SHRM VLS 2015

I don’t know how many times I have written this post, and I don’t really care to go count them, but this week is the annual SHRM Volunteer Leaders’ Summit (VLS).  Previously this event has been known as SHRM Leadership (and the twitter hashtag remains #SHRMLead).  I have attended this event in many different capacities. And each time as I attended I felt a different set of responsibilities with my attendance.  This year I somehow feel like I am carrying a larger load, although I am proud to do so and it is of my own choosing.

To the best of my recollection the first SHRM Leadership I attend was when Johnny Taylor (2005-2006) was Board Chair. Mr. Taylor was quite an engaging fellow, and was very passionate about HR’s role in the workplace. He pumped me up and made me a proud SHRMie. I was also introduced to the Pinnacle Awards at my first Leadership Conference.  I recall being so moved.  The work these HR pros had done and continued to do brought tears to my eyes. They were amazing! I knew then I wanted more of that – whatever that was.

Today I have gotten more, a lot more. Ten years after my first leadership conference I was asked to be a one of the judges for the Pinnacle awards for 2015.   I was truly humbled, and accepted without question.   This meant I got to read about all of the work that fellow HR people were doing out in their world.  Upon completing my review of the submission, I was reminded of how awe inspiring these activates truly are. Most of the submission came in the areas of workforce readiness, assisting veterans and generally helping people better themselves for their jobs, their work or the task of finding work.

The part that resonates so with me is this.  Nobody told these people, to do this or how to go about it.  There were no specific templates to follow.   These HR pros in their chapter, saw a need and took the bull by the horns and with tremendous tenacity and grit they tackled these issues, in ways that worked in their communities.

So when the awards are handed out, sadly not every chapter will get an award, but this in no way diminished what they have done.  They are all winners as I see it because they had the guts to take on some tough problems.  If you do not know about the Pinnacle Awards I suggest you Google them and learn a little more, so when the awards are handed out, you really understand why the winners cry, scream, shout, jump and down and hug anyone within reach – because no matter what they have done, to even be considered for this award is nothing short of amazing!

Let’s connect in Washington DC

-       Dave Ryan ISC SHRM Director Elect

HR Helping HR

The theme of this year's ILSHRM conference is HR Helping HR and we have plans to do just that. In this post I highlighted the keynote speakers who will be taking the stage to impart their wisdom with us. If you haven't read it yet, go check it out. Go ahead, I will wait.

Now that you are pumped about that I wanted to share another exciting event happening just before the actual conference begins. On Sunday, August 18, 2013 from 2-6pm at the Hilton Suites (located right next door to the Drury Lane), we will be hosting an event targeted at both social recruiters and social job seekers. Before I explain the event, let me give you a little background.

Over the past few years, ILSHRM has been a leader in highlighting emerging trends in HR. One of those emerging trends has and continues to be, social media. We have offered workshops, concurrent sessions and a cool Social Media Lab (which will make its appearance again this year) all focused on helping attendees gain a better understanding of social media usage in the workplace. Over and over we hear how attendees want more information targeted towards social recruiting.

At the same time we realize that as a profession, HR has been hit hard by the economy. Many human resource professionals have found themselves on the other side of the unemployment line for the first time in many years. Going from hiring manager to job seeker is no easy task, especially when the rules have completely changed. At last year's conference I was approached specifically by several individuals who asked if there was anything ILSHRM could do to help them in their job search.

In thinking about those two requests, this Sunday event is what I have come up with. We want to take social recruiting and pick it apart. We will talk about where, how and why. We will give you tools and resources to use and actionable items you can implement immediately. THEN we are going to reverse engineer that for the job search process.  We will highlight how job seekers can use a similar social media strategy on their side of the employment line. Oh and sometimes when recruiters and job seekers get into a room together, jobs happen. I'm just saying.

