2026 Programme

4 years as a futurist working with global brands has taught me that almost every engagement with a company has one common outcome. Each foresight exercise is different, but every leader involved realises that their organisation needs to be more agile to face what's coming. And while some of that agility can come from systems, the majority comes from people. Learning Agility is the human dimension of agile organisations. The ability of leaders to learn from experiences and then apply that learning to novel situations. 

Menopause is a hot topic. It’s also a completely natural life stage affecting millions of working women - yet it remains one of the least understood and most stigmatized workplace experiences. This presentation presents key findings from Benenden Health’s “Missing From the Workplace” research, which recently surveyed 2,000 UK women aged 40–65, and 500 HR professionals, to gain an understanding of women's experiences, and compare to employer understanding and the support they offer.

Key Takeaways:

• Discover why the Menopause creates significant barriers for women in the workplace. 
• Learn how inaction has real consequences for wellbeing, performance, retention and organisational culture.
• Find out how HR can lead meaningful change by implementing practical, evidence‑based support that helps women thrive at every stage of life

HR leaders are under pressure to modernise their function, deliver greater value to the business and make better workforce decisions, yet the people tech market is increasingly complex and noisy.

This session cuts through the hype to focus on the technologies that are genuinely delivering results for UK organisations. Drawing on real implementation experience, it explores how AI, automation and modern HR platforms are being used to improve efficiency, insight and employee experience, and where organisations are still getting it wrong.

You’ll leave with clearer priorities, stronger questions to ask your suppliers, and a more confident approach to shaping your people tech roadmap. 

Key takeaways:

• which people technologies are genuinely improving retention, performance, productivity and decision-making
• how to assess whether your organisation is truly ready for AI in HR
• common pitfalls in HR tech implementations and the change management lessons to learn now
• where to invest now, and what can safely wait.

This session explores the tension between quick AI productivity gains vs long-term workforce capability, and whether strategic deceleration could be the answer.

Key takeaways:

• Productivity tradeoff. How short-term gains masks long-term capability gaps.
• Ways to measure skills loss and overall long-term productivity gains.
• How to build employee commitment to upskill
• Strategic deceleration. Examples of how intentionally slowing down for meaningful human oversight and stretch tasks can strengthen mastery and dignity.

Not every employee has the same needs. We take a look at our data on how gender, sexuality, and neurodiversity influences employee needs – and the gaps this causes in wellbeing and benefits.

Key takeaways:

• the key to inclusive engagement
• the core people challenges of 2026
• how to address the different wellbeing needs of diverse populations
• six top tips to drive engagement for every employee

Discover how HR teams can link wellbeing programmes to productivity, retention, and business growth. This session provides practical strategies to secure budget and maximise the return on your wellbeing investment.

Key takeaways:

• dive into the metrics that matter to draw clearer lines between wellbeing programmes and their impact on productivity, retention and business growth
• build a compelling story for budget holders to secure investment and demonstrate the strategic value of employee wellbeing
• share practical strategies to maximise the return on your wellbeing investment and drive long term organisational success.

Inclusive leadership is much more than being ‘open-minded’, it’s a commitment to creating equitable, respectful and empowering workplaces for all employees. But how can leaders effectively showcase commitment to inclusivity? 

Key takeaways:

• discover how to lead with authenticity and transparency to build trust and accountability
• embed psychological safety whereby people feel seen, heard and valued
• making EDI a central business priority, aligning it with your organisation's core values and actions.

AI is changing work faster than most organisations can redesign roles – yet many HR teams are stuck firefighting, without the time or tools to take a strategic approach to skills. In practice, skills planning in the age of AI means moving from job-based plans to a living cycle of skills development.

This interactive roundtable focuses on the organisational benefits of shifting to a more dynamic approach. We will explore a fictional company facing rapid change and limited capacity and develop a practical framework and approach you can lift and apply directly to your organisation. Together we’ll define workforce skill profiles, apply a simple evaluation framework to support skills mapping, and clarify the role of L&D in building learning pathways and targeted upskilling.

Key takeaways:

• how to identify workforce skill profiles quickly
• how to evaluate and map skills for the AI era using a clear, structured framework
• why L&D is essential in turning skills plans into capability, through the design of learning pathways and upskilling interventions.

As AI becomes embedded in everyday HR practice, human-centred skills - empathy, emotional intelligence and ethical judgement - are more essential than ever. The challenge is understanding how technology can enhance, rather than replace, the human experience.

Key takeaways:

Learn how HR teams can design a practical, scalable tech toolkit that automates routine processes and frees valuable time for what truly matters, culture, connection and employee wellbeing. 

Data from over 3,000 leaders and teams show that teams are focusing on developing their Change Readiness based on the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) world we are in, but how do they take the next step in performance and how can their leaders help them be effective and connected? 

