What Is an Advocate and Is It For Me?

Today's post is from Brian Spencer. He is our intern this semester at ILSHRM as well as Rogers HR Consulting.  He will be graduating this May from UIS with a degree in Management and focused on beginning a new career in HR.  He has been a tremendous asset to us in promoting the Advocacy Program here in the state and help coordinate projects for the upcoming Legislative Conference this April.  Connect with him on Linkedin

Many of you have heard about ILSHRM seeking to build an Advocacy Team throughout the state.  Some of us have new representatives that were just sworn into office this past month, so it is a great time to start planning to introduce ourselves and the value that we can bring to them as professionals who represent both, our companies and our employees, rather than a party affiliation.  As I have been talking to people about advocacy I have noticed some of the first questions that come to mind are: 

“How much time is involved?”

“What am I supposed to say to my elected official when I talk to them?”

“What exactly is an advocate anyway?” 

Well, I will start with the last question first.  An Advocate is simply someone willing to establish and maintain a relationship with their local elected official and set themselves up as a support person in the area of HR.  Additionally, as our legislative team sees bills coming that require attention, information will be passed to you to help educate your elected official on how it could impact our field and our people. 

            This takes us right into the next question.  I have heard that it can be intimidating to call or speak in person to our elected officials.  In fact, I was rather intimidated the first time I spoke to one of my legislators in his office, but it has been refreshing to find that they truly want to hear from us. We are their constituents first and foremost; in addition, we represent our companies and our employees.  Often times the conversations start with a simple introduction of ourselves and our profession, and then offering ourselves as a resource for them in the future.  One of the best things we can do is to simply be nice.  We are simply a resource for them in an area where many do not have as much expertise as they would like.

            And now, for the question about time; the next “most valuable commodity of our day” according to some.  To say that many people are overcommitted today would be an understatement.  This is a project that I can comfortably say does not take an exceptional amount of time.  In fact you may likely only get to speak with your official for 15-20 minutes at a time to begin with.  If you will maintain this extension of service about once or twice a quarter the result may surprise you.  The ultimate goal is for us to get to a place that by time the Legislative Conference comes next year we can go to the capital and they will hear our name and come out to say, “Hey Brian, how are you?  What can I do for you?”  Then you will know your time has been well spent!

            As a follow up point…  Don’t forget to say “Thank you.”  We all know what it is like to be worn down by criticism.  For people in office this can be a daily grind that becomes wearisome.  Besides the fact that it is nice to be appreciated, it lets them know you are watching! 

            If this sounds like something that could be exciting for you, or if you would simply like some more information please click here and give us some basic information so that we can follow up and help equip you to be an Advocate!

(Special thanks to Terry Steczo who helped to coach me through each of these points.)

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.

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“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

The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades

The following article was written by Donna Rogers, SPHR, Outgoing State Director 

Michelle, Carolyn, John and Donna (L to R)

As I begin to reflect on the last couple of years as ILSHRM Director, I can’t stop thinking about the future and the song written by Pat McDonald which I have titled this article.  However, first a few words about the past which has brought us to the present transition from me and my predecessors (pictured to my right from left to right: Michelle Jackson, Carolyn Sperl, and John Jorgensen) to my successors (lower pictured to my left in the photo: Cathy Plouzek and Connie Wolgemuth) who I am confident their success will be so bright that you will have to wear shades. 

Donna, Kathy and Connie (L to R)

As the song says “I got good grades” which is why the future is so bright…I think I would have to say that part is true and that’s because I had some fantastic teachers.  In addition to learning from my early teachers Deneen Costa and Michelle Jackson since I have been on the board since 2001, I had the pleasure of learning from both Carolyn SPERL and John Jorgensen since I served as both of their state director elects.  Over the past two years, I took a little from each of these “teachers” and worked to continue their work as well as ad a few of my own goals.

Since I teach what I do at UIS, grades are often on my mind, so let’s take a look at the top ten goals for ILSHRM that I posted two years ago and see how we did as a team in my humble opinion:

1.       A+ 100% Chapters signing the ESGR Statement of Support (http://www.esgr.org/);2.       A    Build SHRM Affiliate Chapters in the Southern part of the state (working on 3 already);3.       A-  Increase awareness of ISC-SHRM & SHRM resources among all state legislators (with SHRMs help as one of the 10 states they plan to work with this year);4.       A-  Reach 1000 attendees at our annual conference (in Aug at Drury Lane in Oakbrook);5.       B+ Reach 100 attendees at our 1st Annual Legislative Conference (last year was our inaugural event);6.       A-  100% Chapter participation in the annual Chapter Basket Raffle Fundraiser at State Conference;7.       B   Develop a formal Succession Plan with the assistance of a Nomination Committee to be appointed;8.       B   Finalize and implement a formal strategic plan started at last year’s Leadership Core Planning meeting;9.       A   Finalize and implement an updated Website with the help of Carrie Gurski which was started last year;and10.   B   Analyze our financial situation and develop a backup plan to sustain our council and support our mission for a year or two in case our income is impacted (primarily our attendance at annual conference).

