THE upcoming Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development CIPD Northern Ireland Conference will be the CIPD’s biggest ever conference in Northern Ireland.
The event, taking place on Thursday May 12 at the ICC Belfast, will bring together more than 300 people professionals from the public, private and third sectors from across Northern Ireland to hear the latest thinking in HR and people development.
Susan Hayman, Members, Networks and Communities Manager with the CIPD in Northern Ireland and conference chair said: “There’s a huge appetite to attend live events, both from a perspective of learning and networking.
“Our conference theme of ‘people-driven workforce transformation’ is very timely, and as organisations move forward from the pandemic, people professionals are thinking strategically about new ways of working, and how the benefits of hybrid and flexible working can be embedded in our workplaces.
“We really encourage everyone attending to make the time to talk to as many people as possible about what they’ve learned over the past two years, and what’s working best in their organisations, so we can all understand how new ways of working can work for everyone. Organisations need to do what they can to avoid creating a two-tier workforce, where only those in office-based roles and those in more senior positions, have access to the flexible ways of working that we know benefit both employers and employees.”
Other topics under discussion will include health and wellbeing, job quality, learning and development, inclusion, and the key role that people professionals should be playing to create better opportunities for young people in Northern Ireland.
Jill Minne, Strategic Director of HR for the Northern Ireland Civil Service will join CIPD Chief Executive Peter Cheese, and Professor Veronica Hope Hailey from the Forward Institute in conversation about how the pandemic has accelerated responsible business agendas, particularly around sustainability and inclusion and diversity, why cultures of trust and inclusion are paramount in business, and what this means for new types of business leaders.
Following the publication of the Department for the Economy’s Skills for a 10x Economy strategic framework in March, Danske Bank HR Director, Caroline van der Feltz, Gordon Parkes, Executive Director of HR with Northern Ireland Electricity and Gillian McAuley, Group HR Director of Devenish Nutrition will join Graeme Wilkinson, Director of the Department for the Economy Skills Division to discuss how skills in Northern Ireland can be adapted to respond to future business needs, and the role of HR professionals in better preparing young people for work through skills and apprenticeships.
Perhaps not surprisingly, amidst the current well-documented challenges in the recruitment market, a session on addressing recruitment challenges with VANRATH Managing Director, Barbara McKiernan, and Deborah Stevenson, People and Operations Director at PwC is one of the most popular breakout sessions at this year’s conference.
The CIPD Northern Ireland Annual Conference is sponsored by VANRATH. nijobfinder are media partners.
Tickets are still available, priced at £179 for CIPD members and £225 for non members, with a five-for-four offer available for teams. Find out more at cipd.co.uk/NIConf22
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