Ethics in HR: How to Successfully Navigate Tricky Issues

Presented by: Abby Warren and Britt Marie Cole-Johnson,
Partner's with Robinson & Cole's Labor and Employment Group

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Virtual Zoom Meeting
7:45 - 9:00 am

In addition to complying with federal, state, and local laws that govern the employer/employee relationship, employers should manage the employment relationship ethically. As a baseline, HR professionals must be aware of legal and compliance issues that impact their workforce. Approaching the relationship with consideration and application of ethical principles will help employers maintain a stronger workplace. 

This session will help HR professionals identify and navigate potential ethical issues, comply with legal requirements, and maintain a workplace that is ethical and consistent. 

This event is organized by the Cape Cod HRA. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

Paid Family Medical Leave, we are a few years into now, let's chat about what has changed, what is going to change, and what has not been working as employers.  

Join our amazing panelist, for updates and best practices.  We'll be discussing  the overview of program fundamentals, employer responsibilities, recent developments/updates to the statute and legal considerations.    What are the Interactions with other types of leave and wage replacement programs/benefits?  What has the Department of Paid Family Medical Leave found to be common mistakes made during the claims process and in managing leaves.

This will also be an opportunity to share your experience with PFML from the Western side of the Commonwealth, with other members along with PFML department leaders.

Panelists:

William Alpine, Director of the Department of Family and Medical Leave for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Amelia Holstrom, Partner with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C

Abigail O’Connell, senior counsel at Sun Life Financial 

This event is organized by the HRMA of Western New England. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

Compassionate Leadership: Driving Growth and Well-Being

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Registration/Coffee 8:15-8:30 AM

Speaker 8:30 – 9:30 AM

Join us for an “IN-PERSON” meeting at Advocates, 1881 Worcester Road (Route 9), Conference Room C, Framingham, MA 01701

Seminar Summary:

In today’s ever-changing world, leaders encounter challenges, including the intricacies of organizational culture and change management, declining productivity, workplace conflicts, and addressing employees’ well-being, all while upholding responsibilities to stakeholders. Instead of introducing yet another benefit program or incentive, let’s take a different approach to tackle these issues. By prioritizing compassion, authenticity, resiliency, and empathy, leaders can effectively address the diverse well-being needs of their teams while driving both personal growth and organizational success.

It’s time to CARE. Compassionate, Authentic, Resilient, and Empathetic leadership nurtures a culture that genuinely supports every individual, creating an atmosphere where people feel understood and empowered to thrive. By taking a deep dive into the impacts of adverse experiences on individuals’ well-being and work capabilities, you will gain genuine insight into their needs. This awareness will help you create an environment where people feel valued and acknowledged, ultimately leading to higher satisfaction and engagement.

Join Manya Chylinski as she explores how leaders who CARE can establish an environment that benefits individuals and also enhances the organization as a whole.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the signs of trauma and the importance of recognizing and addressing them.

• Feel empathy and compassion.

• Be inspired to take meaningful action to support compassionate leadership within your own sphere of influence.

Speaker:

Manya Chylinski is a keynote speaker and advocate. Her life took an unexpected turn when the Boston Marathon bombings left her with deep emotional scars and post-traumatic stress. Her healing journey led her to help individuals and organizations reimagine leadership with a focus on empathy and well-being.

A communication expert with a background in writing, research, and marketing, Manya shares her powerful insights and helps individuals and organizations understand the mental and emotional effects of trauma and build resilience during times of change and crisis. She shared her wisdom on stages like SXSW and TEDx, on CBS, NPR, and in The Boston Globe. Manya’s honest and down-to-earth approach when addressing challenging topics resonates with diverse audiences. Her passion lies in advocating for those affected by psychological wounds, emphasizing the importance of validation and visibility on the path to recovery and growth. She empowers her audiences to discover their inner strengths and take practical steps toward compassionate leadership.