This event is for any HR pro currently looking for work and any HR pro looking to learn how to incorporate social recruiting into your current or future candidate strategy. The event will be led by both HR practitioners and social media aficionados so attendees get the best balance of information.

The cost of the event is $50 and is considered separate from the actual conference.  To register for the event or overall conference, click here.

We are very excited to be able to offer this special event and hope you will join us for this and the rest of the conference in August.

Sabrina Baker, PHR  - ILSHRM Conference Chair

Are we Measuring The Right Things

Today's Post is from ILSHRM Regular Contributor John Hudson. John is currently an HR Manager with Discovery Communications and Harpo Studios in Chicago and has over 15 years of experience in the Human Resources field.  He provides consultation and expertise in the areas of performance management, employee development, employee relations, compensation and recruiting.   John has also worked in the insurance and consumer products environments supporting various departments including IT, Finance and Operations.  John has a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Indiana University and the SPHR certification. Follow him @johnphudson@johnphudson on Twitter

Photo credit to www.acatalent.com

HR is all about numbers and metrics these days. Just pick up any issue of SHRM HR magazine, and it’s clear we are measuring and tracking everything we do. But there are some things we have traditionally measured to show we are saving money, that may actually be costing the company more in the long term. The “time to fill” metric, for example, drives behaviors that go against what recruiters and HR professionals are paid to do: find the most qualified candidate.

​

“The Ladders” did a study that theorizes a recruiter spends about 6 seconds reviewing a resume. Yes, I know, we are all “Super Recruiters,” but how do we know we aren’t scanning through some candidates who may be the most qualified for your job? Common sense would say a candidate’s job title is viewed in one of those 6 seconds and a Marketing Manager may be passed over in favor of a VP of Marketing. By looking a few seconds longer, that Marketing Manager may be overseeing a 4 million dollar budget, while the VP is responsible for a $500k budget.

We need to spend more time understanding what a candidate is actually doing for their organization. Pick up the phone, send an email, tweet ‘em, or LinkedInMail ‘em. We owe it to our hiring managers and organizations to do this. So what if there are 500 applicants to sift through. How many qualified candidates are overlooked due to one HR person’s perception of a job title or a resume type?  

As recruiters and HR professionals, one of our main responsibilities is to find the most qualified candidate, period. Unfortunately, we reward behaviors by analyzing metrics like “time to fill” and making sure a job is closed as quickly as possible.  I know, I know, the longer the job is open, the more production, and more importantly, the more money, is lost. How much more money is lost, though, by making the wrong hire? I know we all measure that.

Managers need positions filled quickly, but they also need the most qualified candidate. We need to take time to explain our overall process to the hiring manager. Spend time upfront explaining. Set the expectation that while it may take a little longer, the time will produce the most qualified candidate, and a better hire, for the organization. A few extra minutes exploring the candidate’s background can make a difference. After all, that is what we are paid to do.

Metrics are important. We need them to validate the work we are doing and to show the value we are adding. We need to make sure these metrics are reinforcing the right behaviors, though. Just because we have always measured “time to fill” doesn’t mean we are getting the desired result. It’s time to rethink what we have traditionally measured and make sure it is ultimately producing what the company needs. John P. Hudson

Want to Write For ILSHRM

Anything for the team -John !

To: Members and Friends of ILSHRM

From: ILSHRM Board


We want you. Where is a picture of Dave the HR Czar pointing at you when you need one? (What, we do have one?) We are putting together our Winter edition of your ILSHRM Magazine and are looking for
contributors.

For those of you unfamiliar with the ILSHRM Magazine, it is publication that ILSHRM puts out a few times a year. It is not your typical newsletter but a full blown real deal magazine. It is distributed to HR professionals throughout the state of Illinois and a few sneak out nationally. Our press run is around
10000 copies.

