Meeting/Event Information
Setting the Tone for the First 90 Days
May 26, 2026
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
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Rushmore Hotel
445 Mt Rushmore Rd
Rapid City, SD 57701
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Setting the Tone for the First 90 Days: Recruiting, Onboarding & Employee Handbooks
*Registration begins at 11:00AM*
*Presentations begin promptly at 11:30AM*
Join BH SHRM for an engaging program focused on building a strong employee experience from recruitment through onboarding and long-term success. This session will feature practical strategies and real-world insights from HR and legal professionals on improving hiring practices, creating effective onboarding systems, and developing compliant employee handbooks.
Topics include:
- Strengthening recruiting and interview processes
- Creating onboarding programs that improve retention and engagement
- Employee handbook best practices, compliance, and policy development
Attendees will leave with actionable tools and ideas to help create a positive, structured, and compliant employee experience from day one. This session will be split into 3 parts, and each speaker will present for 30 minutes.
About the Speakers:
Brandi Christensen currently serves as a Senior HR Business Partner with the City of Rapid City. She brings more than 25 years of progressive human resources experience across a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, call centers, corporate environments, telecommunications, engineering, consulting, education, local government, and healthcare. Brandi possesses comprehensive, enterprise-wide expertise across all areas of HR, positioning her as a strategic and results-driven thought leader. She is deeply committed to strengthening organizational culture, optimizing processes, and delivering measurable outcomes through impactful people strategies.
Amanda Burleson is an HR Business Partner with the City of Rapid City, known for her clear communication, strategic thinking, and ability to guide organizations through complex people challenges. With 15 years of human resources experience designing and implementing effective recruiting systems, she has strengthened hiring practices, streamlined processing, and built onboarding programs that set employees and their leaders up for long‑term success. She specializes in recruiting, onboarding, compliance, investigations, and leadership development, and is a trusted advisor to managers and executives. Amanda is passionate about building positive workplace cultures, strengthening leadership capability, and creating processes that support both accountability and employee wellbeing.
Jennifer Potts (OTR/L Manager, Education & Professional Development, Monument Health) is a healthcare learning and development leader whose career sits at a distinctive intersection: clinical expertise, organizational culture design, and evidence-based people strategy. As Manager of Education & Professional Development at Monument Health — a rural health system serving the Black Hills region — she leads programs that span new hire orientation, leadership development, and workforce capability building for more than 10,000 learners annually.
Jennifer is a first author on a peer-reviewed publication in Learning Health Systems journal and a Certified StrengthsFinder Coach. Her work on onboarding has been shaped by the belief that the earliest days of employment are the highest-leverage window an organization has — and that most organizations underinvest there in predictable, fixable ways.
Jennifer Suich Frank, Esq.; AWI-CH; SHRM-SCP is an experienced attorney and workplace investigator. Jennifer is an employment lawyer with the law firm of Lynn, Jackson, Shultz & Lebrun, in Rapid City, SD. Jennifer has been an attorney for 28 years and was previously employed in several positions in human resources.
Jennifer has been active in Black Hills Society for Human Resource Management (BH SHRM), having served as its Certification Director for three years (2016-2018), BH SHRM President-Elect (2019), BH SHRM President in 2020 and BH SHRM Past President (2021 - 2023). Jennifer obtained her SHRM-SCP certification in 2019.
Jennifer enjoys family time with her husband and her young adult son, visiting her daughter (recent college graduate!!!) in Colorado, hiking, yoga, gardening, cooking, watching Jeopardy, and reading great beach novels!
Tickets
$20.00 Member Registration
$30.00 Non-Member Registration