This event is organized by the MetroWest HRMA. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

Developing a Compensation Strategy with a Focus on Transparency and Equity

Presented by Kim Dunn, SPHR, CPC - Strategic HR Consultant

Now that we have survived the pandemic and are trying to keep our heads above water with turnover and quiet quitting it is time to take a step back and think through your organizations strategy on pay.  Simple but not easy.  Wouldn’t it be easier if we could just publicize everyone’s compensation and not have to explain why one person made more money than another?  The complex make-up of Compensation which is part art and part science has led organizations to keep their Compensation process under tight security.  Find out how some organizations are cracking open the vault on compensation secrecy to create transparency.  Additionally, during the uncertain economic times how you can manage pay equity within your organization to attract and keep the best and brightest talent.

•        Understanding the value of creating a compensation strategy

• .      Simplifying and demystifying the process of gaining pay transparency

• .      Building pay equity into your talent strategy

This program is approved for 1.25 PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® and 1.25 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).

This program is organized by the HRMA of Central MA. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

Are you part of a 'lean' (read: small but mighty, solo, stretched thin, understaffed, etc.) HR department looking to drive impactful change and shape a thriving workplace culture? This workshop is designed just for you! Through knowledge-share, group discussions, and case studies, this engaging half-day session will explore effective strategies and best practices specifically tailored to your unique HR needs.

In recent years, managing people has become more complex and the demand for strong HR leadership has increased exponentially. Many small organizations that started out with the owner or another executive handling employment issues are now looking to their small HR departments to lead change and influence the direction of the organization. Join us for this workshop, where we’ll review effective strategies for leading organizational change and culture shifts, while ensuring your company’s HR policies, processes, and practices unlock the full potential of your workforce.

Workshop Highlights:

✅ Leading change: Even with limited resources.

✅ Culture Shaping: Learn to create a culture that inspires success and innovation.

✅ Strategic Communication: Discover communication strategies that resonate with your team.

✅ Process Excellence: Identify tailored process improvements to boost efficiency.

✅ Quick Wins: Find immediate, actionable steps to make a positive impact.

✅ End Goals: Define a vision and create a roadmap for HR success in smaller departments.

Whether you're a one-person HR powerhouse or part of a small HR team, this interactive workshop is your opportunity to gain the knowledge, strategies, confidence, and support you need to make a big impact!

Registration Rates:

$249 members

$349 Non-members

This event is organized by NEHRA. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

Building Employee Connection to Reduce Turnover

Presented by Jessica Gifford, LICSW - Founder and Chief Connection Creator of ProjectConnect

Levels of turnover remain exceptionally high post-pandemic, with two thirds of U.S. employees actively looking for a new job. This takes an enormous toll on workplaces. Each employee who leaves causes a hit to morale, increases the burden on remaining employees, and costs an estimated .5 and 2X of that employee’s annual salary to replace them!

The solution is to create a work environment where employees want to stay ... but how? Most people think that improving salary and benefits is the fix—and those are important—but the truth is, workplace culture has an even bigger impact on an employee's decision to stay or leave. In fact, liking and feeling connected to co-workers is the number one reason people choose to stay in their jobs AND the top predictor of job satisfaction. That makes creating a culture of connection and community the most powerful thing you can do to improve job satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

This interactive presentation will give you a snapshot of the impact of a more connected workplace, teaches three quick connection-building exercises, and gives an overview of the ProjectConnect program, which provides a proven roadmap for creating connection. Participants will practice the exercises during the session and leave with three easy-to-implement activities to build stronger relationships in their workplace.

This program is pending PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® and HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).

Meet our Presenter:

Jessica helps businesses and organizations build employee connection, because positive relationships in the workplace are pivotal to job satisfaction, engagement, and retention. Jessica created the ProjectConnect program to help small groups of participants get to know each other and build strong relationships quickly. ProjectConnect has been used by over 75 organizations to build connection, and 98% of participants say they would recommend it to a friend or co-worker.

Jessica has a master's degree in social work. She began her career providing individual and group counseling before moving into developing and delivering programs that improve well-being. Jessica has worked with a wide range of organizations—including health care, law, and education—to build employee connection.

