Okay, people, I have a short post today. Why? Because I’m stumped. Recently I read this mentoring post by Alison at Ask a Manager. An excerpt is below.

Do we seek out those with star potential because they’ll benefit the most from our help — or is it possible that it’s actually less about that and more because we like to see ourselves in them, or that it’s so gratifying to watch them blossom and feel we played a role in their success? Maybe we’d actually have a more significant impact if we made that kind of time investment with someone who doesn’t have obvious star potential, someone who doesn’t appear to be a natural candidate for grooming.

Basically, should you spend your limited time mentoring someone who is a high performer or someone who is a low performer?

I can make an argument for each side, and I have talked with half a dozen HR pros while seeking an answer. There have been mixed results, to say the least, and I’m stumped. Therefore, I shall turn the question over to my incredibly intelligent audience. What do you think? Should you spend your limited time mentoring someone who is a high performer or someone who is a low performer? The best responses will be published in an upcoming post that will feature comments by some HR bloggers you know and love.

Image by Pierre-Olivier

Every so often, I try to give some sort of mass update here, because people often ask what I’m working on, why I’m taking forever to reply to their emails, or what my favorite type of cookie is (probably chocolate chip brownie pillows). Anyway, here’s the stuff that you do and don’t want to know about my current level of insanity.

1. The last time I posted on the goings-on, I was gently reminded by a few of my friends out there that it looks like I’m not taking enough time for family. I just don’t usually bore people with that kind of thing. I live a fairly boring life outside of my jobs. But to satisfy those familial cravings, just check out #10 and #11.
2. At the urging of a friend, I have started writing three times a week on this blog ( Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). This is a change from my normal “whenever” posting. It’s interesting to try to fit to a schedule, but it’s also a lot of fun, too.
3. With sales doing about as well as I had hoped, I have been working to finish the second Rock the PHR bonus item. It’s actually 99% complete, and I have started to outline the third (and probably last) bonus giveaway. For only $14.99, this thing is a steal if you’re planning to take the HR certification exam.
4. I’m writing a post every Monday for the RocketHR blog. I’m trying to make it more beginner-friendly, and I’m hoping that it will be a stepping stone for my local HR professionals into the world of social media.
5. In a recent post, I went over some of what I’m doing with the local SHRM chapter’s student group. I was one of those youngsters not too long ago, and I am looking forward to helping them with all of the wisdom I’ve accumulated (i.e. not much).
6. Along with my designer, I am revamping my company’s website. It’s going to be more user-friendly, searchable, and better aligned to our organizational goals. It’s been a fun experience so far.
7. My online antics never cease, because I have also started working with another local SHRM chapter to help them set up a Website. (If your local chapter doesn’t have a Website but wants something, shoot me an email. I might be able to help.)
8. Secret project with Stephen from HR Gumbo. I’m waaay slower than he is at times.
9. I’ve been working on a half marathon training plan with the race scheduled in November. Should be a lot of fun. Haven’t done a long race since the Dizzy Fifties 50k a few years ago.
10. My wife is amazing, and I’ve been working with her as a coach to help her prepare for a local 5k. She is going to do amazingly well. I tried to promote it to my coworkers, but with less than 5 days to race day, my wife and I are the only ones who have signed up for our team!
11. Not sure how many of you know about it, but we’re adopting. And this thing has been going very slow in recent weeks with lots of work and extracurricular activities. But we’ve finally finished most of the preparation work for the home study, and we’re getting ready for our adoption.
12. HRevolution planning is going well, and we are gearing up for the big day. It’s about three weeks away, but I can remember when it was three months away, and that blows my mind. We have a few sponsor slots left (last time I checked), and if anyone’s looking to put $25o or $500 toward a good cause, you might be able to secure one of the final slots.
13. My loads of spare time are spent building my business and helping others do the same. I’ve been talking with 4-5 people about getting their own products/services out there on the market, and it’s amazingly fun for me.

I’m sure I’m missing a lot of other things that are going on. The Diet Mountain Dew is flowing cold and fast these days, and I’m hoping to keep up the amazing work that I’m allowed to do on a daily basis. Look for another “real” post on Friday, assuming I can keep up with the schedule I just committed to.

