January 25, 2023 (virtual)

HARRT at UCLA is proud to present Achieving Your DEIB Goals: The Secret Sauce for Leading Transformational Change with Ian Ziskin (C4C) 

This ongoing series is offered as part of the new HARRT at UCLA DEI & Belonging Network which is a forum dedicated to providing participants with programming, research, and networking to further the effort of diversity and belonging in the workplace.

If You Are a DEIB Professional or Head of an ERG and Would Like to Attend This Session as Our Guest, Use This Link to Let Us Know.

As organizations implement new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) strategies, many leaders overlook the importance of incorporating transformational change approaches into their plans. A panel of highly accomplished experts featuring Ian Ziskin, Karen Jaw-Madson, and Sophia Kristjansson will provide a variety of perspectives on why an inclusive change culture is imperative to achieving sustainable DEIB change. Questions to be discussed will focus on what it takes to lead, survive, and even thrive when creating culture change

In advance of the session, you can visit The Secret Sauce For Leading Transformational Change book website where you can read chapter summaries, learn more about the author, Ian Ziskin, the Consortium For Change (C4C), and see bios on the contributing authors.

Interested in joining our DEIB Network? Contact HARRT for details.

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October 3 & 4, 2022

HARRT at UCLA is proud to present | HR Today, Tomorrow, and You

The 2022 HARRT at UCLA Executive Retreat will be held on October 3 & 4 at the beautiful Terranea Resort; a perfect setting to reconnect, rejuvenate, relax, and learn. This year’s theme is HR Today, Tomorrow, and You! Members will converse with our renowned thought leaders and fellow CHROs to gain insight into the trends that will impact HR. Some of the areas of discussion will include today’s corporate culture, ESG, DEI & Belonging, tomorrow’s talent challenges, HR tech, and personal well-being. There will also be plenty of time to network, meet new friends, and participate in some fun activities too.

Interested in joining us? Contact HARRT for details.

June 2, 2022 – The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work

HARRT at UCLA hosted a conversation for its CHRO members and the greater UCLA and Human Resources community featuring Laurie Weingart, The Richard M. and Margaret S. Cyert Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, and co-author of the new book. “The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work”.

HARRT’s Faculty Director, Professor Corinne Bendersky and Dr. Weingart discussed how Covid-19 has altered all aspects of work and has significantly impacted employees’ personal and professional goals. As companies re-evaluate how work is performed and compete for future talent, an examination of gender equity is critical. While organizations strive to provide employees with access to flexible, challenging, and rewarding work, data shows the pandemic has adversely impacted women. In her new book, “The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work”, Dr. Weingart and her co-authors provide evidence-based research on how less-challenging tasks and a disproportionate amount of ‘non-promotable work’ are performed by women. She discussed how women, more so than men, are asked to do work that doesn’t advance their careers which results in significant gender pay gaps and career stagnation. Dr. Weingart shared ways to mitigate these disparities, including strategies for women to “say no” and more importantly how management and HR departments can re-design work to ensure that promotable and non-promotable tasks are distributed evenly.

May 18, 2022 – The Great Re-set and What To Do Now (in-person at UCLA)

As leaders and organizations strive to create continuity and normalcy in 2022, leaders find themselves at a historic crossroads, managing short-term pressures against long-term uncertainties.
Their ability to adapt to uncertainty puts them in a stronger market position and sets them apart.
How are organizations differentiating culture and the employee experience?
How should they continue to adapt to new ways of working?
After a pandemic break, we are very excited to invite you back to campus to join HARRT at UCLA and WTW for our in-person Day of Learning on Wednesday, May 18.
• Gain insights from leading employers and academic professors on the current HR landscape and future of the workplace
• Hear proven strategies to optimize the workforce through trends and best practices for effective leadership
• Network with executive peers across industry sectors from leading global organizations

This in-person event is Invitation-Only. Please contact HARRT for more information.

Agenda

April 22, 2022 – BUILDING BELONGING: A FRAMEWORK FOR THE FUTURE

It’s a unifying force that we all relate to. Every employee wants to feel a sense of belonging in the workplace.

To solve historical challenges around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives we need to look beyond the traditional approaches and metrics. DEI is so much more than a check-the-box initiative or CEO sound bite, it is part of an organization’s policies, practices, and ways of working. Belonging at work is just as fundamental as the work itself.

In recent years, many organizations have implemented DEI, bias, and belonging initiatives. However corporate leaders are questioning if they are meeting their DEI goals and building a framework for systems, processes, and procedures that will transform their organization and create a belonging culture today and in the future. Is this truly a paradigm shift or simply an act of going through the motions?

