09:15 KEYNOTE ADRESS:

T he Chief Executive - master, servant or partner to HR?

§    Ensuring we win with professional individuals and high-performing teams

§    The strategic role of HR

§    The HR- role in integrating all the pieces of the jigsaw

§    A Chief Executive’s changing expectations of HR

§    Selling the difference - how companies really succeed

Paul Drechsler, Chairman and Chief Executive, Wates Group

Paul Drechsler was appointed Chief Executive of Wates Group in September 2004 and became Chairman and Chief Executive in April 2006.  The Wates Group is one of the UK’s largest privately-owned construction and development companies with annual turnover of £1 billion providing construction services and land value enhancement. The Wates Group serves a number of public and private sector markets including affordable housing, education, government services, and commercial and retail markets.  In 2007, the Wates Group won the best UK Family Business Awards by J.P. Morgan and Coutts banks. In April 2009, Mr Drechsler was announced as the KPMG Chief Executive of the Year for Building Magazine, the leading Construction Industry journal.

09:40 KEYNOTE PRESENTATION :

Why seizing the recession as an opportunity, rather than a misfortune, is our chance to demonstrate HR’s true value to the business

§    How the HR brand and perspective has changed in the past year

§    Organisation of HR to optimally deliver: clarifying what capability and skills are required from HR to lead the business into recovery

§    Maintaining the balance between confidence in what the business is doing and the choices it is making, whilst instilling realism and understanding amongst staff

Stephen Kelly, Group HR Director, Logica

Logica is a leading IT and business services provider with 40,000 people. In order to help their people grow and thrive they have several HR initiatives in place. Their company wide performance management system is a complete framework that focuses on building capabilities, managing careers and personal development plans as well as succession planning. Their global Logica University aims at the personal and professional development of their people with faculties and specific programmes covering areas like Sales & Account Management, Project & Service Delivery, Business & Management Consultancy, Technical, and Leadership. 

10:35 KEYNOTE PRESENTATION :

Understanding the economy and labour market – what implications does this have for HR?

§    Why HR practitioners need to pay attention to the economic environment

§    What HR needs to know about the economic climate and how this will impact on business

§    Utilising the best resources and tools to understand the labour market

Will Hutton, Chief Executive, The Work Foundation

Will Hutton is executive vice chair of The Work Foundation, the most influential voice on work, employment and organisation issues in the UK.  Regularly called on to advise senior political and business figures and comment in the national and international media, Will is today one of the pre-eminent economics commentators in the country. He began his career in the city, as a stockbroker and investment analyst before moving to the BBC, where he worked both on radio, as a producer and reporter, and on TV as economics correspondent for Newsnight.  Prior to joining The Work Foundation, Will spent four years as editor-in-chief of The Observer, for which he continues to write a closely-watched weekly column.  Will’s best-known book is probably The State We’re In, which was seen at the time as setting the scene for the Blair revolution.  Since then he has published The State to Come, The Stakeholding Society and (with Anthony Giddens) On The Edge, a groundbreaking analysis of globalisation.  His most recent book is The Writing on the Wall:  China and the West in the 21st Century and his next is a book about fairness. Outside The Work Foundation, Will is a governor of the London School of Economics, where he is also a visiting senior fellow.  In 2004, Will was invited by the European Commission to join a High Level Group on the mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy and act as its “rapporteur” for the final report.