Session Summary: 

An employee’s self-image plays a powerful yet often overlooked role in confidence, performance, decision-making, and overall well-being. In this interactive session, we’ll explore the psychology behind self-image and the ego, examine the research connecting these concepts to workplace performance, and introduce practical tools that HR professionals can use to foster healthier mindsets and more effective employee development within their organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how self-image influences employee confidence, performance, resilience, and career development.
• Identify three common psychological barriers—conditional self-worth, the need for validation, and cognitive biases—that can limit growth and workplace effectiveness.
• Apply evidence-based exercises designed to help employees build healthier self-perceptions, improve self-awareness, and adopt a more growth-oriented mindset.
• Equip members with practical tools and frameworks they can adapt for coaching, leadership development, and employee well-being initiatives within their organizations.

Speaker Bio:

HR professionals need to know what they should be measuring — where do you start?

What does their CEO actually want to see?  How do you build it without a data team? This working session closes that gap.

You’ll leave with a decision framework for identifying the right metrics based on your CEO’s priorities and your CFO’s existing data — because the business problem should pick the metric, not the other way around.

You’ll get a step-by-step walkthrough of how to set up an AI project that functions as your always-on HR analyst, including the exact prompts that produce a CEO-ready dashboard, a workforce risk summary, and predictive analytics — without a data scientist on staff. It is a part time employee without the compensation and 10x the power.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify business-driven HR metrics by aligning people data with CEO and CFO priorities.
2. Apply AI tools and effective prompting strategies to enhance HR measurement and analytics.

Utilize existing HRIS data to explore predictive analytics and anticipate workforce trends.

Benefits strategies are evolving quickly—and HR leaders are under increasing pressure to ensure their plans remain competitive, cost-effective, and aligned with what peer organizations are doing.

This session takes a practical, market-driven approach to both health insurance and 401(k) plan design, highlighting current industry trends and how employers are adapting their strategies in real time. Attendees will gain insight into how similar organizations are structuring their benefits, where they are investing, and which plan features they are prioritizing to attract and retain talent.

Using ERISA as a unifying framework, this session will also explore the key “levers” HR leaders can adjust across both health and retirement plans—from contributions and plan design features to emerging fringe benefits—to drive stronger outcomes.

In addition, we will cover key legislative updates impacting plan sponsors, including SECURE 2.0 and the evolving requirements under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, which expands upon Health & Welfare plan regulations introduced in the CAA of 2021. Attendees will gain clarity on how these changes affect compliance, fiduciary responsibility, and overall plan strategy.

Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how their current offerings compare to peers, along with actionable ideas to refine and elevate their overall benefits strategy.

Learning Objectives:

By attending this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify current trends in health insurance and 401(k) plan design across industries
2.  Evaluate how peer organizations are structuring benefits to remain competitive
3.  Understand key fiduciary considerations under ERISA as they apply to both health and retirement plans
4.  Apply strategic “levers” within plan design (e.g., contributions, plan features, ancillary benefits) to improve outcomes
5.  Interpret key provisions of SECURE 2.0 and their impact on plan sponsors and participants
6.  Understand expanded compliance and transparency requirements under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 for Health & Welfare plans
7.  Develop a more integrated and aligned approach to total benefits strategy

Don’t fall overboard!  An active legislature, plaintiff-friendly judges, and a loose cannon plaintiff’s bar have increased the risk of being swamped by employment law mistakes.  Errors with job postings, outside employment policies, and meal and rest periods now risk staggering class action damages.

Learn where the dangerous waters lie. We’ll also chart some unmarked reefs to comply with new 2026 laws on background checks, paid family medical leave, personnel files, reductions in force, sick leave, and more.  Employment law attorney Catharine Morisset will help us weather the storm: attendees will learn key compliance requirements and develop a list of immediate action items to take back to their crew.

Learning Goals:

1. Review job postings, outside employment policies, and meal and rest period compliance requirements for class action mitigation, including both the statutory requirements, but also new cases interpreting them
2. Develop of list of policies that must be updated to avoid automatic liability – including PFML, personnel files, sick leave, and background checks
3. Determine areas where immediate management training and procedural updates are needed for internal compliance with the new laws