In February of 2012, I posted an update to the above list after one year of progress and below have updatedagain to accommodate the current status as I see it, although I expect Cathy will continue to make additional progress as we move forward into her term as Director.First, Joe Smedinghoff has graciously taken the workforce readiness role to heart especially as it has to do with the military.  He and I share a love for assistingveterans with our military background.  So far he has worked with Angela Rachel to get a link on the front page of our website to the Military Toolkit to help HR professionals hire and retain veterans.  Patty Curry has taken numbers received monthly from SHRM and analyzed uniquely so we all know as a board each month how many SHRM members it will take in the chapters statewide to achieve platinum status as a state council via SHRM’s affiliate excellence program.  She also has taken a three year process that she helped John and I with from the beginning to make the Metro East chapter idea a reality.  They had their first meeting in December and have already chosen their inaugural officers to hopefully achieve SHRM affiliate status in 2013.  As of November we have two new SHRM affiliate college chapters and one new professional chapter.

In addition, the changes in Illinois on the legislative side with a whole new slate of representatives and senators have made our progress in this area both a challenge and a godsend.  I say the latter because this coming year will be great timing to put our second year of lobbying and the development of a plan primarily led by Kay Titchenal into place due to all the new legislative incumbents.  We expect new representatives to be ripe and open to calls from local HR professionals to share your expertise and how proposed bills in this state can help or hurt your business.  I am extremely excited about this aspect of our progress over the last couple years and although we have a B- in achieving 100 attendees at our conference, Tami Ireland and Kay have both made unparalleled progress.  Personally, I am psyched that we again will be teaming up with CIC-SHRM to make this 4^th year Advocacy day a true success.  There will be 100 attendees at this conference one day.  I can feel it.

John Jorgensen and Sabrina Baker have teamed up to make the last two years attendance the greatest it has been in our history.  Having joined the board as a co-conference director in its second year and seeing it through its 13^th annual, I can truly say that reaching the quality is far superior to reaching the quantity of 1000 which is the only reason my grade was not an A+.  If I had reworded the original goal to accommodate the quality there would be no question.  While we are talking about the conference the next goal was to get 100% participation in our chapter basket raffle which has helped us raise a few thousand dollars a year since its inception while I was the SHRM Foundation director a few years ago.  Over the last two years the quality and desirability of those baskets by conference attendees has continued to grow and like the comment above goals should not always be about quantity.  There are situations beyond our control at the chapter and state council board level that prevents us from the 100% participation sometimes but I can guarantee every chapter does have the desire to help the SHRM Foundation which through their research and products shows us what is next in our profession.  What was next this past couple years is that we at the state council was able to match what was brought in which took our total contributions past what it was the two years prior even without meeting our goal exactly.

The next two goals on my original list, succession planning and strategic planning, is a bit more long term and while I believe we have made some strides towards accomplishing, you are really never done with them and we do have a ways to go for what I would consider to be A+ work.  What I am really excited about though is John Jorgensen is staying on the board as the District Director At-Large, after his outgoing director term ended in 2012, for at least another two years.  At this year’s SHRM Leadership conference I heard about a committee that advises chapters and state councils made up of past board directors and other positions.  This new committee that John is looking into starting would be good topics for the committees input in my humble opinion.

While the website is in constant improvement status and has been since the update in the spring of 2011, it has come a long way from the site we had prior to my directorship.  I am grateful to both Angela Rachel who has taken the lead on making the improvements and to Dave Ryan for his work on the social media sites which are linked to each other.  Finally, from a financial management perspective we went through a process of determining if we needed a chapter management professional to help with the more routine tasks that are expected of us as a volunteer board.  However, the decision is to continue status quo for now with some improvements that should be handled as our treasurers transition and take the process from manual to electronic.  So all in all, I am truly happy at the progress we have made as a team and could not be more excited to work with Cathy and Connie over the next couple years as the outgoing director in my SHADES!  The future of the HR Profession in HR is bright and dedicated volunteers are one of many reasons that statement is so very true!