for their effective implementation.

Employees want to use benefits based on what's meaningful to them — whether for wellness, education, family planning, and so on. Meanwhile, employers need to balance personalized support at scale with ROI. During this session learn key tactics for supporting employees with a consolidated benefits program that's streamlined, cost-effective and drives productivity. Topics include effectively analyzing current benefit programs, gaining support and approval from finance stakeholders, and using customizable spending accounts to give employees the power of choice.

Takeaways

• Create plans to optimize benefits spending in ways that attract and retain top talent, build a strong company culture, and achieve a high ROI on benefits.
• Simplify benefits administration, improve employee satisfaction, and ensure compliance.
• Ensure all company benefits are compliant with local, state, and federal laws.

Are you looking to advance your career in Total Rewards? In this session you'll start setting goals for the next phase of your professional journey. Join our panel of seasoned leaders for an insightful discussion of the progress and pitfalls they faced on their way to their leadership posts at Merck, Abbvie, Total Rewards Search, and Perella Weinburg Partners. You'll also receive actionable advice to help you take your own career to the next level.

Takeaways

• Gain a clear understanding of what it takes to plot a long career in Total Rewards, from entry-level positions to leadership roles.
• Collect tips and advice for forging a calculated career trajectory.
• Anticipate potential career roadblocks and learn strategies for navigating through them.

Join our esteemed UBS equity compensation experts as they unravel the keys to successful engagement in our session, "Engaging Beyond Boundaries: Strategies for Effective Equity Communication." Delve into the intricacies of crafting and adhering to a multi-channel communications plan, essential for lasting engagement. Explore the imperative need for equity award recipients to have accessible and knowledgeable advisors, fluent in the language of equity compensation and well-versed in country-specific rules. 

In this session, witness the impact of providing digital tools that enable participants to contextualize equity awards within their broader financial context. Additionally, discover the art of setting meaningful benchmarks to gauge the success of your efforts and identify shifts in employee engagement and participation.

Takeaways

• Discover how to craft an effective multi-channel communications plan
• Explore the importance of providing accessible and knowledgeable equity advisors
• Learn how to empower participants with digital tools for financial context

Sponsored by UBS

So many facets of HR touch compensation. Learn how leaders from Thermo Fisher Scientific worked with their HR team to use system implementations to leverage compensation metrics and drive business results. Christy Ritter, Director of Compensation, and Josee Wagena, Senior Director of Compensation will present two illustrative case studies to share their strategies.

Takeaways

• Learn about tools and training Thermo Fisher Scientific built to support Workday Recruit Implementation and how the team used a Power BI report to create a dashboard to drive business results.
• Learn how to partner with other areas of HR to create dashboards, training, and tools to help drive business results.
• Collaborate with other HR functions to develop systems and tools to help drive business outcomes.

Pay transparency and delivering a cohesive and thoughtful message regarding compensation is a critical component of employee engagement.  Learn how I approach the topic holistically and with consideration of the audience, company culture, and an honest and self-aware perspective that seeks a balance between employee happiness and corporate results.

Key Takeaways

• Identify key elements of company culture and business goals that must be considered when communicating compensation messaging
• Craft tailored communications to specific employee segments using EQ methodologies

Most companies have well defined grades/levels for all jobs — even executive roles. But how do you know which critical positions should be managed with extra care and focus to assure engagement and retention? During this session you will learn a simple, objective, and customizable method that will help you rank these positions to prioritize and focus your exceptional compensation programs to maximize retention and preserve business continuity. 

Takeaways

• Be able to identify the criteria that make a position critical and apply them to your company.
• Evaluate executive positions at your company, ranking them objectively. 
• Create a comprehensive list of positions/people to focus aggressive compensation programs to retain and engage them.

The CompTech market has exploded - with more choices than ever and an often confusing, overlapping set of features. In this session, hear from CompTech leaders about the pace of innovation in this space, how to think about using technology in key processes within your Rewards function, and how to be a more thoughtful consumer of Compensation Technology.

Are you tired of your human capital strategies getting overlooked in the shadow of your organization's other business initiatives? Wish you could quantify the immense value your people bring to the table? Look no further than the transformative power of ELTV - Employee Lifetime Value. 