During this year’s first-ever co-UC hosted HARRT Summit, we will break through today’s status quo and challenge our beliefs around what it means to belong at work. Rich conversations will be guided by research-based approaches, keynote speakers, and shared resources all efforted at identifying barriers that better enable us to move the needle going forward.

This event is Invitation-Only. Please contact HARRT for more information.

Event Details: UCLA-UCI DEI Summit 2022 

Agenda:  Start times (PDT)

• 11:30 AM Check-In & Networking
• 12:00 PM Lunch
• 12:30 PM Dean’s Welcome
• 1:00 PM Session Begins
• 5:30 PM “Belonging Wine Tasting” with Karen Nguyen (Reception & Networking)

March 8, 2022 – Today, many leaders and human resources teams are re-focusing on workplace issues. In addition to creating a more inclusive culture, many organizations have made significant investments in new benefit programs to address employee physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. However, often these programs are not successful since individual daily habits are very difficult to change. But why is change so difficult and what can we do to overcome the barriers? Professor Katy Milkman, a renowned behavioral scientist at The Wharton School shared evidence-based insights that are applicable whether you are interested in changing your own behavior or as a leader helping your employees achieve their personal goals. She discussed science-based research from her new bestselling book on ways to develop positive change behaviors from her bestselling book How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be which was named one of the eight best books for healthy living in 2021 by the New York Times.

January 20, 2022 – One of the top human resources trends for 2022 will be creating an adaptive and sustainable corporate culture for the future.
As we begin the new year, leaders will continue to balance multiple employee challenges including the great resignation, vaccine mandates, talent development, and creating safe and equitable workplaces. Additionally, the new reality of the hybrid workforce is impacting all aspects of the employee experience and placing a spotlight on sustaining a strong collaborative culture.

Professor Galinsky shared his research on hybrid workplaces and what steps strong leaders at all levels in the organization can take to attract, retain, and motivate their employees in the new work reality.

November 3, 2021 – HARRT at UCLA held it’s annual, full-day in-person Retreat in an open-air courtyard at the Fowler Museum on the beautiful UCLA Campus on November 3, 2021. The theme of our Retreat was HR: RESET.

We were honored to welcome our Senior Executive members, distinguished faculty, and thought leaders who spent the day learning, reconnecting with colleagues and friends, and meeting the many new members who joined HARRT during COVID.

• We give special thanks to our always impressive and engaging UCLA faculty and speakers who joined us:
  • Dr. Robert Cherry, Chief Medical Officer, UCLA Health, “COVID-19 and the Future of Work”.
  • Michele Ruiz, Co-Founder, CEO, BiasSync  and Ann Marie Zaletel, Partner, Seyfarth Shaw, “Perspectives on Vaccine Mandates”.
  • Eugene Caruso, Associate Professor Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson School of Management. “Ethics and Trust: Pillars of the New Employee Experience”.
  • Olav Sorenson, Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies; Professor of Strategy; Faculty Research Director, Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, UCLA Anderson School of Management. “Organizational Reset: An Entrepreneurial Leadership Challenge”.
  • John Bremen, Managing Director, Human Capital & Benefits, and Head of Thought Leadership & Innovation, Willis Towers Watson
  • Michael Fox, Managing Director, Southern California/Southwest, Willis Towers Watson
  • Josh Strok, Senior Director, Work, and Rewards, Willis Towers Watson. “CHRO Reset: Charting a New Course”.

We also extend our appreciation to our event sponsors, the UCLA Anderson School of Management and our Partners Mike Fox and John Bremen from Willis Towers Watson.

October 28, 2021 – HARRT’s Faculty Director, Professor Corinne Bendersky shared a fireside chat with our distinguished speaker, Melissa Thomas-Hunt, the John D. Forbes Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Professor of Public Policy, Batten School of Leadership, and former Head of Global Diversity and Belonging at Airbnb where she led the strategy and execution of their global internal diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging programs, and retains an external senior advisor role focused on advancing connection and belonging research. The focus of the conversation was the importance of “Creating Leadership Through Belonging”.

The workplace has been significantly impacted as a result of the pandemic, technological innovations, economic upheaval, a renewed call for social justice, and new expectations of the workforce, – all of which are impacting the future of work. The emergence of hybrid work, vaccine mandates, changing workplace culture and a focus on DE&I have transformed how organizations attract, retain and motivate employees today and in the future. Recent research indicates that creating a culture of belonging is one of the top drivers that will reshape the employee experience and organizational effectiveness in the future. During the 90 minute, highly interactive session, we discussed practical ways to build a DE&I strategy based on belonging, trust, safety, and transparency.