This event is organized by the HRMA of Central MA. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

Cultivating an Ethical Work Environment as an HR Manager

Virtual Meeting

Presented by Dawn Tedesco, Career Compliance Solutions

Organizations have a growing need for its employees to question whether specific business practices are acceptable, to use values, knowledge, and experience to recognize issues, and to resolve those issues by making good ethical decisions reflecting business and society. As an HR Professional, it’s imperative for you to continually foster a work environment grounded in such principles.

Dawn will discuss factors of an effective ethics program and how HR professionals can impact individual factors affecting ethical awareness, judgement, and decision making in the organization on topics such as protected characteristics including age, and gender including gender transition. She will review modern day examples from companies such as Microsoft, Verizon, and Fidelity.

How can Human Resources align the cultivated character traits of employees with those of the organization? Dawn will discuss strategies for HR to encourage individual virtue and integrity among organization members including the use of their knowledge, skills, and experience. She will also discuss how Human Resources can help organization members align their goals with that of the organization using the values of trust, empathy, fairness, truthfulness, responsibility, and organizational citizenship.

At the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Identify the values for culture establishing conduct in the workplace such as trust, empathy, fairness, truthfulness, responsibility, and organizational citizenship.

• Identify factors for an effective ethics program.

• Advocate culture in a way that affects how individuals act with each other inside and outside the organization.

• Direct the way in which culture is expressed both formally and informally using direct and indirect communication throughout the organization.

• Impact individuals’ judgement and decision making on sensitive work topics such as age, and gender transition.

This program is pending for PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® and ETHICS recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).

Our Presenter:

Dawn Tedesco, owner of Career Compliance Solutions, has extensive experience in employee and management skills development and over 20 years' hospitality operations and HR management and training experience with organizations such as Sodexo and Aramark. She has designed and developed training programs for several large organizations and now specializes in instructional design, eLearning development, and helping businesses with management skills and compliance training.

Dawn is an experienced diversity and ethics trainer and frequently presents her SHRM certified course, Organizational Ethics for HR Managers. She works with organizations to advocate culture by providing inclusive onboarding, hiring, and lifecycle processes. Dawn is a volunteer for the New England Society of Association Executives, the American Society of Association Executives, and the Human Resources Association of Central Connecticut. She has been an Adjunct Faculty member for four Connecticut colleges and universities.

This event is organized by the HRMA of Central MA. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

Join us for a special one-day event dedicated to DEI, created for both HR and non-HR leaders alike. This is not just another DEI Conference, workshop, or event; it's an immersive exploration of workplace belonging that takes a fresh and unconventional approach.

Together, we will delve into the vital elements of creating a sense of belonging in the workplace – from self-awareness and challenging assumptions to fostering curiosity, trust, and empowering employee action within your organization. 

Dynamic facilitators will guide attendees through thoughtful discussions and interactive activities that will challenge preconceptions and broaden perspectives. Use the power of shifting mindsets and actions in order to foster innovation, creativity, and genuine connections at work.

Whether you're a seasoned DE&I champion, just starting your journey, or simply curious about the possibilities, this one-day event extends a warm welcome to all. Your unique perspective is valuable, and we encourage you to contribute to an ongoing and open dialogue that plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of workplaces.

By participating in this program, you will not only gain valuable insights, you’ll also be part of a community that values humanity through diversity, equity, and inclusion. Together, let's create a future where our workplaces are spaces of authentic connection, understanding, and growth.

BRING YOUR NON-HR BUSINESS UNIT MANAGERS/LEADERS FOR A SPECIAL RATE
Wish you could get your non-HR business unit leaders/managers to get more involved in DE&I efforts at your organization? NEHRA wants to make it a little easier. Invite them to join you at a reduced rate. To register, make sure they provide your name as their HR colleague and use code: DEIFriend2024 at checkout to get a reduced rate of $349. To get the discount the non-HR business unit leader/manager must provide a registered attendee’s name, otherwise full rate applies.

This event is organized by NEHRA. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

This is an interactive workshop! Attendees will be provided a PDF manual to use throughout the session.

Organizations increasingly require employees to evaluate business practices, apply values and experience to address ethical issues, and make sound decisions that align with business and societal values. Many organizations look to HR teams to foster ethical work environments grounded in such principles.

