Catherine D. Fyock, CSP, SPHR, is an employment strategist providing speaking, educating, and writing on the issues of an aging and changing work force. She combines her talents as speaker and her knowledge of work force issues to provide innovative and inspirational learning events, and to help organizations attract top talent, reduce turnover, and improve productivity in a volatile labor market. A dynamic speaker and seminar leader, Cathy has provided over 200 national seminars for the Society for Human Resource Management, including presentations at each of their past seventeen annual conferences. As a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), Cathy has demonstrated her dedication to excellence in speaking. Before starting her consulting business, Cathy was director of field human resources for Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation, where she was instrumental in the development of many key programs for recruiting and retaining employees, including The Colonel's Tradition?KFC's national initiative for employing older workers. A noted lecturer and seminar leader, Cathy is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management. She has served as Chair of the national committee for training and development, as President of the board of directors for the Human Resource Certification Institute, and as President of the Consultant's Forum board of directors. She was a member of the CSP Council for the National Speakers Association, and is a past president for both her NSA chapter and her local SHRM chapter. She has her undergraduate degree from Western Kentucky University, and a master's degree in Personnel Management from the University of Louisville, where she has taught personnel management. The Louisville SHRM chapter honored her with their first annual Award for Professional Excellence. Cathy has authored numerous articles and is a featured columnist for trade publications. She is the author of Hiring Source Book: A Collection of Practical Samples, America's Work Force is Coming of Age: What Every Business Needs to Know to Recruit, Train, Manage, and Retain an Aging Work Force; Get The Best: How to Recruit the People You Want; and The Managing Diversity Series modular training programs; and UnRetirement: A Career Guide for the Retired...the Soon-to-Be-Retired...the Never-Want-to-Be-Retired. Cathy has recently worked with the McKendree College Center for Business Excellence as Senior Consulting Advisor. The McKendree College Center for Business Excellence provides senior level management services and a host of professional programs to improve organizational effectiveness and profit performance. Cathy is one of six consultants/experts to serve as a Senior Consulting Advisor for CBE. In her spare time, Cathy loves to sing! She has sung professionally with the Kentucky Opera Company, and in a one-woman show titled, "Dream It! Achieve It!" that was the featured opening keynote for the SHRM Leadership Conference. She solos with her church choir, and can often be coaxed to sing in night clubs, karaoke bars, and most anywhere she has a willing audience!

The Pearls and Perils of being a People Professional

Being an HR professional can be one of the most challenging and rewarding careers in corporate American today, but it can also be one of the most frustrating! This session explores what it takes to overcome the "Catbert-Evil HR Director" perception, develop trust and credibility, and move our organizations ahead. Come prepared to learn how you can not only help your organization achieve its major goals and objectives, but also touch the lives of your employees in real and meaningful ways.

It's Not About the Money! Strategies for Retaining Top Talent Today's employees are searching for more than just a paycheck . . . they are looking for a workplace that offers them the chance to excel, a place where their ethics and values are supported, and the opportunity to make a difference. The session offers common sense ideas (that aren't necessarily common practice) that won't cost a lot of dollars and cents, and offers proven strategies for motivating and retaining the best employees.

Learn more about:
• What factors contribute to employee satisfaction, motivation, and retention
• How to listen and communicate more effectively with your staff
• What awards and incentives are the most meaningful to today's employees
• What is spirit in the workplace, and why making a difference is as important as making a living

Come prepared to take notes, share your own success stories, and benefit from a close-up look at common-sense ways to improve your work force, your career, and your life.

Get the Best: How To Recruit The People You Want Is your organization finding it increasingly challenging to attract top talent? Explore five new principles for rethinking recruitment, and at least 25 ways you can creatively attract the top employees your organization needs to not just survive, but thrive in today's competitive labor market.

Learn more about how to:
• Target excellent employees
• Use non-traditional strategies, such as direct mail, telemarketing, and radio and television
• Sell the opportunity to prospective employees
• Develop a recruiting network
• Create POS recruitment
• Use the media without spending a penny

Come prepared to take notes, share your own success stories, and benefit from a close-up look at common-sense ways to attract and retain top candidates.

Strategies for Maximizing an Age-Diverse Work Force The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by the year 2006 our country will experience a shortage of 10 million workers. What can American employers do to meet their staffing needs in this increasingly tight labor market? Employers must develop new strategies for maximizing an age-diverse work force, and older workers are one of this country's best untapped labor pools. This session explores strategies for finding the gold in a graying America by more effectively recruiting, selecting, training, managing, and retaining this important resource. This session identifies old assumptions and new responses to work force practices, and outlines specific strategies to recruit and retain workers of all ages.

Select The Best: How to Choose The People You Want Using effective screening tools is not enough in an environment where good employees are hard to find. Employers must now discover innovative ways to screen in the best candidates by selling their unique employment opportunities. Explore strategies to choose the best employees, and make offers that will be accepted by today's candidate.

Learn more about:
• Rolling out the red carpet for today?s scarce candidates during the selection process
• Creating behavioral interview questions that determine the candidates who can and will do the job
• Conducting the interview in a positive environment that will sell top candidates on your organization
• Keeping the selection process legal.

Come prepared to take notes, share your own success stories, and benefit from a close-up look at common-sense ways to attract and select top candidates.

Keep The Best: How To Offer Spirit and Balance in the Workplace Good employees are hard to come by, and new models must be explored for keeping these valued resources. This session looks at why employees want more than a paycheck, and explores strategies for helping employees add meaning and balance to work. This session explores how we as individuals can find meaning and purpose in work as a strategy to enhance organizational goals.

Learn more about:
• Why employees take new jobs
• Why organizational climate is critical to employee retention
• How to listen and communicate more effectively with your staff
• What awards and incentives are the most meaningful to today's employees
• How to achieve greater productivity from your employees...and retain them
• What is spirit in the workplace, and why making a difference is as important as making a living