Key takeaways:

• our latest data on team and leader effectiveness and the most impactful development areas
• the rise in relational energisers within leadership - and the different impact through seniority levels
• our recommendations for HR/L&D leaders to help support their teams and leadership.

 This panel explores case studies and learnings on how organisations:

• do job design to raise performance without burnout
• implement ethical AI governance to scale AI use safely
• support employees to up-skill and be future ready

Despite record low unemployment, worker confidence in job security remains low, driving down engagement and productivity. Join this session for a deep dive into the findings from the People at Work 2026 study, covering 40,000 workers across six continents to understand how this sentiment influences business strategy.

Key takeaways:

• analyse the impact of job anxiety on workforce engagement, stress levels, and productivity in a climate of economic uncertainty
• evaluate the latest findings from ADP Research to understand how UK workers are faring compared to global trends and shifting work practices
• assess how worker sentiment influences leadership planning and identify ways to stabilise the talent pipeline amid rising uncertainty.

Sickness absence is at record levels, with clear consequences for productivity, morale and organisational performance. Latest CIPD/Simplyhealth research highlights the scale of the challenge facing employers. But while many organisations are strengthening absence management processes, fewer are addressing the underlying causes of ill health across the working-age population.

For people professionals, this creates a clear organisational risk and opportunity. The challenge is not simply how to manage absence more effectively, but to shift from a reactive approach to a preventative wellbeing strategy. One that improves the health of the working-age population through improved job quality, work design and health risk management, while continuing to support employees who experience genuine ill health - delivering more sustainable workforce health and performance over time.

Key takeaways:

• why absence management alone is not enough, and how prevention reduces both absence and long-term health risks
• what effective preventative wellbeing strategies look like in practice, including early intervention, workload management, and support for mental and physical health
• how to align preventative approaches with fair, consistent absence management support, sustainable attendance and performance.

Employee career development is rising up the boardroom agenda as organisations and HR leaders tackle the challenge of engaging and retaining talent. Research shows how employees strongly value growth and development, and organisations that actively connect with workers and support internal career development, see greater employee commitment and retention.

Key takeaways:

• discover how to empower your employees to drive internal career growth and what HR can do to support this
• understand how employers can engage and support internal career development to keep your workforce engaged
• utilise career development as a tool to motivate and retain talent as the workforce landscape evolves.

As working lives lengthen, organisations face a growing strategic challenge: how to keep experienced talent productive, engaged and contributing at pace. The opportunity is significant to keep experienced talent thriving – maintaining productivity, protecting critical capability and accelerating knowledge transfer. Yet CIPD research suggests that older workers are less likely to access development opportunities, even as many say they have skills that could be put to use in more demanding work.

This session explores the organisational gain of ‘age-inclusive reskilling’ and what that looks like in practice, reframing later careers as a stage where people can still grow, adapt and contribute meaningfully. We’ll examine how to create the means, space and culture for lifelong learning, and how multigenerational approaches – including mentoring, reverse mentoring and second-career pathways – can refresh skills and confidence as technology reshapes work.

Attendees will explore:

• how to reframe later-career development as a business opportunity – protecting productivity, retaining critical capability and accelerating knowledge transfer through age-inclusive reskilling
• practical ways to make lifelong learning a reality for older workers by creating the means, space and culture to learn.

In a world of constant disruption, trust has become one of the most critical, and fragile, assets in organisations. In this session Petra will tackle some of the biggest and most pressing trust challenges facing senior HR leaders today, particularly during periods of organisational change.

Drawing on her extensive experience working with leaders under pressure, Petra will explore why trust so often erodes during transformation, restructures, and cultural shifts - and what HR leaders can do to rebuild it in a way that is authentic, sustainable, and measurable. Petra will challenge traditional change management approaches, unpack the human behaviours that undermine trust, and share practical insights to help HR leaders influence from the top and support leaders through uncertainty.

Key takeaways:

• a deeper understanding of why trust breaks down during change
• practical strategies to rebuild and sustain trust
• new perspectives on the role of HR as a guardian of trust
• actionable ideas to support leaders and organisations through uncertainty.

Most companies treat engagement and performance as separate ideas. That’s a mistake. Sustainable high performance needs an engaging culture and performance confidence; for people to feel connected to the company and their work, plus belief in future success. Measure those two and you get a clear, forward‑looking read on whether your culture will deliver results. We’ll show you a simple way to measure both, identify where you are today and take practical steps to move your culture forward.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the psychological link between culture and performance 
• Categorise your organisation's current culture using our framework
• Understand what a holistic measurement strategy combining engagement and performance confidence really looks like

This session provides a deep dive into the mental health frameworks that drive long-term ROI. We move beyond individual "self-care" to examine the systemic changes required to mitigate workplace stress, prevent burnout, and ensure that mental wellbeing is treated as a critical business metric.