HR professionals play a pivotal role in establishing a fair, morally principled workplace, including increasing awareness of organizational ethics, and decreasing ambiguity regarding ethical decisions. In this virtual workshop, we’ll discuss the components of an effective ethics program and how HR professionals can impact individual factors of this program. This includes affecting ethical awareness, judgement, and decision making in the organization on topics such as protected characteristics including age and gender (including gender transition). 

How can HR work to align the cultivated character traits of employees with those of the organization? We’ll discuss strategies to encourage individual virtue and integrity leveraging their knowledge, skills, and experience. We’ll also discuss how to help organization members align their goals with that of the organization using trust, empathy, fairness, truthfulness, responsibility, and organizational citizenship. 

At the end of this interactive workshop, attendees will be able to: 

·       Define their role in shaping and influencing organizational culture.

·       Use the Managers Guide to Influencing Culture (provided) and its guiding principles for creating a more productive and engaging workplace. 

·       Identify and incorporate strategies for five organizational values including trust, empathy, fairness, truthfulness, and responsibility, for establishing conduct and behavior in the workplace. 

·       Learn from successful organizations, and incorporate similar best practices and policies in their organizations to enhance retention. 

·       Influence individuals’ judgement and decision making on sensitive work topics.

This event is organized by NEHRA. For more information or to register please visit the NEHRA website.

Registration Rates: 

$99 for members/$149 for non-members;

Covering, Code-Switching and the Imposter Syndrome

Presented by Erica Colonero and Robin Pedrelli from VisionSpring, Inc.

Covering, Code-Switching and the Imposter Syndrome are all ways in which we hide or downplay who we are, what's important to us and how we present ourselves. During this workshop, we will explore covering from a DEI lens and provides tools and strategies to create more inclusive workplaces that support authenticity and where employees feel safe, respected and supported.

Join us for this interactive session, where you will:

• Deepen your understanding of covering, code-switching and the imposter syndrome;

• Explore the reasons why we cover, the impact and how to address it;

• Develop a set of actions for promoting psychological safety; and

• Apply concepts in order to support authenticity in your own organization

This program is pending for PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® and recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).

Our Presenters:

Erica Colonero and Robin Pedrelli are co-Founders of VisionSpring, Inc., a WBENC certified diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm offering fully integrated strategy development, instructional design, training, eLearning and continuous learning solutions to leverage diversity and inclusion to drive innovation and improved business outcomes. They are both sought-after consultants, trainers and speakers on the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion, respect in the workplace, unconscious bias and inclusive leadership as well as founders of the Inclusion Learning Loop, a member based DEI learning community which houses close to 1000 DEI tools, tip sheets, training, and conversation starters.

This event is organized by the HRMA of Central MA. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

This event is organized by the HRMA of Central Massachusetts. For more information or to register, please visit: https://hrmacentralma.org/meetinginfo.php?id=122&ts=1695916154

Driving Inclusion with Empathy
Presented by Sharon Steed, Keynote Speaker, Author and Founder of Communilogue

The workforce is more diverse than ever, yet the way we interact with each other doesn’t always reflect these ethnic and cultural differences. Navigating a world where we must constantly engage emotions, opinions and ideas that we don’t always understand or agree with doesn’t have to be impossible. In fact it can be greatly beneficial to team productivity, innovation, creativity and overall company success.

This talk shows HR professionals how to create, build and maintain organizational inclusion by engaging in everyday empathy behaviors. Keynote speaker Sharon Steed offers a fresh take on how to make empathy actionable as a person who stutters; she uses her speech impediment – and the funny, difficult and life-long lessons it taught her – to teach HR professionals how to define empathy as individuals and as organizations and the key empathy behaviors required to build inclusive cultures.

After attending this session, you will be able to: 
1. Identify and examine the potential biases that are impacting their ability to be effective communicators 
2. How to give feedback from a place of empowerment and receive feedback from a place of support 
3. Determine the difference between sympathy and empathy  
4. Use the key empathy behaviors to take empathy from an idea to an action that can be integrated seamlessly into your day

This program is valid for 1.25 PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® and pending recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).

