Changes for 2011 - New Contributors to IL SHRM Site

It is the year’s end and at Illinois SHRM just like at many other volunteer organizations personnel changes usually take place around this time of year. At the top we have a new incoming State Director – Donna Rogers. We also have a new Director Elect Cathy Plouzek, and we have the outgoing, Past State Director John Jorgensen. While we have a number of personnel changes we also have some folks like your truly are hanging around for another year or two.


One of the things that I am going to do next year is add some new voices to this blog site. For the most part, postings so far, have come from me, Dave Ryan, the Director of the Social Media for the State Council. Having looked around at other sites and other organization I have invited more folks who are involved with SHRM here in Illinois to be contributors and give new and varied content  in regards to  what is going on in the World of Human Resources.

The three folks mentioned earlier, John, Donna and Cathy all have agree to generate 4 to 5 posts for next year. In addition to the IL SHRM executive gang, we have lined up IL SHRM’s membership director and all around great guy Jeff Williams to our crew. Jeff currently writes at his own blog site HDLeader. Our Director of Marketing and Communication Heather Hammitt will also be contributing to our blog site.

To another prospective, from the staffing portion of Human Resources, Chloe Rada, The President of Staffing Management Association of Greater Chicago will be a regular contributor to the site.

We have been fortunate to grab two more contributors who have been instrumental in creating a new SHRM chapter in the Metro East area. We are thrilled to have Trish McFarlane who regularly blogs at HRRingleader, and her co-conspirator Chris Frede who also has her own site, HRBouy, as regular contributors for 2010.

So if I go back and count up the bolded names I see nine names listed. The plan was to have 12 regular contributors. So if my math still works I need three more regular contributors. Please let me know if you would be interested in contributing.

In addition to the weekly contributions, we plan to be presenting guest posts from upcoming conference speakers, and others who are present on the HR scene. So be looking for exciting thing coming from this the Illinois State Council of SHRM and this site next year.
- Dave Ryan Director of Social Media Illinois State Council of SHRM

Farewell from Outgoing ISC SHRM Director John Jorgensen

Wow, where has the two years gone? I am rapidly approaching the end of my term as the Illinois State Director of SHRM. It has been a great couple of years working with great people and, in many ways, sorry to see it end.

The Board has accomplished really good things in that time. We’ve continued the great programs started by my predecessors (Carolyn Sperl especially) in that we have expanded our partnership with Blue Cross/Blue Shield in the area of workplace wellness, built on our relationship with the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and built our Leadership Conference over a brief 3 year period into something to be proud of. Thanks to Carolyn and all those who preceded me.

During the last two years we have done some pretty amazing stuff. The State Conference has been moved into the Chicago area and it paid great benefits. Attendance increased by 50%, we have received some national attention and will continue to grow. We have added Social Media to our Board and garnered more national attention by doing so (we were the second state council to add that as a director level position). Because of that, we were the first state conference to be visited by the newly created SHRM Director of Social Media and PR. All of this is laying the groundwork for an even bigger and better conference for the future. We have secured the same location for the next 2 years so see you at the Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace in 2011 and 2012.

Another new position to the board in the last couple of years was a Director of Communications and we have begun to produce regular newsletters of great quality and to provide media in the state a source for information on the profession of human resources, while making the name of ISC-SHRM better known throughout Illinois.

A position that is not new but has been revitalized is that of District Director. We have been able to use the people in that position and the expertise they bring to help chapters grow and operate and they are playing a huge role in the upcoming State Leadership Conference.

We are on the verge of adding at least 2-3 new SHRM chapters in the state in areas not served currently by SHRM chapters and in the process picking up some amazing new members of and leaders for Illinois SHRM.

Notice that the word “I” only appeared once in this article because “I” did not do all these things. The Board did. I (ok now twice) have been blessed to serve with an amazing group of professionals and volunteer leaders that have made my job so amazingly easy and fun. Thank you to all of you for the outstanding work you have done that has made the Illinois State Council of the Society of Human Resource Management the great organization it has become and will continue to be.

Thanks, John

Drive Thru HR Live at ILSHRM 11

I know a secret. And what is the coolest thing about knowing a secret? Of course, telling somebody else. Here is my secret… although it really isn’t one.
Starting next year Illinois SHRM’s good friend Bryan Wempen who hosts the internet radio show Drive thru HR is going to be joined by a new co-host. That new co-host is none other than William J. Tincup. While I have not met Mr. Tincup we have been connected in cyberspace for many months. He contributes to Fistful of Talent (where he recently interviewed our on John Jorgensen). You might also find him attending or presenting at conferences and now you will be able to find him hanging out on an internet radio show focused on Human Resources matters.


(Left) William Tincup and Bryan Wempen (Right)  DTHR - Co Hosts

 
In addition to a new co-host, Bryan and the show are moving to a new time slot. Drive thru HR (#DTHR the twitter hashtag) is moving to a 12: noon Central time slot on blogtalk radio. Bryan and William are intent on focusing on trench HR issues.

Bryan is taking the radio show on the road next year, and will be in attendance at the Illinois SHRM state conference in August 2011, where he will be spinning his broadcasting magic letting the world know what is going on at the conference. We are excited to have Drive Thru HR on-board for our 2011 conference.

Oh and there is one more thing, Illinois SHRM’s Director of Social Media (me) is going to be a guest on the newly formatted DTHR show on Friday January 7, 2011 at 12 noon discussing some real trench HR issues. Tune in and give Bryan and William a listen it will be fabulous!