Join us for an eye-opening session that will forever change the way you think about your most valuable asset: your employees. In this dynamic presentation, you'll uncover a holistic framework that bridges the gap between HR and the C-suite, allowing you to showcase the true impact of your people-centric initiatives.

With so many options for the design of work and jobs, developing the right Total Rewards program for each situation is both an art and a science. In this dynamic session, you’ll hear three distinct perspectives on how to get it right: a hybrid expert and “office whisperer,” a practitioner at a large company, and a rewards leader in a government role. They’ll explore the evolving nature of work and the rewards transformations needed to meet the moment. You’ll walk away understanding how to stay ahead of the curve.

Join this engrossing conversation with leaders from three different-sized organizations that have achieved excellence in innovation, career progression, and development for their employees through skill-based rewards. They’ll share how they successfully developed internal talent marketplaces and prioritized cultural alignment to foster employability, learning, and retention through reward programming. Whether you represent a small, medium, or large organization, this session has something for everyone. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the best!

Not only is the workforce more diverse than ever—spanning a wide swath of backgrounds, ethnicities, and generations—but today’s employees also vary greatly in their needs and aspirations. Some are redefining family roles, while others are upending traditional work arrangements or expectations. In this dynamic environment, customized Total Rewards programs are a must. Join three senior rewards leaders as they share practical strategies for aligning rewards with the changing needs of workers and your organization. You'll gain insight into how to fine-tune rewards and motivational support for every person and situation.

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Mat Pilates 
Our Mat class will move through contemporary Pilates sequencing that will float between moments of both challenge and restoration. We will deeply engage the core in 360 degrees, moving the spine and providing a juicy flow of exercises. 

The class will be accessible for all fitness levels.

There is no fee to participate in the class but a small donation to the WorldatWork Foundation is encouraged. A QR code for donations will be displayed at the class location.

Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

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Many businesses still rely on Human Resources, which continue to be relevant from a compliance perspective, but not from strategic, competitiveness, or innovation perspectives. The future will be won by organizations that adopt a comprehensive Social Impact strategy that encompasses their entire organizational footprint: internal employee experience, ethical supply chain, end user experience, and even larger societal implications. Rather than having separate departments, in the (not too distant) future, leading companies will streamline their employee rewards with their broader social impact strategy. Join future-focused Total Rewards leaders to learn what is around the corner and how to start preparing your Total Rewards strategy to meet that future.

Are you concerned that the inspiration you’ve unlocked during this amazing conference will evaporate when you return to your day-to-day reality?

Are you curious about how to translate all of your revitalized energy, insights, and learnings into a clear strategy for you and/or your team?

If so, this Workshop is for you!  This interactive session will provide you with a practical toolkit to personalize your transformational roadmap and accelerate your path to impact for both your organization, as well as your life.

Employees, job prospects, and senior leaders all view Total Rewards and compensation through different lenses. Be part of this timely conversation with three practitioners about how to draw on data to create compelling, customized narratives for each stakeholder group. You’ll learn how to select the best data types and sources for every audience and craft a multi-faceted communications strategy to deliver impactful rewards.

Learn how Phillips Edison & Company — one of the nation's largest owner/operators of grocery-anchored shopping centers — executes its Think Like an Owner core value to make equity grants to everyone from the CEO to administrative professionals, both pre- and post- IPO. Leah Brown, VP for Total Rewards, will discuss the pros and cons of making equity grants to all levels within an organization and how other companies can follow Phillips Edison’s example.

Takeaways

• Understand how to make equity grants to all associates in a company as phantom stock pre-IPO, and as Restricted Stock Units afterwards.
• Learn how this approach fits into an overall Total Rewards strategy.
• Know how to communicate with and educate your workforce about this rewards option.

Today, how you communicate your benefits plan is as important as what’s in it. That's where personalized benefit communications come into play. Westcomm’s top executives Guy Westermeyer and Melissa Cotterill will explain the advantages of adopting an annual communications plan that streamlines messaging, boosts employee engagement, and fosters transparency and trust. Through a hands-on approach, you will develop practical skills to create and implement effective, year-round communications strategies that are actionable, personalized, and employee-focused.

