2. Sunday, November 13th
, 2016
11:00 - 1:00 Institute Registration
Welcome Address and Chairperson’s Opening Remarks1:00 - 1:15
1:15 - 2:00
2:00 – 3:00 HR Solutions Showcase: Solutions for Strategic Leadership
The HR Solutions Showcase is designed to provide attendees with insight and information on cutting edge technologies
and solutions to help improve the performance of their organizations. Three leading solutions will be presented.
3:00 – 5:00 Business Meetings
4:00 – 4:45 Think Tank: The Art of Leadership: Practice Makes Perfect
Tony Frost, Professor, Strategy and Economics, Ivey Business School at Western University
One of the standout features of many professional activities and endeavours is the amount of time that individuals in the
profession – especially those who are absolute tops in their fields – devote to practice: drills, exercises and routines designed
to build or maintain skill. Sport is the obvious example, with legions of stories about long hours devoted to drills (shooting,
passing, running, etc). Music is another – think: scales, chords, arpeggios. Or consider actors and comedians who engage
in role playing and improv drills, or writers and painters who practice their craft every day in journals and sketchbooks.
Strangely, the same cannot be said about managers. And yet, like many of the above examples, management is in many
ways a kind of performance art. Managers perform at meetings, in town halls, at client presentations, and of course
in the critical one-on-one moments with subordinates where so much is at stake in terms of morale, commitment
and engagement. Why don’t managers practice more? What would practice actually look like in a managerial
context? What is the managerial equivalent of a practice drill?
Successfully Developing Senior Leaders
Leadership is a key element of any successful HR strategy and yet, only 33% of HR executives believe they have a
strong leadership program in place according to ADP’s 2015 HR Leaders Survey. What is particularly staggering
however, is that only 7% of employees say they have faith in their leaders when asked in a recent survey presented
by Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions.
Olga Giovanniello, Senior Vice President of HR at Canadian Tire, is ready to take the necessary steps to change these
perceptions and give confidence to HR executives and employees seeking valuable leadership in her organization.
Join Olga as she discusses her journey to introduce and drive change at Canadian Tire, building truly effective senior
leaders and sustaining this behavioural change.
Olga Giovanniello, SVP HR, Canadian Tire

3. 5:00 – 6:00
6:00 - 6:45
Strategies to Meet The Challenges and Mitigate The Concerns of Today’s HR Leaders: A Panel Discussion
Making The Shift from a Transactional to a Strategic HR Model
Ed Oke, VP HR, Calfrac Well Services
Phil Wylie, Director of Talent Management, Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants
Onkar Athwal, VP HR, Paper Excellence
Emma Horgan, VP of HR Leadership, Maple Leaf Foods
What are the biggest challenges and concerns plaguing HR Leaders today? How are these uncertainties affecting their
daily routines as well as their short and long term goals for the organization?
To aid in answering these questions and also to help in the resolution of some of these concerns, we are fortunate
to be able to exchange ideas with leading HR Executives from Calfrac Well Services, Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants
and Paper Excellence.
Join this interactive session, armed with your own questions and concerns that relate to what you are facing in your
organization today and what you feel is needed in order to meet these challenging corporate demands.
Traditionally, HR’s role has been largely transactional. Gradually this is changing to a more strategic and value added
model as research increasingly shows, and organizations increasingly, realize that investing in people in a meaningful
way simply makes good business sense. But making this transformation within organizations can sometimes be hard.
This session will review:
• The business case for change; why is it important for businesses transform their approach to HR?
• Rethinking HR’s role and responsibilities…what really is the “transformation”, and what does it mean to HR
professionals?
• How can organizations most effectively manage the change both within the function and the rest of the business?
6:45 – 9:00 Cocktails & Dinner
Utilized in one of our highly rated executive learning programs, this interactive session explores the issue of how
HR leaders can find novel, exciting and time-efficient ways in their organizations to develop better managers
through practice. We will examine together one example by drawing on a short clip from the Hollywood film
Invictus. The clip highlights an important leadership moment facing Nelson Mandela as he seeks to enlist the
captain of the South African rugby team, Francois Pienaar, in the cause of uniting post-Apartheid South Africa, and
to inspire Pienaar and his team to greatness.
The facilitator-led discussion will explore:
• What leadership issues, ideas and techniques and are on display?
• How the clip is used to structure a short, engaging practice drill for managers
• Other ways that senior HR leaders can help managers build skill through practice

