Working from home became a staple of navigating 2020 for so many workplaces. After months of working remotely, employees and employers have learned that many tasks can be effectively accomplished without the office. Indeed, many employees report being highly productive from home and enjoy a greater work-life balance. With the gradual return to the physical workplace, 2021 is fast shaping up to be the year of formally bringing hybrid working to life. Love it or not, hybrid working will become the norm for many. So how do we make the most of this new way of working? What are the benefits, challenges, and how do we bring it to life for a productive and engaging experience?

Join us and our special panel event for a deep dive into the “hybrid” phenomenon, as we share, learn and grow from our insights, practices and experiences.

Nicole Fitzgerald, Regional Director, Workplace Strategy and Change Management, Pacific, CBRE
Dr Adam Hall, Senior Director, Talent and Rewards, Australia, Willis Towers Watson
Suzanne Shepherd, Chief Human Resources Officer, McMillan Shakespeare Group

Our panel convenor will be Dr Melinda Norris, Senior OD Consultant, People and Culture, The Royal Children’s Hospital

Our guests:

Suzanne Shepherd, Chief Human Resources Officer, McMillan Shakespeare Group (MMSG).

Suzanne joined MMSG in May 2009. She is a passionate, deeply experienced & commercially driven HR executive. Her wealth of experience lies in translating strategic business objectives into meaningful people and organisational development strategies with lasting business impact.

She played a critical role in MMSG’s industrialisation and accelerated global expansion; helping position the Group for future growth and diversification. She spearheaded the development of a fully integrated, highly respected HR function (with success reflected in sector-leading employee engagement), along with a raft of market-defining commercial and capability development initiatives embraced by the Board, CEO, C-suite and senior executive.

Mission-building HR contributions include providing outcome-critical due diligence HR assessment of M&A targets as a member of the M&A team; working with Board on talent, succession, diversity, organisational capability and reward and remuneration; embedding internal innovation and driving market leading senior and executive level capability development with the LEAP and PACE talent development programs.

As Executive initiator and lead of the Future Way of Working strategic program to shape capabilities, structure and models of work, Suzanne has positioned MMSG to respond and grow in an agile way and flex with confidence for future challenges and opportunities via a hybrid work model.

Executive accountability for MMSG’s property portfolio includes leading the review of property needs and design to support a hybrid work model and strategic design work is currently underway for the refurbishment of the Melbourne office which accommodates 600 employees, half of MMSG’s workface.

Suzanne is a graduate of the Senior Executive Programme at London Business School.

Nicole Fitzgerald, Regional Director, Workplace Strategy and Change Management, Pacific, CBRE

Nicole Fitzgerald is the Regional Director of CBRE’s Workplace Strategy and Change Management team and is a member of CBRE’s Global Workplace Executive team, who are focused on supporting clients as they create inspiring and supportive workplaces in the new hybrid working world.

With a business strategy and design background, Nicole brings a people-focused approach to creating highly engaging workplace and precinct experiences that drive positive change in their people, culture, and productivity. Nicole acts as strategic advisor, educator and change agent between business and the real estate development world; revealing opportunities, reducing risk and increasing certainty of results.

Clients she has supported include IAG, Uber, Johnson and Johnson, Optus, HSBC and Medibank.

Dr Adam Hall, Senior Director, Talent and Rewards, Australia, Willis Towers Watson.

Adam Hall is responsible for the development and delivery of consulting work and leading the team across the Employee Insights, Executive Compensation, Talent and Reward practices. In his consulting work, he leads client projects in the areas of Culture, Employee Experience, Future of Work, Reward Strategy & Job Levelling and Merger and Acquisition integration.

Adam is passionate about ongoing research and innovation and speaks regularly at conferences on topics including future of work, psychology of reward, employee wellbeing and employee experience.

He has deep experience working with senior executives to help them understand and drive culture change with HR in aligning talent management and rewards to desired culture.

Adam holds a B.Sc. (Honours) and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Melbourne

Dr Melinda Norris, Senior OD Consultant, People and Culture, The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

In her current role, Melinda is responsible for leading a flagship culture change program to embed the RCH compact.

Prior to joining RCH, she was a Director in the Australian Employee Insights practice of Willis Towers Watson, with 21 years’ experience in human capital consulting and analysis of organisational data with local, regional, and global clients.

Melinda worked with clients to develop their employee engagement strategy, define the culture that will support business strategy, develop and implement measurement approaches to understand engagement and culture and facilitate the identification of priorities for improving sustainable engagement and wellbeing.

During her career she has worked with a broad range of Australian and multinational clients across many industries. Examples include Australian Unity, Cabrini Health, Clayton Utz, CSIRO, BHP Billiton, Fonterra, John Holland, Healthscope, Medibank, MinterEllison, McMillan Shakespeare, Sparke Helmore and Telstra.

Melinda holds a B.Sc. (Honours in Psychology) and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organisational Psychology from the University of Melbourne.