Everybody’s talking about the dismal statistics surrounding employee engagement. What if all that’s really happening is the talking? This interactive session challenges your thinking and deliberately provokes you to think beyond the obvious. Come prepared to stretch your thinking about the topic, yourself, and be prepared to commit to one attitude or behavior change that could significantly impact your effectiveness to deal with Employee Engagement.

The past year has produced several ground breaking legal cases in various industry settings that all HR Professionals should be aware of. Jamie will review several of the cases that have arisen over the past year here in New Brunswick as well as in other Provinces. Please join us for a high intensity breakfast session that will provide employer and employee legal perspectives on the most influential employment decisions of 2014. We encourage you to bring your business leaders along. For those of you in unionized environments, why not invite your union leadership!

Dr. Bill will share his insights on current conversations around employee stress, productivity, engagement, and mental health in the workplace. He will report some findings from his national Globe and Mail study, Your Life at Work, and will provide HR leaders insight on impressing senior leaders on the importance of investing in respectful workplaces and mental health strategies. HR leaders will benefit from learning how to make the business case, as well as how to get the facts for maximizing employee engagement, productivity, and health. Dr. Bill will introduce his Quality of Work Life study methodology and organizational change management model. These insights and benchmarks provide the landmarks for setting and implementing strategic actions to reduce risk and increase opportunities for employees to be happy, with or without a mental health issue. He will encourage HR leaders to ask the tough questions that look beyond engagement for long-term workforce sustainability.

Our Fredericton Chapter HRANB Executives wish to extend a Personal Invitation to our Annual Year End Social! Food, wine and networking with your fellow members! Appetizers, Refreshments & Networking Come out and meet other Fredericton area members, share a few stories and get to know your peers in a relaxing environment. Hot Topics Symposium Members are able to leverage the experiences of those in attendance to identify actions taken to ad-dress these challenges. During the HR Hot Topics Symposium discussions, participants will have the opportunity to learn from association members who have dealt with similar challenges and find some-one else that is facing similar issues and be able to work collaboratively afterwards to find solutions.

Join us for our annual legal update with Lucie LaBoissonnière and Dominique Fontaine from McInnes Cooper. This year, we will be doing a half-day session on off-duty conduct, privacy in the workplace and the enforcement of termination clauses and confidentiality agreements. Every employer in Canada has heard of Shawn Simoes, the Hydro One employee who was terminated for cause after publicly harassing an on-air reporter. Hydro One acted quickly and - most employers would agree - made an estimable decision. Since Mr. Simoes’s termination made headlines across Canada, terminations for “off-duty conduct” have been in the spotlight. Can employers manage employees outside of the workplace? What factors will courts consider to determine whether off-duty conduct justifies a termination for cause or other discipline? Is reputational damage a necessary factor? Can an employee who is seen on Facebook using recreational marijuana be terminated for cause? Privacy in the workplace remains an evolving area of employment law. Employees expect to have some privacy at work while employers must know what their employees are doing while at work. It can be challenging to know where to draw the line, for instance, with GPS devices on company-owned vehicles used by employees and other methods of conducting surveillance on employees in the workplace or on their work phones. Finally, recent case law on the enforcement of termination clauses and confidentiality agreements will be discussed. We will address the enforceability of termination clauses as well as an employer’s available remedies in the case of an employee’s breach of a confidentiality agreement. This session will provide insight to employers as to their rights and obligations in regards to these emerging topics.

Organizational change is the new “normal” for most public and private sector organizations today. Research suggests that the primary reason organizations struggle with successful implementation of change initiatives is due to a lack of focus on the “people side” of the change. As HR professionals, we see first-hand the toll that poorly managed change efforts take on people and ultimately on business results. This interactive session will help to improve your understanding of the key ingredients for leading successful change and provide a roadmap to get there. A model will be shared, highlighting how the HR community can support and enable their leaders and organization to successfully navigate change.

This notice is to inform the members of HRANB that the Annual General Meeting of HRANB Fredericton Chapter is scheduled for November 26th 2015 at the Delta Fredericton. The meeting will take place at 2:30pm prior to our monthly professional development session featuring Assistant Commissioner, Roger Brown. Various reports will be given, including Financial, PD Events, Mentorship program, Students, CHRP and Marketing updates. A call for nominations will be made for various Executive roles. Your presence is requested for voting.

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS AN AFTERNOON SESSION Leadership is not about a position. We are all leaders who have the ability to influence others and change outcomes. Leaders, given today's reality, often find themselves in a position where they have to lead without the benefit of clear guidelines and plans. What then should leaders resort to? This very question will be explored through numerous real life examples and you will leave the session knowing how you can be one of those leaders who does make a difference. Join us for an impactful and thought-provoking session with Assistant Commissioner Roger Brown who will share with us his past experiences during some of their most challenging and life-defining moments as a leader.