WHAT ARE YOU DOING AUGUST 5-7, 2012???

 

DON’T MISS THE 13th ANNUAL ILLINOIS SHRM CONFERENCE.  GUARANTEED TO BE AS EXCITING AS EVER.

We are mere weeks away from what promises to be another dynamite Illinois State SHRM Conference.  As always, we have scheduled powerful and dynamic keynotes, all with tremendous reputations as thought leaders in our industry.  Where else can you hear Simon T. Bailey, Cy Wakeman, Libby Sartain and, back by popular demand, the duo of Talent Anarchy, Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt, in one place over the period of two days at a reasonable price?

We have a tremendous line-up of nationally known concurrent speakers, many of whom are SHRM Annual Conference speakers, on a wide range of topics from how to use social media and technology for HR and recruiting to new thoughts on diversity to employee engagement and retention.  Many of the sessions are designed to keep your HR knowledge on the cutting edge of the profession.   New this year – we are excited to announce ILSHRM will be hosting a TalentNet Live event on the afternoon of Sunday, August 5th.  This event is an opportunity to explore the future of social recruiting and bringing the latest innovation to the world at work.  We are pleased to be able to offer our community some of the brightest & influential minds in the Social Recruiting & Human Resources industry today. 

The Conference qualifies for up to 11.25 recertification hours, both general and those all important strategic credits! For the first time, TalentNet Live has been submitted for HRCI credit.  In transition? What better way to network with other HR colleagues.

Let's not forget the vendors who cannot wait to share what they can do to make your job easier.  We are hosting an exhibitor scavenger hunt with a prize that you won't want to miss – free registration to next year's annual SHRM conference being held right in our backyard – Chicago, IL.

This is easily one of the most affordable events of its type in the country.  Don’t miss out on an opportunity to be educated, entertained and enthralled along with hundreds of the best HR folks in Illinois and states beyond.  For registration or more information, visit our conference page at www.ilshrm.org.  And as an additional encouragement, the early bird rate will be extended until July 9 to make an affordable event, even more affordable.

See you in August at Drury Lane Theater in Oakbrook Terrace.

John Jorgensen, SPHR

ISC Conference Chair

JKJorg@aol.com

815-729-9269

Notes from Membership Summit at #SHRM12

The #1 Takeaway was you must have a plan or initiative. Like Field of Dreams - "Ray" Shoeless Joe Jackson said "If you build it they will come". In other words if you don't build it "plan" they won't come. However, we chapters/state councils tend to expect them to come. Similar to my trip to Holland, MI this Spring to see the 180k tulips someone built.

Saturday started out with an overview of the five stages of a Membership cycle. First every chapter or state council needs work to build AWARENESS. For example as a chapter president in the early 2000s I hand no idea the state council existed let alone what they did. Over the last six years I have been very active in increasing that awareness. Second, RECRUITMENT is important especially in how you go about doing it. So far here a few that will help with recruitment:

1) talk about features
2) every person need 6 touches to get to a level of consciousness
3) develop landing pages

We are fairly good at ENGAGEMENT with the programs, socials, forums, newsletters, magazines, workshops, conferences, and volunteer opportunities. Therefore, I personally don't feel I need to speak to this topic but you should realize this is part of the membership process.

The step is the most important step because RETENTION costs 6x less money and time than recruiting them. So my thought is why spend all that time and money if you don't retain them. Wouldn't it eliminate your up front time. Seems like a no brainer to me. Perhaps you look at your no renewals first before you start attempting to recruit the unknowns. At least you already have a relationship with your nonrenewals. All you have to do is find out why the did not renew and fix it.

Like all plans the EVALUATION stage is ultimately important to determine wether or not goals were met, the plan worked or NOT, and help determine what should be tweaked.

This process is not rocket science but it is a reminder that just like our paid jobs any volunteer related goal needs the same careful thought and planning to be successful. 

                           By Donna Rogers, SPHR ISC SHRM Chair

You Made The Big Show….Now What..? #ILSHRM, #SocialHR, #SHRM, #Sourcers’Apprentice, #DTHR

Come meet these guys at Illinois SHRM 12 

Geoff Webb @SocialHRGuy and geoff@socialhr.biz Jeff Waldman @jeffwaldmanhr and jeff@socialhr.biz

Guest Post by Geoff Webb

It’s summer, it’s late June and you have a rather giddy feeling growing inside you. This is the year you get to join members of your company at one of THE major shows of the year. Its not just any show either, Its a fairly BIG deal, one which you know could be good for your networking, or you could bomb by showing how green you really are. Actually it’s quite a feat, less than a month in the industry, and already you are starting to make “A Name” for yourself within the circles. However as you face the first intense, completely-pressure-filled-because-someone-might-see-you-sneeze moment; you pause and check that everything is in line.