Third Keynote Address For 2011 Illinois SHRM State Conference

The Illinois State Council of SHRM is pleased to announce our third keynote address for our 2011 State Conference. The presentation is titled “Strategic Relationship Management: The Breakthrough HR Competency” and will be presented by Talent Anarchy.

Who is Talent Anarchy?

Jason Lauritsen is the corporate guy, the man on the inside. He spends his days in the belly of the beast as a corporate Human Resources leader where he has to actually “walk the talk” each day. Since his first management job as a corn detasseling team leader at age 13, Jason has been studying people and why they do what they do. Classically impatient, curious and well groomed, Jason’s early career was a rapid progression of sales and management roles including launching, leading and ultimately selling a small business in his mid-twenties. He’s a leader, sales guy, entrepreneur and corporate executive–all rolled up in one. You can find Jason on Twitter or on Linkedin 

Joe Gerstandt is the sage consultant. He’s a middle-aged white guy who is a national thought-leader on issues of diversity and inclusion–need we say more? He brings a unique and powerful perspective to everything he does. The core of Joe’s work is to help organizations solve issues of diversity, culture and innovation through consulting, training and speaking. Listening to Joe speak, you will hear tales of his days as a U.S. Marine and Gulf War veteran blended with his experience in sales, education, and community-building. To say that Joe is intense and passionate about his work would be an understatement. He is one part professor, one part philosopher, and one part “not quite right.” Be prepared. This is not your average HR guy. Find Joe on Twitter or on Linkedin.

About the Program

In summing up the program, Joe and Jason express to their audience that it’s not enough for an HR professional to just get the basics right. Becoming a strategic business partner in your organization is also about knowing the right people and being able to establish and manage key relationships. The most effective HR leaders understand the importance of alliances in influencing behavior and overcoming resistance. Could you use more influence? Join Talent Anarchy for this examination of relationships and take away practical approaches for Strategic Relationship Management.

Second Keynote Added for 2011 Illinois State Conference

China Gorman

The Illinois State Council of SHRM is thrilled to announce that China Miner Gorman has agreed to be a keynote speaker at our 2011 12th Annual State Conference. The Conference will be held on August 22-23, 2011 at Drury Lane Theater in Oakbrook Terrace, IL.
For more than 25 years, China has held strategic leadership roles in the human capital management industry. Her expertise in business strategy, market-share growth and new business development together with her people and results oriented leadership style have enabled her to successfully lead global organizations through turnarounds and rapid growth cycles, as well as through business slowdowns, with exceptional results.

China is the former Chief Operating Officer for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The Society represents nearly 250,000 individual members in over 140 countries, and has a network of more than 1,000 affiliated chapters in the U.S., as well as operations in India and China.

Prior to joining SHRM in 2007 as COO, China was President of DBM North America, and President of Lee Hecht Harrison, the $250 million global consulting division of Adecco, which became the performance leader in its industry under her leadership.

China has traveled extensively—throughout the United States and abroad—addressing business, professional, corporate and academic groups on topics related to the strategic value of HR, culture, career management and implementing effective people management strategies. She currently serves on the boards of the Chicago-based Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) and Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG).

A native Midwesterner, China earned a bachelor’s degree from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois and has completed significant post-graduate work in Organizational Development.

- John Jorgensen - Director ISC-SHRM

Illinois SHRM State Conferencce Keynote Speaker for 2011

We have some exciting news from the Illinois State Council of SHRM. As the planning process continues for next year’s conference continues, we are pleased to announce our keynote speaker for the Conference.

Ryan Estis will be our opening speaker on Monday August 22, 2011 at the Drury Lane in Oak Brook, IL as we kick off the event. If you are not familiar with Ryan you are in for a treat. We had a chance to speak to Ryan at the SHRM 2010 Leadership Conference, and he had this to say about our upcoming event.


Ryan Estis: Keynote Speaker 2011 IL State SHRM Conference from Illinois SHRM on Vimeo.

You can also learn more about Ryan at his website http://www.ryanestis.com/ and at his blogsite http://www.passiononpurposeblog.com/.

We will have more announcements upcoming about more speaker and sessions, Check back often.

Here is another recent interview that was done with Ryan’s in the SHRM SM lounge


http://vimeo.com/17007925 from SHRMSocMedGuy on Vimeo.

Be Polite - And Don't Tweet at the Conference

Day two at leadership is better. We have put sick Uncle SHRM to bed –he’ll be fine. The Friday morning vibe is much better. At the General session there was a lot of talk about diversity, life work balance and social media. Me I am happy to hear the talk of social media.

The morning panel included Eric Petersen, Lisa Horn and Curtis Midliff. The dialogue was great and the audience appeared well caffeinated and engaged. Eric managed to keep diversity on the front burner with interesting comments and information. Not to be outdone Lisa talked about work life balance and her other role in government relations. Then onto my man – who was tweeting while on stage.

Panelist Curtis Midkiff, Lisa Horn and Eric Petersen

Curtis asked for all of the people on twitter RIGHT NOW to raise their hand. My guess is that about 150 people raised their hand. There were supposed to be 800 attendees, so about 20% - not bad. Curtis talked about how to engage and involve chapters via social media. Curtis had some good dialogue and a number of how to question – which he addressed and will continue to do so. Perhaps the best moment of the Q. & A was this. Curtis wanted to address a question that had been posted out on twitter. The message was tweeted by John Jorgensen. Curtis called John out on the question and wanted to address it. John told Curtis that the question was actually from the person sitting next to him, who refuses to adopt any form of social. BAM- score one for the tweeters.

