With the first of its new conferences in the history books, HARDI is preparing for the upcoming HR and Organizational Management conference in Tampa, Fla. All members are welcome to attend the event which takes place at the Saddlebrook Resort, April 14-16. What can be expected?

With the first of its new conferences in the history books, HARDI is preparing for the upcoming HR and Organizational Management conference in Tampa, Fla. All members are welcome to attend the event which takes place at the Saddlebrook Resort, April 14-16.

Kicking off the conference will be a welcome reception Sunday evening, followed by breakfast and an executive briefing the next morning. At lunch, it is time to take a crack at decoding the new health care reforms that have been implemented. Covering the topic will be representatives from Gregory & Appel Insurance, Indianapolis. Through this company, HARDI provides its members low-cost, human resources (HR) training services online. The program gives participants access to over 40 courses covering the gamut of HR issues.

Nancye Combs, president and CEO of HR Enterprise Inc., will take the stage after lunch and help attendees discover the keys to effective wage and salary plans. According to the seasoned HR professional, fair and equitable compensation is a key to retention of talented staff.

“Approximately 65 percent of those that leave their job say inadequate pay and benefits were their primary reasons for resigning,” Combs points out. “Yet, creating a wage and salary plan that is defendable is a mystery to many HR professionals. Few know how to use compensation tools and information to create and communicate an effective pay plan.”

During this session, participants will be exposed to what an effective wage and salary system looks like. Combs will also explain why an employee’s job description is an invaluable item when defending a company pay plan. She will teach attendees how to determine the appropriate internal and external value of distributors’ jobs and instruct where to find accurate salary survey information.

“Those who attend will leave with the tools to create a defendable and useful wage and salary plan,” said Combs. “This plan could save your business thousands of dollars.”

Speakers Sid and Aaron Strickland will wrap up the conference with two presentations on the final morning. Sid is the president and Aaron the vice president of Strickland Associates Co. based in Florida.

The first topic this duo will cover encourages distributors to indentify and leverage talent. They will share ideas with members on how to identify and categorize segments of talent within their organization and stress the importance of scientifically measuring employees’ capabilities, inclinations, and drives. The session will also examine the application of human analytics data to a variety of strategic and tactical organizational objectives.

Their final session will focus on managing generational differences.

“We want you to gain a better understanding about the four generations in the workforce and how they each approach work differently,” they noted. “You will learn how to have higher productivity and improved morale that result from capitalizing on generational differences and getting everyone to work together successfully. You will also learn effective strategies for leading multigenerational employees in addition to addressing cross-generational communication.”

Attendees of March’s Marketing Optimization conference seemed please with the meetings’ topics and speakers. Registration is still open for the April conference. The hotel cutoff date is March 14, but other hotels in the area may still be available for reservations.

The next meeting will be the Strategic Leadership conference held June 2-4 at the Grand Geneva Resort, in Lake Geneva, Wis. The hotel cutoff date is May 2.

For more information or to register for the April or June meetings, go to www.hardinet.org/2013-focus-conferences.