We are thrilled to announce the first four speakers for HR Innovation & Tech Fest 2019.

Andy Longley – Global Senior Director of Talent – Global Brands and Sales, adidas

What the World of Elite Sports Can Teach Organisations About a True Performance Culture

Many organisations struggle with genuine culture change. Mission/vision statements and core values are not enough.

adidas believe that leadership drives culture. And because culture drives behaviour, and behaviour drives strategy, adidas know that their people’ daily behaviours and habits have to be targeted through effective leadership to realise their strategy.

It is distinctly possible to replicate the proven methods from an elite athlete or sports team in the workplace to drive a high-performance culture. From his work as adidas, Andy will share:

• what the model of elite sports looks like for any organisation
• how we can all learn from sports and use this to improve connection to our people
• basic methods you can immediately introduce in your own organisation

Before joining adidas, Andy was Head of Recruitment at Emirates, responsible for attracting and selecting international pilots. He has an MSc in Applied Psychology and his extensive experience includes organisational psychology, talent acquisition, talent management, executive and employee coaching, diversity & inclusion, strategy and workforce planning. In 2010/11 he spent year as volunteer for the UN, monitoring international peace agreements in the Middle East.

Rashmi Sharma – Global Learning & Wellbeing Lead – South East Asia & ANZ, Unilever (VIE)

Why Learning Agility & Innovation Go Hand-in-Hand – and How to Develop it!

The 4th industrial revolution, increasing volatility of industries and novelty of job roles is resulting into a changing skills landscape. The skills required to excel in any job role five years ago is quite different from what is required today.

More and more leaders now believe (backed by research) that an organisation with a learning agile workforce has higher employee productivity and profitability.

As HR drives this agenda, a lot of us started with pushing learning platforms to employees to make the organisation more learning-agile. But there is so much more to do!

Rashmi will help reframe agility. She will show you how learning agility is really a mindset – and that a learning agile individual and a learning agile organization are two separate concepts. HR professionals must build BOTH and they are different strategies.

Rashmi is deeply passionate about building a strong capable leadership pipeline which can tackle the competitive changes in Asian landscape. Prior to leading Learning and Wellbeing at Unilever, she consulted for IBM and Aon on unlocking people potential. She was the only HR professional to be nominated as one of the top 10 women on the Economic Times Young Leaders List and she is a TEDx speaker. At her core, she follows minimalism (except for her only obsession: Books!) and is on a lifelong quest for structured serendipity & spirituality.

Sarah Brennan – Founder, Accelir; Global HR Tech Analyst & Advisor

Future of Work, Reality of Today

As an advocate for improving the impact of technology on people, business and the future of work, Sarah has shared her research, strategies and industry insights at events around the world for more than a decade focusing on recruiting and engaging talent, future of work and technology trends impacting business.

Sarah has been named a top global influencer in HR Technology, Talent Acquisition and HR by more than 50 publications since 2009 including Huffington Post, Aberdeen, Glassdoor & HR Executive Magazine with 10 in 2018 alone. Sarah has featured on national media such as Huffington Post, Fast Company, NBC News; spoken at conferences like SXSW, Mashable, HR Tech Conference, HR Tech Europe and SHRM.

Josh Bersin – Renowned Corporate Learning & HR Thought Leader and Analyst

The Rise of Wellbeing and Employee Experience Takes Over

One of the biggest trends in employment is finding ways to make work easier. In this hot job market employees are quitting jobs in record numbers, and studies show that voluntary turnover rate is now over 15%. At the same time, people are working more hours, undergoing more stress, and feel less productive than ever.

In fact, productivity in all mature economies is slowing (output per hour worked) and most economists can’t even agree on the cause. Josh believes much of this is just the shift to new digital ways of work, but it’s clear from all his research that much of this is our companies adjusting to a highly networked, contingent, always-on way of getting things done.

In addition, corporate well-being is a bit of a crisis. A holistic view is required. We can’t just “bandaid” over poor management practices, lack of flexibility, unclear goals and rewards, or inflexible work conditions. Wellbeing is a management problem, ranging from a focus on health and wellness to a focus on productivity, purpose, and financial security.

For the HR community, this is a wonderful mission to champion.

Josh Bersin is a world-renowned thought leader and analyst in HR, corporate learning, talent, recruiting, leadership, technology, and the intersection between work and life. He is a popular blogger for Forbes.com, the Huffington Post a top LinkedIn Influencer.

The popularity of the event has meant we’ve grown out of our previous home and are moving to bigger and better things. The newly renovated ICC in Sydney’s Darling Harbour will be our home for the 2019 event.

And there’s more good news because we’ve released 100 special 2-for-1 tickets (UPDATE: These are now SOLD OUT). This means for every ticket you buy, you get another free! They’re available for the first 100 bookings and sell out quickly.