Off to SHRM Leadership

In 1997 when I first joined the largest HR organization in the world (now approaching 300k members), I really had no idea what an impact that organization would have on my life. The organization is the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). My best friend since Kindergarten actually recommended I join since I was doing HR work in addition to training employees. She had been a member of the local Central Illinois Chapter of SHRM (CIC-SHRM) for years and highly recommended that I join to network and develop my skills. Boy did that ever happen in a big, big way! I had previously been an active member of the local and national American Society of Training and Development (ASTD). Active in ASTD was nothing like active in SHRM. From that day forward I have grown as well as the chapters and state council within Illinois. Of course, all this did not occur without some very active, hard working, and dedicated volunteers along the way.

Now I am heading to Washington DC to lobby congress about HR related issues that affect long term strategic success and livelihood of business (Education Tax Credit & Paycheck Fairness Act). Not only that I am attending the National SHRM Leadership Conference with a delegation from Illinois of 30 plus. The reason that is such a big deal is when I joined the organization I had no idea what the Illinois State Council of SHRM was or even that it existed. Over the years, I heard the same thing from so many others in the state. Although the organization, which acts as a liaison between the national association and all of the chapters and at large individual members, was in its infancy back then little did we know just how much progress would be made in such a short time.

When I first started attending this conference at the start of the decade we only had a couple people from our entire state. I remember meeting and seeing delegates from other states gather in droves. Texas and Indiana seem to jump out from memory. They all had matching shirts and pins to show off their team spirit. Little by little each year the awareness grew and our chapters began to become more active partly due to our encouragement. They were always invited before but we really helped them understand that their roles are bigger than what they do locally. We gave the chapter presidents voting rights at the state level as well as began to share profit in our growing state conference. Last year Illinois SHRM had its biggest conference ever with more than 750 attendees. Prior to that year our norm was 300 to 400 and our max had been around 500.

We have made progress in other ways too primarily by reinstituting the position of District Director and traveling all over the state to conduct an ISC Road Show and the latest SHRM Foundation DVD roundtable program on such topics as Succession Planning, Recruiting & Retention, Ethics, and much more.

With over 59,000 HR professionals in the state and over 10,000 of them belonging to the largest HR organization in the world—we are proud to be representing all of them. So to say I am proud to be in the company of 30 other highly respected and valued volunteers throughout the state is an understatement. I am ecstatic! Thanks to our director we are going to be showing our team spirit too like the other big states for the very first time. All in “Cardinal” red (representing our state bird) sporting our fairly new logo! HR has a presence in this state and we mean BUSINESS! ISC-SHRM is a resource for all things HR and we do know “NEXT” for business of all sizes. Call us anytime!

- Donna Rogers - President Elect ISC-SHRM

I Love HR

I work in Human Resources. I consider myself to be a professional. I am serious about my work and I think I do it well. Further, I am proud of what I do and I don’t mind telling the world.

And I do tell the world. Last week I spoke to a group of upper level undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Springfield. In talking to the students I presented a talk on HR and its accountability for safe work practices. Many of the students did not realize that in many organizations HR has responsibility for safety and risk management.

Without being too egotistical, I think my presentation was received favorably, based on the comments (albeit mandated by their professor) I received from the students. I have always been invited to return to all of the classes that I have addressed, so let’s say I do ok.

Why do I take my free time to put together presentations and the in front of students of others who want to know a little more about HR?

Here is why. Because if those of us in HR don’t get out and talk to the younger folks and passionately tell them what a wonderful career we have, no one else will tell them. Ball players, doctors and firemen all talk to students at all levels and promote their chosen field. Those of us in Human Resources MUST do this too!

So I implore each of you to get out of your work space and talk about HR. Talk to high school students at career day, talk to college students, or ask to speak to a Rotary Club, the 4-H group, anyone who will listen. Shout it from the mountain top, or your office, or where ever someone will listen –

I LOVE HR - YOU SHOULD TOO!

SHRM Social Media Crowd Makes Up 1.57% of Conference

I am starting to get excited about an upcoming trip. I will be attending the SHRM Leadership Conference. This is an annual conference put on by the mothership in Arlington, VA.

I am excited because as I don't get to attend a lot of events as my Company does not have a huge unlimited conference/travel budget. So the times I get to travel and attend conferences are usually fulfilling, enlightening as well as invigorating. I have attended this conference in previous years. It sounds like the numbers are down for this year. The current count is 700. In previous years that I’ve attended it has hit 1300 or so.

So, one of the things that is fun about conferences for me is this; I enjoy getting to visit with my social media/twitter friends. Most of us look forward to meeting in IRL. Those of us who communicate on twitter/Facebook/Linkedin/Youtube etc. really get a kick out of this. It’s like meeting a pen pal, or long lost friend, or telephone business associate.

Now I have been one of the folks out front trying to promote this event, mainly because I am happy to be an attendee. Myself and fellow tweeter akabruno have worked to try and bring people together, those who will be attending. We (the social media enthusiast/SHRM members) have also been supported by Curtis Midkiff, and we appreciate all that he has done and is doing for us.

