This session explores the secrets behind employee engagement at SalesForce, a company which has been voted "Best Employer in Australia and New Zealand" in 2004, 2005 and 2007. The presentation explores and answers key questions including:

• The secrets to retaining key staff in a skill-short market
• Identifying and satisfying customer, staff and shareholder expectations
• Recognising the eight enemies of staff engagement
• Creating a culture for a high performance workplace
• Bottom line impact - the inexorable link between staff engagement and commercial performance

Kevin Panozza, CEO, SalesForce

At Woolworths it's essential that communications with the 777 stores nationwide are clear, concise and accurate. For the past seven years, a key tool in delivering operational messages has been an internal television network called WNCN: the Woolworths National Communications Network. In this case study session hear best strategies for:

• Overcoming the challenges of internal TV to deliver a consistent message throughout the organisation
• Using internal TV to share information and reward and recognise employees
• Expanding programming to engage and entertain employees and provide updates on corporate developments
• How internal TV can be used to train staff on corporate policies
• Using staff feedback to develop and improve internal TV as a communication channel

David MacGregor, Internal Communications Manager, Woolworths

For St.George, knowing what the employees and other financial organisations value about the company is crucial to the business success of the company. In this session, learn how Kellie Tomney tackled the challenges of:

• Uncovering and defining the St.George employer brand
• Communicating the brand message internally using the intranet, newsletters and messages from the managing director
• Delivering the brand message externally through newspaper and TV advertising
• Making the brand effective through maximising staff support & involvement
• Measuring the return on investment

Kellie Tomney, Executive Manager Recruitment & Branding Strategy, St. George Bank Limited

You can't not communicate. Everything a leader says and does communicates something. Leaders communicate their priorities by how they use their time, what's first and last on their agenda, who they reward and who they promote. They signal what's important by questions they ask, structure they create and bureaucracy they eliminate. In this presentation, Jim Shaffer, author of "The Leadership Solution" and an internationally recognised business performance and management guru, will discuss the role leaders must play to get results and the new role that communication practitioners must fulfil to help create a leadership engine that goes beyond training and talking points. You'll also learn what other communication practitioners are doing to:

• Help their leaders agree on new communication roles and expectations
• Assess leadership communication performance; and
• Connect leadership expectations to the leadership selection and development process

Jim Shaffer, The Jim Shaffer Group

Employee engagement has evolved into a science. It's now possible for managers to effectively measure an employee's engagement, match their performance against best practice, and subsequently introduce initiatives that ensure appropriate levels of engagement are maintained. Based on extensive research conducted in one of Australia's most successful retail organisations, this session will:

• Explore the eight most influential drivers of engagement
• Outline how HR strategies can be designed to ensure high levels of engagement are maintained.

Genevieve O'Reilly, PhD, Research Consultant, Bond University

Research shows that Australians are not confident about investing, nor about ensuring they have enough money for retirement. Faced with this scenario, together with increasing competition for talent and employees needing to cope in a more complex financial world, an internal financial education program is an initiative that benefits both employees and employers. In this case study session, you'll hear how HIP Super, in partnership with Aon Consulting, is implementing innovative and engaging financial education programs in their organisation. Creative education initiatives in a number of other companies will also be explored, including the use of:

• Marketing strategies to educate employees about long-term wealth creation and to encourage them to take action
• Techniques to successfully communicate an important but complex topic
• Tools, such as educational e-newsletters and education-focused websites, to target relevant financial information to specific employee segments.

Cary Frost, Principal - Communication at Work, Aon Consulting
Ross Bernays, CEO, HIP Super

In the face of increased regulatory scrutiny, falling R&D productivity and greater financial pressure, the communications team at GSK faces a major challenge in managing community expectations and public perceptions. In this session learn GSK's approach to:

• Responding to the need for increased transparency in communications
• Refining communication with all stakeholders on disclosure of information
• Ensuring employee communications reflect the cultural shift towards increased transparency
• Communicating the new requirements to the sales force and analysing the response
• Responses from the community on key disclosures - how were these handled?

Alex Gosman, Director - Government & Corporate Affairs, GlaxoSmithKline Australia

The Communication Framework at the Department of Justice (Victoria) is designed to guide and focus the goals, directions and activities for the department's external communications. In this presentation, Louise Martin will share the challenges and experiences in:

• Creating the communications framework
• Identifying the 5 communication goals core to the Framework
• Delivering on the Communication Priorities Project to build community confidence in the justice system

Louise Martin, Director, Strategic Communication Branch, Department of Justice (Victoria)

Closing remarks from the Chair followed by evening drinks & networking reception