Susan Salgado

Workforce engagement is challenging in the best of times. During this pandemic, remote or virtual work has been forced upon organizations unexpectedly and challenged even the most engaged teams to bolster cultural connections and foster even greater teamwork. When the pandemic is over, many organizations will choose not to return to conventional workplaces – in fact, two-thirds of employees surveyed would prefer to remain virtual.

In this keynote, Susan applies some of her best practices in employee engagement to the virtual workplace, focusing on the cultural impact of remote or virtual work and the leadership strategies that have the greatest impact on employee engagement in a virtual world.

Key takeaways from this keynote speech may include:

• Why building a shared understanding of your organization’s culture is fundamental to fostering consistency in your culture and in your brand.
• How the quality of your organization’s leadership will be reflected in the quality of your work environment, the level of adherence to culture, and the engagement of your workforce.
• Why your ability to create an engaged and prosperous workforce in a remote or virtual work environment requires higher levels of intensity in leadership intervention to ensure that teams feel supported and cared for while continually held accountable.

Best-fit audiences: 
This talk about engaging a committed remote or virtual workforce is suited for leaders at all levels. The keynote speaker will be covering tactics and principles that are relevant to any type of organization that’s working in a virtual capacity, whether it’s on a temporary basis or universally communicating across global offices.

The focus of the talk can be more strategic or tactical, depending on the skill-level and the needs of the audience.

Leadership alone doesn’t drive results—it’s the combination of leadership and culture that leads to exceptional outcomes. So whatever you seek to achieve, the leaders in your organization must be equipped with the skills and mindset to create a caring and accountable workplace where employees will be engaged and want to win. This talk focuses on the impact of leadership on culture, and leaves audiences with tools they can use to create caring yet driven teams.

Key takeaways from this keynote speech may include:

• The formula for fostering happy, inspired employees who bring their best to the job.
• Tactics for bringing empathy to every interaction with your workers straight from a keynote speaker, from saying hello in the morning to understanding people as individuals.
• Leadership strategies for creating teams that care—and teams that win—by creating a sense of purpose while challenging employees in a supportive way.
• The three roles every effective leader plays — consciously or unconsciously — with concrete examples that can be put into action immediately.
• Techniques to adapt your leadership style to your team—not the other way around

Best-fit audiences:
With a focus on balancing technical knowledge with emotional intelligence, attendees will come to understand the key leadership strategies that lead to supportive environments where employees thrive.

This talk is appropriate for leaders at all levels and will be tailored to the specific experience level of the audience. From new leaders who are building their skills, to seasoned executives wanting to continually grow and inspire, keynote speaker Susan will design a program that hits home for your audience.

Every company has a culture, whether or not you have consciously designed that culture. The question is: Do your leaders understand your culture, and can they leverage your culture to achieve their goals? This talk focuses on creating a culture that yields a sustainable competitive advantage by aligning your values with the way your company operates, and the way your teams behave, to achieve outstanding results.

Key takeaways from this keynote may include:

• Why company culture is critical in creating a sustainable competitive advantage.
• The blueprint of an effective culture and its similarities to our dynamics at home.
• How to create and sustain a corporate environment that drives long-term results for your workplace.
• Why it’s important that leaders visualize and define a culture for their employees — and what happens if they don’t.
• Why corporate policies must protect your best employees in order to support your company’s goals.

Best-fit audiences:
This talk is appropriate for corporate audiences focused on developing, evolving, and growing corporate culture over time and across geography. The keynote speaker’s content can be tailored and applied to leadership at all levels, from new leaders learning their roles in your organization, to seasoned executives seeking to refresh, improve, or enhance an existing culture.

Whether you are in the early phases of articulating your corporate values or seeking to reconnect or evolve the culture of your founding, Susan’s keynote will help leaders at all levels to understand what culture is, how to impact it within their own span of control, and how they can leverage culture to drive results.

Across industries and in businesses of all shapes and sizes, leaders are facing the same challenge: How do we hire the right people for our company? How do we know they will perform? How do we go beyond the candidates’ “canned” answers to really understand if there’s a cultural fit? And, once we get that fit, how do we make the right employees want to stay? This talk will leave your audience with the tools to create a blueprint for recruiting and retaining the best employees for your business.

