Optîmance

The potential decision to reduce your workforce is never an easy one. What's more, with the continued downturn in the economy, companies are feeling forced to make immediate reductions with little or no time for review or consideration of alternatives.

This program offers a unique opportunity for corporate counsel, business owners, management and human resources professionals to participate in an interactive roundtable discussion with counsel experienced in handling employee retention and cost-reduction measures in the workforce.

The panelists will address employment-related cost-saving solutions, including:

• Creative Solutions for Retaining Talent
• Reductions in Hours, Pay, Force
• Career Continuation
• Forced Vacations and Temporary Shutdowns
• WARN Act Compliance

Who should attend? Closely held and/or small to mid-sized companies facing talent management and cost reduction challengeds in today's state of economic uncertainty.

Lunch and training materials are provided.

There are many influences on Generational Recruitment and Retention and it is often hard to distinguish what are the key factors you need to know and act upon. One must first realize that there are multiple generations in the workplace. It seems that a new one is referred to each year. Taking this into account a company must then look at what its brand stands for and how they create and maintain that brand. As with all good programs initial assessment of the workforce and a ranking of the important factors to action is a "must do" first step.

Sherri Elliott and Paul Wills will identify how you can do this and then provide a step by step action plan so that you can avoid workforce crisis and incorporate sound generational performance strategies. You will walk away with a detailed handout on the topic with identified activities to make sure you have a handle on generational recruitment and retention.

Sherri Elliott is the president of Optimance Workforce Strategies, LLC, a leading human resource (HR) consulting firm. Her original HR studies, articles, speaking, and consulting work have made Sherri a leading voice in helping companies understand and successfully overcome the challenges of a multigenerational workforce.

Paul Wills is the Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Michaels Wilder with 17 years experience in the HR arena. Prior to joining Michaels Wilder, Paul was with TMP Worldwide, a recruitment advertising subsidiary of Monster Worldwide. In multiple senior roles Paul has directed the recruitment advertising strategies and marshaled the brands of such Fortune 500 companies as Verizon, Dell, and USAA. Paul also led the TMP Worldwide Retention Sector initiative. This involved developing multiple strategies to retain the key talent within an organization.

Best to you and your family for the New Year!

Don Hanratty and Jim Davidson are excited to announce today that Denise Reinke has joined the Optimance, Career Control Group team as the Vice President, Customer Solutions. Denise will be addressing strategic talent management with business managers to include career, assessment, succession, and development issues. Denise is a results driven executive with in depth experience in consulting with Fortune 1000 companies.

An active listener, Denise has enjoyed a consistent track record of success in clarifying and fully understanding the talent issues of many companies. In a consultative manner, she then presents pragmatic options. Denise's approach balances business strategy with time and cost saving solutions.

With experience in financial services, retail, and talent service organizations, Denise is educated in Business Administration and in Human Resource Development. An active professional in the American Society for Training and Development, she is the President-elect for 2009 after serving in Director and VP, Career Development roles.

Hitting the ground running, Denise has already influenced Optimance, Career Control Group. She has already supported several customers and assisted in our own staff development programs.

We are proud to announce and introduce Sherri Elliott as the new President of Optimance Workforce Strategies. Sherri immediately strengthens the Optimance team. We will now enjoy expanded capabilities to provide an integrated range of time and cost saving business solutions. Sherri and the OWS team will deliver Human Resource audits, compliance, outsourcing, recruiting and training programs.

Sherri Elliott and Don Hanratty will lead Optimance focusing on Human Resource and talent issues. While listening to our customers, it is our intent to grow Optimance to become a Dallas 100 and Inc.500 company. Jim Davidson will continue to lead The Career Control Group.

Don Hanratty and Sherri Elliott offer more than forty years of hands-on experience building solutions with employer executives. Both are authors, speakers and presenters and leaders in charitable and professional organizations. Sherri will continue her success in helping business leaders and owners increase the value of Human Resource capital. She is a SPHR and ARM. Sherri takes the time to educate her clients about the importance of HR in business risk issues. She also brings to the Optimance team a terrific list of colleagues through SHRM, Dallas HR, and Success North Dallas.

At Optîmance, we're passionate about changing business and career lives. We have prospered because our staff of innovative, industry-leading professionals has a broad base of technical and business expertise - skills that we utilize in furthering all of our clients' interests and in achieving superior results in the design and operation of their human resource management efforts. Our new partnership will multiply our opportunities to unleash the performance potential of people and organizations.

While working together, our teams will be better equipped to help companies maximize their human capital, improve talent retention and succession practices, reduce employer risks and liabilities, strengthen individual executive and management team productivity, refine Human Resource practices, and deal with sensitive talent issues in a positive manner. Please welcome Sherri to her new ownership role.

Dr. Ira Wolfe will present the next Age Impact Seminar at Gleneagles on January 22, 2008.

The coming Labor Storm will be the focus of the presentation.

Intuitive, practical and down-to-earth is the way Ira Wolfe has been described by clients and colleagues alike. Ira delivered a provocative forecast of the 10- and 20-year labor market in 1999. Soon Ira found himself speaking to audiences all over North America on The Perfect Labor Storm: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away and in 2004 published a book by the same name. The completely updated and rewritten 2nd edition, The Perfect Labor Storm 2.0: Workforce Trends That Will Change The Way You Do Business, was published in September.

In his dynamic yet down-to-style style, Ira "tracks" the compelling story of demographic, economic, social and technological forces and reveals how far reaching and long lasting their effects would be on this worker and skills shortage.Ira is the also the author of Understanding Business Values and Motivators (2004). He is a columnist for the Business2Business magazine and is quoted regularly in stories published in the Central Penn Business Journal, Sales and Marketing Management, and many regional and national magazines. He has been a frequent guest on Pennsylvania Cable Network discussing skilled worker shortages, pandemic flu and the economic impact of workforce trends. In July 2007, Ira delivered the keynote for a special PA Chamber Foundation Roundtable about the Skilled Worker Crisis in PA. He has also appeared on CN8, hosted a radio talk show, and has been quoted in Wall Street Journal and Business Week Online.