4. Monday, November 14th
, 2016
7:30 – 8:15 Breakfast
8:15 – 9:15
9:15 – 10:00 Preparing our Talent for the Future at High Liner Foods
Starting in 2007, High Liner Foods began a period of growth through acquisition reaching $1B in sales by 2013,
tripling its original size. During that time, the organization focused on integrating new companies into the business,
reorganizing the structure to meet the needs of the customer and new organization size. Towards the end of that
period, the leadership and HR team at High Liner Foods began a journey to ensure that they had a solid talent
management plan that prepared this larger organization for the future. The goal was to attract, retain and develop
a solid talent pipeline. Like most organizations, High Liner was facing a large number of baby boomers reaching
retirement age and any plans which had been in place prior to the growth period did not meet the longer term needs
of a company of its new size.
Joanne will share her experiences including a discussion on:
• Building the case for providing development opportunities. What is the ROI for managers?
• Managing employees’ and leaders’ expectations
• Breaking down silos to provide development opportunities
• Helping employees gather experiences for career growth
Joanne Brown, EVP HR, High Liner Foods
The Challenge of Transformation: Shaping a Winning Culture
After a long climb to the top, Rogers Communications struggled to adjust to a market shift and lost its #1 position.
As one of North America’s most successful telecom and media companies, the Board initiated a search for a new
CEO and the transformation was underway.
This session will examine the critical role the HR function played in partnering with the CEO to build a plan to invest
in the employee experience and define the right culture to get the company back to a winning position.
Jim Reid, Chief HR Officer, Rogers
12:00 – 1:00 Networking Lunch
10:00 – 12:00 Business Meetings

5. 1:00 – 1:45
1:45 – 2:30
2:30 – 4:30
Applying the Skills Matrix to Track and Enhance Continuous Learning
Demonstrating Cost Savings and Quality Improvements by Transitioning to a Shared Services Model
Business Meetings
Sun Life Financial prides themselves on the work they do to continuously develop front line staff, ensuring that they
have the skills necessary to deliver on their customer promise. They have developed a tool that has enabled them to
educate, track, monitor and enhance the skill competencies within each job role that they train to. The Skills Matrix
is owned and administered by the Training Knowledge and Quality team and has been embedded into all of their
onboarding programs and progression programs so that they are in a continuous state of learning. The skills matrix
allows them to:
• Consolidate the technical skills required in each department by person and work type
• Identify and track each person’s proficiency level with each skill
• Easily understand skill gaps and who needs upskill training
• See where up-training is required for workload management
• Maintain the accuracy of each person’s skill including their level of knowledge for each skill with a quarterly
review by the business managers
• Update each learner’s skills once the trainer completes delivery
During this session, Jason McDowall, AVP, Training Knowledge and Quality at Sun Life Financial will be discussing
how he uses the Skills Matrix tool to inform the business unit of the progress of their learners and how this relates to
targeted ongoing training.
Efficiency, cost savings and quality improvement are all components of a thriving organization; they are also the many
benefits of implementing a Shared Services model. Deloitte Consulting’s 2015 Global Shared Services Survey Results
show Shared Services Centers with more than three functions have increased by more than 40 percent over the last two
years, based on a total of more than 1,000 Shared Services Centers across all respondents. Additionally, 71 percent of
respondents are looking to increase the number of functions within their Shared Services Centres in the future.
Manulife Financial recently implemented a Shared Service model across 22 countries to serve their 30,000 +
employees. Girish Ganesan, VP & Global Human Resources Client Services Head, Manulife Financial, will discuss the
recent experience transitioning to a Shared Services model and examine some of the results achieved.
• Why consider shared services?
• Realizing and sustaining the vision of shared services
• Manulife’s story: Translating enterprise strategy into specific of shared services objectives and goals
Jason McDowall, AVP, Training Knowledge and Quality, Sun Life Financial
Girish Ganesan, VP & Global HR Client Services Head, Shared Services, Manulife

6. 4:30 – 5:15 ‘From One Tree, a Forest’: How PCL’s Approach to Leadership Development Can Engage at all Levels
Creating opportunities for personal growth and transformation is both an employee’s responsibility and a company’s
duty. Join Mike Olsson, VP of Human Resources and Professional Development at PCL Construction as he discusses the
key elements required to have a strong and engaged leadership culture within your organization.
Mike Olsson, VP HR & Professional Development, PCL Construction
5:15 – 6:00 Transforming Performance Reviews to Better Drive Performance and Improve Engagement
Performance Management. It is rare to find a process so hated by managers and employees alike and yet so fully
ingrained in business. Every year employees create goals, put them in a drawer and never look at them again until
the end of the year. At that point, they spend hours writing a pre-review to justify one of the better grades. Then
HR and business leaders spend hours calibrating to make sure the company doesn’t go over budget, often changing
the rating a manager has already selected. Sound familiar?
There is another way. General Dynamics Mission Systems International radically changed their performance
management process from one that focused on the administrative and compliance aspects of performance
management to one that focuses on performance. From one with ratings and reviews to one with discussions that
drive performance. After all, isn’t that what performance management is supposed to do?
If you are thinking about changing your performance management process, this is a must attend session, which will
examine:
• The business case – Why they did it
• The methodology – How they did it
• The takeaways – What they learned
Jane McVeigh, VP HR, General Dynamics Mission Systems International

