Sessions

Opening Keynote: Employee Engagement: How to Create a Culture of Caring
Shibu Varghese, SHRM-SCP, Senior Vice President, CHRO, Chief Diversity Officer, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

A recent Gallup study estimates that disengaged employees cost the U.S. up to $605 billion in lost productivity per year. Based on these findings, more and more employers are taking a deep dive into understanding employee engagement and are undertaking significant human capital investments to diagnose.  

The first step is to understand what the key drivers of employee engagement are at your respective organization. While each organization is going to have different facts and circumstances, often times it is revealed that compensation is a part of the equation but not one of the leading causes of employees being disengaged at work.

What you will learn from this course:

• How MD Anderson engaged with its employees by creating a “culture of caring”
• How some other high performing organizations may be addressing employee engagement
• Understand why employees “quit”
• Actions total rewards professionals can take to engage with their workforce
  
  

Trends in Designing Performance-Based Equity Awards
Anthony Eppert, Partner, Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP

Many companies are hesitant to go to their shareholders for an increase in the share reserve of their equity incentive plan.  The purpose of this session is to educate the attendees on various practices that could help lengthen the longevity of an otherwise dwindling share reserve.

Learning Objectives:
1. Compensation design strategy
2. Compensation market practices
3. Shareholder requirements

Health & Wellness Plan Compliance Issues and Updates
Wendy Carmichael, ERISA Counsel, Senior Vice President of Regional Employee Benefits Compliance, USI Southwest

Wendy Carmichael will address various recent developments, providing answers to the following questions: 

  -  What is going on with the ACA anyway?
  -  What does the demise of the Individual Mandate mean?
  -  What’s this Letter 226J?
  -  Should I be worried about the Cadillac Plan Tax?
  -  What do the Association Health Plan rules mean to me?
  -  What is happening with the wellness program rules?
  -  What are the updated indexed amounts effective in 2019?
  -  What significant changes to HSAs may be on the horizon?

Keynote Presentation: The Compensation Revolution: Technology's Transformative Effect on the Industry
Jeff Laliberte, CEO, Payfactors
Glen Szot, Senior Compensation Manager at Waste Management

Technology has changed just about everything in our lives - from the way we work, to the way we shop, to the way we travel, and more. And what we've seen so far isn’t close to being over.  One area we haven't seen major transformations, though? Compensation.

Instead of using technology to overhaul our processes and approaches, we've seen incremental improvements that don't add up to much. It's time we change all that. It's time for fresh approaches, new processes, and different thinking.

By attending this, you'll hear about:
  -  Research-backed predictions for the coming years in compensation
  -  Why and how compensation is becoming more visible and more accountable across all organization
  -  How to tap data and tech to revolutionize your business strategy - and your career

Sales Comp Plan Assessments
Bruce Jackson, Deloitte Consulting
Michael Williams, HR Sr. Comp Mgr & Head of Sales Incentive Compensation, AIG
Sheila Sever, CCP, Deloitte Consulting

For many compensation professionals, sales comp is the “black sheep” of comp world that is neither broad-based nor executive compensation.   However, while the differences do exist, does sales comp have any similarities with your short term incentive plans?  Come join us if you recently taken over responsibilities to manage sales comp or simply would like to understand what your sales comp colleagues do day-in and day-out.  The presenters will review sales compensation basics, provide you with a simple framework on how to think about sales compensation and lay out some of the key considerations in making your sales compensation plan successful.

Specifically, here is what you will obtain from this course:

• Hear 3 different perspectives on sales comp (a consultant, an industry practitioner and sales comp administration partner)
• Why sales compensation pay mix is so much more leveraged than other roles
• How to get the most out of our sales comp plan (i.e., how to motivate salespeople)
  
  

Retirement Plan Fiduciary Best Practices
Edward A. Razim, Partner, Locke Lord LLP

This session will focus on the impact of the Fifth Circuit's rejection of the Department of Labor's Fiduciary Rule, which had attempted to impose significant changes on ERISA plan investment and administration, and the introduction of the SEC's Regulation Best Interest, which captures many of the DOL's concepts in a more manageable approach to this issue.

Learning Objectives:
  -  Actions to be taken by retirement plan fiduciaries due to the change in ERISA's fiduciary rules.
  -  How SEC's proposed Regulation Best Interest new guidance will impact plan participants and ERISA fiduciaries.
  -  Actions ERISA Plan fiduciaries should take to protect former participants following the repeal of the Fiduciary Rule.

Closing Keynote: Pay Equity Panel
Ashley Kobelan, Senior Compensation Analyst, The Friedkin Group
Luna Corbetta, Partner, Multinational Client Group/Diversity & Inclusion, Mercer
Jenny Midyat, Director Total Rewards and Global Mobility, Parker Drilling Company
Lynn Moffett, VP Total Rewards, BMC

Pay equity has long been a standard consideration of compensation programs. Commitments, though, have often been met through ad‑hoc, sometimes cursory, review of those sitting in the same job and/ or highly confidential analyses performed through legal counsel linking to a set of pay adjustments to be processed, without understanding of their impact. Greater scrutiny – and demands from business leaders for progress – requires that organizations raise the bar on their efforts. Attendees will learn types of questions compensation professionals should be asking, how to lead internal initiatives, and analytical approaches to arrive at supportable conclusions.