 Our Presenter:

Sharon Steed is an international keynote speaker, author, and founder of Communilogue, a corporate empathy and communications consultancy. She is a subject matter expert on empathy at work, and she teaches teams and organizations the key empathy behaviors necessary to retain top talent and improve individual and team performance. Sharon has spoken at companies and conferences in 18 countries spanning five continents, with a focus on improving team communication and collaboration through engaging empathy and vulnerability as a professional asset. She has given a TEDx talk on empowering insecurities.

A lifelong stutterer, Sharon uses her speech impediment to both teach what empathy is and to inspire audiences to engage in empathy actions daily. An author and course instructor for O'Reilly Media, Inc., her eBook Empathy at Work is available in the O’Reilly library. Sharon’s LinkedIn Learning course "Communicating with Empathy" has been translated to over a dozen languages; it over 7500,000 views. A Midwest, USA native, she currently lives in Pennsylvania, USA.

Thursday, December 14, 2023
ZOOM WEBINAR
9:00 – 10:00 AM
In this webinar we will learn tools to help engage employees and assist them in finding their find intrinsic motivation to help enhance job satisfaction, be more productive, and create an overall positive and thriving workplace culture.

Learning Objectives:

•  Learn the connection between employee emotional wellbeing in workplace culture and productivity.       
   Learn active listening skills to help employees feel “heard” and bring areas of concern/importance to the surface.

•  Learn more effective ways to communicate messages to employees.

•  Learn how to understand what is important to individual employees and how to create buy-in.

Speaker:
Chris Guild is the Director of Training and Client Accounts for Wellness Workdays. He is responsible for the relationship management with both wellness coaching and software clients as well as for the training and development of our Behavioral Health and Wellness Caches with a specialty in teaching behavior change and active listening strategies. He is a Certified Behavioral Health and Wellness Coach and is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. He has delivered active listening seminars to many employer groups as well as medical providers, attorneys, teachers, and senior leaders.

LOCATION:    Zoom address will be sent by 12/13/23 to all who register below for this meeting. 
FEE:  Members $15.00, Non-Members $30.00.

 *For membership & renewal process, fill out the membership application online, or contact our Membership Director.  Please note that if this is your first meeting, you will need to create an account as a new user. 

REGISTRATION:  To reserve your spot and pay online (preferred), click below. 
To reserve your spot and pay by check in advance, register online and send your name/company name/address/ phone number with your check payable to MetroWest HRMA to: MetroWest HRMA, PO Box 6405, Holliston MA 01746.
Go to our website for latest information.  www.metrowesthrma.com.

This event is organized by the MetroWest HRMA. For more information or to register please visit www.metrowesthrma.com.

The Board of Directors for HRMA cordially invite you to attend our 5th Annual Cocktails & Credits event where we’ll have the opportunity to network with peers and friends, enjoy some great food and beverages and also earn up to 3 recertification credits with our FREE BOOK event!

AMAZING RAFFLE PRIZES - SUPPORTING A LOCAL NON-PROFIT!

A FREE BOOK FOR EVERY ATTENDEE!

FANTASTIC APPETIZER STATIONS!

PEOPLE BINGO IS BACK!

CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS WITH FRIENDS & COLLEAGUES!

HEADS OR TAILS FUNDRAISER FOR SHRM FOUNDATION! 

This year our book is:

This event is organized by the HRMA of Western New England. For more information or to register please visit: https://hrmawne.org/meetinginfo.php?id=56&ts=1701107631

HR Unleashed!!  Transforming from Support Role to Strategic Leader (Virtual Event)

The time for HR to work in the background has passed. It’s time for HR to be strategic at an organizational, professional, and personal level. This session will equip attendees with an approach to be intentionally strategic in their HR role regardless of their level. It will also show them how to integrate departments to move the entire organization forward through performance.

• Understand how to be a valued, and sought after, resource instead of only providing support when needed.
  (Business Management & Strategy – Establish strategic relationships with key individuals in the
  organization to influence organizational decision-making.)

• Learn how to effectively develop people individually from the Executive level down through the
  organization. (Business Management & Strategy – (Participate as a contributing partner in the
  organization’s strategic planning process (for example: provide and lead workforce planning discussion
  with management, develop and present long-term forecast of human capital needs at the organizational
  level).

