Staffing Managment Association of Greater Chicago Pledges Support to ESGR in 2011

The Staffing Management Association of Greater Chicago is kicking off their year by signing a Statement of Support for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). Currently there are more than 1.3 million in the National Guard and Reserve and our pledge recognizes the essential strength they provide to our nation and the well-being of our communities. SMAGC is committed to helping these men and women return to their job or find a new job as they return for their military duty.


Our signing ceremony will be taking place on January 20th at Maggiano's in Chicago at 8:30AM, in conjunction with a panel discussion on Military Talent Programs. Moderated by Thomas L. Aiello, Sears Holdings, Division Vice President, Public Relations, we will invoke conversation on how to best implement sourcing, interviewing strategies and retention solutions to better assist those transitioning from the military duty into the civilian workforce.

Panelists include:
• Marjorie James, Volt Workforce Solutions, President of Hire America’s Heroes’ and Program Manager at Volt Military
• Anthony Kaylin, IBM, Global EO Programs Manager, Global Diversity
• Vincent W. Patton, III, Ed.D., Military Advantage/Monster Worldwide, Director of Community Outreach

Discussion topics will include:

• Sourcing from this Highly Skilled Talent Pool – How do you find the best and brightest to meet your needs.
• Recruiting —How to identify military professionals ready to transition to the civilian workforce and effectively interview to ensure a good match.
• Retaining —The unique concerns that military professionals face adapting to the civilian workplace, how to link veterans’ long-term interests to their new civilian employer, and concerns about hiring veterans.
• Translating Culture and Values—How to best bridge the differences between military and nonmilitary characteristics, concepts, terminology, technical and leadership skills.

Join us as we work together, SMAGC, ESGR and the Employers in the Chicagoland Area, make a positive impact our community and the lives of our Citizen Warriors and most importantly, their families, who support their service.

To learn more about SMAGC and register for this event, go to www.smagc.org To keep abreast of our 2011 events and initiatives , follow us on Twitter @SMAGC and like our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/smagc

Chloe Rada - Chapter President at Staffing Management Association (SMA) of Greater Chicago

Our State Council Leadership Meeting 2011

The Illinois State Council of SHRM held its fourth annual Leadership Conference on January 9 and 10th in Utica, on the fringes of Starved Rock State Park. Sunday was designed to be a planning session for the board and Monday included state council members as well as state-wide chapter officials. In total there were a little over 100 attendees.
The two day event was designed to bring volunteer leaders from all parts of Illinois together to help grow and improve their organizations.

We heard from author and speaker Clint Swindall on Monday. Clint spoke about employee engagement and working with volunteer leaders. Clint referenced several topics from his most recent book Engaged Leadership.

My Takeaways from the event were this.

• Ironically when you get a group of HR folks together to work on Mission, Vision and Values statements, they struggle just like most other groups.
• SHRM volunteers at all levels give a tremendous amount of their time and effort helping their respective organizations.
• To hold a successful conference these days, the host facility and hotel must have reliable wireless internet service through out the facility.
• A hotel bar is essential for conference networking, a hotel without a bar will stifle networking.
• It takes one heck of a commitment and a hell of a lot of time to be Director of a State Council of SHRM. Thanks to our friend John Jorgensen for all that he has done for this organization!

Pictured below are current IL SHRM State Director Donna Rogers with Immediate Past Director John Jorgensen at the conference.  To see more pictures from the event click the Picasa Tab at the top of the page.

Communicating Up & Down the Line

My dad was a pipeliner.  For those of you who have never known anyone who worked on a pipeline, there are, or were (circa 1965) when father worked there, hard working, mean, tough, foul mouthed, whiskey drinking, ornery hooligans.  Due to political correctness and changes in labor law they may have changed a bit over the years.

My father, Richard or Dick as he was known to his friends was a field superintendent with his Company Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company.  This Company moved natural gas via pipelines from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana to the Midwest selling it all up and down the line. As a supervisor Dick was involved with managing about a 100 mile section of 36” to 48” metal pipes buried underground transmitting gas at outrageous pressures.  If you look at the map you can see the pipelines as a couple of lines.  All up and down the line they were taking gas off, putting it on and putting pressure back on the line. 

Without going into all of the particulars this is dangerous work requiring skill and a great deal of communication.  In the 1960's company vehicles had two way radios, like the police.  They also used microwave communication to talk via a private phone system amongst themselves. Every morning all of the field supervisors would call in on some number.

They would have a party conversation, 20 to 30 people on the phone talking about what was going on, problems they had encountered,  situations that others could learn from, and probably some other stories that we would not have wanted to hear about.

My point is this in 1965 the visionary leaders of this Company saw a need, purpose and a benefit for their supervisors throughout the heartland of the country to communicate and share ideas and information with each other daily. They had the technology available to their company to facilitate this.

Fast forward 2011; communication has changed, and improved dramatically.  Many of us involved with SHRM as volunteer leaders at all levels have seen the value in this. Imagine having a tool where you could communicate with 500 other H.R. pros, by just making a comment about something on the internet. We are working on an effort to share information up and down the line (just like the pipeline) where different chapters, state councils or members can share information thought web-sites and blogs.  This effort is being coordinated by everybody’s friend Ben Eubanks from the UpstartHR blog.

For those of us in Illinois SHRM we applaud Ben for this effort and will do what we can to help and support him.  So let’s open up all those lines of communication from Alabama and Louisiana to Wisconsin and Ohio and share what we know with one and other.   Whether it is a way to help recruit or retain SHRM members or a new software application that can assist Human Resources, or a blog post sharing some great information – let’s share it with one and other.

Be watching for more posts and links back and forth between all of the chapters and state councils that are participating.

Dave Ryan - ISC SHRM Director of Social Media