Moving Beyond Engagement to Build Flourishing Teams

Traditional employee engagement strategies are no longer enough. Despite decades of checking the box with annual surveys, global workplace engagement remains stagnant, often breeding more resentment than trust. True organizational success requires shifting the focus toward authentic employee well-being.

Join the San Diego HR Forum for an insightful session featuring workplace thought leader and bestselling author Mark C. Crowley. Drawing from cutting -edge positive psychology, neuroscience, and his extensive career leading top-performing financial services team, Mark will share the core principles from his book, The Power of Employee Well-Being: Move Beyond Engagement to Build Flourishing Teams.

Attendees will discover how human motivation and performance are structurally driven by feelings and emotions. This program provides human resource professionals with an actionable roadmap to foster true belonging, leverage frequent pulse feedback, and transform management from standard oversight into supportive stewardship.

Special Book Signing & Pre-Reading Encouraged

To get the absolute most out of this session, we highly encourage attendees to read The Power of Well-Being prior to the event. Arriving with a baseline understanding of Mark's research will help elevate out group discussion and support your asking questions specifically related to your organization and its needs. 

Here's the Amazon Link: https://tinyurl.com/53p2u5m3

Key Session Takeaways:

• Understanding the Science of Well-Being: Why 95% of workplace behavior is driven by emotions and how prioritizing positive feelings correlates directly to higher productivity and retention.
• Moving Beyond the Annual Survey: How to transition to simple, bi-weekly pulse checks that enable managers to adjust in real-time and demonstrate immediate accountability.
• Cultivating True Belonging: Strategies to replace competitive team dynamics with collaborative systems built on trust, acceptance, and psychological safety.
• Balancing Empathy and Accountability: How combining a heart-led leadership approach with clear discipline drives uncommon loyalty and bottom-line profit.

Mark C. Crowley is a leadership consultant, speaker, and the author of Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership for the 21st Century and The Power of Well-Being. Recognized by Inc., Magazine as a top 50 leadership expert, his philosophy is integrated into the curricula of 11 American universities. Mark is also the host of the globally recognized Lead From The Heart podcast., which reaches listeners across 175 countries. He lives in La Jolla, CA.

Annual Sponsors:

SDHR Forum Law Day 2026

Connect, Learn, and Discuss the Employment Law Issues Shaping the Workplace

Join the San Diego Human Resources Forum (SDHR Forum) for our annual Law Day, one of our most popular and highly anticipated events of the year. Designed specifically for HR professionals, Law Day brings together leading employment attorneys and HR practitioners for a dynamic morning of learning, discussion, and networking.

Unlike a traditional conference, Law Day features an interactive roundtable format that encourages meaningful conversations and practical problem-solving. Attorneys present concise, high-impact sessions on timely employment law topics and then rotate among small groups of attendees, creating opportunities for direct dialogue, real-world application, and relationship building.

As organizations prepare for 2027, HR leaders continue to navigate an increasingly complex legal and workplace landscape. Discussions may explore topics such as artificial intelligence in the workplace, disability accommodations and the interactive process, PAGA developments, leave management challenges, workplace investigations, documentation best practices, and other emerging employment law trends. Each attorney will bring a unique perspective, sharing insights and practical guidance on the issues most relevant to today's HR professionals.

Law Day provides a valuable opportunity to gain current legal insights, exchange ideas with peers, and build connections with respected employment law experts in the San Diego community.

Program Format

7:30 – 8:00 a.m.
Registration, breakfast, and networking

8:00 – 8:15 a.m.
Welcome, announcements, and event overview

8:15 a.m. – approximately 11:00 a.m.
Interactive attorney roundtable discussions

• Attendees will be seated in small groups of approximately 10-12 participants per table.
• Each attorney will present a focused employment law topic, including time for discussion and questions.
• Following each session, attorneys will rotate to the next table, ensuring every attendee has the opportunity to engage with each presenter.
• A networking break will be held midway through the program.
• The event will conclude with open networking and may include a live attorney Q&A panel, a format that has been especially popular in prior years.

Featured Attorneys & Topics

Attorney biographies and presentation topics will be announced soon.

We look forward to welcoming an outstanding group of employment law professionals who will share practical insights, legal updates, and strategies to help HR leaders confidently address workplace challenges in the year ahead.