It’s October. That means Halloween is just around the corner. And I’ve got a Halloween business strategy that employers will be dying to get their hands on. Okay, I’ll let you in on my secret. Zombies. What if your HR reps could reanimate dead flesh and bring those zombies into the workplace? The potential benefits more than outweigh the occasional brain-eating frenzy. Here are 10 reasons to hire zombies in your workplace…

1. Use them to cull the bad employees from the herd. That should discourage the ‘ole quit-and-stay mentality.
2. While they’re not great at complex tasks, you can use them as motivators for the people who do those types of work. Bob in accounting wouldn’t screw up the numbers with a zombie hanging over his shoulder!
3. Since they don’t get diseases or sickness, you won’t have to waste any more time with FMLA.
4. The benefits package would be cheap. They don’t even need vacation pay!
5. Zombies don’t get tired, and they never waste time on Twitter (although Zombiebook is growing in popularity from what I hear).
6. Everyone loves zombies. They’re so cuddly. There have been dozens of movies dedicated to their antics.
7. There is a drastically simplified recruiting/hiring process associated with zombies, and it’s actually just a single question. Are you a zombie? [grunt] Great! You’re hired.
8. In case #7 worries you, don’t freak out too much. Zombies aren’t a protected EEOC class. I checked.
9. You can train them to recognize and attack union organizers, IRS agents, or OSHA inspectors.
10. With all of the recent employee engagement talk, you really don’t have to worry. Zombies stay 100% engaged until a shotgun blast pulverizes their skull.

But, as always, I’m not covering something. What are we missing? Is there another great reason to hire zombies that I’m not covering? Drop it in the comments below! And if you enjoyed this list, then you might want to check out the Batman list as well!

Update: I posted a sequel list (more reasons to hire zombies). Check it out!

This post originated as a comment left by Matthew Stollak (or akaBruno if you know him from Twitter) on a post about the HR Certification Institute changing its PHR/SPHR/GPHR eligibility requirements. I asked him if I could reuse his comment as a post, and he had no problem, so you get to see his comments front and center. Enjoy!.

I have been a SHRM student chapter advisor for over 10 years and have taken and passed both the PHR and SPHR exams. I know a lot of other passionate and dedicated student chapter advisors who were not pleased with the recent changes in eligibility. These changes sparked vigorous discussion on the SHRM Chapter Advisor listserv, and prompted HRCI to host an impromptu conference call with advisors to address the new eligibility requirements. While I believe the changes are set in stone, I do know Nancy Woolever, Director of Academic Initiatives at SHRM (whom Ben has interviewed about SHRM’s HR education program), and Chuck Salvetti, SHRM Student Programs Manager, are looking into alternatives for students to help students distinguish themselves as they apply for HR positions.

That being said, here are my thoughts:
1. I concur that “If some “upstart” can take the exam after college and pass without any exempt level HR experience, then that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re as qualified as someone who has years of HR experience before deciding to take the exam.” However, as @adowling noted, there are already restrictions in place for student who pass the exam. Students who pass the exam are NOT allowed to claim they are certified. They MUST get 2 years of exempt-level experience in five years after passing the certification exam before being allowed to use the PHR designation.

2. One concern stated by HRCI was that students had a lower passing rate than HR professionals (57.2% to 71%). First, that should be expected. However, that is still a majority able to pass the exam. Further, if, as @Lori noted, “a certification exam touts its value on an experiential level,” and a majority of a group of individuals are able to pass it without the experience, shouldn’t the focus be on changing the exam than the eligibility requirements? Why aren’t HRCI and its question writers being held accountable for an exam that doesn’t reflect that experiential level instead of punishing students who may demonstrate a strong understanding of the HR knowledge base?

3. Why is exempt experience held as the end-all, be-all of eligibility? One can take the exam without ever having taking an HR course. One can even take the exam without ever taking a single college course! A siginificant number of students walk into the exam with a wealth of HR “experience”: they have taken several HR and management courses, participated significantly in their student SHRM chapter, participated in HR internships or job shadowing or mentoring, conducted HR research, competed in the HR games, and attended SHRM professional chapter meetings and state, regional or national SHRM conferences. Many of these activities count toward recertification, but are not seen as important enough to qualify for certification.

4. In a similar vein, no effort was made by HRCI/SHRM to examine the “quality” of student passing rates on the PHR exam based on academic program. Do those students who come from a program that follows the SHRM curriculum perform significantly better on the exam? If true, wouldn’t this have been a tremendous selling point for SHRM on the quality of their academic initiatives?