I have been working on keeping a list of my fellow tweeps who will be attending, and while I know that I do not have them all of the twitter crowd, so farI have 12 people on my list. So being the math wizard that I am that tells me our active tweeters currently comprise a whopping 1.57% of the attendees (ouch!).I thought the New Media tweeps were more of a force. Contact me if you are attending and I will add you to the list.

No matter, I will see  all 12 of you at the Friday night tweet-up – thanks for supporting us Curtis!





Uploaded Pictures from previous SHRM - related Tweet-Ups



SHRM 10 Overview From Incoming State Director Donna Rogers

Recently, I was speaking with our incoming State Director Donna Rogers, and she shared with me a presentation she had done for some of her peers at the University of Illinois in Springfield.  Donna shared with them her big takeaways from the SHRM National Convention in San Diego earlier this year.

I asked Donna if she would share it with the world and post it on our Illinois State Council Blog site.  She has graciously agreed, so here you go...

Top 10 Take Away's From SHRM10: An Education, HR, & Management Perspective

View more presentations from Donna Skowronski.

The Conference - Why do You Attend?

The Welcome at theDrury Lane for the Illinois 2010 SHRM Conference

The Conference – most of us like attending them, whether they are directly related to what we are doing, indirectly related or not at all related to our daily job. Sometimes you will attend a conference for something that is not your job, whether for a volunteer activity, or some pursuit other than your job. Nonetheless, most people that I talk with seem to enjoy attending. In attempting to create a better conference experience for the attendee, I am curious as to what it is that people enjoy the most about “the conference”.

• Is it simply getting out of the office or traveling to some exotic location?
• Is it the learning that is supposed to take place at the event?
• Is it the social aspects i.e. networking?
• Is it presenting and having an audience?

I know that there are more reasons than this to attend a conference and I know that we don’t always attend each conference for the same reason, but I think there is an underlying reason for each of us as to why we like attending.

I ask the question because I want to learn this so that we may incorporate that into our Illinois SHRM State Conference strategy for next year. We will be making some announcements about the 2011 IL SHRM Conference in November.

So if you dare--- leave a comment and tell me what trips your trigger about attending conferences?

Meet John Jorgensen

I used to worked with a gentleman who would often say, “If you don’t blow your own horn, ain’t nobody gonna blow it for you.” I am sure he did not make the quote up and it contains bad English, nonetheless I have often found it to be appropriate. And such is the case with ISC SHRM State Director John Jorgensen. (John won’t blow his horn – so contrary to the quote, I am going to blow his horn for him.)

The Illinois State Council of SHRM has been fortunate to have the services of Mr. Jorgensen for nearly a decade. The last two years have been as the Director of the State Council of SHRM. Recently William Tincup interviewed John, and that interview is posted on the blogsite Fistful of Talent. If you know John or have been involved with him, and many people have, by all means read the piece, and leave a comment on the site.

-Dave Ryan IL SHRM Director of Socail Media

How Well Does Your Organization Do Safety?

Many of us in our Human Resources role maintain some level of responsibility for employee safety whether it is training, regulatory compliance or employee security. How well do you do that? There are very few fair, objective and inexpensive ways to evaluate your organization’s commitment to safety and safe work practices.

Now this is where it turns into an infomercial. I have just that solution for you. It is a simple 20 question YES or NO evaluation that will allow you to gauge your organizations safety fitness. This evaluation was provided to me by someone who actually works for O.S.H.A. and he uses it as a tool to help businesses evaluate themselves.

Read through it and rate your organization. If you score low, hopefully you can use this as a catalyst to bring about some needed improvement in your organization.

ILSHRM Annual Conference Re-Cap

This is available on youtube, but we wanted to put it here for all to see - as our youtube site has little content and you would not likely stumble on to it. Also - MY BAD - in the wrap up video there are no pictures of Mike VanDervort, Trish McFarlane and Charee Klimek because I did not include any pictures or you.  Sarah White is pictured only because she hooked up and installed a router!

A big thanks to all who helped make our 2010 conference a success.

SHRM Interview with Kris Dunn

Here is a relaively short interview with Kris Dunn.  In this piece Kris challenges SHRM, as well as all buisnesses regarding social Media.  Kudos to Kris for a great piece, and to Curtiss Midkiff for sharing this.


http://vimeo.com/15659877 from SHRMSocMedGuy on Vimeo.

Project Social

This is a tale of two men; two men with fiery passion. Let me introduce Ben Eubanks and Victorio Milian. These two men are going to change the world.

In the meantime, they want to make sure that anyone who wants to learn more about new media will have an opportunity to do so. Conversely, they want to make sure that anyone who wants to help enlighten the world about new media has a willing and receptive audience; Saturday October 9, 2010 was rollout day for their new endeavor called Project Social.

Have a look and see what the team of Ben and Victorio is up to. Get involved in this and help.

Giving Social Media the Business

For a time now I have been hanging out with the “cool kids” on the internet, on twitter and at some conferences I have been fortunate enough to attend. While, it has seemed to me that the whole world of Human Resources is involved in this scene, this has turned out to be is a very naive assumption of mine.  In fact if you look into the blogosphere   you can hear our peers lamenting the lack of involvement of HR professionals. 

From the tweet stream of the HR Technology Conference, I read that a very small percentage (3% - 5%) of social media users were content generators. So by default 95% of the users are only consumers of content. Given that statistic we have a lot of work in front of us, to grow the contributors of social media. So I have wondered how the “cool kids” can do this.