Key takeaways:

• design policies (e.g. right to disconnect and protected focus time) that integrate recovery and early intervention into the working week
• identify and address organisational stressors such as workload and job control to reduce stress and prevent burnout
• embed wellbeing as a core business metric, linking it directly to performance and ROI.

Generative AI is transforming employee relations, leading to grievances that are often lengthier and more complex. While AI can offer advantages in putting together formal complaints, it critically lacks the necessary human context, creating challenges for HR. This session will focus on how to navigate today’s complex, AI-generated grievances. Focusing on strategies to understand:

• what informal measures promote direct, fast resolution as a first step?
• how can managers be skilled to navigate and digest AI-generated complaints?
• how can formal guidelines ensure proper employee use of AI and highlight the associated risks?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is unavoidable in the modern workplace, especially agentic AI, but how organisations frame emerging technologies can change employee perception and engagement.

Key takeaways:

• what is the impact of positioning agentic AI as a digital colleague, intelligent assistant, or a straightforward tool?
• how does each positioning strategy can influence behaviour, performance and organisational culture?
• how can you introduce AI in a way that enhances collaboration, reduces resistance, and unlocks meaningful productivity gains?

This session explores how to sustain organisational success by building a continuous, positive employee journey. It focuses on the key drivers of retention (internal mobility, career development and manager effectiveness) to boost engagement, reduce voluntary turnover and strengthen the internal talent pipeline.

Key takeaways:

• understand how clear career development and skills building pathways reduce attrition and deliver ROI by lowering recruitment and replacement costs
• strategies to integrate DE&I into organisational systems to drive trust and maximise employee effort at scale
• equip managers to drive retention through effective coaching, feedback and performance focused development conversations.

In this panel session HR leaders will explore trust as a core driver of performance and productivity. Using real organisational examples, the discussion will show how trust influences engagement, decision-making, retention, and resilience during change - and why it must be built into leadership behaviours and systems, not treated as a standalone wellbeing initiative.

Key Takeaways:

• how trust directly impacts performance, productivity, and engagement
• the leadership behaviours and systems that strengthen trust at scale
• practical ways to link wellbeing investment to measurable business outcomes

Embedding an effective EDI strategy isn’t just a nice to have but a business imperative in today’s workplace. Showing a strong commitment to EDI can enable you to attract and retain talent, drive innovation and create a sense of belonging. Join this session to discover practical steps to building and implementing your EDI strategy.

Key takeaways:

• what does an effective EDI strategy look like? 
• how do you embed EDI practices into every level of the business?
• how can you track and measure the progress of your EDI objectives?
• what is the business impact of implementing an effective EDI framework?

In an era when AI and other breakthrough technologies seems to make ‘anything possible', it is even more important to  anchor on first principles when it comes to designing and delivering learning strategies. Whether this is for a single offsite for a team, or an entire learning strategy for an organisation, we will get the most from our new technologies by starting with how the brain truly learns.

This science-rich yet practical session will help talent and learning professionals to radically increase the effectiveness of learning - perhaps even by 10 times - while meaningfully lower costs.

Specifically, we will explore how to:

• Leverage first principles for learning
• Make more evidence-based choices on learning modalities such as in person versus other forms
• Maximise the potential of AI for learning
• Know when and how to involve humans in a learning process
• Design learning strategies that truly scale but still impact deeply
• All without reducing headcount on your talent and learning team

As the world of work continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, organisations are under pressure to anticipate future skills needs and ensure they have the right talent in the right roles at the right time. Strategic workforce planning isn’t just about filling current vacancies, it’s about building resilient talent pipelines that can drive long-term business success.

Key takeaways:

• explore tools and methods to anticipate the skills and roles organisations will require in 3–5 years
• build strategies for agile talent pipelines to develop internal and external talent pools that can adapt to changing business demands
• understand how to leverage workforce analytics for informed decision-making and proactive workforce planning
• ensure talent development, succession planning, and recruitment strategies are directly linked to long-term business objectives.

HR is moving beyond standalone tools to connected ecosystems. This session explores how organisations can design people systems that simplify work, enable better decisions, and create experiences that truly support how employees work today.

AI coaching tools can help employees deliver on business outcomes through personalised, adaptive learning at scale, creating a more agile, skills-aligned workforce. The tools can support employees with real-time guidance, targeted development pathways, and give feedback tailored to their, and their organisations, objectives. 

Learn how AI can support L&D professionals with:

• analysing performance signals
• diagnosing skills gaps
• mapping learning recommendations directly into organisational priorities.

Organisations are operating in a state of near-constant change — increasingly unpredictable and complex. Emerging technologies, evolving workforce expectations, and shifting business models are reshaping how work gets done, placing pressure on structure, leadership and ways of working. This results in uncertainty, fatigue and resistance that slows momentum and undermines performance.

