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!