October 18, 2021 – HARRT’s Faculty Director, Professor Corinne Bendersky shared a conversation on “Shaping Work of the Future from Policy to Practice” with Thomas A. Kochan, the co‐director of the MIT Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research and the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

The world of work has changed significantly as a result of the pandemic, technological innovations, economic upheaval, and new expectations of the workforce. Professor Kochan’s recent studies call attention to the challenges facing working families in meeting their responsibilities at work, at home, and in their communities. Through empirical research, he demonstrates that fundamental changes in the quality of employee and labor-management relations are needed to address America’s critical problems in industries ranging from healthcare to airlines to manufacturing. Our attendees discussed his most recent book, Shaping the Future of Work as well as the challenges of transforming public policies, business strategies, and organizational practices for future businesses to meet the demands of their employees, shareholders, and society. Members also explored the need to update America’s work and employment policies, institutions, and practices to catch up with a changing workforce and economy directly with Dr. Kochan during an extensive Q&A session.

October 6, 2021 – HARRT at UCLA held its Annual Associate Symposium (virtual). Members re-evaluated their post-COVID employee strategies, two long-trending issues – HR analytics and inclusive talent management – which continue to create challenges for HR leaders as they transform HR and build the “new” employee experience. This interactive session brought together senior HR professionals and industry experts to help members shape the workplace of the future. Our speakers discussed how people analytics can improve the quality and timeliness of employee-related decisions ranging from culture to talent management that will help you make an impact at your organization. We discussed how various approaches to employee data analytics can strengthen how organizations perform and ways to apply strategic and scientific approaches to creating integrated talent strategies that are inclusive and support desired DEI and other business outcomes.

September 22, 2021 – HARRT’s Faculty Director, Professor Corinne Bendersky facilitated a conversation with Malaika Billups, Chief Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Officer, The City of Los Angeles, and Ruby Flores, Commander and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) regarding the DEI-driven culture in Los Angeles, the 3rd largest city in the world. Our speakers shared the complexity of operating in the public sector with multiple government regulations while driving culture change and developing comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies. The city’s DEI leaders must consider multiple stakeholders including 50,00 employees, approximately 4,000,000 residents, more than 250,000 businesses, and over 50,000,000 visitors annually.

The session focused on L.A.’s evolving journey to align the city’s forty-five very different departments and bureaus such as airports, police, fire, transportation, and public works to name a few. Our speakers provided insights on the importance of planning, collaboration, and accountability in a decentralized organizational structure, the critical role of internal and external communications to gain consensus, the imperative of creating strategic department alignment to build a universal DEI-driven culture, and the challenges of implementing change management initiatives to overcome implementation barriers.

June 24, 2021 – HARRT welcomed, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and 5 time Emmy winner, Michele Ruiz who discussed the science driving an innovative approach to mitigating unconscious bias in the workplace. She, along with her colleague, Heidi Burnett, shared how this new technology can now help you collect meaningful DE&I data and obtain insights you can use to implement targeted, actionable inclusion initiatives in recruitment and employee development to support and achieve long-term DE&I objectives for your organization.

June 22, 2021 – HARRT members and guests joined Faculty Director, Professor Corinne Bendersky in a conversation with Darnell Hunt, Ph.D., Dean, UCLA Division of Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Paul Martin, Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Christine Simmons, Chief Operating Officer of The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences (The Oscars) on lessons learned in the entertainment industry when driving change in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In the past year, many businesses have advanced DE&I initiatives for multiple stakeholders including employees, customers, shareholders, and constituents. Organizations with a clear strategy, well-defined focus, results-driven leadership, and defined measurements have successfully moved from awareness – to commitment – to action. There is no single formula for improving diversity and inclusion that applies to every company or industry. By collaborating on action-based initiatives that have been successful and in some cases unsuccessful, organizations can learn and apply new approaches to building an inclusive DE&I culture.

This session spotlighted the importance of collaborative decision-making, data analytics, as well as, bold and accountable leadership when developing and prioritizing strategic DE&I programs.

• Darnell Hunt, Professor and Dean of Social Sciences shared insights and lessons learned from the Hollywood Diversity Report that examines the relationship between diversity and the bottom line in Hollywood and the degree to which women and people of color are present in front of the camera and behind the camera.

