Roughly 60 HR professionals gathered in the Fraser Valley last Friday to learn about the latest legal related trends in Human Resources at the Fraser Valley Legal Symposium.

The full-day event featured seven speakers, four sessions and one fireside chat with legal experts from Roper Greyell LLP, Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of BC, Forte Law Corporation, Safe Software, Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark LLP and Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP.

Feedback around the event was positive, with CPHR BC & Yukon staff hearing several comments throughout the day about the quality of the speakers at the event and how they can’t wait to share their learnings with their co-workers.

Up next, CPHR BC & Yukon will be hosting the Northern Legal Symposium in Prince George on May 10^th and the Interior Legal Symposium in Kelowna on May 31^st.

Event Feedback

Manpreet Mann, HR Generalist, Vitalus Nutrition Inc.

“I think today’s symposium contained a lot of relevant information we can use in our workplaces. One of the biggest takeaways for me was being able to look at conflict as both a negative and a positive, and how we take the information we gather from the conflict situation and use it to make a healthy work environment. This is something I’ll share with our managers to ensure they are effectively dealing with their staff when conflict arises. 

Along with that, the duty to inquire was another big takeaway for me. Asking the source questions instead of assuming was a good message I’ll be able to relay on to our staff and other members of our HR department.  

I definitely got value from the event. This is one of my first events like this and I’m so happy able to attend because there are numerous takeaways from today that I will be able to share with other HR team members on how they can deal with certain situations as well.”

Christina Goldie, CPHR, HR Manager, Aerospace Canada Ltd.

“The key takeaway from the symposium for me was how employment law is always evolving and changing, so it’s important to us as HR professionals to stay up to date. It’s also important for us to retain that important relationship between HR and legal so that we can rely on the advice we’re both getting and giving to each other.

Most of the sessions were interesting, but what really stood out to me was the last session on dealing with family status, because that area has evolved a lot recently, with more organizations having to deal with disability and mental health. One of the presenters mentioned the stigma around mental health is slowly being removed, so it’s becoming more common in the workplace for employees to report it more now than they would have in the past.

I think it was a good symposium. We received a lot of depth, knowledge and some good takeaways.”

Thank You

Thank you to all that attended the 2019 Fraser Valley Legal Symposium. We hope you enjoyed the event and learned a lot from our speakers about the most recent hot-topic legal issues, new case law updates and developments, and future trends to watch for.

Thank you to our speakers:

• James D. Kondopulos, CPHR, Roper Greyell LLP
• Brin Hamilton, CPHR, Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of BC
• Brenda Hooper, Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of BC
• Pamela Costanzo, Forte Law Corporation
• Cassie Van Tol-Walker, CPHR, Safe Software
• Jennifer Wiegele, Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark LLP
• Michael Watt, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP

And thank you to Langley Golf and Banquet Centre for being outstanding hosts and to our sponsors, Nespresso Professional and Sterling Backcheck.