• Work from a people-first and strengths-based position in their HR role and teach managers to do the same.
  (Business Management & Strategy - Facilitate the development and communication of the organization’s
  core values, vision, mission, and ethical behaviors.)

• Effectively assess and place people in roles where they can perform and excel personally and for the
  organization. (Business Management & Strategy - Participate in strategic decision-making and due
  diligence activities related to organizational structure and design.)

This program is pending for PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® and HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).

For more information and to register for the event, please visit the HRMA of Central Mass.’s website.

Meet our Speaker:

Steve Browne is the Chief People Officer for LaRosa's, Inc. - a regional Pizzeria restaurant chain in Southwest Ohio with 10 locations and over 1,000 Team Members.

Steve has been an HR professional for 35+ years and has worked in the Hospitality, Manufacturing, Consumer Products, and Professional Services industries in various HR roles.

He was recently a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Board of Directors and has held several other national, regional, state, and local SHRM volunteer leader roles. He facilitates
a monthly HR Roundtable as well as an HR internet forum, called the HR Net, which reaches over 14,000+ people globally each week.

Steve is an accomplished speaker who has been featured at local, regional and national Conferences, Chambers of Commerce, HR chapters and businesses. He’s very active in social media, has a nationally recognized HR blog – Everyday People. (*******sbrownehr.com), and he has authored two bestselling books on HR - HR on Purpose !! and HR Rising !!

Biden’s Impact on Human Resources

Registration/Coffee/Donuts 8:45-9:00 AM 

Join us for our first “IN-PERSON” meeting in over a year! 

We will be back at WorkCentral, but in the “Conference Center” room on the 2nd floor (to your right when you get off the elevator)!

Kyle Cullen from the Whitney Law Group will be presenting an update on the Biden Administration’s impact on Human Resources and Employment Law.

1. Understand Biden’s impact on employment law as it relates to HR

2. Understand employment law changes in Massachusetts and nationally

Please join us for a “live”-ly discussion and come prepared to have your questions answered.

For more information and to register, please visit the MetroWest HRMA website.

Speaker:

Kyle E. Cullen – Kyle is an Associate at Whitney Law Group, LLC, a law firm focusing on employment law and civil litigation. Kyle focuses on employment law and business litigation. Kyle is a member of the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association (plaintiff-side employment law association) and the Massachusetts Bar Association. As a small employment law boutique, WLG represents employers, executives, and individual plaintiffs. Executive Advocacy represents more than 50% of WLG’s practice, where the WLG team counsel executives on a wide variety of workplace legal issues that they face, including contracts, compensation, investigations, severance negotiation, whistleblowing, trade secrets, and numerous issues surrounding executive mobility. WLG offers an innovative fixed price approach to defending restrictive covenant matters, which gives individuals a fighting chance against large companies to challenge overbroad or invalid post-employment restrictions. WLG also has an active plaintiff-side litigation practice and vigorously prosecutes claims of individuals who have suffered unlawful discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation in the workplace, as well as leave law violations and nonpayment of wages. WLG has offices in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York, and is on the web at www.whitneylawgroup.com; e  kcullen@whitneylawgroup.com; p 781-631-4400.

SHRM & HR CERTIFICATION INSTITUTE CREDITS

Each year professional must earn continuing education credits in order to retain their credentials for either SHRM or HRCI.

Attendees of MWHRMA meetings may receive SHRM & HRCI credits at our monthly seminars. Prior to each seminar, MWHRMA submits the speaker and content information to SHRM & HRCI. Then SHRM & HRCI approves the program and authorizes credits based on the length of the meeting. We inform attendees that the seminar is approved for credits. At each meeting, we provide a signed certificate listing the credit information that attendees can take home with them and submit directly to SHRM & HRCI.

