7:30 a.m. — 8:30 a.m.
Conference Registration

7:30 a.m. — 8:30 a.m.
Continental Breakfast — Exhibit Booths Open

8:30 a.m. — 8:45 a.m.
Welcome & Opening Remarks

8:45 a.m. – 9:35 a.m.

Super Session 1

Trends in HR: Moving People Forward

Moderator: Fatima Miranda, HR Manager, Retail & Staff Development, Henry's
Panelists:
Jose Dino, General Manager TSSI, TELUS
Jennifer Pierce, Vice-President, Talent Management, Hudson's Bay Co.
Joanne Taylor, Vice President of Human Resources, Golf Town

Recent research into retail HR shows a changing and aging workforce with an increased need for strategic thinking among HR professionals. In this session, a panel of retail experts and industry leaders discuss the latest research, map the trajectory of current trends, and discuss what the new research means to the long-term health of Canadian retail. The conference will kick-off sharing with delegates:

• The latest insights about what employees in the industry think about retailing and what they want from employers.
• How the retail brand influences employee recruitment, and how companies can use it to their advantage.
• Explore how the reach of human resources within an organization can help Canadian retailers prepare for change, capitalize on positive trends, and seize unexpected opportunities.

9:35 a.m. — 10:20 a.m.

Super Session 2

Merging Cultures—Leading in Times of Change

Speaker: Ron Cuthbertson, President, The Source

In a wide ranging discussion about how to manage the human element in times of change, Ron Cuthbertson shares his experience merging The Source with Radio Shack.  Making employees feel respected, informed, and involved in the process is the biggest challenge when bringing two distinct cultures together.  In this session, Cuthbertson offers:

• Strategies for bringing two corporate cultures together under one banner.
• Ideas for getting people to lose hardened mindsets and embrace a new culture.
• Tips for motivating employees who feel left out and worried about job security.

Sponsored by:   

10:20 a.m. — 10:50 a.m.
Refreshment Break — Exhibit Booths Open

10:50 a.m. — 11:50 a.m.

Concurrent Sessions

Building Strong Leaders

Speakers:
Vince Molinaro, PhD., Managing Director, Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions
Jessica Sherin, PhD., Consultant, Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions

Cultivating “high potential” employees for management positions means training them to function like leaders of people. Designed for delegates who are tired of leadership talk, this session aims to give retailers:

• Tools and strategies for cultivating and harvesting leadership in “high potential” employees—without losing these employers to competitors.
• Ideas for compiling a leadership training program that helps future leaders understand the ethics, operations, and challenges of the retail industry.
• A better understanding of “leadership”—What it is, and what kind of leaders the retail industry needs to overcome the challenges of the next decade?

The Dynamics of Succession Planning

Speakers:
Rehana Doobay, Vice-President Talent and Chief Diversity Officer, Shoppers Drug Mart
Kristen Brown, Director Organizational Development, Shoppers Drug Mart

How can retailers meet their talent needs and support growth and innovation in an economy that is continually changing with regulatory uncertainty and a shifting workplace demography? Shoppers Drug Mart seems to have the prescription. In a session designed around the needs of succession planners, Rehana Doobay and Kristen Brown explore the creative ways that Shoppers Drug Mart handles challenges with talent at a national level. Delegates interested in finding new ways to plan for the future:

• Learn how Shoppers Drug Mart looks at the labour pipeline and the recruitment pool.
• Discover how a national talent assessment and managing process works, what impedes the process, and what outcomes retailers can expect.
• Find new ways to segment employees according to customer demographics.

11:50 p.m. — 12:35 p.m.

Super Session 3

Driving the Corporate Strategy

Speaker: Ferio Pugliese, Executive Vice-President, People, WestJet

Building a strong organizational culture means developing a dependable, intelligent, strategic HR department. This is as good for the organization as for the employees—there’s upward mobility for HR pros who can align their department objectives with the organization and effectively drive the business strategy. In this keynote presentation, a leader in the HR field teaches delegates how to:

• Cultivate HR as an intelligence center for both human resources as well as strategic direction and business thinking.
• Partner with operations to ensure the organization develops a productive, harmonious work environment.
• Build profitability through people who want the business to be a success.

