On Tuesday I had the pleasure of hearing Laura  Huckabee-Jennings speak to my local SHRM chapter. She did a fantastic presentation titled Leaders Have Followers, and I took a page full of great notes. I had to laugh though. I was thinking to myself that my manager should have attended, because there were some things in there that she would be interested in implementing. Then I looked up and she was sitting two tables away looking right at me! Be careful what you wish for!

Below you’ll find my tweets/notes from the event. Because they’re chronologically ordered, you’ll have to start at the bottom and read up to get them in the right sequence. If you see one that stands out for you, mention it in a comment below. I’d like to know which ones really resonate with you. Continue Reading

Note: this post is not encouraging anyone to spam a group of people. It’s only a recount of my own experience. If you spam your local HR pros, you could get booted from the SHRM chapter. Fair warning!

Back in the spring of 2009, I started looking for my first HR job. While I graduated college a year earlier than that, I had to work for my employer for a year since they paid for my final semester of college. I knew that it was time to step out of the small pond and jump into the world of HR with both feet. At that time, I was working with Andrew at Jobacle as a staff writer. In a fortunate coincidence, I had interviewed JT O’Donnell for a story on the Jobacle blog, and after a brief mention that I was job searching, we began to work together. JT is a great career coach, and her company, CAREEREALISM, is the place to go if you’re a job seeker looking for help.

Within a week, an entry level HR position with a local nonprofit opened up. I went for it. I wrote a cover letter, attached my resume, and sent it to their in-house recruiter. The only problem is that I knew that everyone else who applied for the job would do that exact same thing. I had to make it better. Continue Reading

You have employees out there who seem to continually mess up. It doesn’t really matter what the project is, because they will find a way to flub it.  It is incredibly frustrating for you, so what’s your natural reaction? Criticize.

I’ve done it myself, so don’t make me think I’m the only one out here. Someone can’t fill out form A correctly? Well, they are just careless. Procedure X is out of whack? That employee is too lazy to do it right. Sure, you can criticize them (we all do), but what does that really change? Nothing. But there is something you can do that might actually make a difference. Continue Reading

This post was written last week, and I have since written about HRevolution (the HR unconference) and announced the new look for the blog. But you still want to see me in action, right? Continue Reading

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!