Key takeaways from this keynote speech may include:

• Strategies for finding technically proficient team members who align with your company’s culture to improve retention.
• Techniques for asking—and pursuing—interview questions that teach you more about a candidate than a cover letter ever will.
• Tactics for creating an environment where great employees thrive, and not-so-great employees leave, so you find the best long-term fits for your culture.
• How investing in your hiring practices will pay off in the long run, with improved retention and higher levels of engagement.

Best-fit audiences: 
This keynote speaker’s talk is critical for anyone who touches or defines the hiring, onboarding, and retention processes in your organization. Susan will tailor the appropriate skill sets and strategies to your specific organization’s retention goals.

This talk is also for anyone with a business that’s growing, becoming increasingly more remote, or experiencing geographical dispersion in your locations that might affect retention. By making the right hires, you’ll attract people who will make—not break—your organization for long-term retention.

It’s common sense: Take care of your staff, and your staff will take care of your customers. But many companies fail to recognize the impact of employee morale on the customer experience. That’s why this talk focuses on creating winning teams who deliver memorable, thoughtful customer experiences by first fostering a caring work environment where employees feel truly valued and appreciated.

Key takeaways from this keynote speech may include:

• The formula for creating a workplace environment that inspires staff to give their best to teammates and guests alike.
• The delicate balance between the technical and emotional components of every customer experience.
• The five best practices for creating remarkable customer experiences—and the language that will inspire these behaviors in your staff.
• A three-step strategy from the keynote speaker for overcoming problems and mistakes

Best-fit audiences: 
In this talk, leaders will learn from the keynote speaker how to inspire employees to go above and beyond for customers by creating a workplace characterized by trust, caring, and purpose.

This keynote speaker’s talk is appropriate for leaders and sales specialists in B-to-B and B-to-C businesses of all sizes and industries. In particular, it’s meant for businesses that want to differentiate their service by creating an emotional connection to enhance customers’ experiences.

The majority of America’s workforce is actively disengaged. The antidote to this problem isn’t as complicated as you might think. The key to creating a workplace where employees go above and beyond begins with leaders who care. This keynote focuses on simple strategies for recognizing and addressing employee apathy on your team, to help convert passionless employees into ambassadors of your brand.

Key takeaways from this keynote speech may include:

• This keynote speaker’s tried-and-true remedies for recognizing and fixing employee apathy on your team for engagement.
• Methods for engaging your team in an authentic and compelling way.
• The role of leaders in developing a workplace culture focused on engagement.
• Simple strategies for engagement from the keynote speaker to make team members feel seen, heard, and motivated.

Best-fit audiences: 
This keynote speaker’s talk about engagement is suited to leaders at all levels in any type of organization who want to improve morale and create a winning team. The focus of the talk can be more strategic or tactical, depending on the skill-level and needs of the audience.

What is hospitality? While most people think first of the hospitality industry—hotels, restaurants, and travel. But this talk focuses on an old-fashioned notion of hospitality that drives a competitive advantage in any business: caring for others. We all know that the best memories are rooted in feelings, and in this talk, you’ll learn how to create memories that last a lifetime—through your employees.

Key takeaways from this keynote speech may include:

• The true meaning of hospitality in the context of work.
• Techniques to make your employees and customers feel safe, valued, and appreciated.
• The effect that hospitality at home has on staff’s understanding of hospitality at work.
• Methods for interweaving hospitality throughout your workplace culture in a way that drives results.

Best-fit audiences:
Keynote speaker Susan Salgado’s core philosophy in business is that companies will achieve their best results when employees feel appreciated by employers. This talk is best suited to executives and senior leaders of customer-focused companies of all sizes, and across all industries, who are willing to look inside their companies to understand how to best relate outside of their companies. Susan’s philosophies, stories, and examples as a keynote speaker will be adjusted to suit your business’s goals of delivering exceptional customer experience.

From your customers, to your vendors, to your investors, to your community at large, employees must be ambassadors of your brand. It’s up to you, the leader, to extend the same sense of care—or hospitality—to your team that you hope is shared with each of your stakeholders.