One thing that I have contemplated doing at my work is creating a single-purpose blog site that is directed to our customers and our industry.  This got me to wondering about the cool kids of HR, as business partners.  Are we living in a vacuum?  The question is this; are you taking your social media skills and abilities and applying them in your industry or discipline.

While there seems to be a number of HR bloggers and social media gurus who are coming from the staffing and consulting areas of HR, there are folks who come from not-for-profits, medicine, government, academia as well as other sectors of the economy.

In an effort to create somewhat of a dialogue, I ask the question, do you take your social media skills to your core business?  Are you an advocate for social media use and tools outside the HR arena?  If you are not doing this you should. This is one thing we can collectively do to help advance our cause and use of social media as a business tool.

Please leave a comment or a link that showcases some of your social media prowess outside the HR area.  Hopefully this will be a catalyst to spur others to do the same.

-Dave Ryan IL SHRM Director of Socail Media

Thermoses and HRIS

Is your HR Technology staying current?

As I get ready to head out into the pre-dawn darkness I made my final preparations to head off to SIU to visit with my son. This included making the coffee and putting it into my trusty stainless steel Stanley thermos. I paused for a moment and thought this has been a great thermos. Although it is dented and scratched it is seemingly indestructible and continues to perform its intended function. How could it be any better?



While I pondered how could this great thermos ever be improved, I had another fleeting thought. Within the last few minutes I had read something about the upcoming H.R. Technology Conferencce, which is taking place this week in Chicago. I have used an HRIS for many years and I think that it is still exactly what I need. I haven’t wanted to mess with it because it does everything I think it needs to do. There are also several, connections, links and mappings to other applications that my company uses, so we would not want to change it on a whim. However the thought is still out there – is there something better?

 

By attending the H. R. Technology Show this week, the HR community can see what are the latest and greatest applications and hardware that are available to us to make our job easier and making us more efficient. In the applications I am using, I am seeing more products offered as saas (Software as a service). The saas applications do not require upgrades or hard drive space, only internet access. That concept may or may not work for your organization, but you have to know what is out there to make an informed decision.

So attend the show, see what’s out there, and how it might work for your organization. Oh and while you are there, see who else is there, the tweet stream is indicating that many of the “cool kids” will be in town for Mr. Bill Kutik’s big show!.







SHRM Leadership Conference 2010

As we move into the fall that means November is just around the corner. For anyone who has been active in SHRM they know that means the SHRM Leadership Conference. This year is no different with another return engagement at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Crystal City, VA.  The conference is largely directed toward new volunteer leaders.  These are local chapter and state council leaders and their staffs. In the years that I have attended the conference usually has 1000 to 1300 attendees.

If you are a new SHRM volunteer no doubt you would find it most beneficial to attend this conference.  Throughout the event you are immersed in what SHRM is all about and who they are as an organization.  You get to meet and hear from many of the key players within the organization.  You can see that people like Pam Green don’t take themselves all that seriously in this video clip 

 

And if you really want to get a long winded view of the conference you can read this story I wrote in The CIC-SHRM Jan/Feb 2008 newsletter,  a couple of years ago. Follow the link and scroll to page 5.

Now having talked a little bit about the conference, you may wonder why I would want to go back.  This year I am going with a mission.  Myself and several other folks who are advocates for Social Media/New Media are attending in hopes that SHRM will give us our due this year.  Many of the state councils as well as local chapters are using Social Media tools.  We want to show SHRM our support for these tools and SHRM’s need for continued support.

So if you are going to be there, and are a social media enthusiast, leave me a comment or find me on twitter or LinkedIn and we will look for you out there. Also be sure to add your name to the list of attendees on linkedin.l

-Dave Ryan IL SHRM Director of Socail Media

Workplace Shootings - Did we do Enough - What is Enough?

If you are working in human resources you are undoubtedly familiar with bullying in the workplace. When bullying graduates, it can turn into violence in the workplace – beatings, shooting and killings. We saw this play out again on 9/9/2010 in a Kraft Plant in Philadelphia,

This comes on the heels of nine fatalities  8/3/2010 shooting near Hartford, CT

Not to be brazen but these are the most two recent events that come to mind when I think about Violence in the Workplace (VITW). There are many more of these if you care to do a Google search  or two. When this happens there is someone who has committed a crime- a felony, and if the perpetrator isn’t killed, they will go to jail.

Sadly the a human resource staffer or office is targeted in these attacks, and then are assailed after the fact, by the media and local government officials for not having resolved these conditions which may have caused this employee to go berserk. HR is supposed to fix societal ills. Well that's where I think we need some guidance and assistance.

The H.R. community needs SHRM or OHSA or some leadership or government agency to step up and provide guidance on this matter. What is a reasonable level of due diligence? That is the question we need answered. Once answered then it needs to be codified of adopted or somehow put in place so that each employer or industry segment has the same cost to bear. For example if all office buildings are required to have an armed guard, then all offices will have the same cost to bear. If all retailers are required to have four video cameras in their parking lot, then that cost will be born by all those in that industry – thus keeping the playing field level and providing the employer with some feeling that they have done thier due diligence.

Employers will do what is required of them, and most will do it at a reasonable level, but after our people get shot at we sure don’t need someone in the media to assail our workplaces which they say may drive people to violent acts. We need guidance on what is reasonable.

