HR Director Boardroom

Date: Wednesday 14th August 2024
Time: 8:30am – 10:00am
Topic: From Pessimism to Participation: Cultivating a Culture of Involvement

Key topics in this session:

1. Unified Branding as a Catalyst for Engagement: You will learn about the pivotal role of a cohesive brand, exemplified by the “Employee Voice” emblem, in reinforcing the company’s dedication to hearing and acting upon employee input. You will understand how this emblematic identity unites varied employee contributions and feedback, promoting collective goals and camaraderie.
2. Tailored Strategies for Varied Teams: The session will cover the formation of EV committees, illustrating that while certain approaches are universally beneficial, genuine engagement is achieved by honouring and catering to the distinct characteristics and needs of each team at the local level.
3. Fostering Participation through Recognition: The forum will showcase the triumphs of bi-annual events that boost participation through team initiatives. This method inspires active engagement, with teams eager to earn recognition rather than comply with directives.
4. Cultivating Engagement by Granting Autonomy: The discussion will demonstrate that true cultural integration of engagement cannot be micromanaged by HR. It necessitates empowering teams with self-governance, encouraging them to assume responsibility and demonstrate initiative, thereby nurturing a more invested and proactive workforce.

Nichola-Jayne Thomas

Nichola-Jayne Thomas is a distinguished HR Senior Executive, committed to HR excellence. With a rich background in talent management and development, including internationally, Nichola-Jayne has been instrumental in fostering a culture of service and quality at ELIS, where she currently leads as a key executive.
A graduate in English Literature and Performing Arts, Nichola-Jayne’s academic pursuits reflect her passion for communication and the arts. Her professional journey is marked by her ability to integrate and empathise with diverse teams across various countries.
In addition to her ability to connect with people at a variety of levels, Nichola-Jayne is an inspiring leader. She is lauded for her strategic solutions that align with business objectives while remaining pragmatic and accessible to all employees. Her efforts in promoting gender diversity and employee appreciation demonstrate her belief that employees are the greatest asset of any organisation.
As a forward-thinking leader, Nichola-Jayne continues to advocate for employee engagement and organisational capability improvement. Her contributions to the field have earned her respect from her peers but also the heartfelt recommendations of those who have worked alongside her.

Naeema Choudry

Naeema is a Partner in the Employment, Labour and Pensions Group. She advises on all aspects of employment law, acting primarily on behalf of large-scale employers who are household names. Naeema has particular experience in dealing with clients in the consumer, nuclear and aerospace industries.

She heads up our Employment Litigation and Discrimination, Diversity, and Pay practices. Naeema is a highly experienced Employment Tribunal litigator who has been appearing regularly in Tribunals throughout the UK. She advises clients on cases in the Employment Appeal Tribunal and in the Court of Appeal.

Naeema advises on executive terminations, whistleblowing, large-scale redundancies, TUPE, contractual disputes and discrimination issues. She regularly works in a cross-border environment.

Naeema is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences. She contributes to a variety of publications and broadcast media, including BBC Breakfast News and Radio 5 Live. Naeema also is featured in The Legal 500, Legal Experts and Chambers directories in which she is noted for her “articulate and professional manner” and “high level of competency in various areas — from tribunals to pension issues, to discrimination” and as someone “you would want in your corner.”

She is the Co-Chair of the Eversheds Sutherland Ethnicity network and sits on the steering committees of the firm’s Inclusion Council.

In 2013, Naeema was appointed a fee-paid Employment Tribunal Judge sitting in the Midlands (West) Region. In November 2019 she was appointed to sit as a Deputy Chair of the Central Arbitration Committee dealing with collective labour law issues.

Date: Thursday 12th September 2024
Time: 8:30am – 10:00am
Topic: Burn Bright, Not Out

What you will get from the session:

• The science behind burnout
• The causes and consequences of burnout
• The strategies and practices to prevent and cope with burnout
• The benefits of implementing behavioural science into training to change mindsets

Sally Isaacs

Sally is a Partner in our Employment Group. She has considerable experience of employment tribunal litigation and specialises in discrimination law, with particular emphasis on equal pay. Sally has been responsible for a number of high profile equal pay cases over the last 15 years including defending mass equal pay litigation. Sally’s contentious work also includes unfair dismissal, industrial relations issues and breach of contract claims.