Takeaways

• Learn to segment relevant benefit communications based on employee data — for example, employees at risk for certain health conditions or those approaching retirement.
• Pursue effective, personalized benefits education during Open Enrollment and New Employee Orientation.
• Learn to utilize a mix of communication channels — from employee engagement platforms to traditional channels like “snail mail” and in-person meetings — to ensure the message resonates with all your employees.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

Few leaders fully grasp the complexity and nuance of today's multigenerational workforce — which means companies aren’t seizing opportunities to harness the rich, diverse passions and talents it brings to achieving key organizational performance metrics. To meet the discerning standards of today's workforce, human capital practices must be constantly evaluated and updated while supporting a culture that reflects your company’s purpose. This session presents best-in-class employee experience research to help you create your destination workplace.

Takeaways

• Learn how to make “meaning” an action term for your company's culture to attract, engage, and retain the talent you most prize.
• Dynamically connect all your stakeholders through the activation of your company’s purpose to elevate key performance metrics.
• Take away 22 best practices to update and elevate your human capital strategies to resonate with today's discerning workforce.

In compensation, we advise leaders to differentiate employees – by pay, job level, business unit, and other factors. This is key to retaining top performers. At the same time, we need leaders to lead inclusively and span boundaries. Do we have to choose between the two? Does comp have any responsibility for helping span the boundaries it has created?

In this session, we’ll lead a discussion and provide recommendations on how to fulfill both of these seemingly contradictory imperatives.

Takeaways

• How to support inclusive leadership through pay
• How to reduce bias in rewards
• How to manage the paradox of differentiation and inclusion

In this session, we'll navigate the evolving landscape of Total Rewards, with a focus on public companies employing 100-500 people. Emphasizing the integration of digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI), we aim to enhance total rewards processes, allowing for the efficient implementation of advanced compensation strategies. By exploring technology solutions beyond traditional tools like Excel, we'll address the unique challenges faced by mid-sized companies and offer strategies for effective adaptation and growth. This conversation promises to shed light on the synergy between new technologies and traditional Total Rewards practices, ensuring participants understand how to blend these elements for optimal outcomes.

Takeaways:

• Enhancing Classic Practices: Demonstrating how foundational Total Rewards knowledge remains crucial, while exploring methods to integrate technological advancements for improved efficiency.
• Tech Stack Efficiency: Insights on building an effective technology stack, emphasizing the wealth of options beyond Excel, navigating market challenges, and strategic planning.
• AI Realities: Clearing the air on what AI can realistically offer your Total Rewards strategy, distinguishing between practical applications and buzzwords.
• Digital Transformation Strategy: Developing a forward-thinking Total Rewards digital transformation plan that not only supports but also scales with your organization's growth.

Every year over the past decade, several companies have been recognized as “Most Admired,” “Best Performing,” “Best Company to Work For,” and “Fastest Growing.” What you may not know is the role executive compensation plays in building award-winning organizations. Join CEO Chris Crawford of Zayla Partners for a session identifying executive compensation best practices of the top 150 repeat winners.

Takeaways

• Identify executive compensation best practices of the top companies of the past decade.
• Bring forward tested ideas for improving your company’s executive comp results and inspire your own colleagues.
• Receive a detailed analysis of executive compensation practices of these top 150 companies.

The landscape of corporate rewards and compensation is rapidly transforming in today’s dynamic marketplace. As organizations grow, the need to evolve their total rewards strategy becomes crucial to remain competitive and meet evolving employee expectations. Join Sonya Mansur in an engaging roundtable discussion to explore this pivotal journey from a tightly-held approach to a transparent and collaborative system.  In this session, Sonya will share her insights on progressing through a total rewards maturity model, detailing her experiences in transforming her firm's approach.

Takeaways

• Gain an in-depth understanding of a total rewards maturity model, learning from Sonya's firsthand experience in advancing her firm through this evolution.
• Assess their organization's current position within the maturity model, and envision a roadmap where they aspire to be.
• Identify one tangible action that can be a significant step towards achieving greater organizational maturity in total rewards.
   

Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

You've got the software. You've got the data. You've even got some snazzy visuals. But you may be missing one critical thing — Impact! Too often, data analysis fails to explain a problem or highlight a solution. It's time to put your data to work! Join Paul Reiman, Managing Partner for Novo Insights, and Bryan Briscoe, VP of Compensation for Marriott International for a practical session on creating data visualizations that drive decision-making and elevate outcomes.

Takeaways

• Understand the key features of business data visualization.
• Analyze practical examples from the compensation world.
• Transform your visual communications by engaging in an “edutaining” learning experience.

Offering employees resources that help promote sustainable lifestyle changes ultimately increases the ROI for benefits investments by lowering health costs over time. Jennifer Paisley, VP of Total Rewards and HR Operations for Valmont Industries will share how their multi-channel approach and proprietary app has taken employee engagement to the next level, wrapping them in a culture of health and wellbeing.

Takeaways

• Know the benefits of leveraging a digital platform to centralize benefits, increasing awareness of and engagement with employer-offered services from the office, at home, or on a mobile device.
• Deliver a personalized experience to engage employees based on their unique holistic wellness goals, basing personalization on data-driven insights to offer the most rewarding platform to meet your employee needs.
• Help employees and their families build sustainable lifestyle changes with multiple solutions to improve health outcomes and lower costs over time.

Despite the best intentions, most LTIP performance share plans are not great at driving the desired behavior in managers. In fact, due to their risk and uncertainty, these plans often have a lower perceived value by the employee than the actual cost to the company. Join Gregory Milano, Founder & CEO of Fortuna, as he presents new research exposing the limitations of Total Shareholder Return (TSR) as a performance measure. You’ll learn about alternative performance test designs through two insightful case studies that sidestep the pitfalls associated with traditional plans, offering a fresh perspective on enhancing motivation and aligning employee value with organizational costs.

Takeaways

• Gain insights into the common challenges faced by LTIP performance share plans and understand why they may fall short in motivating managers effectively.
• Acquire practical knowledge on alternative performance test designs, offering innovative solutions to overcome the inherent risks and uncertainties associated with traditional plans.

The European Pay Transparency Directive will impact every single employer in the EU. We’ll highlight what we know — and what remains to be defined — by the 27 Member States. Margret Bjarnadottir, Associate Professor of Management Science and Statistics at the University of Maryland, and Mariann Madden North, America Pay Equity Co-Lead at WTW, will review real-world case studies and help you prepare for increased visibility into your pay programs and pay gaps.

Takeaways

• Understand and explain to others the key requirements of the European Directive.
• Grasp the current uncertainties of the European Directive and the current thinking on how it will be implemented.
• Be ready to prioritize steps needed to comply with the European Directive's June 2027 effective date.

The hot topic of skills can feel like an overwhelming new way of looking at work. And while many organizations want to take this journey, they’re unsure where to start. In this session, Lia Santos, Partner at Mercer, and Brian Sullivan, Director of Talent & Performance Management at Delta Airlines, will provide key highlights of the approach Delta took to build its skills-based hiring foundation.

Takeaways

• Learn how the right planning, methodology, people, and process can enable organizations to successfully execute a skills-first approach to talent strategy.
• Learn the steps to get started on building an enterprise-wide skills foundation.
• Come away from the session with a roadmap on the methodology and process for building a skills foundation.

Join ServiceNow and OpenSymmetry for an interactive discussion on Sales Compensation communication — a critical element in motivating and aligning sales teams. ServiceNow’s VP of Global Sales Compensation Rick Butler, will share insights from their sales force research, outlining changes that improved engagement, collaboration, and overall performance. You'll also gain actionable strategies to enhance your own teams and hear directly from OpenSymmetry the correlation between SPM communication and performance and best practices for strengthing your SPM communications.

Takeaways

• Understand how gaps in sales compensation communication can impact sales performance.
• Identify gaps in your own programs and learn how to close them to improve sales performance.
• Walk away with a complimentary research report from OpenSymmetry highlighting the correlation between SPM communication and sales performance, along with a whitepaper containing best practices for strengthening SPM communication in your organization.