For HR, this creates critical organisational challenge. How can people professionals build an enduring organisational capacity for change? This requires shifting the narrative away from ‘change delivery’ towards developing and shaping the conditions that enable individuals, teams and organisations to absorb, adapt to and sustain with progress over time? Developing this capability is now a core part of organisational resilience and long-term success.

 Key takeaways:

• how HR can define, assess and build change readiness and change capacity at individual, team and organisational levels
• what role can HR play in reducing resistance by addressing the human factors of change, including trust, clarity and psychological safety
• practical implications for organisations managing change fatigue, competing priorities and ongoing transformation agendas.

This session explores how organisations embed inclusion, diversity and equity as a core cultural standard, moving beyond compliance to create trust, belonging and stronger business outcomes.

Key takeaways:

• evidence based strategies for linking belonging initiatives directly to measurable gains in employee retention and performance
• cultural standards, systems and leadership behaviours drive trust and discretionary effort at scale
• practical actions to address bias and build an equitable, high performing workplace.

This session focuses on how managerial behaviour shapes day-to-day wellbeing, motivation and engagement within teams. It explores how psychological safety, recognition and autonomy support employee confidence, innovation and healthy ways of working.

Key takeaways:

• build trust and psychological safety through inclusive management and open team dynamics
• use meaningful, ongoing recognition to strengthen motivation and connection to purpose
• support wellbeing through autonomy and compassionate, practical conversations.

Effective performance management is essential to driving business performance - with leaders sitting at the heart of this. Explore how leadership and performance management go hand-in-hand in driving business outcomes.

Key takeaways:

• effectively communicate objectives and targets to enable employees to achieve business objectives
• understand what motivates your employees and empowering them to tackle decisions that are new, big and challenging
• foster cultures of continuous learning to encourage skill development and innovation.

TUPE compliance is non-negotiable, and managing the people transition minimises risk and preserves value. This session will guide you in managing this process, focusing on how to support employees and position yourself as a strategic HR leader. Discover how to ensure a seamless transition.

Key takeaways:

• gain knowledge on legal compliance and risk mitigation 
• how to manage the M&A process and identify affected employees
• the practical steps to transferring contracts, terms and continuity of employment.

Hear from the winners of the People Management Awards 2025 ‘Best digital/technology initiative in HR/L&D’ for their generative-AI HR platform, Prosper, celebrated as a “standout example of people-first digital innovation”.

Motivated by fragmented processes and a staggering 300,000 hours a year lost to unresolved HR queries, Lloyds Banking Group set out to radically improve the employee experience. In just six weeks, a small cross-functional team built a generative AI-enabled prototype that delivered faster, higher-quality answers, reduced clicks and significantly boosted satisfaction. With the potential to resolve 90% of HR queries and save every colleague at least 1% of their time, Prosper demonstrates how thoughtful design, strong governance and empathetic change management can transform HR at scale.

Key takeaways:

• how to simplify and ready content for AI use (AI doesn't read like a human!)
• retain the human touch in moments that matter
• use an agile approach to select, test, implement and iterate 
• the cultural shift required to embed and realise the benefits of AI.

Join Tim Harford OBE, renowned Economist, BBC presenter, Financial Times columnist and best selling author for a sharp, insightful look at the forces reshaping the world of work. 

Blending economics, psychology and human behaviour, Tim explores how innovation happens, what crises teach us about leadership, and how to build resilient, adaptable organisations. He cuts through noise and misinformation to reveal how better use of data and a smarter relationship with AI can transform decision-making, culture and performance. 

Transformational leadership is not about having the right vision. It is about changing what people do automatically when pressure arrives. Every organisation operates with a gap between facts and truth;

Facts: constraints, pressure, limited resources, complexity, fatigue

Truth: purpose, potential, long-term impact, what must matter

Transformational leaders don’t deny the facts

They reshape the organisational response to them.

This is where transformation lives.

Key takeaways:

• transformational leaders shift the invisible system (habits before vision), you do not transform organisations by changing strategy. You transform them by changing what people do without thinking Habits outlast leadership turnover or vision enthusiasm; colleagues get on board as you lead a change in behaviour rather than demand belief.
• transformational leaders lead the thinking, not just the performance, most change initiatives fail because leaders challenge output, not thinking. Transformational leadership raises the quality of thought: Shift leadership conversations from: “What did you do? to What thinking led you there?” People feel respected, not managed as teams grow intellectually, not just operationally.
• transformational leaders become the emotional anchor of change, people don’t resist change; they resist the emotional cost of uncertainty. Transformational leaders regulate factors such as fear and ambiguity ensuring consistency reigns over intensity. People follow your emotional certainty, not your title. You build trust through being predictable.