We’re BAAACCCCKKKK! HRMA of Western New England’s Board of Directors is thrilled to welcome you to our kickoff meeting for our new season IN PERSON at The Castle of Knights in Chicopee on Monday, September 19th at 4:30pm. This upcoming season of HRMA programming will feature a blend of in-person and virtual programming, as we strive to bring you high quality topics and speakers AND the opportunity to spend time networking together once again. At our first meeting of the season, Ameila Holstrom, Partner at Skoler Abbott in Springfield MA, will join us to discuss the latest legal updates at both the state and federal level, including:

• Wage and Hour Update, including a recent SJC decision regarding the non-payment of wages that changes the legal landscape

• A new type of employment claim related to personnel files

• PFML update: what questions and issues have we seen come up over the last year

• EEOC updates for COVID-19 guidance and more.

You won’t want to miss this first meeting of the season to see old friends and meet some new ones too! Upcoming season membership dues info is coming your way soon – We can’t wait to see you in person next month!

This program is approved for 1.25 BUSINESS CREDITS.

For more information or to register, please visit the HRMA of Western New England website.

Conversations around DE&I have catapulted onto every company’s agenda recently. It’s no longer just about bottom line business, but an understanding that to solve important problems we need diverse talent and inclusive workplaces. Some organizations are far along with their DEI initiatives, seeing the benefits of increasing employee engagement, while others are getting started, or slowly but surely making progress. Regardless of where you are in the journey, our panel discussion today will underscore the importance of having a D&I plan, offer relevant tips for getting started and suggestions to help you stay focused along the way.

This program is pending approval for 1.25 PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® and 1.25 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).

This event is organized by the HRMA of Central Massachusetts. For more information or to register, please visit their website.

NEHRA's Diversity & Inclusion Awards Gala is a time to reflect on and celebrate the power of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.

We look forward to celebrating the 2021 event by honoring 3 Scholarship Winners as well as our Frank X. McCarthy Diversity Champion at the Virtual Gala to be held on April 29, beginning at 4:00pm. 

For more information or to register, please visit the NEHRA website.

NEHRA’s virtual Developing HR Fundamentals Program provides HR professionals who are new to the HR field, are moving from a specialist to a generalist role, or who work within smaller organizations and wear many hats, with a solid foundation for a well-rounded career in human resources. This program provides virtual instruction over two full days, as well as interactions and sharing through a community portal; enabling participants to be engaged prior to, throughout, and after the program.

The online community portal will provide access to:

- Any articles and white papers shared by facilitators
- A glossary of HR terms
- A listing of recommended books and websites/blogs
- A forum for sharing best practices and addressing common HR challenges
- A place to keep connected with your program colleagues

Pre-Program and Post-Program collaboration via the community portal enables for more robust and fulfilling two-day sessions

Pre-Program Activities: Prior to the modules, participants will be asked to contribute to discussions posted on the community portal. These discussions include, but are not limited to:

- Introduction
- Goals for attending session
- HR challenge faced in current role

Post-Program Activities: After the virtual sessions end, participants will continue to interact and engage with each other as well as program facilitators. In addition to posting their own challenges, best practices to share, and other questions on the community portal; participants will also be asked to share:

- Take-aways from the sessions
- Action planning activities
- Participate in a discussion on how they applied their learnings back on the job
- The community portal will be accessible for program participants for a 6-month period after the program ends

For more information or to register, please visit the NEHRA website.

Companies work hard to create and cultivate a positive employee experience in their offices, and in many cases, they have had to come up with innovative ways to maintain that culture with a freshly minted remote workforce. While challenging, remote work provides ways to improve company culture through a different way of connecting. It’s also vital to maintain culture continuity for those who must remain in psychical work environments. This presentation will explore ways companies can utilize creative and fun opportunities while working remotely, in‐person, and within hybrid experiences to cultivate, improve, and sustain a positive employee experience to maximize satisfaction and promote positive business outcomes.

Learning objectives:

Identify areas of opportunity to improve company culture through remote, in‐person, and hybrid work.

Understand how to foster meaningful connections with colleagues and supervisors while working remotely, in‐person, and in a hybrid environment.

Appreciate the challenges of communicating across time zones, cultures, and locations.

Leverage diverse opportunities to grow teams and develop professionally.

Recognize opportunities to shape company strategies to align with the needs of workers and organizational objectives.

This event is organized by the HRMA of Central Massachusetts, for more information or to register click here.