14th November 2018
10am-4pm
Darwin Conference Suite
£99 per person
The University of Kent’s 2018 HR Conference promises to provide delegates with new perspectives on the multi-faceted remit of the HR professional, along with suggestions for integrating these into the workplace.
As the fourth conference in this popular series, this event will explore some of the themes that previous conferences have raised, breaking these down into the ‘human’ and ‘resource’ aspects.
The event will encourage delegates to interact with colleagues through practical sessions delivered by local award winning businesses, the University’s world-leading academics and our guest speakers.
This year’s conference is kindly sponsored by Caliper UK
Book your place via the Kent Online Store today: https://bit.ly/2LOWzgy
Speakers:
Sophie Bryan
As a former Director of Workplace Culture & HR, Sophie Bryan has over 16 years experience in Generalist HR, Learning and Development, Organisational Development and Business Transformation, within both private and public sectors. She is now the Managing Director and Chief Workplace Culture Consultant at Ordinarily Different Ltd – consultancy and development organisation, that focuses on assisting organisations to become more innovative and modern in their working practices, and enabling their staff to be engaged, happy and performing.
Sophie is a TEDx Speaker (Could Montessori be the Answer to a Better Workplace?), Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner and Coach, and Certified Action Learning Coach. She has also been the winner of a Personnel Today Award for Excellence in Employee Engagement, runner up for the Personnel Today Award for Excellence in Learning and Development, and Runner up for the Women in Housing Award for Excellence in Leadership Coaching and Mentoring. All of which has been accomplished throughout her career in housing. Sophie has also had her work published as a case study in the latest Action Learning book by Michael Marquardt (Optimizing the Power of Action Learning: real Time Strategies for Developing Leaders, Building Teams and transforming Organizations) and is a conference speaker on culture transformation, coaching and learning cultures, and the modern workplace.
Talk title: Rethinking HR for the Modern Workplace
Dr Heejung Chung, Reader in Sociology and Social Policy, University of Kent
Heejung’s research interest lies in cross-national analysis of welfare states and their labour markets, including research on national and company level work-family reconciliation policies. Recently she finished a 4 year project funded by the UK Research council on flexible working, where she shows that on one hand that it enables women to maintain their labour market positions after childbirth yet on the other can also lead to workers working all the time.
Talk title: Flexible working and family policies
This talk will introduce the various family policies in the UK and the developments we expect to happen in the future. It will then talk about why the introduction of such policies can result in a win-win situation for both companies and their workers. It will also touch upon what we need to think about when thinking of better work-family reconciliation for workers in the company to ensure it doesn’t lead to unintended side effects.
Ros Daitshell & Nicola Provan
Ros has extensive HR management experience across the independent healthcare sector. A customer focused individual with the ability to quickly get to the heart of an issue, build relationships and deliver creative, pragmatic solutions. Ros has worked for many of the independent health providers including BUPA, Nuffield, HCA and has been at KIMS Hospital for 4 years. Before KIMS Hospital she managed the HR function in a hospital in the Middle East. Ros is passionate about the development of talent in individuals and has her CIPD Level 7 and ILM 7 in Coaching.
Nicola has worked in HR for 20 years specialising in Employee Relations, her background includes managing recruitment, training and development and new start organisations. Nicola has worked internationally primarily in Australia where she set up the Australian division for a UK organisation and recruited all of the key staff. Working at KIMS Hospital for 4 years she has been instrumental in establishing our ONE Team culture as she is passionate about the benefits of employee engagement.
Jonny Gifford, Senior Advisor, Organisational Behaviour, CIPD
Jonny conducts applied research into employment, people management and organisations. He runs the CIPD Applied Research Conference and promotes evidence-based practice in HR, including through systematic reviewing and running randomised trials. Jonny’s interests include job quality, employment relations and behavioural science insights into people management.
Talk title: Automation: augmenting or replacing jobs?
This session will focus on employers’ investment decisions in automation and other work technology, and what impact new technology is having on work and jobs roles. The session will draw on new research by CIPD and academic partners.
Dr Todd Mei, Senior Lecturer and Head of Philosophy, University of Kent
Todd has research interests in ethics, existentialism, and meaningful work. He spent several years working in the commercial sector as a loss adjuster and general manager in the US before obtaining his PhD at the University of Kent in 2008. His PhD thesis and current research focus on the meaning of work and how working conditions might be improved by way of philosophical interventions.
Talk title: Making Things Go Well: Virtues in the Workplace
This talk will explore what virtues are, why they are important, how they are distinct from corporate values, and how they can benefit operations and inter-personal relations within your business. This talk will draw on research in virtue ethics and consultation work with JDX.
Perry Timms, People and Transformational HR
Perry is an international and 2x TEDx speaker, consultant and award-winning writer on the future of work, HR & learning. His first book, Transformational HR’ was an Amazon.com Top 30 HR seller shortly after its release.
Perry’s work in progressive thinking in HR and the workplace of the future was recognised by his inclusion on HR Magazine’s HR’s Most Influential Thinkers List for 2017 and 2018.
Perry is Adjunct Faculty at Ashridge Executive Education and Hult International Business School; he is a visiting fellow at Sheffield Hallam University and a Fellow of the RSA. In 2018 Perry was invited to be Guest Professor at GEA College in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Perry is also the world’s only WorldBlu certified Freedom at Work Consultant + Coach, and currently leads the London Chapter of ResponsiveOrg.