Workplace wellbeing is now a strategic priority. Rising sickness absence and health‑related worklessness demand that organisations rethink how they support employees. The Keep Britain Working review highlights the importance of proactive, people‑centred approaches that improve health, engagement, and productivity, and encourages employers to embed better people management and development practices.

Key takeaways:

• create a healthy working lifecycle: From recruitment to return‑to‑work, embedding support at every stage
• equip managers to have empathetic conversations and foster psychological safety
• use workplace interventions and rapid access to help to keep employees healthy and productive
• align practices with strategic goals and creating the right environment to sustain wellbeing improvements.

Attendees will leave with practical insights to build resilient, inclusive workplaces that enhance health, performance, and productivity.

Shifting focus from checklists to strategy, this session explores how a purpose led, culturally aligned induction supports faster role effectiveness, improves early retention and drives stronger performance from new colleagues.

Key takeaways:

• understand the concepts of a culturally immersive induction process improves early retention, delivering an immediate return on investment by cutting replacement costs
• design the journey to explicitly connect the new colleague's role to the organisational purpose, accelerating their time to full productivity
• embed culture, values and inclusion into the first 90 days, making induction the primary tool for driving immediate engagement and long term belonging.

Prioritising financial wellbeing isn’t just an employee perk - it’s a strategic investment in your workforce. Financial security boosts engagement, productivity and resilience, helping employees and businesses thrive. Our research reveals financial wellbeing is evolving; over half of employers are planning to change their financial wellbeing offerings. Factors such as rising living costs, mental health concerns and retirement adequacy challenges are shaping new approaches to support employees at every stage of their career.

Key takeaways:

• key risk factors shaping financial wellbeing strategies
• insights on retirement adequacy
• best practice case studies on how to overcome barriers and build financial resilience and engagement throughout an employee’s career

Pay reporting can be treated as a compliance task – published, parked and forgotten. When treated this way, organisations miss the opportunity to use the data to understand how work, reward, progression and access to opportunity actually operate in practice.

From April 2026 GB employers will be encouraged to voluntarily publish gender equality action plans and from April 2027 it will become mandatory. Organisations will be required to choose actions that support gender equality and menopause support at work. The organisational challenge is not producing the data, but turning mandatory reporting into business-relevant insight and tailored action. Join us for an interactive discussion to support you to identify and build the core components of an equality action plan that translates reporting requirements into practical, evidence-led action.

Key takeaways:

• how to develop an action plan blueprint to support future action plan requirements
• how combining pay reporting with wider people analytics can paint a detailed picture of the current state of play of equality within an organisation
• how to ensure action plans do not become another ‘tick box’ exercise, by defining clear priorities, ownership and measures of success.

As organisations navigate disruption, digital transformation, and evolving workforce expectations, future-ready business models are critical for sustainable success. This session explores how HR and people professionals can drive change, embed agility, and support organisations in adapting to new ways of working.

Key takeaways:

• examine emerging organisational structures, operating models, and workforce strategies that enable innovation and resilience
• lead change effectively - practical frameworks and strategies for managing large-scale organisational change while maintaining engagement and productivity
• embed a change ready culture: Developing leadership and people practices that enable continuous learning, innovation, and responsiveness to market shifts.

Glory Global Solutions operates across 100 countries, with their 5000+ strong workforce providing cash management and customer experience automation solutions for many global institutions that we know and love. Their transition from an archaic SharePoint site to a modern, intuitive intranet with an employee app has breathed life back into employee communications and truly transformed the digital employee experience to match the high-tech quality of their products and outputs. Join Glory’s Internal Communications Manager as he highlights the impact that a single unified platform has had on employee experience, participation, frontline connectivity and more.

Key takeaways:

• Sharing the load for share of voice - empowering internal content creators
• How to encourage employee-generated content as standard
• Reducing manager strain: The value of being able to reach field service staff directly

This session recognises the emotional and professional demands on people teams and explores how protecting their wellbeing enables focus, productivity and long term impact.

Key takeaways:

• be able to delegate ownership and resist the pressure to be the 'perfect' employee or sole culture driver, enabling HR leaders to practise self care
• implement structured peer support or clinical supervision models to provide a confidential space for HR professionals to debrief sensitive cases
• adopt professional boundaries and self-care tools - like decompression techniques - to effectively manage the emotional labour from high stress employee issues without compromising their own capacity and mental health.

As workplace skills evolve at pace, traditional training approaches often struggle to keep up. AI can help to give a clearer, data-driven view of workforce capabilities by analysing performance data, surface emerging skills gaps, and create personalised learning pathways that align with organisational goals.

This session discusses how AI can boost productivity through a training strategy that:

• enables smarter and more responsive training strategies
• streamlines training design
• improves accuracy in measuring impact
• ensures development programmes remain relevant in a rapidly changing skills landscape.