-Dave Ryan IL SHRM Director of Socail Media

How to use Social Media tools for HR - no really HOW TO

On of the purposes of creating this blog site, was to get more Human Resources Professionals involved in the use of new/social media. My fear is that if you are reading this, you already have a pretty good idea of what is going on with twitter, facebook, youtube, flicker, Linkedin and so on.

So this post is designed for you to pass things along. This post is promoting a series of on-line how to use new media videos from Geoff Webb who is known on twitter as @radicalrecruit. Geoff has started producing a series of you tube videos on how to use new media. Pass this blog along to your friends in HR who have not yet committed to the use of new media. Geoff has a Youtube channel that where you will be able to find all of his videos. The link is to his channel is www.youtube.com/user/mgiwebb1.In this piece, Jeff talks about the TNL and HR Florida conferences and closes byoutlining the need for a primer in this TNL/HR FL video. You can click here to view it or click on the embedded video below.  Check back on his Youtube channel, as Geoff has promised to do more of these.

Here is a link to Jeff's first tutorial on How to use Twitter. Please share this!

Are You Riding the Train?

As an HR professional, I have a question for you, “How often do you ride the train?” This was a phrase shared with me recently at a Vendor Fair. From time to time, my employer is called upon to present/display/participate (pick your verb) at events put on by our customers. This task usually falls within the purview of the sales department. Occasionally, I will tag along to one of these events, just to see what is really happening in the sales world and how our organizations is perceived by our customers.

I feel that it is very important that everyone gets out of the office and the entire HR domain to see what it is your organization actually does. If you are in retail, you might spend some time talking with customers out on the sales floor and see how they view your business and how your employees interact with customers – first hand. Perhaps, if you are in medicine you might visit the surgical suites or waiting room to see what’s going on around the place?

So, back in my recent visit into the real world, I was speaking with a sales manager who was sharing with me his view on how sales managers often fail. He explained that they get caught up in the numbers and office politics and stop spending time out in the field with their sales representatives. He said that they begin to lose touch with the “real world.” He then said they don’t spend any time riding the train.

Now, you can use the analogy however you like, but the concept is simple – get out find out what’s going on. Are you riding the train often enough?

HR Florida 2010 - If You Can't Go - Follow the Conference via On line Resources

The SHRM State conferences continue and the HR Florida extravaganza is looming on the horizon, beginning on August 30. While everyone is welcome to read this post, consider this for all of the non-Florida residents, and those that are relatively new to the social media scene. If you have an HR Twitter friend who is new to social media, twitter, blogs, ect. send them a link to this post.

With the leadership of John Jorgensen  the Illinois State Council brought social media to the forefront, of state conferences this year, coming on the heels of the SHRM National Conference in San Diego. While Illinois did a great job, the upcoming Florida event is something I would encourage all of you to follow, this year and even consider attending next year (that is this blogger’s plan). They will be using the Hashtag #HRFL10 to catalogue tweets. So if you search for that hashtag (#) you will be able to see most of the tweets coming from the event.

There are many reasons that you should look at this event. First, they have more than 1200 attendees already signed up (the number is probably greater before it is all said and done). According to Florida State Council’s Social media director Steve MG Harrison he has said that they have several hundred active twitter users, which means there will be a lot of tweeting coming from the event.

Florida is home to blogger Mike VanDervort . Mike will be in attendance and giving his insight into the events. Mike was in attendance at the Illinois State Council’s state conference (and did an excellent job covering the event). He recently told me that he has made nearly 1000 blog posts to his site.

Our home state blogger Trish McFarlane  will be attendance too and will be tweeting and blogging. Trish too was in attendance at the Illinois State Council’s state conference (and did an excellent job covering the event).

Florida will be hosting a MONSTER tweet up on Monday evening. Monster’s main man Eric Winegardner  will be there and coordinating the tweet up. – Sorry I am missing this event and the tweet stream should be “interesting.”

SHRM National’s Social Media director Curtiss Midkiff  will be in Florida helping to promote and cover the event. Curtiss was at ILSHRM and provided us with some great assistance and entertainment.

The Recently launched Voice of HR  a new business venture of Mark Stelzner and Laurie Ruettimann  will be on-site and helping to promote the event via social media. This will be their inaugural event under this banner, and it should be most interesting.

China Miner Gorman  former COO of SHRM will be in attendance and one of the Keynote presenters at the event. No doubt she will be tweeting and blogging  about the event as well. China was NOT at ILSHRM10, but we will soon get her committed to attend in 2011.

Another one of this sites blogger favorites is Jessica Miller-Merrell. She is the author of http://www.blogggin4jobs.com/. She will be at HR Florida. Jessica will be presenting at the event. Her program is entitled HR is the new PR.  I am sure Jessica will generate some great blog posts and a multitude of tweets, just like she did at SHRM National this year.

Host of HRHappy Hour  and internet radio sensation Steve Boese will be at HR Florida and I believe I heard him say there will be two live broadcast coming from the event. Check the HR Happy Hour site to confirm live broadcast dates and times.

If you follow the HR stream on twitter there is another name you might recognize – Bill Boorman  – the founder of TruEvents. Bill is from the U,K, and he too will be in attendance at HR Florida and probably posting on his blog.

UPDATE 8/23 Now add to your blogger roster... Jennifer Mc Clure http://twitter.com/CincyRecruiter/. Jennifer is in the people business and blogs at another one of ILSHRM blog favorites Unbridled Talent.

