Engage in an authentic and vulnerable dialogue as leaders that empowers you to reframe the conversation and strategy around talent management toward a culture of retention and talent engagement. Structured for group coaching, feedback, and best practice sharing, this session is an interactive approach to walking away with tactical steps you can successfully implement at your institution while championing your influential vision with data points for successful and achievable talent/employee engagement.

How often have your staff come to you to tell you about an inappropriate comment, touching, or other more egregious behavior from a donor, board member or volunteer? Or do you simply hear about it second hand because reporting it means losing a prospect or being told that it's "just part of the job"? Staff who work in the field have put up with harassment in many forms for many years, but with recent cultural shifts and efforts like CASE"s Zero Tolerance Policy, advancement shops are taking action. Please join the presenters to learn about how some shops are taking concrete actions and practices to prevent harassment and discrimination in advancement, fundraising, and related functions and how you can take these approaches back to your own team, including training to empower and protect staff members, as well as transparent reporting and remediation processes. Through gathering research, developing guidelines, and creating concrete actions and practices to address the problem, and sharing our own journeys, we can all help change the industry to create a safe and respectful workplace culture.

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader is a quiz game show that originated in 2007. Contestants attempt to answer questions from 1st to 5th grade. The contestants are allowed to “cheat” from current 5th graders. The show provides a fascinating insight into diversity versus identities. The research is based on seasons 2007 and 2015 and demonstrates the significant bias in the show of children of different lived experiences. How do we make this shift? How do we make our inclusion efforts not exclusive? Even in our work to establish belonging for staff and colleagues, organizations are still creating exclusive approaches and practices. This session helps attendees shift to identity while appreciating everyone’s collective characteristics that contribute to their unique sense of self.

Research shows that most organizations have little or no deliberate succession planning in place—and aren’t fully aware of how much the lack of it can cost their organization. Inspired by the acclaimed HBO series "Succession", this session will ensure that when an employee leaves, you are prepared to have someone take their place. By proactively grooming and preparing talented individuals within the organization (and cultivating those external to the organization), succession planning not only safeguards institutional knowledge, but also contributes to long-term stability and success.

Focusing on the practical aspect of readiness, this session positions the STM faculty-led conversation as a platform to best prepare attendees to navigate the impact of complex issues on talent management efforts within and outside of the higher education space. Close out the conference by hearing from our faculty experts and special guests, Holly Wolk and Amy Bronson. We will also have some time for questions.