The “theme” of our next issue is on the elections (state, local or Federal) will affect HR and the workplace. As you can imagine, the outcome could have vast implications on how we operate as a profession and in business in general. If you have opinions or thoughts that you would like to share, please let us know. All entries will be considered and the best will be used, especially if we get a nice mix of both local and national topics. This is not limited to ILSHRM members but they might get first
priority if we run out of space.

There is a deadline of November 28, 2012 so we can choose and forward to our publisher. If you are interested, notify me and I can get you the details for the articles. I know a bunch of you who will read this post have plenty of great thoughts and writing skills. Let’s put both to good use.

John Jorgensen
jkjorg@aol.com

SHRMStrat Day 1

The first day of the SHRM Strategy Conference went off without a hitch!  Several hundred HR pros gathered at the Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa to hear first from none other than the CHRO of SHRM, Jeff T. H. Pon, PhD who is referred to on Twitter as SHRMJeff.  He is our emcee for the week and I'm looking forward to hearing more from him as he tries to avoid suggestions from 260k members about how he should handle HR at SHRM (his comment not mine).  The board chair, Jose Berrios, followed with the state of the workforce before the highlight of the entire day to took the stage, Linda Rottenberg, CEO and co-founder of Endeavor.

My overall reaction to Linda's keynote is "she gets it"!  That is not because she praised the HR profession more than once, but because she explained many specific experiences of both her own and the entrepreneurs that her non-profit organization, Endeavor, works so hard to assist that demonstrated her thorough understanding of how HR has a huge impact on the bottom line of any organization.  The organization that started with inspiration that came from three cab rides.  It was her third cab ride where the driver shared that he had a PhD in Engineering but had taken the job because he couldn't find anything else due to the economy.  She thought to herself, whey doesn't he start his own company, and realized resources were limited for individuals who may have a desire when the economy doesn't support our working for others.  As an entrepreneur myself for 11 years now, I totally understand the cab drivers predicament and was inspired by Linda's drive and determination to make a difference.

Aside from the details of running a worldwide organization and sharing all the HR and general business related experiences and challenges, we learned she was very human and not just super woman.  She shared a personal story about having to tell her staff about her commitment to her husband and family values when he was initially diagnosed with cancer.  The staff let her know that they appreciated her humanness after years of seeing her go nonstop and had gained a new found respect for her as a person.  The lesson she learned from that experience was invaluable.  She ended with a powerful statement about how we get a chance to make a difference in our profession for a short part of our lifetime but she is a mom forever.  Family values are extremely important and work flexibility is not just a generational issue it is a workplace issue and we all need to do what we can to make it ok for people to take care of what matters most.

I had a chance to interview, Vince Caldwell, who shared the book store highlights related to Strategic HRM which you can watch here:

There where four afternoon sessions to chose from and I chose a table at the front of the Using Social Media to Increase Collaboration, Productivity and Engagement session which was unfortunately a disappointment because it was simply too basic.  However,  I didn't feel comfortable enough to leave having been right up front.  I was not the only one as I discovered during the presidential debates later in the evening.  The reason I felt this way which is really a message to all conference speakers was because she didn't know her audience or perhaps she assumed from the low online participation up to and during the conference that everyone in the room was needing the basics.  For me I was looking at the title and description thought we would get into some case studies about how companies were actually using it to collaborate and engage employees.  We heard from Linda Rottinger earlier that her company uses Chatter.com internally to increase productivity, collaboration, and engagement and that was not even her topic.  I was expecting more examples and software ideas.  However, after reviewing the description there was one word that answered my misunderstanding of expectations (LEAP).  It says "by taking the leap and introducing social media into your organization".  She focused on that one word by "selling" all the reasons for using social media in the organization.

Getting back to knowing your audience.  I get that this group is on the trailing end of actually using social media which is evident online and by what one of the participants stood up and mentioned about how more of the attendees should have been there.  They should have been in there indeed to hear the basic message she had but for those of us who already get it and was in the room I believe we were looking for more.  The lady sitting next to me was using a program similar to chatter to engage all 800 employees all over the country.  I be the group would have liked to hear more about here experience implementing, etc.  With all this said she absolutely was engaging and well spoken.