7. 5:15 – 6:00 Place of Possible
In an industry where they say it can’t be done, H&M Canada was named one of the Country’s 50 Best Workplaces
and one of the World’s Best Multinational Employers just two years after. To support its ambitious expansion
strategy, H&M North American has focused on attracting and retaining high performing leaders to sustain
successful growth in the highly competitive retail industry. Hammond will share how H&M Canada used its own
employees to create a ground breaking recruitment campaign called “Place of Possible” to attract the Best People
to secure the brand’s performance in North America.
Laura Hammond, Country Manager, H&M Canada
6:00 – 7:00
7:00 – 9:00
Free Time
Cocktails & Dinner

8. Tuesday, November 15th
, 2016
7:30 – 8:15 Breakfast
8:15 – 9:00
9:00 – 10:00
Leading Cultural Change Through Times of Volatility
Since 2008, Air Canada has ridden a roller-coaster of profits and loss, fuel prices at all-time highs and lows and a
labour front reacting in an often unsettled manner.
As HR Leaders, we expect cycles of uncertainty, in fact we anticipate them and try to be proactive. However, at
times we can reach peak moments of uncertainty where we face significant downturns in our industry. This is when
we have to be as nimble and innovative as possible. To do that we ask ourselves:
• How can we set ambitious goals in terms everyone can understand and support?
• What has to change drastically to move us from survival mode to profitable mode?
• How do we articulate this and create momentum through our workforce?
• What did Air Canada do to reinvent themselves from the ground up – literally!
Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, VP HR, Air Canada
Strategic HR Leadership Roundtables
This interactive roundtable style session is designed to provide attendees the opportunity to “huddle up” and talk
through issues surrounding their top priorities, with an eye to uncovering best practices. Attendees will have the
opportunity to select 1 of the following 3 discussion topics in order to discuss with their peers their experiences and
strategies employed.
1. Owning the Hiring Process: Talent Acquisition Today
Facilitated by: Stefany Ting, Bilingual Talent Acquisition, Coca-Cola Canada
With a shift in workforce mindset and technological changes, attracting the best talent is becoming increasingly
challenging. Emerging technologies are changing the way that we do business and attract talent. Organizations need
to be organic to recognize and adapt to this shift in talent. There should be an increased effort put into employer
branding and organizations have to become smarter in the way that they leverage social media. How are those
changes affecting your recruitment strategy? What can your organization do to stand out from competition and
establish a compelling talent plan?
Join Stefany Ting from Coca Cola Canada as she explores upcoming challenges in recruitment across various industries.
2. Employee Recognition and Engagement
Facilitated by: Caroline Campbell, VP HR, Shannex
To attract and retain talent and customers in today’s market, employers need to find effective strategies to
Stefany Ting, Bilingual Talent Acquisition, Coca-Cola Canada
Caroline Campbell, VP HR, Shannex
Anita Caslin, VP HR, Vintage Hotels

9. Closing Remarks
Closing Lunch
11:45 – 12:00
12:00 – 1:00
10:00 – 11:00 Business Meetings
differentiate themselves from the competition. How do we build a culture of service excellence where employees
are engaged and feel valued? How do we link culture & brand with recognition programs?
Join Caroline Campbell, VP, Human Resources from Shannex Incorporated as she shares the journey to service
excellence through Employee Engagement & Recognition Strategies.
3. Post-Mergers and Acquisitions: Leading Through Transition
Facilitated by: Anita Caslin, VP HR, Vintage Hotels
Mergers and acquisitions are both exciting and challenging for the Human Resources Professional. There are considerable
and often complex changes required within the organization including organizational structure, technology, work
processes, products, markets, brand, etc. M&As often create nervousness, confusion and uncertainty amongst
employees as two differing cultures come together to form one.
During this roundtable, Anita Caslin, VP HR from Vintage Hotels will lead a discussion on strategies to design
a positive culture where employees trust leadership, areengaged, feel valued, and remained productive while
integrating two companies.
11:00 – 11:45 Building a Valued HR Partner: A Transformative Story of Success
With technology and customer expectations evolving at a rapid pace, delivering what the customer desires and
achieving business growth may require a refreshed focus and, in some cases, organizational change. Once your
company has committed to transformation, what does this mean for your HR team and how do you build upon your
value as an HR partner?
This session will share the strategic role the HR team continues to play as part of Ricoh’s transformation from a
product-centric company to a services-led organization. During Ricoh’s transformation, the Canadian HR team
helped support and drive the company’s cultural change and constantly provided a value-add with a focus on
customer centricity. From talent and acquisition to building a strong internal brand, this session will discuss the
importance of having a “valued HR partner.”
• Positioning the HR team for success to support organizational change
• Building valued HR partner that impacts the internal culture and the overall customer centric focus
• Implementing new technology that empowers all employees and managers to readily find what they need,
when they need it
Amrit Sandhu, VP HR, Ricoh