• Paul Martin, Sr. Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment shared insights about the multi-pronged racial equity and inclusion program launched in 2020 called Sony Pictures Action which includes an Action Council comprised of executives from across the company, the Diverse Directors Program that provides participants from diverse backgrounds to access and exposure to TV directing, as well as, lessons learned from Sony’s employee business resource groups that promote a culture of understanding, acceptance and, inclusion.

• Christine Simmons, Chief Operating Officer of The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences (The Oscars) shared the next phase of the Oscars equity and inclusion program called Academy Aperture 2025 and lessons learned from the Academy Gold Internship Program which is a global talent development and inclusion initiative that provides opportunities for creative individuals and students from diverse backgrounds to participate in the entertainment industry.

May 18, 2021 – HARRT’s Faculty Director, Professor Corinne Bendersky shared a conversation with Harvard Professor Tsedal Neeley on the future remote work revolution. This special conversation will air on C-SPAN 2’s Book TV throughout the weekend of June 19-20 and then be archived on their website as part of the C-SPAN video library.

The discussion covered how the rapid and unprecedented changes brought on by Covid-19 have accelerated the transition to remote operations requiring many companies to migrate to virtual work in just weeks. This massive transition has forced companies to rapidly advance their digital footprint and evaluate how work is performed.

Several global studies have shown that companies have experienced productivity gains after allowing employees to have flexible work locations. The remote work revolution has resulted in several workplace enhancements such as improved commute times, reduced operational costs, and the ability to recruit talent from around the world. However, organizations are also facing several new challenges including the impact on corporate culture, communication, employee experience, and how work will be organized in the future.

Professor Neeley discussed how remote work is here to stay and how corporate leaders, including human resources executives and their teams, need to adopt new innovative strategies to be successful in this disruptive work environment. She shared evidence-based insights from her new book “Remote Work Revolution” on how to build trust, keep teams motivated, maintain critical connections without in-person interactions, and how to create a proper work/life balance that will not only benefit employees but also their organizations and ultimately, their customers.

April 21, 2021 – In the past year, organizations were forced to be resilient and innovative as they rapidly adopted creative ways of working in a new and ambiguous world. COVID-19 also exposed many business vulnerabilities, none as important as the ability to quickly respond to the human side of the business.
When addressing a variety of people-related business challenges, leaders learned that having a digital advantage is imperative to thrive today and in the future. In the new people analytics domain, employee-related initiatives regarding productivity, networks, leadership, organizational agility, culture, employee experience, and more will be radically transformed.

Professor Polzer will discuss how human resource leaders and managers can use people analytics to gather and apply employee data from traditional sources and new digital platforms to structure all facets of the employee lifecycle. He will share how to achieve a competitive advantage by making effective employee decisions using a data-driven lens to look beyond collecting employee information to analyzing and designing new approaches to work in the future.

Five week discussion series for people leaders on how to create a psychologically safe workplace

March 23 – April 2o, 2021 – This five week FEARLESS book club series was inspired by Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School and presented in partnership with Sandy Asch. This was an incredible opportunity for HARRT member organizations committed to creating a workplace where people can bring their full selves to work every day. Psychological safety is the basis for meaningful conversations and high-performing teams and so relevant as members grapple with DE&I + the complexities of the current workplace. The over arching message of the series was “When employees don’t have the freedom to speak up, it can erode your employee engagement. That’s one reason why cultivating psychological safety is so important.”

HARRT at UCLA Dean’s Series – LEADERS of the FUTURE: Unleashing the Power of Psychological Safety

March 19, 2021 – The past year has resulted in major disruptions to corporate strategies and operations as a result of the global pandemic, digital transformation, economic uncertainty, and social discourse. As corporate leaders rethink how their organizations will perform in the future, there is a renewed emphasis on creating an inclusive organization to encourage the development of creative, innovative, and productive teams.

For many years, Amy C. Edmondson, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School and author of the book “The Fearless Organization” and Martijn Sjoorda, Co-Founder, The Fearless Organization, have studied how creating psychological safety is the key ingredient to develop high-performing, humane, and resilient leaders for the future.

Please join UCLA’s Professor Corinne Bendersky as she interviews our speakers and they discuss how to build competitive and innovative organizations in the future by:
• Exploring the link between psychological safety and high performance
• Creating a speak-up culture where it’s “safe” to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes
• Nurturing the level of engagement and candor required to succeed in today’s new economy

March 2, 2021 – Senior Executive Members gathered virtually for a special C-Suite succession planning discussion. The open dialogue featuring HARRT Senior Executive Members, Ed Eynon, EVP, CHRO, KSL Resorts, Randy Clark, CAO & CHRO, Sempra Global and was facilitated by Heidrick & Struggles Partners Angela Gardner, and Ed Manfre (HARRT Partner Members). The evening session was an informal, fun opportunity for our executives to catch up with each other and share their various strategies for C-Suite succession planning which is a post-COVID hot topic.

