Monday, March 11, 2013

7:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast Registration & Continental Breakfast

7:40 Welcome Address Welcome Address

7:45 Chairperson’s Opening Remarks Steve Goodrich is the President and CEO of the Center for Organizational Excellence (COE) and is a nationally known speaker, author, teacher, and strategist on leadership, organizational effectiveness, and human capital. For over 25 years, Steve has led COE in providing services to federal agencies, regularly counseling CEOs, senior executives, and political appointees on organizational effectiveness and strategic issues. He has designed and implemented methodologies for government program reviews and worked with OMB to accelerate its systemic capacity surrounding PART and the President’s Management Agenda.

8:00 Improving Performance: Ensuring Effective HR and Business Operations in a Constrained Environment Ms. McGrath is the Department of Defense Deputy Chief Management Officer and the Department’s Performance Improvement Officer. In these roles, Ms. McGrath leads the Department’s effort to better synchronize, integrate, and coordinate DoD business operations and serves as the Principal Staff Assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for matters relating to management and the improvement of business operations. Ms. McGrath is focused on achieving an effective, agile and innovative business environment across the Department’s enterprise that promotes sustainability, transparency and fiscal responsibility.

8:35 Leading An HR Office To Improve On Customer Service The mission of the Human Resources Directorate is to provide HR services for executive, political, military, and civilian personnel. The Directorate performs security clearances, conducts adjudications and manages various voluntary campaign programs. Ms. Susan Yarwood oversees employees working in ten different divisions providing HR and personnel security services.

9:10 CASE STUDIES: Flexibility As A Priority Finding Innovative Ways And Doing Things Differently In These Austere Times To Work Around Budget Shortfalls The Develop and Retain Integrated Business Operations Team provides an enterprise-wide approach to employee sharing and rotations, and uses internal mentorship programs as a way of improving communication and nurturing individuals. Rotations involve a timeline of employee deployment to other agencies, with clear definition of the tasks that staff will perform. Overall, how do rotations improve professional and organizational development? Also, considering internal mentorships as a part of a holistic approach to onboarding and post boarding. How can we utilize our co-workers during our individual development?Technology is rapidly changing the face of how we do business. The key to the future is working in partnerships and creating economies of scale in computing services by leveraging similar services seen in other agencies. The US Forest Service CIO IT realignment project focusses on keeping pace with the lifecycles of technology seen in the private sector, with the overall goal to enhance innovation, improve customer service and mission delivery. How can we improve IT services to support the mission needs of employees and other stakeholders?

9:50 Morning Networking Refreshment Break Morning Networking Refreshment Break

10:20 PANEL: Federal Evolution in Turbulent Times Environmental factors like shrinking budgets, greater expectations of transparency, the fiscal cliff, the retirement surge and the ongoing technical revolution are driving agencies to change the way they execute their mission. This panel will discuss the factors preventing agencies from making the changes they know they need to make and how some agencies have been effective in creating change. Topics include: The most effective drivers for causing change Systemic change versus spot corrections The success of changes caused by external vs. internal drivers

11:05 Creating A Recognition Culture To Support Employee Engagement The relative ability of government managers and HR leaders to engage and motivate federal workers during these turbulent times will have a major impact on whether government organizations are able to succeed – or not. What makes an agency a ‘best place to work’ in terms of recognition? What are organizations and leaders doing to stand out from the pack in a positive way? How can agencies adapt their work environment and culture to make recognition strategies relevant today?

11:40 Unique Recognition Strategies To Link Innovation And Reward Leaders change frequently, therefore a sense of ownership of innovative ideas takes time to mature. How do we make innovative environments valuable to a leader? Who will manage the actual process & be committed? Making it as easy as possible for managers to recognize in a relevant and timely way by providing tools at their fingertips.

12:15 Luncheon Luncheon

1:10 Configuring, Not Customizing, HR IT To Generate A ‘Return On Yesterday’ HR can't keep up with the demand for stronger, faster &cheaper IT hardware and software. Instead of endless, expensive customization of our IT to fit our requirements, how can we change our business processes to conform to HR IT products? Utilizing our current platforms to perform to their best capabilities and avoiding HR IT reimplementation and revalidation of requirements.

1:45 Paving The Way For Graduates To Enter Government How To Make Use Of The Student Loan Repayment Program & The Pathways Program To Attract And Retain Graduates As Tuition Costs Increase DoD has the highest number of graduates it has ever had, with loan repayments currently limited to $60kover 10 years. What is the private industry best practice? The programs are aimed at making it easier for agencies to bring in new talent and to tailor-train potential employees to fit the special needs of a position. What is Pathways and how can it be used? How does the program affect the application process for our candidates?

2:20 Defining What Is Meant By ‘Routine’ Telework In Order To Increase Engagement, Satisfaction And Overall Organizational Productivity Finding ways to fit telework into the current budget and considering the expectations from Congress and the OPM in terms of developing telework skills, coaching, assessing performance and giving feedback.

3:05 Afternoon Networking Refreshment Break Afternoon Networking Refreshment Break

3:35 PANEL: Best Practice In Getting Telework Eligibility To Equal Authorization The Telework Act 2010 requires all federal agencies to revise policies to identify telework eligibility for each position and notify employees of their telework eligibility. Many employee coordinators are saying that they are not being able to use telework as fully as possible, as they are not authorized to get into the system. How can we get around this challenge? How can we increase usage overall?

4:20 CASE STUDY: Employee Health & Wellness On A Dime Utilizing Low-Cost And No-Cost Options To Generate High Health Returns For Very Little Investment How to organize wellness councils, flu shots, hand washing campaigns and ‘walking at work’ programs while creating inclusion of the people who are at the most risk under the framework of OPM Healthy People 2020. Measuring which agencies have effective policies in place, and then using these as a benchmark to assess which activities are new or continuing needs in your workplace. What can we do next? What should we do next?

4:55 Innovation & Culture Shift Focus Day Concludes Innovation & Culture Shift Focus Day Concludes