Finally, the evening could not have ended any better than seeing how important the social issues in this country are to the HR professionals in attendance by the turnout for the big screen debate showing and cash bar with appetizers that each participant paid for themselves.  Personal commitment to staying informed as a voter was evident by e approximately 100 person turnout between both rooms.

by Donna Rogers, SPHR, ILSHRM Director

TalentNetLIVE meets ILSHRM12

Here is another video interview from Susan Avello talking with TalentNet's Craig Fisher and Crystal Miller about Social Recruiting and HR, and the upcoming Unconference TalentNetLIVE on August 5th, 2012 right before ILSHRM12.

Stop Spending and Cut the Budget

This last week has made it more apparent to me a lot of what is wrong with government, at all levels.  This really ruffles my feathers, because those of us in business and HR are trying to help keep/grow employment here in Illinois, sure have a lot of forces working against us.

Photo credit www.webojen.com

Last week started out with an article from Wall Street Journal on the best and worst run states in the country. Illinois was second only to California (49th out of 50) for poor financial performance.  While conventional wisdom would want to blame this on Governor Blagojevich (the latest governor going to jail), our current Governor Quinn has not done much to make matters better.  Governor Quinn was accused by an Illinois Senate Leader of being the emperor with no cloths, while being referred to as delusional by others as he made his State of State speech. He is proposing new programs with new spending, and cost reductions, while the state is rumored to be 180 behind on paying its bills.

Within the same week, here is Springfield our municipally owned and operated utility told the public that due to some issues that had built up since 2005, they now needed to ask the public for a rate hike 9.5%. In a meeting that I attended with the Mayor he explained to us this was due to the  management style of the previous administration.

Further, I will point out that they are doing the same thing in Washington DC, that is continuing to initiate things that we as a country can not afford. Take a look at the Federal Budget Deficit this grows by the minute.

One thing I have learned well in my lifetime is this.  If your financial position is digressing and it needs improvement you must cut expenses or raise revenue - that's it.  Government apparently can not ever cut expenses so they choose to raise revenue.  They do this for many reasons, but then it always turns into the new normal.

For example with our local utility, they undertook to build a new power plant.  They figured on selling power at $50 a megawatt hour.  The price when they undertook to build was near $70 a megawatt hour. Now the price is $30 a megawatt hour.   Their rate hike then is based on $30 power. BUT- what happens when the market returns to $70?  Then, we return to the good old days when funds are plentiful and we spend it- all, and this becomes the new normal. So when we have a minor rollback to $60 an hour it becomes problematic, and again rate hikes are needed.

Government, at all levels must learn how to REDUCE REAL SPENDING.  However, until we get politicians who have the intestinal fortitude to do this (and this will probably involve negotiating with the other party) we are destined to have failed government.   Want to move to Illinois for a job?

-Dave Ryan Director of Social Media ISC SHRM

SHRM Strategy Conference Wrap-Up

As a final follow-up to the SHRM Strategy Conference I wanted to share the following press information with you that was written by Kate Kennedy, @SHRMPress.

Oct. 5, 2011    HR Executives Consider Business Risk and Innovation

As human resource executives gathered Tuesday, Oct. 4, in Chicago to examine business risk created by technology, global competition and market uncertainties, an Internet entrepreneur turned the risk posed by social media upside down.  The biggest risk associated with social media is not investing enough time with it, BranchOut CEO Rick Marini told the 100 business leaders.

Social media is the most scalable way to get real-time information from customers, who in turn become marketers for you, he said. And Facebook, he added, brings incredible efficiency to keeping in touch. BranchOut is a professional network on Facebook

Marini was the dinner speaker on the opening day of the SHRM Foundation’s Thought Leaders Retreat -- “HR’s Role in Managing Business Risk” -- an exclusive event for chief human resource officers and CEOs.