Employee engagement and performance are most impactful when they are directly aligned with organisational goals. This panel explores how organisations can connect individual contributions to broader business strategy, optimise productivity, and create a culture of continuous improvement. Attendees will leave with practical insights on linking engagement, performance, and productivity to business outcomes, ensuring people strategies drive tangible results.

Key takeaways:

• implement best practice for setting clear, measurable goals that tie individual performance to organisational objectives
• explore performance management tools and frameworks that help track alignment and progress
• manage underperformance; strategies to address gaps proactively, support development, and maintain high standards without disengaging employees.

This session explores how organisations can enable sustainable work life integration for a multi-generational workforce. It examines how differing life stages and expectations shape flexibility needs, and how clear boundaries, flexible working models and visible leadership behaviours can prevent burnout and support long term performance.

Key takeaways:

• design and communicate a clear ‘right to disconnect’ approach that reflects differing generational expectations around availability
• establish and clearly articulate flexible working options (e.g. hybrid working, compressed hours, flexitime) that support varied life stages while maintaining fairness
• upskill leaders to model healthy work practices, manage workload effectively and hold meaningful capacity and flexibility conversations.
• challenge assumptions about what’s possible in front-line roles, including how organisation culture and practices can be adapted to support flexibility without compromising operational requirements.

The dual‑care workforce is reaching breaking point. A growing number of employees are juggling childcare and eldercare while navigating demanding roles, rising costs and an intensifying hybrid work environment.

This session explores why sandwich‑generation employees are becoming the most vulnerable to burnout, skills loss and attrition - and the most effective actions to protect wellbeing, strengthen EVP and safeguard performance in 2026 and beyond.

Key takeaways:

• understand the reality for dual carers from the latest research and act on its implications
• identify the business impact of inaction and the ROI on the most popular options
• take steps to boost retention, resilience, and productivity.

Change is constant - but are leaders ready to rise to the challenge? This session explores HR’s critical role in enabling leaders to unlock agility, drive career mobility, and foster engagement, connection, and belonging during organisational transformation. 

Key takeaways:

• practical strategies to help your leaders move beyond managing change to inspiring it
• position HR and L&D as catalysts for leadership capability and organisational resilience
• future-proof your workforce and ensure leaders step up to drive transformation.

The Employment Rights Act has delivered the most significant overhaul of UK employment legislation in years. For HR, the challenge now is moving from legal awareness to practical, compliant implementation. This session will cover what you need to know, focusing on how to update operational practices to stay fully compliant under new changes to UK employment law.

Psychological safety is not a soft cultural ideal, it is a leadership capability that directly influences engagement, performance, and retention. It’s essential to equip your line managers with the right skills and capabilities to create psychological safety and create a team environment.

In this session, Dr Shaun Lundy and Dr Christopher Davis explore the critical link between psychosocial risk management, controlling workplace factors that can cause psychological harm, and psychological safety, creating team environments where people feel able to speak up and contribute without fear. 

The connection is leadership, the same management behaviours that reduce psychosocial risk also build trust, enable voice, and create meaning in work. One protects people from harm; the other creates conditions for improved performance. Together, they shape whether people thrive or come to harm.

This session provides practical strategies to align wellbeing governance, risk management and leadership development into a coherent people strategy.

AI is reshaping work at pace - but people determine whether transformation succeeds. In this keynote, Sharon Doherty shares how Lloyds Banking Group is preparing 67,000, colleagues, for an AIpowered future, grounded in an honest, practical story of cultural reset, leadership transformation and the shift to simpler, modern ways of working. Expect real lessons, real stories and a clear, humancentred view of how confidence, capability and responsibility sit at the heart of AI adoption at scale.  

Key takeaways:

• the people transformation that makes AI adoption possible 
• how Lloyds built the narrative and momentum for largescale change 
• practical ways we’re preparing colleagues for an AI enabled future 
• what agentic AI means for work - and how we’re preparing now 
• leadership habits that accelerate workforce transformation.

Hybrid working has moved from a post-pandemic experiment to a defining feature of workforce strategy – and for some a source of organisational tension. Employers are balancing productivity, collaboration, culture, learning and customer needs with employee expectations for flexibility, wellbeing and inclusion. CIPD research highlights that 41 per cent of employers link increased hybrid working with improved performance and efficiency.

Yet while the debate is often framed as ‘back to the office’ versus ‘work from anywhere’, this obscures the real organisational challenge. In practice, there are multiple viable models, each with benefits and trade-offs across performance, collaboration, learning, culture, inclusion, wellbeing and cost. This session explores the evidence on what different working models enable and supports organisations to make informed choices, designing a solution that is consistent, and sustainable.

Key takeaways:

• what flexibility can look like whether you are primarily site-based, a hybrid worker, or fully remote and how to translate this into a clear strategy
• how to review, adapt and measure the effectiveness and impact of various working arrangements – including what data to measure and use
• the impact flexibility is having on productivity and performance in the workplace.

