This weekend has been a whirlwind of activity and the big stuff hasn’t even started just yet. As I’ve said before, I’m working as a part of the Monster Street Team to cover the event. Here’s the whole backstory. I have a few pieces of content in the works, and here are a few quick snippets I can share from my barely registering brain cells.

• I’m here to cover leadership, culture, and other related topics. You can keep the total rewards, legislative updates, etc.
• Matt, Lisa, Eric, Janet, and Kathy (all of them are Monsters) are just amazing. Seeing all of their hard work going into this event to make things amazing for the participants is just wild. Keep up the great work, people.
• Neat survey stuff coming from the SHRM research lab hidden deep in an underground bunker somewhere in DC.
• John Hollon hits the keynote by Steve Forbes with heavy criticism.
• This thing is so incredibly huge for someone who’s never done it before. Who knew that HR was this big?
• Corporate lactation was a big topic at the Sunday night Monster planning session. Yeah, you heard me right. Having two dudes running a lactation booth is wrong in so many ways.
• There was a wild mob just before the keynote. Click for the video.
• SHRM10 has 30% more participants than last year (11,000 total). I’m hoping that’s because they want to learn something and not just because it’s in California.
• I met with my friend Terri Zaug from HRCP and it was fantastic. I’ve been working with them for almost a year and it was great to finally meet in person. If you’re looking at getting certified, hit them up and tell them I sent you.
• I met another pal, Cori Curtis with Baudville, and I got a sweet bag with goodies that says, “I put the HR in HERO.” I think you’ll enjoy some of their fun stuff that’s all about helping to make work more fun and encouraging for people, so drop by and get some goodies.
• SHRM’s team is doing some great work. Keep it up, people!
• During the press briefing (and all through the day yesterday) I kept hearing about the work that SHRM is doing with veterans. I think it’s great that they are making an effort to reintegrate our fighting men and women into the workforce.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can make out for now. Anyone else see or do anything great?

Hey, everyone! I hope you’ve had a great week so far. I realize that I haven’t written in a few days. And by “realize” I mean I’m fairly freaking out due to the fact that I feel like a goof. It’s seriously bothering me.

But it’s not just because I’m lazy or anything.

I had a 31 mile race last Saturday and I still haven’t recovered all the way mentally and physically. However… I have some fantastic ideas and some great stuff on the way. Promise.

So in lieu of having to write something with my brain still scrambled, I’d like to share some links to posts that I’ve found useful in the past few days. Continue Reading »

Fridays are turning into a sort of free for all. I often get requests about what l’m working on, and I also have a hard time keeping track of everything that’s going on around me, so I’ll share a few updates.

• My buddy Stephen Harrison’s blog “HRwhY?” has opened officially, and I hope you’re subscribed. You can expect good things from him.
• My pal Robin Schooling wrote a guest post on HR fishbowl in the #TrenchHR series.
• I now have (for your viewing pleasure) a random post generator. The formatting is wonky, but the content is still good.
• I also created a RocketHR page, because a lot of people don’t realize I also write a blog for my local SHRM chapter. Continue Reading »

This post has some ideas for why you should think about, and maybe even join, a local SHRM chapter… Enjoy!

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was something to make this HR thing easier to do? Maybe if there was some sort of way to meet other professionals, share ideas, and trade best practice tips, then we all would feel less like we’re treading water and more like we’re making a difference. Wait a minute, there is a way to do that, and it’s your local SHRM chapter!

Now, before I get into the meat of the post, I’d like to say that not all SHRM chapters are great. Some of them just plain suck. And you know what? This post may or may not be for you. If not, check back later. Or read something inspiring. On the other hand, some chapters really do rock, and this post can help you leverage that for your own career. Continue Reading »

Human resources is a vital function for an organization’s survival. With the proper tools, a good HR department can turn sticky problems around, increase revenues, and lead/challenge the organization to become better overall. The only problem?

Many organizations lack strong human resources leadership.

That fault may be intra-organization or intra-department. If the human resources staff has weak leadership, then there’s a good chance that HR within the entire organization is weak as well. If the organization has weak leadership, then there’s a good chance that they won’t give HR a chance to shine. Whatever the case, weakness like that can cripple an organization.

We All Know and Hate It Continue Reading »