Two questions were offered to stimulate thought for the conversation:

• What innovative/progressive things are successful organizations doing in the CEO/President succession planning space that truly sets them apart?
• If there was only one piece of advice you believe we should hear today, what would that be?

February 12, 2021 – Dr. Bob Johansen, a distinguished fellow with the Institute for the Future in Silicon Valley and friend of HARRT, has been doing ten-year forecasting for more than thirty years, with remarkable accuracy. In this talk, he will share his latest forecasts for the post-outbreak world, with a focus on opportunities and threats for the human resources function. Full-spectrum thinking is the ability to seek clarity across gradients of possibility–while resisting the temptations of certainty and simplistic labeling. Bob will discuss how leaders can think in full-spectrum ways, particularly across the spectrum of human/computer potential. Digital augmentation of humans will be mandatory to thrive in the future and Bob will provide his latest thinking about how leaders of the future can thrive in an increasingly digital world.

*As a follow-on to this discussion, Bob facilitated a BOOK CLUB exclusively for HARRT Senior Executive Members on February 16 & 26. As part of membership, each participating HARRT Executive member received a complimentary digital copy of Bob’s new book: Full-Spectrum Thinking: How to Escape Boxes in a Post-Categorical Future.

September – December 2020 – Over the past several months, HR has been challenged with COVID-19, social justice issues, and dealing with multiple problems relating to business survival. During these chaotic times, human resources leaders have been responsible for a magnitude of outcomes including operational efficiencies, virtual workplaces, employee well-being, digital technology, and major innovations on how work is now being performed. Equally important to navigating the current day to day issues, is evaluating how work will be reinvented for the future based on today’s disruptions. What innovations need to be created to ensure success in the future? How do we avoid slipping back into the “old” way of doing things? What has worked well and what needs to be transformed going forward?

Since our founding 34 years ago, HARRT at UCLA has hosted a retreat for our Senior Executive Members every fall where we would discuss strategic issues and future innovations. Since we can’t meet in person this year, we have planned a virtual retreat that is designed to explore the disrupted workplace and reimagine the future of work. Additionally, this virtual event will provide members with several opportunities to network with HARRT peers, share ideas, and create solutions for these critical topics.

The theme of our virtual retreat is HR Resilience: Creating a Future-Ready Organization. The topics for the sessions are Transformative Leadership, Cultural Adaptability, Distributed Workforces, Agile Transformation, and the Trust Paradigm. These topics are designed to address today’s immediate challenges as well as go-forward strategies to implement in your future-ready organization. These virtual round tables will contain two parts; Part 1 is a general session with Q&A presented by a subject matter expert that will be immediately followed by Part 2, an exclusive HARRT Executive Member-only workshop to discuss practical, innovative, relevant, and actionable initiatives.

Virtual Series:

Session 1: September 8, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM Transforming Future Leadership Through Co-Elevation featuring Keith Ferrazzi, NYT Bestselling Author, and Founder & Chairman Ferrazzi Greenlight.

Session 2: September 23, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM Cultural Adaptability: A Blueprint for the Future featuring Charles Muttillo, President, and Megan Sutton, Vice President, Human Resources, Morley Builders.

Session 3: September 30, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM– Top Challenges in the Shift to Remote Work – Elisabeth Watson, Chantelle Egan, and Elizabeth M. Levy, Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

2020 HARRT at UCLA Associate Symposium (Virtual):  October 15, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm – Management Challenge Simulation, presented by Abilitie.

Willis Towers Watson Presents: October 22, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM– BruinTalk  – Reimagining Future Work: A Distributed Workforce – featuring Kerrie Peraino, Vice President, People Operations, Business HR & Googler Experience, Google.

Willis Towers Watson Presents: October 29, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM– BruinTalk  – Reimagining Future Work: A Distributed Workforce – featuring Holly May, SVP, Global Total Rewards & Partner Resources Service Delivery, Starbucks.

Session 4: November 12, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM – Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos featuring Sarah Elk, Partner and Global Leader, Bain & Company.

Session 5: December 9, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM – Building the New Business Paradigm with Trust featuring Robb Holman, Bestselling Author, and CEO of Holman International.

If you would like to be part of this group and apply for membership, please contact us.