Seattle keynote speaker for healthcare, corporate, and association events.
Chris Sund is a keynote speaker, Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach, and sitting executive who leads national healthcare staffing organizations. He speaks on workforce motivation, leadership, retention, and human potential for national associations meeting in Seattle, health systems, corporate employers, and organizations across the Puget Sound region.
Response within one business day.
This city already ran the experiment every other employer is still arguing about.
Most managers privately believe that if they could just pay people more, retention would take care of itself. Seattle is the one place in America with a decade of evidence about that, and the evidence is worth knowing before you spend another year on the assumption.
Seattle’s council voted unanimously in 2014 to phase in a fifteen dollar minimum wage, the first American city to do it. A decade later Seattle carries the highest minimum wage of any major city in the country, Washington carries the highest state minimum, and several nearby cities including Tukwila and SeaTac sit higher still. The floor moved a very long way.
What the research found is genuinely mixed rather than tidy, and both sides of the argument overstated their case. Some studies found reduced hours for less experienced workers, others found employers did not cut jobs at all. But the University of Washington economist who ran the multi-year study put the human result plainly: people who were struggling to make ends meet in Seattle in 2014 are still struggling now. Estimates of what a single adult actually needs in King County run meaningfully above the current floor, because the cost of living moved too.
For a leader, the practical takeaway is not political. It is that a substantial raise turned out to be necessary and not sufficient, and Seattle got to learn that first.
Which leaves this city’s employers somewhere the rest of the country is heading. Pay has been largely equalized across the frontline by law, so nobody wins on wage. The job market data shows most of the highest-volume openings here are frontline and service roles, from medical assistants to baristas to CDL drivers, spread across nearly ten thousand competing employers. When every one of them is at the same floor, the entire difference between the employer people stay with and the one they leave comes down to the daily experience of the work and the person supervising it.
That is not a consolation prize. It is the only remaining variable, and Seattle has the data to prove it.
Chris runs national healthcare staffing organizations and has keynoted state association conferences in eleven states, including LeadingAge Illinois and health care associations in Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado.
Operator, Not Consultant
President and COO of national healthcare staffing organizations, still making the hiring and retention calls he speaks about.
Beyond the Paycheck
Material built for employers who have already raised pay and found the problem did not disappear.
Association Conference Work
Annual meetings and general sessions are Chris’s most frequent format, and Seattle is a significant national conference market.
Groups Chris speaks for.
Seattle combines a major technology and aerospace economy with large health systems and a substantial frontline service workforce, which puts a wide mix of audiences in one region.
- UW Medicine, Providence, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, Seattle Children’s, and MultiCare, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- National associations meeting in Seattle, at the convention center and downtown conference hotels, for opening and closing general sessions
- Technology and corporate employers across Seattle and the Eastside, in a state where technology accounts for the highest share of workforce in the nation, for all-hands gatherings and leadership summits
- Aerospace and manufacturing employers across the Puget Sound region, an industry employing tens of thousands statewide
- Hospitality, retail, food service, and transportation employers whose frontline roles dominate the region’s job postings
- Washington statewide associations in hospital, long-term care, municipal, and education sectors, many of which meet in Seattle rather than the capital
- University of Washington, Seattle University, community and technical colleges, and regional school districts
Seattle employers past the pay lever.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, but a flattened wage floor reaches every frontline employer in this city.
Hospitality, Retail, and Food Service
Employers at or near the same mandated floor as every competitor, where the only differentiator left is the shift itself.
Healthcare Support Roles
Medical assistants, techs, and support staff who are among the most posted roles in the region and can move employers easily.
Transportation and Logistics
Drivers and warehouse teams recruited across a wide pool of employers competing on identical terms.
Technology and Corporate
Companies whose compensation is not the constraint and whose retention problems are therefore entirely about leadership and meaning.
Seattle and Puget Sound venues.
- The Seattle Convention Center and downtown hotel ballrooms for national association annual meetings and general sessions
- UW Medicine, Providence, Virginia Mason Franciscan, and Seattle Children’s campuses for nurse leadership and all-staff days
- Corporate campuses across Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond for all-hands and leadership summits
- University of Washington and regional colleges for campus, faculty, and staff programming
- Everett, Renton, Tacoma, and the Puget Sound manufacturing corridor
- Sessions repeated across sites and shifts so evening and overnight teams are included
Seattle events Chris speaks at.
Association Conferences
National and statewide association annual meetings and general sessions, the format Chris works in most often.
Hospital and Health System Events
Leadership days, nurse recognition events, and all-staff meetings.
Retention and Frontline Leadership
Supervisor development for employers who have already moved pay and need the rest of the answer.
Corporate and Leadership Summits
All-hands gatherings, sales kickoffs, and leadership meetings.
Long-Term and Senior Care
Skilled nursing, assisted living, and continuing care conferences and in-service days.
HR and SHRM Chapter Events
Human resources conferences and chapter meetings on retention after compensation has been equalized.
Keynote topics for your Seattle event.
Every session is customized for the audience, the format, and what you are actually trying to change.
See what conference organizers and HR leaders have said after booking Chris.
Booking a keynote speaker in Seattle
Has Chris spoken in Washington before?
Does Chris travel to Seattle?
We already raised wages and turnover barely moved. Now what?
Does the session take a position on minimum wage policy?
Can the session run for multiple shifts and sites?
What does a Seattle keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a Seattle audience?
Bring Chris to your Seattle event.
Send your date, location, and audience. You will get availability and a quote back within one business day.
info@chrissund.com · 402-212-5771 · Washington speaking · All locations