Main Day One: Tuesday, December 9, 2025

If you’re skeptical about the skills-based organization model—you’re not alone. This session strips away the buzzwords and gets real about what it actually takes to build skills into HR Shared Services. You’ll hear how organizations are capturing skills (with mixed results), what they’re doing with that data (when they can), and how it’s playing out in day-to-day HRSS workflows. 

We’ll explore: 

• Why getting employees to input skills is harder than it looks 
• What to do with skills data once you have it (beyond a nice dashboard) 
• Where HRSS can apply a skills-based lens—routing, career pathing, upskilling—and where it falls flat 

Diego Rodriguez Richmond

Head of HR Shared Services Americas
Huntsman Corporation

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Self-service is supposed to make life easier—for employees and HRSS teams alike. But when you’re stuck with outdated portals, poor search, and no budget for fancy upgrades, it can feel like a lost cause. This workshop flips that narrative. You’ll learn how to diagnose what’s actually killing your self-service usage (hint: it’s not always the tech), and uncover practical, low-cost improvements that can make your tools work harder. We’ll walk through how to fix bad search UX without buying a new system, how to make content more contextual and findable, and how to drive adoption even if your portal is clunky. 

• Diagnose common issues that cause self-service tools to underperform—without blaming the platform 
• Learn no-cost fixes to improve search relevance, content structure, and usability in legacy systems 
• Discover creative tactics to promote self-service adoption using internal channels like Slack, email, or kiosks 

Ashley Diggs

Manager- Employee Experience Center
Premier Health Partners

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Behind every smooth employee experience is a shared services process that someone fought hard to fix. In this showcase-style session, you’ll hear how leading organizations have reimagined high-impact HR processes—not through massive overhauls, but through smart design, targeted automation, and human-first thinking. 

We’ll break down the “before and after” of one core process (e.g., onboarding, payroll, case triage, mobility), showing how changes in workflow, ownership, technology, or service delivery model drove measurable improvements in speed, satisfaction, and service quality. 

What We’ll Cover: 

• What triggered the change (and what didn’t work the first time) 
• How success was measured—beyond just speed or cost 
• What the redesign unlocked: fewer handoffs, better self-service, or higher NPS 
• Lessons you can apply to your own team—no matter your tools or budget 

As HR Shared Services organizations face increasing pressure to deliver faster, more consistent, and data-driven talent outcomes, automation across the employee lifecycle is becoming a strategic differentiator. This session explores how leading enterprises are reimagining the entire talent process—from job description creation to sourcing, vetting, onboarding, and retention—through a seamless, automated ecosystem. Learn how lifecycle automation reduces handoffs, minimizes bias, improves speed-to-hire, and enhances employee experience through standardized workflows and intelligent data capture. Together, we’ll examine what a truly end-to-end model looks like, which metrics matter most, and how to balance technology and human touch to deliver sustainable value at scale. 

Looking for engaging conversations and networking opportunities? Participate in our Interactive Discussion Groups (IDGs)! These are dynamic, 40-minute sessions designed to foster in-depth discussions on key topics. You'll have the chance to join two different IDGs, choosing your preferred topics when you arrive. Each group, with 10-20 participants, will be led by a moderator who will kick off the conversation with several prepared questions, encouraging everyone to share their insights and perspectives.

Get ready for 20 minutes of fast-moving, opinion-sparking fun. In this mini version of our signature session, we’ll throw out bold statements about HR trends, tech, and workplace culture—and you’ll vote with your feet. Agree? Disagree? Somewhere in between? Move to your spot and join a rapid-fire group chat to hear where your peers stand (and maybe rethink where you do). 

No slides. No pressure. Just energy, insights, and a few great hot takes to carry into the rest of your day. 

• In today's multinational enterprise, language learning often falls to the bottom of the priority list, treated as a problem that can be solved with the latest e-learning provider or face-to-face course offering. Employees pass standardized tests and earn certificates, yet this checkbox approach masks a costly reality.
  When real collaboration begins across regions, functions, and customer touchpoints, the gap becomes visible. Meetings run long. Decisions are slow. Relationships strain. This hidden "fluency gap" costs global organizations thousands per employee each year in lost productivity, weakened trust, and missed opportunities.
  How can global talent leaders transform language from a compliance checkbox into a strategic business capability?
  This session explores how the new era of Fluency Activation helps multinational teams move beyond textbook knowledge to real, practical fluency—enhancing collaboration, accelerating decision-making, and strengthening global relationships.
  Key takeaways:
  • Measure the impact: Learn how fluency gaps directly affect collaboration, confidence, and decision-making speed.
  • Accelerate improvement: See how Fortinet achieved rapid gains in speaking skills and confidence within 90 days using AI and immersive coaching.
  • Prove ROI: Discover how better communication drove 3x ROI and thousands of hours in reclaimed productivity.
  • Hear real stories: Get firsthand insights from employees on the transformation and its lasting business impact. 

Sponsored by: IMMERSE

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Reporting lines shape everything—from your budget and influence to how fast you can get things done. So where should HR Shared Services live? Should it stay close to HR to champion the employee experience? Sit under Finance or the COO for discipline and process alignment? Or be fully embedded in GBS for cross-functional scale? 

In this lively end-of-day debate, leaders from organizations with very different structures will make the case for where HRSS belongs—and how that choice impacts culture, strategy, and results. Expect passionate arguments, real-world examples, and honest takes on what works (and what drives teams nuts). 

What We’ll Explore: 

• How reporting to HR, Finance, GBS, or other functions impacts service delivery 
• Why structure isn’t just operational—it’s political, cultural, and strategic 
• How to influence structure when you can’t control it—and navigate it when you must 

Charnay Mothershed

People Operations Manager
ASML

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Chaitanya Jayanti

Information Services Manager
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare

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