Pay communication can be an unfamiliar discipline for people managers, but executives know this is where the rubber meets the road in compensation and employee perception. This panel will offer practical guidance on new skills and insights for comp pros to be valuable talent partners to people managers. Join leaders from argenx, DraftKings, and Habitat for Humanity-Philadelphia to hear insights and best practices for preparing people managers for effective pay conversations. Moderated by Payscale Chief People Officer Lexi Clarke, this panel will explore what's on the mind of talent executives when it comes to pay communications and talent outcomes.

Takeaways

• Understand why communication and perception are the most essential aspects of a strong compensation program.
• Implement best practices for people managers to navigate pay conversations and scenarios.
• Learn the tools and training guidelines relevant across organizations, teams, and the employee lifecycle and understand how to measure the impact of successful compensation training.

Employers struggle with adopting methods to evaluate the effectiveness of their employee pay programs. This hands-on skill-building session will highlight common measures of program effectiveness and will engage experienced practitioners to share practices and debate their utility. You will be introduced to a framework for reconsidering measures of pay program effectiveness and will plan an evaluation more likely to produce findings that people will use.

Takeaways

• Gain awareness of pay program evaluation methods, common measures of effectiveness, and opportunities to update practices.
• Uncover latent needs and improved efficiencies that lay dormant in your current pay program offerings.
• Learn how to create flexible evaluation designs and short feedback loops around data and findings.

In response to today's competitive labor market, companies are refining their Total Rewards programs to attract, engage, motivate, and retain top talent. Join this session as we delve into the successful strategies of companies promoting the 'Golden Thread'—connecting the 3 Ps: pay, performance, and professional growth. Explore the tangible results in talent and culture achieved by these organizations.

Takeaways

• Learn actionable steps to enhance your organization's ability to attract, retain, motivate, and engage employees.
• Discover insights to distinguish your company as an employer of choice by aligning the crucial elements of pay, performance, and professional growth.

Join Paulo Fava, Senior Compensation Manager for ITX Corp, as he delves into the measurable impact of employee recognition within Total Rewards. Discover how recognition programs, when strategically implemented, contribute tangible value to organizations and yield positive ROI. This session will equip you with actionable strategies to harness the full potential of recognition, enhancing employee engagement, retention, and overall organizational success.

Takeaways

• Understand the quantifiable impact of employee recognition on organizational performance.
• Learn how to effectively calculate and present ROI findings to stakeholders, fostering transparent communication with employees and leadership.
• Gain valuable insights into maximizing the positive effects of recognition, ensuring a lasting impact on employee engagement and overall organizational success.

Bring your laptop to the workshop for an interactive and hands-on experience. Pre-register for this session through the conference mobile app.

How can you provide immediate, intentional, and long-lasting financial wellness to each of your employees? By introducing the Carbon Savings Account (CSA) to your rewards program. Learn how this innovative approach can help employees save up to $5,000 annually in utility bills and fuel expenses. Think of it as a health savings account, but tailored for home technology and personal upgrades, creating a win-win scenario that aligns with your company's ESG goals.

Takeaways

• Understand what the CSA can do, how the framework is structured, and how it significantly benefits both employees and employers.
• Engage employees with corporate sustainability initiatives, tying financial wellness to environmental efforts while reducing each employee's cost of living by up to $5,000 per year. 
• Integrate the positive benefits of CSA with other employee benefits like retirement, healthcare, and wellness.

Organizations are navigating an entirely new digital frontier while contending with the rise of “cancel culture.” In a time where every misstep is magnified and the consequences detrimental, how do leaders manage change effectively? Aymen Dewji, CEO and Managing Partner of ShiftRight Consulting, will explore the impact of “cancel culture” and the importance of “supersizing” organizational candidness at this time.

Takeaways

• Understand how to address, manage and mitigate against the impact — on your people and your customers — when going through periods of change.
• Define tactical ways to manage change with authenticity and transparency.
• Recognize the importance of “supersizing” organizational candidness to drive sustainable engagement and credibility.

In recent years, Pfizer has upped its communications game, harnessing traditional media as well as innovative channels — such as texting and online chat — to reach a multi-generational workforce. During this session learn Pfizer's approach to involving employees more deeply in benefits and how to create a Total Rewards communications strategy that drives employee participation and satisfaction.

