SLASSCOM People’s Summit to ‘engage, coach and lead’ people into a hybrid world

From left:  HR Forum Board Director Shehani Seneviratne, HR Forum Head Nuwan Dishan and HR Forum Co-Head Sharon Kern  

The enormous scale of the pandemic and its impact has caused much fear, uncertainty and anxiety across the globe that also culminated in a paradigm shift in the workplace. What was once a primarily in-office model has transformed into a remote-first working environment. For many companies, the novel coronavirus spurred a sudden and dramatic shift from the majority of employees working in the office to everyone working remotely. 

Moving forward, employers should not expect work environments and practices to snap back to a pre-pandemic reality. As companies gear up for the return to work, some workforces will stay fully remote, some will return fully to the office, and others will embrace a hybrid approach. 

Therefore, it’s important to consider the impact a hybrid model will have on how we communicate and connect. Much like the last year brought a whirlwind of uncertainty, preparing for a return to office life won’t be a seamless transition with easy answers. This in turn creates the urge for businesses to increase employee engagement, voice empowerment, recognition, work life integration, well-being, coaching attributes as enablers to manage workforce in the hybrid world.

Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM)’s Annual flag ship event ‘People Summit’ under the theme ‘Engaging, Coaching and Leading People in a Hybrid World’ will share best practices in a hybrid world and beyond. To be held from 25-27 January 2022, it is slated to attract over 500 HR Professionals across Sri Lanka’s Technology Industry. The Summit consists of 12 speakers who are at the very top of their professional fields, who will conduct several riveting panel discussions on some of the most pressing matters for those in the IT /BPM industry. 

Participants of the summit will have the opportunity to listen to subject experts on the theme Engaging, Coaching and Leading at the People Summit 2022. Key-note speaker, Tribal Habits, CEO David King, will discuss on virtual engagements with employees in a Hybrid world and focus on digital detoxing to help improve employee wellbeing. Birjendu Gupta & Associates Founder and CEO Dr. Aditi Raghuram will discuss how Digital Coaching, Individual Coaching and Team Coaching have changed due to prevailing pandemic. Dr. Michael Mol, who is a Global Speaker and Medical Doctor, will speak on leading a remote team, leading an organisation and leading towards high performance. Nikhil Raval, Author of Target Gen Z Leadership & Learning Advisor Org Culture & Strategy Expert and Ted Speaker, will speak on ‘The Leadership Challenges and Opportunities of a Hybrid Working Model’. 

Additionally, Qvest.io Founder Pia Lauritzen, who is a Philosopher will speak on the topic ‘The four leadership hacks on how to use questions to ensure impact’. Founder of DX Learning and CEO Alex Draper, will speak on ‘How to rapidly build psychological safety with a dispersed and diverse team’. Similarly, Sureish Nathan (DDI Singapore Managing Director and Asia Pacific Vice President, Leadership Consultant, Executive Coach and Speaker), Ole Bent Rye (OBR Coaching and The Hybrid Workplace Experts Founder/Principal) and Sarah Bolton Howard (Change Leader, Global Strategist and Business Innovator) are also all slated to speak along the topics of ‘Leadership’ in a hybrid workplace.

The event is organised by the SLASSCOM HR Forum and will be held in partnership with Sysco LABS as their Exclusive Strategic Sponsor, Daily FT as the Print Media Partner and 99X as the Silver Sponsor.