Improving Employee Engagement and Morale

Pizza parties and birthday cakes. So passé. Delicious, but passé. In case you haven’t heard, the employee engagement evolution is here and in full force.

Over the years, our speaker has seen a cultural shift in the workplace from businesses only being concerned with “hard skills” such as accounting, information technology and risk management to embracing what used to be dubbed “soft skills” like change management, team building, employee engagement, listening, empathy, purpose and inclusion. What caused this shift? It didn’t start with COVID-19; however, remote working exposed a real need and desire of the workforce: to be treated like humans who are accountable and capable; to be acknowledged for their uniqueness; and to be heard.

Gad will explore this shift through personal stories from her time at Binghamton, her career and family, as well as provide best practices and lessons on how to keep yourself, your employees and peers engaged and happy.

About our speaker
Renée (Schmidt) Gad '97 has nearly 25 years of experience navigating complex global organizations, fostering high-performance teams through belonging, accessible communications and empowerment, and building frameworks that support timely, data-driven decision making. She has worked for companies such as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., CarMax, and Catholic Health Services of Long Island. Currently, Gad is a director of operations with the MetLife companies.

During her four years at Binghamton, she lived in College-in-the Woods: two as a resident of Seneca Hall, playing lots of sand court volleyball and co-rec football, and two as a proud Resident Assistant in Oneida. Gad was also a CIW executive board member as a sophomore as well as president of Student Association Films in her senior year.

View the slide deck and recognition calendar from this program.