This session focuses on harnessing cognitive differences (e.g. Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia) as a competitive advantage. It provides practical, systemic interventions for recruitment, onboarding and daily tasks to ensure the organisation benefits from this often overlooked talent pool.

Key takeaways:

• adapt recruitment and interview processes to remove unnecessary barriers, focusing on skills assessment over traditional social presentation (e.g. using work trials and structured interviews)
• implement practical, low cost adjustments such as clear communication and quiet zones to support focused work
• train managers and HR to understand neurodivergent communication, promote strengths based conversations and ensure fair performance management.

Empowering teams to adapt to change takes skill - so how can you prepare leaders to harness agility and drive performance? Discover how to support your leaders to drive change and avoid change fatigue.

Key takeaways:

• build a culture of resilience, that values logic and learning
• lead with openness and accountability, to promote cultures of shared responsibility
• communicate with clarity and purpose to drive change forward, even when facing resistance and the path is not clear.

Shifting expectations, data-driven insight and business pressures are redefining L&D’s role in the workplace. In recent years, L&D professionals have a vital role in shaping organisational performance, so how can we collaborate with leaders, aligning learning to measurable outcomes and influencing strategy?

In this fishbowl, we will discuss: 

• how much should be expected from L&D professionals as a strategic performance partner?
• what are the barriers for L&D to be more strategic and value-creating?
• what changes need to be made to keep L&D professionals in this space?

What 1,100 UK workers told us about AI fears, benefits, and the decisions they want humans to make. How can HR lead a secure AI-first culture whilst supporting workforce confidence in AI?

Key takeaways:

• the confidence gap is real - and it's not about AI adoption, it's about trust
• "Human in the loop" isn't just an AI governance principle - it's your workforce strategy
• HR has a role in shaping ethical AI governance where AI affects employment related matters.

How do leaders stay grounded and effective when transformation no longer comes in neat programmes, but as a constant stream of shifting priorities, new tools, and stakeholder pressure?

Key takeaways: 

• explore Kind Resilience™, a PhD‑researched framework for leading through continuous change with self‑care and purpose 
• learn from case studies and doctoral research into human practices that help people stay steady through uncertainty 
• discover a practical toolkit that leaders can use immediately with themselves and their teams.

Early career talent pipelines are coming under increasing strain. A disrupted labour market and accelerating technological changes are reshaping how people enter work. CIPD research suggests that more young people are delaying entry into work, creating a growing risk for employers. At the same time, AI and automation are pushing some organisations towards more diamond-shaped organisational structures, further limiting traditional entry-level roles.

For organisations, this presents both a strategic and an operational challenge. How do you redesign routes into work when entry-level roles are shrinking, expectations are shifting, and the skills landscape is moving faster than our talent systems can respond? How can people professionals rethink early career opportunities and rebuild progression pathways to ensure healthy talent pipelines, future capability and long-term organisational resilience?

Key takeaways:

• how young people’s entry into work is changing – and what this means for workforce planning, skills gaps and future talent pipelines
• what impact AI and automation are having on reshaping organisational structures, and what this means for entry-level opportunities
• ways to rebuild early career routes through role design, skills-first hiring and development that creates progression and protects future capability.

This session examines how fair pay, relevant rewards and consistent recognition drive employee satisfaction, performance and retention. It explores how transparency, tailored total reward and meaningful recognition work together to strengthen engagement and sustain contribution.

Key takeaways:

• build trust and retention through clear communication and defensible pay structures that support fairness and equity
• design flexible total reward packages that increase satisfaction by offering personalised value beyond base pay
• embed frequent, values led recognition to reinforce high performance, sustain motivation and reduce attrition.

Workforce health issues are becoming more complex, from long-term conditions and mental health to supporting an ageing workforce. At the same time, sickness absence is at record levels, creating tangible organisational costs through lost output, resourcing pressure and operational risk. Without a more proactive approach, these pressures will continue to undermine performance and capacity.

This session focuses on the organisational benefits of moving from reactive responses to preventative workforce health. It explores how stronger HR and occupational health (OH) collaboration, embedded within people strategy, can enable earlier intervention, better use of specialist expertise, and prevention through job quality, work design and health risk management - supporting healthier, more sustainable workforce performance.

Key takeaways:

• how stronger HR and OH collaboration enables earlier intervention and better use of specialist expertise, improving attendance, retention and performance
• what a clear HR – OH operating model looks like, with consistent referral routes and effective manager support
• the organisational benefits of earlier intervention and better use of OH.

The Royal Navy has long been a leader in operational excellence, but evolving challenges demanded a modern approach to leadership development. To strengthen its leadership pipeline, the organisation integrated objective talent assessment data into its succession planning and mobility strategy, ensuring the right people are ready for critical roles in high-pressure environments. ​Discover how to embed science-based assessments ​to enable smarter, data-driven leadership decisions.