Other quotable moments included:

·        To drive innovation, organizations need to set an aggressive vision and challenge orthodoxies, said Arun Leslie George, senior vice president and head of HR at Coromandel International of India. Align innovation to business goals and metrics, he suggested, noting: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

·        The retreat, held before SHRM’s Strategy Conference (Oct. 5-7 in Chicago), continues Wednesday with speakers including Susan Podlogar, vice president of global compensation and performance for Johnson & Johnson.

Oct. 5, 2011    HR Thought Leaders: Balancing Risk and Opportunity

The Society for Human Resource Management’s Strategy Conference opened Wednesday, Oct. 5, with former General Electric HR executive Bill Conaty admonishing the 500 attendees not to forget the “human” in human resources.

“Don’t forget why we are at the table,” he said.

Conaty, co-author of The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers, said the HR leader of the future will need to have a critical fit with the CEO and CFO, the trust and confidence of the senior management team and a capacity for complex problem solving and operational savvy.

Great leaders balance a passion for business with compassion for people, he said. Among his advice for professionals: “Great leaders do great succession planning.” “Be problem solvers vs. problem identifiers.” “When you stop growing, the game is over.”

SHRM CEO Henry G. (Hank) Jackson also included the importance of talent management in his remarks. “The question for all of us is: How do we differentiate our organizations and ourselves?  I would argue that as HR professionals … we must ensure that every employee has the opportunity to succeed at his or her greatest degree of potential.”

The 2011 Michael R. Losey Human Resource Research Award was presented to Dr. Sara Rynes, the John F. Murray professor of management and organizations at the University of Iowa and editor of the Academy of Management Journal. In accepting the award, Rynes described research as “the new competitive advantage.”

The conference, which features 17 speakers, continues Thursday, Oct. 6, with presentations by Jeffrey Garten, former undersecretary of commerce, and Bridget van Kralingen, general manager of IBM North America.

The conference followed the SHRM Foundation’s “HR’s role in Managing Business Risk,” an exclusive event held Oct. 4-5 for CEOs and chief human resource officers.

Why are HR executives considering risk now? Wayne Cascio, the Robert H. Reynolds chair in global leadership at the University of Colorado, said concern about business risk is a “byproduct of what happened and what we’ve been through with the global financial crisis.”

But he noted, “The danger of focusing on risk is that we miss out on the flip side – opportunities.” He encouraged HR leaders to put their organizations in “a position to benefit from an uncertain future event.”

 Oct. 6, 2011   SHRM's Strategy Conference: Talent Management Critical to Transformation

The company of the future defines its purpose so employees are truly inspired, has a global mindset and a broad network of ideas and talent, and is agile and resilient, finance expert Jeffrey Garten told attendees at the Society for Human Resource’s Strategy Conference in Chicago.

At the heart of the company of the future is HR. “It’s all about having the right people in the right places at the right time,” said Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management.

“The company of the future is a talent machine.”

Garten, former undersecretary of commerce for international trade, opened Day Two of the conference attended by top HR executives. “Leadership development has to be elevated to the same level as strategy and risk management,” he said, adding that he believes top executives need global experiences that allow them to experience culture and an understanding of public policy.

Brian Dickson, senior vice president of professional development at SHRM who hosted the conference, told the 500 attendees about a recent visit to Cuba by a SHRM delegation. At the heart of dramatic change on the island nation, he noted, is a shift from the public sector to the private sector. “Our time in Cuba brought home to me in a very vivid manner that change, anticipating change, adapting and managing change is integral to the well-being and very survival of our institutions.”

Thursday afternoon’s keynote speaker, Bridget van Kralingen, general manager of IBM North America, spoke about lessons learned from transformation and longevity. “Move to the future before it moves to you,” said the executive of the 100-year-old company. Don’t move when everyone sees it. “Move when it’s lonely.”

