Packed schedule this year for Great Place to Work Institute

Great Place to Work hosts numerous events throughout the year. Some of these are onsite events which offer great opportunities to get insights into a variety of organisations, and get a first-hand view of the efforts they make to improve the employee experience and foster trust in their organisation.

During 2016 these included visits to global organisations such as AbbVie, DHL, Mars and Facebook, as well as local world-beaters like Leinster Rugby.

The events allow attendees to lift the lid on how these organisations have succeeded in tackling specific challenges along their journey to becoming a Great Place to Work.

The 2017 series kicks off on March 14th at the headquarters of enterprise software giant SAP in Dublin. This will be followed by an event at CRM software specialist Salesforce, also in Dublin.

The May 11th event, again in Dublin, is hosted by HR and financial management solutions firm Workday.

June sees the series move out of Dublin for the first time with the visit to internal communications software company Newsweaver in Cork on June 15th, before returning to Dublin for an event hosted by Vodafone at its Leopardstown HQ on June 22nd.

Moving out of Dublin again, this time to Athlone, the next event takes place at global biopharmaceutical company Alkermes on August 31st. Next up is an onsite at IT giant Cisco in Galway on October 19th.

November 30th sees the series return to Dublin for a double-header at outdoor advertising company Exterion Media and Aura Health and Fitness.

That is followed by a seasonal event at the Guinness Storehouse followed by Christmas drinks at 6pm on December 21st.

Looking ahead to 2018, the first onsite for that year has already been arranged for January 25th, at simulation specialist Cadence's Dublin HQ in the Citywest Business Park.

These onsite events are complemented by management workshops where the Great Place to Work team shares key insights in an engaging and participative format to empower people managers in their attempts to build high-trust teams.

Other events throughout the year will include best-practice sessions, where research findings with great workplaces are presented.

Culture of trust

One such event is Giftwork, which will take place in Dublin on April 25th. This is a course for managers showing how to develop practices to build high-performance teams. The programme also shows frontline and mid-level managers how they can help senior managers build a workplace culture of trust, innovation, and productivity using the Giftwork approach, where everyday tasks, often seen as obligations, become opportunities to build trust between managers and employees.

The institute will also be taking to the road during the year to introduce the Great Place to Work Certification, and how the concepts, model and methodology involved can add value to organisations. The new premium certified standard for HR practice was introduced in 2016, and is based on extensive research in thousands of the best workplaces across the world and focuses on the key characteristics that deliver competitive advantage.

A major highlight of the year ahead will be the Great Place to Work Conference in Dublin on September 21st.

This will see hundreds of leaders from organisations throughout Ireland gather to hear a stellar line-up of speakers share their experience and learnings about leadership and achievement of high performance in great workplaces.

Speakers already confirmed for the conference include BBC human resources director Valerie Hughes D'Aeth, Insead associate professor of organisational behaviour Gianpiero Petriglieri, internationally acclaimed motivational speaker Manley Hopkinson, Bernard and Miriam Kennedy from Carlow Precast, and Woodies DIY chief executive Declan Ronayne.

International perspective

Another high point, this time from an international perspective, is the Great Place to Work US Conference which takes place in

Chicago

from May 23rd to 25th. This year’s speaker line-up includes

Deloitte

talent director Brent Bachus, GoDaddy HR vice-president

Monica Bailey

, and

Laura Fuentes

, senior VP of talent and rewards with Hilton.

The Great Place to Work European Conference takes place the following month on June 8th in Paris, where thought leaders from across Europe and the world share their findings on leadership, culture, performance and the future impact of current trends.

This busy schedule of events offers the HR community the opportunity to experience thought leadership, capture insights and build their network while experiencing other workplaces in the Great Place to Work community.

On-site events are open to clients and members of Great Place to Work. To inquire about further details please contact claire.mcgeever@greatplacetowork.com