The first suggestion I can make is Original Business Cards. At a gathering of this magnitude, you want to set yourself apart from the pact, when they head home, you want to be in the rolodex/IPad and not at the bottom of some swag-bag. Plan ahead, and at least a couple months prior to the event, I suggest visiting Meetmeme (www.meet-meme.com) and order some really unique cards that reflect you. Tell Anna or Brew that @SocialHRBiz sent you over. They will take good care of you, and as an added plus with the cards, you get a pretty neat landing page where you can set up all the other networks that you participate on. The QR code is pretty sweet too, Scan and Go- you are now on the contact list of that important person you want to do business with. Cards are a small price for the big package- You being branded (personally) as the unique go-getter that you are.

These shows can be a trifle overwhelming, while your friends are renewing connections and introducing you to all the ‘In-Crowd’; bear in mind that during this baptism of fire, YOU NEED TO BE NOTICED. These shows come around once a year; and as much as you are a delegate of your employer, You are also the delegate for your own personal brand; and you have to remember that sometimes those two things are synonymous and should be treated as such.

Now about Social Media? Did someone let you in on the secret to success? Set up the accounts, create a unified profile over the profiles and express your desire to get to know and network with others in your industry. Simple as that- But- it will require time and effort, so the sooner before the show you begin, the better. After all, wouldn’t you like to have people come up to you with “Hi, Geoff-What’s new in your corner of cyberspace?” over “Oh yeah, you’re the new guy….Hi New Guy”

If you are on Twitter (www.twitter.com) you have 140 characters to express what is going on in your mind at this moment (great for the mindful thinker) and it allows you to be part of a greater conversation going on World-Wide. Take suggestions, or search for people who share interests with you and just follow them. The worst that could happen is they don’t follow back at this time. That is okay, establish your rep and try again (#personal #branding). You will find more than enough people interested in your progress as time goes on.

Facebook is the second point in what I call “The Social Media Trinity” Probably by now you have one to document your personal life; Did you know that in a lot of cases to come-Personal life/ Business Balance will pretty much be one and the same. Even the best of us who feel we can separate work from home, see some of each bleeding into the other existence (work/home; home/work).  Keep that in mind when updating your account, that there is a possibility of things being seen that are better kept hidden. Check the security settings and make the extra effort to maintain the diligence that this deserves. What you may consider is setting up a “Fan Page” for your business endeavors, and add a link to your business site, blog, other social media accounts of merit. This takes very little time, and you can receive a vanity url after getting 25 followers- to go with your ‘secret’ Facebook e-mail account.

Remember that in Social Media, as in the working world, you represent your company, hopefully the company holds you in equally high-esteem….Place your Personal Brand on the forefront. What this means is that no one will ever represent you better than YOU! And with that in mind, every action you take in the company name, reflects back twice as brightly on you. The same can be said on ‘errors in judgement’. The object is to get your name out there as a professional and hopefully as an expert of your vocation. It’s taking me multiple years just to appear on some important peoples radar, the last thing I need is to make a careless error and have to try and salvage a hard earned relationship. Your brand is as important as the company brand, treat it as such.

Finally comes the final point of the Trinity: LinkedIn. This is one program either you have it right or you don’t. There are only 5 important steps to a good profile; hit these out of the park and you will be working on a great profile, and finding people to network with will be that much easier.

• FILL OUT THE PROFILE COMPLETELY. And this includes a nice professional photo of your wonderful self; Along with some sort of E-Mail address or Contact phone number. Nothing is more frustrating than finding someone you would like to offer a network opportunity, and there is NOTHING to the profile….Take your time and fill it out right, the first time. Did you know that Linkedin determines your position in search based on % completed.
• Include your work history from the current position back roughly 10 years. This way you demonstrate your versatility and possibly open yourself to some new offers or opportunities (or a chance to share advice on what you know and what you need to know). Recruiters and Sourcers like to swap information with verifiable contacts. Be one of those.
• See Step 1, include a snazzy picture. People like to see who they are dealing with, and again when the big show rolls around; you would rather be noticed by name than noticed by question mark. Again, its about the Validation- who you are and what you know.
• Go through the Skills section of the profile and add all the skills you are adept in. Again, people want advice from others who can walk the walk they say they can; Not someone who is floundering or is consistent at confirming they need more seasoning before being introduced to the network crowd.
• Leave them with a very memorable URL to your site. Rather than use the LinkedIn URL they gave me, matching my name with a gazillion other Smiths, I customized mine to something both to the point and memorable: www.ca.linkedin.com/in/geoffjwebb Full marks to those who know that LinkedIn has sub-divided itself around the world, and that is reflected in the URL.

These are three key areas that you need to have a firm grip on before networking season begins. I hope you have found this useful, please feel free to reach out to me for more information; or just to join my network. I can always use more people who share my interests and thirst for information.

Enjoy the Conference!