It is not my intention to slight anyone, I am sure I have left out others who will be at HRFL10, so I will apologize here. There are going to be a lot of the leaders in social media there, lots of tweeting and blogging going on so if you are not going to get to go, you can still participate actively via cyberspace. I would encourage all of you to check in this event. It will be a behemoth

Enjoy and good luck to all of our SHRM Friends in Florida!

Illinois – Where our Governors Make our License Plates

Today is another sad day for the residents of the State of Illinois. Our former Governor – the delusional Rod Blagojevich is now a convicted felon, even if it is a mere charge of lying to the F.B.I., and he still says he didn’t do it. Well apparently the jury thinks he did, as they found him guilty of this charge.

It was equally embarrassing when he was first indicted, I lamented about that in another post.

But the fun isn’t over; we can look forward to take two of the circus. The prosecutor apparently did not convince all of the jurors of Blagojevich’s guilt, so he wants to do it all again. I guess we can live with the embarrassment of another trail so we can send our fourth governor to jail. The legacy continues!

A Big Thanks to the 2010 Illinois SHRM Social Media Crew

Last week was my week in the big leagues. As the social media guy for the Illinois State Council, I found myself in the middle of our annual conference and our state council's social media efforts. Long story short, the event found me hanging out with, talking with and socializing with our blogging crew and SHRM’s social media guy. Prior to this conference, I had met Mike VanDervort, Trish McFarlane, Charee Klimek and Curtis Midkiff at previous events although I had not had the pleasure of meeting Sarah White.

To anyone who has met any of these folks, you all know this, but I feel compelled to tell the world that they are all genuinely nice people who have no airs about them. Although the reality is they all have large followings on their blog sites and with their twitter followers as well. They were all very welcoming and spoke to anyone who engaged them in conversation.

In one instance, I read a blog post response where a conference attendee was uncomfortable walking up to Mike, although she had seen him at the conference. Mike did follow up with her in a blog comments section and offered up a phone call. In another instance, another commenter thanked Sarah for spending one-on-one time with her after a session answering questions about social media. Trish enticed all of the women on the board of the ISC SHRM when she asked for guest posts for one of Trish's many projects The Women of HR blog.

To some degree, each of them possesses a talent often seen in our children. Their multi-tasking was amazing - tweeting, blogging, questioning, talking - all at the same time! They all did it; this was intriguing to watch.

During the second day luncheon, sponsored awards were handed out. Without any prompting or requests, the blog squad in unison began tweeting out thanks to the award sponsors (Blue Cross) and quickly received a tweet back from Blue Cross. That’s what they do, and boy do they do it well!

So, in summary, and, on behalf of the entire the SHRM State Council, I would like to send out a big thank you to our 2010 blogger crew and SHRM national’s Curtis Midkiff for all of their work in helping us deliver this year’s conference to the whole world via the internet. It was truly my pleasure getting to work with and know each of you.

Stay tuned and see what Trish, Curtiss and Mike bring us from HR Florida, no doubt it will be interesting!

It's Over... Next Up HR Florida

The 2010 Illinois SHRM State Conference is in the books.  While this blog may be somewhat biased the event was a success, with some fabulous keynotes and great break out session. Having a great conference was the objective. Mission accomplished!

Another objective for the year was to interject a substantial level of social media into the conference. We did that too, and quite well I think.  Along the way we did have one session that seemed to garner a lot of attention out on the tweet stream.  If you are reading this there is a good chance that you have already looked at this but the complete tweet transcript is located here.

I don’t want to expound upon who was right, or who was wrong. Here is what happened in my opinion. As technology and communication are evolving those of us who use these tools have to change to keep up with those change.  Sometimes these changes come so quickly, we as the users aren’t sure of the best way to use the tools. 

Mark Stelzner commented on the matter saying that it is just like a bad play review, only quicker.

More discussion has taken place on a blog post from Lance on Rehaul.  Again, these are just opinions here.

What does it all mean?  Times are and continue to keep changing.  The lines are going to continue to blur.

Sometimes things don’t work out exactly like you plan. 

In the end, it was all good.  No animals were harmed!

When did Human Resources Embrace Social Media

As we continue to prepare for the Illinois State Council’s 11th Annual Conference, we are pulling out all of the stops to get as much attention on the event as possible. In doing so, our public relations director contacted me and told me of an opportunity to get some coverage in my hometown newspaper for the event. The news outlet was curious how and why we were going to use social media to help promote the event. In fact, the reporter or his editor asked this question – What changed; when did you folks in Human Resources start embracing Facebook, Twitter and the like?

While it is a fair question, I don’t recall there being a watershed moment for me or anyone I know. To date, has the HR community shunned social media, or have we just been slow to embrace it? I am not sure really of the answer.

I hold the belief that there are less HR people who are afraid of using the Internet for business purposes, than have taken the time to try to learn, use and apply the tools that are out there. As in any new venture, there will be many opportunities for failure; some of them may fail spectacularly! Fear not though, just like any other business venture, if your idea doesn’t work out like you planned you re-tool and try again.

So if you have been sitting on the sidelines and need a little coaching on how to do this, we have a couple of sessions at #ILSHRM10 (our twitter hashtag) on Monday that may help you out. Lisa Callaway is leading a Monday morning session titled Embracing Social Media While Protecting Your Organization. Later in the day, there is a second session titled What HR Should Know About Social Media which is lead by Maureen Dorgan-Clemans. Hopefully, one or both of these sessions might provide a little clarity on the matters.