Takeaways

• Create and seek buy-in for a communication strategy that uses both traditional and innovative/new media channels, as appropriate for your employee population.
• Understand how to measure and show improved employee understanding based on the communication channels you have implemented.
• Strengthen benefits communication to employees to drive engagement, understanding, appreciation, and retention.

The compensation spotlight has lately been shining on golden parachutes and other change in control (CIC) benefits offered to employees. Stay ahead of the trends with insights from Alvarez & Marsal. During this session you'll explore the latest trends in CIC benefits, including severance, equity awards, and excise tax protection arrangements from Alvarez & Marsal's 2023/2024 Executive CIC Report, highlighting industry differences and dramatic shifts in recent years.

Takeaways

• Get perspectives on the current compensation market in the M&A space.
• Increase your fluency in the Golden Parachute Rules (Section 280G) that go hand-in-hand with CIC benefits.
• Know the issues that arise with executive compensation in M&A, including potential pitfalls.

"We say we hire the best talent so why do we set our base cash targets at median?” That’s just one example of countless tough compensation questions your executives and employees might ask you. Join our panel of consultant and practitioner experts to tackle some of the thorniest questions and answers they've faced over the years. You are encouraged to bring your own difficult questions to leverage the collective thinking of panelists and your peers.

Takeaways

• Compare your organization’s practices against the collective wisdom of the facilitators and peers in other organizations.
• Understand common practices from organizations as well as strategies to ensure job-leveling rationale is effectively conveyed to line managers and executives.
• Overcome your fears and be more confident in tackling the toughest compensation questions in your organizations.

Do your sales incentive plans motivate and reward sales professionals to achieve and exceed sales targets? Join Tim Silvera and Jolene McKee of Optimum Comp Advantage, Inc., to discover the myths surrounding sales compensation practice and how you can influence sales executives to design sales incentive plans that motivate and reward sales professionals to achieve and exceed sales targets and drive company-wide business success.

Takeaways

• Understand why your current sales commission or incentive plans are not delivering results.
• Identify why a company's sales compensation practices may not be motivational.
• Understand the difference between sales commission and incentive plans and which is the right choice for sales roles within your company.
• Learn how to take the fear out of changing your sales compensation practices with a “win-win” solution for the company and the sales team.
• Understand how your sales incentive plan can motivate and retain top performing sales professionals and increase the effectiveness of the whole team

As Generation Z continues to enter the workforce, employers are implementing intern programs to attract and retain the market's newest talent. Our panel will discuss key areas where HR can leverage compensation and perquisites to attract interns, convert them to employees, and get ahead in the competitive labor market. You will hear first-hand program details from industry-leading companies and receive valuable new data showing how their peers are capturing and retaining the next-generation workforce.

Takeaways

• Learn first-hand from compensation practitioners and consultants about best practices on creating stand-out internships that feed into HR's recruiting efforts.
• Access data from a brand-new survey revealing current market conditions by degree/industry and geography, covering base, bonus, and long-term incentives.
• Learn compensation strategies, as well as common policies and practices, that are now required to attract and retain intern talent.

In the empowering first segment of our closing session, you’ll learn how to change the world by unleashing your voice! Public-speaking expert Lisa Braithwaite will cover how to craft—and deliver—powerful presentations, including tips for developing concise and compelling 5-minute “micro” presentations, designing a transformative audience journey, and pacing your talk for maximum impact. Get ready to inspire others as much as you’ve been inspired at TotalRewards’24!

Finally, you’ll hear from the only American gymnast to win medals in three Olympics—including as part of the gold-winning "Magnificent Seven" at the 1996 Atlanta games. Needless to say, Dominique Dawes is well qualified to speak about the power of perseverance and teamwork. Get motivated as Dawes shares what she learned during her 18-year career in gymnastics, including the realization that success is about more than medals and accolades; it’s also about embracing failure as a growth opportunity and lifting up others along the way. You’ll cultivate the mindset of a champion and feel ALL the feelings in this remarkable and inspirational final presentation, which sticks the landing on Total Rewards’24.