Justin Smith, P.E. | S2R LLC
To catch a fish, you have to know where to look, which tools to use, and use the right lure. Landing unicorns, those hard-to-find mid-career professionals with the experience, skills, and passion to lead, is the same. Learn a two-pronged approach to landing the people you need: developing talent from within and creating the high-growth environments and programs to attract it, so that the people you want, want you. Get guidance on how to adapt to changing demands and apply training and development opportunities in communication, project management, conflict resolution and more as a lure. Leading A/E/C talent consultant Justin Smith, PE shows you how to:
- Recruit mid-career professionals with a passion to lead teams.
- Assess and eliminate your outdated recruiting strategies.
- Make internal skills enhancement a mission-critical commitment to employees – so you can prime your talent to grow into leadership roles.
- Take specific action steps used by the most successful A/E/C firms.
- Overcome barriers to your Unicorn landing plan implementation.
JJ Nelson
Anne Bielski
Kristi Weierbach
Joan Redhair, VP Human Resources & Andrew Maass, Executive VP
Your firm’s success is grounded in your employees’ skills and motivation. In her revealing keynote presentation, Kimley-Horn Senior Vice President Lori Hall shares recruitment and retention lessons the firm has learned over its 50 years of growing into the 4000-employee powerhouse it is today, and what the firm did to be recognized 12 times as one of FORTUNE’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” You'll hear how to drive growth and corporate success through a culture and work environment that attracts, develops, motivates and retains top talent. 
Tom Wilson
Carrie Ann Williams
How can you find the leadership talent your backlog demands, as bigger A/E/C firms poach top talent, proven managers become part of the exploding retirement bubble, and rising stars seem less interested in greater responsibility? Learn creative and innovative approaches to improving your business culture, hiring techniques, and leadership development by recruiting for Emotional Intelligence. Clay Kirkland, a certified Emotional Intelligence Coach and Consultant, demonstrates how to increase EQ in current employees, explain how EQ development programs nurture emerging leaders, and guide you on creating an emotionally intelligent business culture that directly enhances your ability to recruit and retain top talent. This session will help you to understand, incorporate, and capitalize on EQ for the betterment of your firm and business.
Beating the competition for the talent you need means more than great projects, perks, pay, and stability. True recruiting magnetism, the kind that attracts A/E/C contributors, includes systems and supervisors that help employees make a strategic and effective social impact, enhancing both their own and their employer’s brands. Your firm’s social impact strategy should also addresses a cross-generational desire for more meaningful work connections. Despite convincing data that well-designed social impact programs have a high return on investment, barriers still exist for many leaders and organizations. Former engineering firm CEO Pete Atherton will explain the work-life seasons and ongoing demographic and societal shifts key to eliminating these internal barriers and making your firm highly attractive to the talent you need to hire and retain, and the clients you want to serve. We’ll look at both the data and ways to overcome those barriers this session. You’ll learn:
Lisa Walden
Dean Hyers
Jenifer Navard
Your A/E/C firm's ability to attract, hire, engage and retain the BEST talent has a direct impact on your bottom line. Website postings and job board ads only attract candidates in an active job search, NOT the 85% of the talent pool who are employed. Skill based requisitions and long hiring processes could also put your company at a competitive disadvantage. Barb Bruno will address the following topics: