Square One Law Hosting Major North East Employment Conference to Help Businesses Plan for the Future Workforce

The highly regarded, keynote speakers include, Matthew Taylor OBE, political strategist, CEO of the RSA and Chair of the Review of Modern Employment. He will discuss the motivation for the report, its findings, the effect he anticipates forthcoming legislative changes will have on the way we work and answer questions on how employment practices need to change in order to keep pace with modern business models.

The second keynote speaker is Emily Cox MBE, Group Head of Colleague Relations at Lloyds Banking Group and Chair of the CBI North East Council, who will share some of her experiences from her career in the finance sector at Lloyds and Virgin Money leading their respective people strategies, including equality and digitalisation in the financial sector.  Emily was awarded an MBE in 2018 for services to gender diversity in the financial services sector.

Jean-Pierre van Zyl, Head of Employment at Square One Law said, “With rapid advances in technology and artificial intelligence, increased demands for agile working and concerns over skills shortages in the region, we decided to host a  conference that will aim to address how the workplace is changing and the impact it is having on workforce diversity, recruitment, retention and development.

“As well as the keynote speakers, we are delighted that senior leaders from a diverse range of companies have agreed to be panellists and answer questions on this highly topical issue.”

The panellists include: Brenda McLeish, CEO of Learning Curve Group, Rob Melling, Chief Executive of Curtins, Maggie Pavlou, HR Director of Parkdean Resorts, Chris Baty, Finance Director of Northern Gas and Power, Peter Grist, Team Manager of Tesco Bank, Susan Bell, CEO of Waterstons, Jim Mawdsley, CEO of Generator and Digital Union, Yasmin Khan, Founder of Halo Project and Director of People and Development at Northumbria Police, Joscelin Lawson.

Rebecca Fielding, Square One Law Employment Partner commented: “Delegates will also be able to take part in a series of breakout workshops exploring three key themes and facilitated by business experts. The breakouts will cover employer brand strategy to help develop positive cultures; the complexities of deconstructing privilege and power in the workplace; and inclusive recruitment and retention to help businesses better support people with learning disabilities overcome the significant barriers to enter the workforce.”

Jean-Pierre van Zyl continued: “The conference is designed to challenge the ways businesses approach their People Strategy for the future. With changing social attitudes, skills shortages, heightened awareness of AI, and diversity, the world of work is changing at a pace like never before. This is a unique opportunity to listen to specialist knowledge from some incredible professionals in a variety of fields of business and industry.”

The conference is aimed at senior leaders planning their future people strategies and is being held at The Crowne Plaza, Newcastle on Thursday 10 October. Delegate tickets, priced at £95, can be booked for the full-day conference through this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-will-your-future-workforce-look-like-tickets-65792243371