Sponsored by:

12:35 p.m. — 1:50 p.m.

Networking Lunch — Exhibit Booths Open

1:50 p.m. —2:50 p.m.

Concurrent Sessions

Using Social Media to Recruit and Train Your Staff

Moderator: Maria Collins, Senior Director, Human Talent, The Source
Panelists:
Brenda Dumont, Chief Consultant, Brenda Dumont Consulting
Susan Easby, President & Co-Founder, InsightU
Cameron Laker, CEO, Mindfield Group

Technophiles praise the advantages that social media afford corporate recruiters and trainers. But how effective is networked technology in helping to recruit and train people in retail? This session shines a critical light on the business case behind using social media platforms for recruitment and training efforts. Delegates will:

• Learn about the required investments, benefits and drawbacks of using networked technologies.
• Discuss the challenges that retailers are having when trying to incorporate social media into their recruitment and training efforts.
• Receive strategies for leveraging social networks and other emerging technologies to recruit and train employees.

Taming Workers' Compensation Surcharges in the Canadian Retail Environment

Speakers:
Cezanne Charlebois, Practice Leader, Charlebois' Associates
Liz R. Scott, PhD., Principal, Organizational Solutions Inc.

Retailers operating in Ontario will see new oversight of their stores when the Provincial government enforces changes to health and safety legislation and the Ministry of Labour continues inspection blitzes on sector-specific hazards. This raises the stakes for retailers as those who fail the blitzes could be shut down. A panel of people-in-the-know will provide HR professionals with:

• An explanation of the impact of Ontario’s new health and safety legislation on retailers—including advice on how they can make it work.
• Strategies on how to prepare for, and survive, the Ministry of Labour’s blitzes.
• Tools for communicating with employees about health, safety, and government oversight.

2:50 p.m. –3:20 p.m.

Refreshment Break — Exhibit Booths Open

3:20 p.m. — 4:05 p.m.

Super Session 4

Attracting and Retaining Top Talent – Creative Recruitment Panel

Moderator: Peter Pilarski, Director, Government Relations and Membership (Alberta), Retail Council of Canada  
Panelists: 
Jackie Ross, President, JRoss Retail Recruiters
Kirsti Stubbs, Recruiter, Strategic Sourcing, Starbucks Coffee Canada
Carm Fazio-Adile, National Recruitment Manager, Harry Rosen Inc.
June Doyle-MacLean, Manager, National Field Recruiting, Reitmans (Canada) Ltd.

With changing needs of employers, a diverse pool of applicants, and new ways to connect with job seekers, retailers must juggle competing priorities as they build a pool of top talent. A panel of retailers discusses new ways to recruit top talent and shed light on how to:

• Leverage traditional outreach methods—the tools we’ve already got, like advertising, word-of-mouth, and online—to locate and attract applicants.
• Exploit new media and social technologies—the tools we’re still attempting to understand, like Facebook and twitter—to persuade younger employees to follow a career in retail.
• Challenge basic assumptions retailers have about recruitment and retention and invigorate the recruitment process as often as necessary.

4:05 p.m. — 4:50 p.m.

Super Session 5

The Lost Art of Customer Service

Speaker: Kevin Graff, President, Graff Retail

Customer service is an art, and too many retailers have forgotten how this art form persuades customers to stay in the store longer, commit to larger purchases, and come back to buy more. Noted retail educator Kevin Graff excavates the art of customer service and provide answers to the riddle to so many questions:

• How should retailers with limited resources train employees to serve customers?
• How does training change when dealing with cultural and generational differences?
• What about performance-based training? Does it work? How can retailers make it work better?

4:50 p.m. — 5:00 p.m.

Closing Remarks