Key takeaways:

• the leadership challenge faced by the Royal Navy and why traditional development methods were no longer sufficient
• how validated assessments uncover leadership potential, cognitive capability, and behavioural strengths
• how to embed objective talent data into succession planning and internal mobility practical lessons for building a resilient, future-proof leadership pipeline.

AI is already changing how work gets done. But for people professionals, the real question isn’t simply how to introduce new tools; it’s how to redesign work so humans and AI collaborate rather than compete. 

In many organisations, AI adoption is still at an early stage. HR and L&D teams are being asked to support productivity and transformation, yet job roles, workflows and skills frameworks were designed for a pre-AI world. Without intentional redesign, organisations risk automating the wrong tasks, overwhelming employees, or missing the opportunity to enhance human capability.

​This session will explore how HR leaders can take a more thoughtful approach to AI adoption by focusing on augmentation rather than automation alone.​ Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how to balance efficiency and humanity, and how HR can play a leading role in shaping work for the AI era.

​K​ey takeaways:

• Identify which tasks should be automated, augmented, or protected as human work
• Spot emerging collaboration opportunities as AI reshapes roles and responsibilities
• Strengthen the human distinctive skills that become more valuable in an AI-enabled workplace
• Help your organisation adopt AI in a way that improves productivity while keeping people at the centre

Cotswold Outdoor Group faced a common challenge: how to connect with a highly diverse workforce of retail colleagues, head office teams and distribution staff spread across the UK, many without access to a work email or a desk.

The group started to use podcasts as a practical, low-tech solution to reach store-based, remote and on-the-road colleagues in ways that fit different lives, contracts and career stages. 

Key takeaways:

• measuring the impact of podcasts using click-throughs and listens
• how to create a easy tech set up
• allowing diverse employees to engage with internal communications in the level that suits them best
• embedding podcasts into internal communications strategy.

Cotswold Outdoor Group faced a common challenge: how to connect with a highly diverse workforce of retail colleagues, head office teams and distribution staff spread across the UK, many without access to a work email or a desk.

The group started to use podcasts as a practical, low-tech solution to reach store-based, remote and on-the-road colleagues in ways that fit different lives, contracts and career stages. 

Key takeaways:

• measuring the impact of podcasts using click-throughs and listens
• how to create an easy tech set up
• allowing diverse employees to engage with internal communications in the level that suits them best
• embedding podcasts into internal communications strategy.

This session explores the big ideas shaping today’s workplace and what they mean for organisations and their people. We’ll look at how technology is laying the foundations for better ways of working, from smarter processes to more connected, human-centred employee experiences.

Key takeaways:

• the new big ideas that are shaping the modern world of work
• how technology can build the foundations and elevate the employee experience
• how AI comes into play and is changing the everyday norms of work.

This session will explore the unique cultural and societal barriers that often prevent men from accessing or seeking mental health support, and offer concrete, actionable steps HR and People teams can take to restructure support systems and the working environment to be more accessible and effective for men.

Key takeaways:

• understand how traditional masculinity acts as a barrier and implement organisational culture changes to actively counter stoicism and encourage disclosure
• move beyond traditional employee assistance programmes by providing less formal, lower stakes entry points for support (e.g. peer to peer fitness groups or manager check ins)
• train line managers to spot the internalised signs of distress in men (e.g. irritability, avoidance) and offer non judgemental, pragmatic support.

The best leaders inspire, adapt and drive transformation - but what does it take to develop these characteristics? This session will examine how to drive effective leadership and gain fresh perspectives.

Key takeaways:

• understand new ideas around leadership in today’s world
• know the skills leaders need today to lead effectively 
• how can leaders drive performance and business outcomes?
• know the developmental experiences will be needed to build these skills and qualities.

Compliance among managers is critical in ensuring organisations run efficiently, but how can you truly ensure they are adhering to company policies? 

Key takeaways:

• understand how to effectively communicate company policy and procedures to make them fully accessible for managers
• evaluate what training is needed to ensure managers are fully compliant with organisational policy
• gain buy-in from senior leadership and set an example from the top-down
• effectively measure and track compliance across your organisation.

Join us for an exclusive fireside chat with Richard Osman, acclaimed TV presenter, producer, and best-selling author, as he reflects on a remarkable career defined by creativity, reinvention, and resilience. This session will explore the insights, challenges, and lessons that have shaped his professional and personal journey.

Richard will share how he pivoted careers mid-life, embraced creative risks, and leveraged transferable skills, as well as how storytelling can inspire and guide teams. He will also speak candidly about living with nystagmus, navigating anxiety and stress, and the importance of supportive, inclusive workplaces that allow people and ideas to thrive.