News

  • July 14, 2021 4:46 PM | Christine Strak

    All humans habitually categorize and group others who are “different” from “us,” which often lends to black and white thinking, as in “good” versus “bad” or “native” versus “immigrant” and a host of other isolating labels.

    With this presentation, Ellen (Ellie) Krug offers a toolset—Gray Area Thinking™—for interacting with diverse humans in a mindful and compassionate way.

    Attendees will appreciate and value how it’s necessary to consciously work to “Think Gray!”™ Gray Area Thinking™ is a simple three-part toolset for interacting with diverse humans:

    1. Awareness of another human’s vulnerability or suffering;
    2. Risk-taking to alleviate or lesson that vulnerability or suffering; and
    3. Compassion and kindness for both self and others.

    For additional details and registration information, click here.

  • March 18, 2021 5:51 AM | Christine Strak

    This session we will be trying a new format that will allow us to have several leaders share ideas on how they have challenged HR norms to come up with breakthrough results for people, profit, and the planet.  Join us to learn new ideas from our panelist and your peers – and share yours with us as well!

    Register today!

  • January 19, 2021 7:07 PM | Christine Strak

    People are most organizations’ number one investment. Ensuring employee and organizational success requires a strong HR and Finance business partnership. How you invest in your people, especially in light of today’s more diverse workforce and seemingly endless opportunities for disruption e.g. a world-wide pandemic, requires thoughtful and strategic planning in areas such as reward strategy, HR technology, workforce, community investment and more.

    In this session you will explore HR’s role as a business partner to finance and collaborative business driver—as leaders of an organization’s people function, HR is an equal partner in sustained organizational growth.

    For additional event and registration information, visit our Upcoming Programs page.

  • November 20, 2020 5:10 AM | Christine Strak

    As we start out the New Year, we optimistically see light at the end of the tunnel with the pandemic. As HR Leaders, many of us will focus on lessons learned from experiences in 2020, including vulnerabilities exposed in the US healthcare system.

    It has been known for years that healthcare crises disproportionately affect the poor, sick, and those most marginalized in our society – and the current pandemic continues to impact people of color the most. In the upcoming January HREF session, you will have the opportunity to hear from three senior executives leading Minnesota’s largest health plan and the work they are doing to address healthcare inequities.

    The January 19th panel is one you won’t want to miss, featuring: BlueCross and BlueShield of MN CEO and President, Dr. Craig Samitt, SVP and President of Health Services, Dana Erickson, and SVP/CHRO Ruth Hafoka. In this panel discussion, you will hear about work underway to reinvent the healthcare system, healthcare inequities which exist and what is being done to address them, and hear about BCBS of MN diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. As a HR leader, this discussion will give you insight into how you can also help influence your organization’s policies and workplace to tackle this important issue.

  • October 30, 2020 7:09 AM | Christine Strak

    2020 has been like looking both ways to cross and getting hit by an airplane. We have led our organizations through a pandemic, racial justice issues and survived a political season, all through a screen! We As we closeout 2020, HREF invites to you join a stress-free zoom for laughs and connection with your HREF colleagues!

    Howie Milstein will wax both eloquently and inelegantly on the realities and myths of our new virtual realities, and propose some ways to break out of the "ho humness" of interacting with people who are poorly lit and sometimes even sleeping.. Hopefully useful and definitely annoying, Howie will struggle and sweat through an experience that could provoke some new thinking. Or not.

    For additional program details, click here.

  • September 22, 2020 5:24 PM | Christine Strak

    Featuring speaker Mark Ritchie, President – Global Minnesota

    In this session we leverage the virtual format to engage several leaders ready to share ideas as to how they have challenged HR norms to come up with breakthrough results for people, profit, and the planet.

    Join us to gain new insights, share your own ideas, and further the conversation of HR evolution in the new “normal” as well as the future of being human in the workplace.

    Click here for more event and registration information.

  • August 31, 2020 2:30 PM | Christine Strak

    It's not too late to save $$$ while learning continuously...Now you can save $50 when you join or renew your HREF individual membership by September 22.

    Our upcoming program year promises to provide insights amid unprecedented times, connect you with other HR Leaders and provide ideas that are actionable during the "new normal."

    https://hrexecutiveforum.org/join-us

  • August 04, 2020 6:04 PM | Christine Strak
    This session, we will be kicking off our programming year by interviewing one of the country's most prominent business futurists, Cecily SommersWe now live in a time when navigating uncertainty, dealing with constant reorganization, and creating new ways of doing things is the norm. 

    Since change and turbulence are here to stay, Cecily will provide important historical context and also guide us through how HR can arrive at what is best for people, profit, and the planet. Click here for more event and registration information.


  • July 21, 2020 10:44 AM | Christine Strak

    This event will feature a compelling senior HR leadership panel who will share their experiences about challenging topics all HR leaders are facing today: diversity, equality and inclusion issues, and leading from the front through a global pandemic.

    Register today!

  • May 19, 2020 12:14 PM | Christine Strak

    Start small and expand incrementally, advised leaders at international food giant Archer Daniels Midland and China-based Internet search company Baidu, both of which began bringing employees back to workplaces in late February. Read more.

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