If you can’t attend, follow us on twitter, check out our guest bloggers Sarah White, Trish McFarlane and Mike VanDervort and their take on the event. And… we will be getting a first look at some new material from SHRM’s Social Media guy Curtiss Midkiff, as he eluded to on DriveThruHR earlier in the week.

Hope to see you there!

Why are you here?

As the preparations continue to provide a little social media flair at the ISC HR Conference, I got to pondering this. Many people, over 500 so far will be in attendance, but why are they coming? There are probably as many reasons why people attend, as there are people who will be in attendance, although my long since past college statistics classes tell me there will be one answer that will be most repeated.

This has become one of my SM projects for this state conference. With my new flip video cam in hand I will be asking attendees; what is your name, where do you live, are you involved with a local SHRM chapter, AND most importantly why are you attending this conference?

This should edit easily, and create a nice montage of attendees. It should also be a way for attendees to revisit and it may be even be a way for the IL State Council to learn as to why people attend conferences. Perhaps a prize is in order for the most unusual or even lame reason to attend the conference

So look for me at the conference, the big guy with the little camera asking what brings you to the conference this year?

Social Media Perfect Storm

I have been looking for the best analogy for this post and I have been unable to come up with it, so I will go with an over-used trite and glib analogy. Watch out for the impending Social Media Perfect Storm. With the recently concluded SHRM Annual Conference, there is no doubt that all aspects of Social Media took at least two giant steps forward coming out of the conference, at least as it relates to those of us in Human Resources.

In another time, video taping an interview and distributing your video took a lot of equipment and expertise, just to get it done. Then it took even more resources to distribute or make it available to others. Today, you can shoot video on an iphone or with a flip cam (both around $200) and with internet access you can post it on youtube and with that you have the video imagery of your interview distributed to the world. This has been a huge change making video accessible for the masses, and easy to use.

Video was used on a grand scale at the SHRM 2010 Conference. In addition to video, there were many bloggers and tweeters who put out a large volume of excellent content during the conference. There was many other watershed moments as a result of the conference but suffice it to say, SM is now here to stay and will continue to grow like a giant snowball rolling down the mountainside.

Going forward from this point, how will SHRM, SHRM Chapters, State Councils and Human Resources communities build on the use of social media? The Illinois State Council of SHRM is going to do our part by elevating the presence of Social Media at this year's Illinois State Conference. As noted in Blog Post #1, we have a group of well-known bloggers and SHRM's own Social Media Guy all on our list of attendees. We have a committed State Council Director, Director Elect and Social Media Director who are all going to do the utmost to get our efforts to make the 2010 ISC Conference one to remember, not only as a great conference but for bringing social media to the event.

I will speculate that the HR community will see this continue. Coming up after Illinois, is the HR Florida Conference. There will be over 1200 attendees at HR Florida, in Orlando beginning on August 30. HR Florida already has a huge presence within the SM community. They were the first state council to have a social media director. Steven Harrison, with HR Florida, says 2010 will be the third year they have been using SM to promote HR Florida. Steve says they have even engaged conference attendees and exhibitors by running contest on twitter. HR Florida is on Curtis Midkiff's blogapolooza tour. I look for Steve and his Florida posse to really show us how it is done.

The blogapolooza tour continues, for SHRMsocmeguy in September starting on September 15 in Sandusky, OH. I know that there are many SM leaders and advocates in Ohio, so look for their State Council meeting to be another ground breaking event. Ohio currently has about 500 attendees signed up just about the same as Illinois.

And lookout in October, because on October 6 the Wisconsin State Council will host their annual convention and know at least one advocate of SM in WI, I am sure he will bring SM to the conference.

So watch and see how we do here in Illinois, and also see how SM becomes a part of the conferences in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin.

You can view an entire list of State Conferences for 2010 on SHRM’s website.

Blog Post # 1

This will be known as blog post # 1. Coming on the heels of the 2010 SHRM Annual Conference is the 11th Annual Illinois State Council Conference. This year’s conference is August 2nd and 3rd in beautiful Oak Brook, IL. The conference features some keynote speakers on a wide range of topics. It promises to be an exciting event with more than 450 registrants and 55 exhibitors at the time of this post.
In addition to the conference ISC board members are working to make this a social media event as well. Perhaps not as was done on such a grand scale in San Diego by the SHRM mothership. While we may not be the mothership, ISC does have its Captain- SHRM’s own Curtiss Midkiff (a.k.a. SHRMsocmeguy)who will be in attendance. Curtiss along with SHRM National’s help is going to dial up the transparency of this event as there will be lots of live blogging and tweeting going on at the event; the likes of which many of you may have never seen.

Also to make sure there are a number of good blog posts coming out of the event, the council has confirmed guests and Blogging Icons Trish McFarlane (who blogs as the HR Ringleader), Mike Vandervort ( who blogs at The Human Race Horses) and Sarah White (who blogs at I’m So Sarah). No doubt they will have some thoughts on the conference and the speakers. They will also be around, in the event that you would like to meet or speak with them during the conference.

The ISC will also be hosting a tweet-up on Monday evening. This is going to take place at the Hilton Hotel, adjacent to the conference. Unfortunately this will be an invitation only event.

So if you have not made your plans to attend the conference, it is time to do so NOW!