During the Oct. 5-7 conference, SHRM’s vice president of research, Mark Schmit, briefed reporters on the 2011 Job Satisfaction Survey, which will be released later this month. For the fourth year, job security was the top driver of job satisfaction, Schmit said.

For the first time, research included data on employee engagement and identified gaps between what employees value and how satisfied they are with what matters most to them. While 63 percent of employees responding to the survey said job security is very important to them, only 28 percent said they were very satisfied with their job security.

For more information about the Job Satisfaction Survey, contact SHRM Media Relations.

SHRM’s conference, “Creative, Effective and Scalable Strategies that Deliver Results,” ends Friday with Don Tapscott, author and authority on the impact of technology, speaking about “Rethinking Talent for the Age of Networked Intelligence.”

On the Road at Ohio SHRM

I have the good fortune of attending my second SHRM state conference in about a month.  I revel in the opportunity to learn about my field of HR.  Not only am I learning about HR topics, but also about the task of putting on a Conference itself and all of the details that requires.

I am in awe to learn from two of the best in the business: John Jorgensen and Steve Browne. John is more of a behind the scenes guy and Steve is more of an out front guy, kind of like a say- lead singer of a band. So far, I have attended two sessions, and I am in the third as I write this. The first session was thought provoking and insightful. The speaker was Mark Stelzner. His topic was Social Media and HR policies. After lunch Simon Bailey addressed the group of over 700 HR pros and discussed leadership, leading change, being positive and assertive in your workplace. Simon, a former Disney executive communicated about his time at the happiest place on earth and it came through. Once a cast member, always a cast member.

But the real show stealer was lead conference organizer Steve Browne. Have a look



-Dave Ryan Director of Social Media ISC SHRM

Membership Querries via Texting

Click on the Picture to enlarge it.

Tonight I discovered a FREE tool that I think chapters might have some fun with as well as learn a little about their membership without burdening them. It’s called PollEverywhere.com and can be used via website response or texting response. For example, I set up a test question (that of course we definitely want to promote that says “What are you looking forward to at #ILSHRM11?”.

I can send both the text option and the email polling option out to our SHRM members in the state via email, twitter, linked in, facebook, etc. and then wait to see the responses. You can see the picture here shows you the question, the texting, or web submission options. You can also see my test (but sincere) response: “Seeing John Jorgensen”.

So let’s think here a bit on how we might use this as SHRM leaders. One thing that came to my mind immediately was a SHRM Leadership conference a year or two ago whereas leaders in the audience the session facilitators gave us all this little square device. It was a little bigger than a cell phone and we pushed a button for the answer we want to give. Questions were things like: How long have you been in HR?; What size of company do you hail from? What is your biggest HR issue that keeps you up at night, etc.?

Other ideas that I have seen on membership surveys in the past when I was more involved at the chapter level were things like (not worded exactly like this I might add): Do you like this facility? Did you like the speaker? Do you have a suggestion for topics we could cover next year? The thing about this is that the responses can be sent during a meeting (synchronously) or anytime at the convenience of the member (asynchronously). During a meeting you can just pull up the website and watch the responses pop up on the screen. After a meeting you could post the responses in a newsletter or an email as feedback to the participants of the poll.

One thing to note is that everyone who answers will want to see their results. It’s kind of like an employee opinion survey: Don’t ask if you’re not going to do anything with it! My example was open ended but you can have multiple choice as well as other options depending on your needs. Interesting? I thought so.

So let’s really test this. I have asked the question: What are you looking forward to at #ILSHRM11? You can respond via texting (215941; your answer to 37607) or via website (215941 and your message to http://poll4.com). I will post the results in a later blog post so you can see the responses. I look forward to your comments on how you can use this in your chapter

Build television sms voting polls at Poll Everywhere

-Donna Rogers ISC SHRM State Council Chair

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!

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?

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.

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

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?

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!