Sally qualified in 2000, and has specialised in employment law her whole career. In addition to her contentious practice, Sally also gives advice in relation to non-contentious matters such as proposals to change terms and conditions of employment, strategic management of industrial relations issues, implementing new pay and grading structures, gender pay gap reporting and equal pay audits.

Sally has particular knowledge of the public sector (particularly local government and education) and has been recognised by the Legal 500.

Wendy Macartney

Wendy is a burnout and sleep expert in the UK, as well as a Senior HR Professional at Nedbank Private Wealth International. Wendy has had a successful HR career in large corporations like Accenture, Cisco, and Barclays before retraining as a psychologist to improve her HR and change management skills. Wendy has been conducting research on sleep, nutrition, and anxiety (all key elements of burnout) for over 5 years and understands what causes it and how to prevent it. Despite having high levels of grit and resilience, people have tried to bully or play psychological games with Wendy, and she has found a way to prevent this. Wendy has sometimes played along with the psychological games that people play to learn every element of the game so she can show you how to prevent burnout and burn bright.

Date: Thursday 28th November 2024
Time: 8:30am – 10:00am
Topic: Cultivating Success – for you and your business

What you will get from the session:

• How to foster and sustain a success culture that promotes collaboration, innovation, and excellence within your organisation.
• How to adapt and respond to changing circumstances and challenges that may affect your success.
• How to grow only what serves you and your team – and ‘weed out’ all that is not clear, confident or competent.
• Know how to tackle cultural toxicity better, faster, and more sustainably.

Suzanne Caveney

Suzanne is a Legal Director in the Eversheds Sutherland Employment, Labor and Pensions group specialising in employment law with a particular focus on discrimination, equal pay and DEI policy and strategy. Suzanne has represented employers in tribunal claims since 2011 and has a particular expertise in managing complex discrimination claims. Suzanne’s particular experience includes advising and guiding employers through complex grievances from existing employees, disciplinary investigations and dismissals and dealing with capability issues arising from both poor performance and medical capability. Suzanne also spends a significant amount of her time supporting employers with their strategy to create a diverse and inclusive workforce, including general DEI strategy and pay issues comprising gender and ethnicity pay gaps and equal pay.

Caroline Beardall

Caroline started her professional career as a nurse, and then reasonably quickly moved into HR and Organisational Development. She has worked for the Department of Health, Ministry of Defence, Scottish Executive Health Department and in a range of NHS providers, implementing new services and developing service improvements. Prior to her roles, as Director for Organisational Effectiveness for the NHS regulator for providers of care and improvement agency and Executive / Senior Manager Coach, she was a Board Director for HR and OD, leading strategies focussed on staff engagement, inclusion, leadership development and wellbeing. She also has gone on to be Regional Director of Workforce (Chief People Officer) for the South East of England NHS (250 000 workforce, 9 million population) and was then invited to be a Partner at a global consultancy. The breadth and depth of her skill and experience allow her to work across the public sector, with third-sector organisations and corporate settings. Her goal are always to ‘cultivate success’ to ensure that by working together the outcome is achieved. Delivery is all. As she says, ‘the phrase ‘dig for victory’ has a different meaning today from its original but it’s still the goal!’

Date: Wednesday 22nd January 2025
Time: 8:30am – 10:00am
Topic: To be confirmed

Gary Cookson

Gary is a father of four and a husband of one, and runs a successful business, EPIC, in his spare time. He’s an expert in workplace performance, with extensive experience leading and directing HR, OD and L&D functions across all sectors. His clients like working with him as he is authentic, honest, knowledgeable, communicative and people focused, with a broad and deep range of skills and experience – and a glance at his prolific social media output will verify this. Gary is a leading expert in the design and delivery of online/virtual training programmes, as well as an inspiring and entertaining keynote speaker and trainer on a range of leadership and HR issues. He has been recognised in the HR Most Influential awards, written for publications worldwide and spoken at global events. His first book, HR for Hybrid Working, was published in June 2022. His second book, Making Hybrid Work Work, is due to be published January 2025. He is one of the worlds’ leading thinkers on hybrid working and in regular demand with clients and conference organisers worldwide as a result, speaking on these topics plus leadership, management and the world of work. He’s active on social media – follow him on X, or connect with him on LinkedIn.