5. If experience is seen as critical, many academics have taken and passed the PHR and SPHR exams, and can claim being certified, without having worked a single moment in an exempt HR position. Should a similar constraint be placed on academics?

6. If the concern is that students who pass the exam are taking jobs away from more “qualified” HR professionals who have the experience, but have not passed the exam, one has to wonder about the true signal of certification and what it represents. If certification is so critical, why do so few HR jobs require it or use it in their advertising. A 2005 study by Aguinis, H., Michaelis, S. E., & Jones, N. M. in the International Journal of Selection and Assessment analyzed each of 1873 HR job announcements available over a 1-week period on http://monster.com, http://hotjobs.yahoo.com, http://careerbuilder.com, and http://shrm.org. Results showed that only nine (i.e., .48%) job announcements stated that there was a requirement and only 70 (i.e., 3.73%) job announcements stated that there was a preference for job applicants with any type of HR certification.

Matthew teaches the next generation of HR professionals and somehow finds time to write an interesting blog called True Faith HR. Check it out.

I am on the cusp of my six month “anniversary” with my current employer, and I got to attend an orientation session earlier this week.

If I had to describe that experience with one word, it would be “amazing.”

Seeing our VPs of HR and Operations go out to meet the new employees, field questions, and provide some background on values and expectations was inspiring for me. As an in-between employee (both in HR and a new employee), they wanted to know my take on the experience. My response was something dripping praise, but it basically boiled down to “keep it up.”

Since I started, I have been tracking our turnover rates. There are some trends that I am interested in observing as this new element to the hiring process begins.

Take it from someone who will tell it to you straight. Do an orientation with new employees. If you want it to be more useful, wait until they’ve been there for a few weeks (or do it in two parts). That way you can ask about problems/issues before the person begins to feel powerless, and hopefully you can rectify them in some way. It makes a big difference to people when they feel appreciated. I’m walking proof of that.

But whatever you do, just do something. As a semi-new employee, I left the meeting with the desire to do something amazing for my organization. Wouldn’t you want your employees to want the same thing?

Photo by GIHE.

I frequented the multitude of career blogs when I was job hunting, and while I could find dozens of posts on how to get a job, I really didn’t see anything that helped with how to leave a job. What’s okay and what’s not? Is it a problem if I email some people and not others? Should we have a going-away party or celebration? And that’s just what I can pull from the top of my head. I’m willing to bet that many of you have experienced the same questions when you want to leave your job and don’t know the “how” that is involved. Don’t worry, though, I’ve found something that is going to help. It’s “The Exit Guide” from Jobacle.

Before I created UpstartHR, I wrote for a career site called Jobacle. I developed a great relationship with Andrew, the owner, and we still chat pretty often. When I found out that he was releasing a guide on how to leave your job, I knew it was something I needed to share.

Jobacle is a blog written by the worker, for the worker, and it’s just one part of the Jobacle brand. In addition to the 5+ years of articles and posts on the blog, Andrew has also build a library of dozens of career podcasts that are completely free for the taking. In other words, he has proven himself to be a trustworthy source for thousands of job seekers over the years. Now he has developed his first guide, and I couldn’t be happier for him.

If you’d like to get your own copy of “The Exit Guide,” just click the link and see for yourself what he has put together to help you with how to leave your job. I think you’ll be thrilled with the result!

So… What is a Gruzzle? That’s what I said the first time I spoke with G.L Hoffman, a brilliant blogger and entrepreneur with a penchant for word puzzles that stimulate surprisingly deep thinking. Actually it’s fairly simple. A Gruzzle is a combination graph and puzzle. And they are fantastic for generating conversation and new ideas.

Leadership Lessons via Gruzzle

G.L. is working to spread the word about these things, and I enjoy them more than enough to share a few with you. He has created dozens of them and incorporated them into a few packages that are targeted toward HR professionals. The first ones I saw were the onboarding group, and that’s when I knew he was onto something special. If you are looking for straight talk, then look no further. He helps you to tell employees like it is, and it can help to develop some desperately needed communication.

Stuff you need to know

Sometimes it’s hard to say what really needs to be said. It can be awkward or just plain weird. Want some help? How about this one?

Starting the hard conversations

If you’d like to know more or order your own pack of HR Gruzzles, contact him on Twitter or via the contact page on his blog. I’m going to do another post on this in the future, but don’t you want to grab one before they’re everywhere?