Toronto 2020

There is a black market of talent in every organization. They are made up of rebels -- rule breakers who have immunized themselves from the disease of the corporate world - blind consensus. The workplace has become comfortable with execution bias & sameness, and complacent with the familiar. Those who dare to say No, to say "yes, and" or "what if ...?" are seen as outliers threatening the status quo. Without the inclusion and empowerment of these rule-breakers, it is innovation and the future of work that is truly being threatened. This kick-off session will highlight how to get out of your own way to recognize rebel talent and meaningfully engage them. And if you are one, how to show up and raise the game.

In our roles as Recruiters, we need to care deeply about the candidate experience. We’re often the first point of contact and a candidate’s go-to when they have questions. A question we often get asked is, “what’s your company doing to cultivate a diverse and inclusive workplace?” To authentically answer this question requires preparation. In this session, you will learn ways to discuss inclusion with candidates, whether your company hasn’t built out any programs yet or has a mature offering.

9 in 10 Human Resources leaders believe performance reviews do not provide accurate information. This statistic is as worrying as the minority of men and women – 24% and 15% respectively – who had confidence in the performance review process. The very construct of performance reviews leaves great room for biases to be activated that have a detrimental effect on Black employees and women – it limits their opportunities for advancement. In this session, I will share systemic changes that make the process fairer and hopefully restore the confidence being lost by human resources practitioners and employees.

There have been many innovations over time that have changed how we globally operate, and none has been more impactful than Artificial Intelligence (AI). The HR industry has not gone untouched by AI, which has brought significant improvements in hiring processes and streamlined many workflows that have made workplaces function more efficiently. However, this has not come without a cost. A big challenge for the HR industry today is eliminating bias within the Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) space to maintain the integrity of the workforce and HR practices. AI poses a threat to the progress of DIB, but through this challenge let's uncover how we can leverage the benefits of AI and mitigate the risk to ensure we continue to create diverse and inclusive workspaces for all.

Improving Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (D,I,&B) in leadership and people management roles is an important need that leaders must address. This session proposes creating a strategy to increase the number of marginalized candidates for leadership roles and evaluates the economic outcome of employing this strategy. Outcomes of this session include creating and building a strategy for increasing diversity in leadership positions, understanding the power of wealth creation and economics in the DIB discussion, and acquiring a list of research and practitioner resources.

This session will focus on the key applications of Artificial Intelligence in Human Resources and how AI is used to empower teams and business.

This closing session will consolidate some of the key take aways from the evening and look at some practical next steps for participants to keep this conversation alive.