Last Wednesday I attended ALSHRM11, also known as the Alabama State SHRM Conference. There were some great sessions, and I have started chronicling the details over at RocketHR. If you’re curious about building a culture of integrity at work, managing the differences between generations, or being innovative in your HR role, then there will be some good content going up on the other blog in the next few weeks.

Feel free to subscribe for email updates over there so you don’t miss anything. I usually only post once a week over there so it’s really easy to keep up with!

ALSHRM11-What you missed is a post from: UpstartHR

You may also enjoy...

• 2012 SHRM Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia
• Hire Minds-Snagajob Hourly Hiring Summit
• Crazy 35 days (where I’ll be)

I’ve been beating myself up about not posting as frequently here lately, but it’s for good reason(s). Really. Here is the full slate I’ve been working on these days, just in case you are interested. And if I’m slow to respond to an email or a phone call, now you know why!

HRevolution

I’ve been doing some work on HRevolution lately, getting neat stuff posted like speaker interviews and sponsor info. I figure posting here will slow somewhat until May gets here, but I just wanted to set expectations early. By the way, if you want to go there are 8 tickets left at the time this is published. Snag one if you want to attend an event like no other.

The day job

People still ask me about my job that I started back in November. The most common question is, “Do you still like your job?” And my answer is a resounding yes(!). I get to do fun stuff and get paid for it. What kind of fun stuff? Well, lately I’ve been working two big recruiting initiatives to bring in helicopter pilots and survival instructors. How cool is that?

When I’m not working on that kind of effort, I’m developing training for managers, handling our benefits, and creating systems and processes to help us prepare for some growth we are planning for later this year.

I have an amazing manager, the culture is fantastic, and the free Diet Dew in the fridge doesn’t hurt. Plus I get to interact with our CEO, Mike Durant, on a regular basis. Hard to get that kind of access to senior leaders in other companies. One of my friends has this offer to come work for another company locally for about $10k more than what I’m making now. I told him if I ever started hating my job I’d be there in a heartbeat, but it doesn’t look promising.

RocketHR

If you aren’t reading RocketHR, you should! I post there about once a week and most of the time it’s new, unique content. Click here to get it delivered to you. A few recent posts include reasons why you should read blogs, the SHRM blog carnival, and a video about really being ethical.

NASHRM

In my spare spare time, I also am the Social Media Director for my local Society for Human Resources Management chapter. Not only do I write the RocketHR blog, but I’ve made myself available to anyone and everyone locally who is looking for information or advice on getting involved with social media. It’s so much fun helping someone make the leap from “interested” to “practitioner.”

Project Social

If you’ve been following Project:Social for long, you know it’s a social media mentoring program for HR pros. We are in our second round of the program and are looking to get the third one started soon. Some people have asked why Victorio and I haven’t had more people in the program, but as you can see with other things I am working on, it is definitely a challenge to devote time to this and if you don’t have a good experience, then it wasn’t worth it anyway. We are looking at ways to scale the program to have more mentor and mentee pairs working at the same time.

SHRM YP Council

I’m about halfway into my term as the SHRM YP Council Chairman, and it’s been interesting so far. We are creating a guide that will be used to help young professionals get more involved with their local chapters. It also has some great tips and advice for volunteer leaders to help them connect with those individuals. I’m definitely glad that I am in the group!

On the home front

Don’t know that you specifically care, but I thought I’d offer my house up if anyone’s interested in buying. Seriously, we are looking to move now that we’ve outgrown our little place, and if you’ve ever been through the process, you know how much that process takes out of you. We are also having so much fun watching the girls grow up. They are always doing something new and interesting, and I’m doing what I can to keep up! A few pics: Bree (our little puppy), Bree at dinnertime, Bella taking the car for a spin, and both girls first thing in the morning (FYI-Bella on the right, Bree on the left).

And that’s just to get me started. What is everyone else up to these days?

What I’ve been up to lately is a post from: UpstartHR

You may also enjoy...

• HR-entry level questions and answers
• HRevolution 3 and other random thoughts
• What I’m doing and not doing today

What do illegal interview questions, video training for managers, and required reading lists for employees have in common? They are all guest posts I’ve done in the past little while! Looks like I’m a little schizophrenic with the varying topics, but each post has its own merits.

These guest posts went live (fairly recently) elsewhere that you may have missed. Some of them might be a bit different flavor than the usual upstartHR offerings, so be sure to check them out! If you’re interested in seeing some of my previous escapades, click here for the Guest Post Blitz archive.

Here’s a new hire program I can get behind. Employees are required to read books as a way to introduce them to the culture and encourage them to keep professional development on their radar. Thanks to Matt at Monster Thinking for letting me share!

My friend JT at Careerealism shared this question with me and I just couldn’t pass it up. It sounded like an episode of Jerry Springer and the title is “Can I get fired for this?” The funny thing is I had to read the question ten times and diagram the situation so I could understand and respond.

Ever wondered if those interview questions about when you graduated school are actually legal? I hit on that in this post for Careerealism. (Hint: the question itself isn’t illegal, it’s what you do with it that counts).

This one’s so new it still has the bubble wrap on it. I ran into a snag when I was looking at developing a social recruiting plan for my employer. Apparently social recruiting doesn’t work for everyone. Would love some comments on this one.

Over on RocketHR I posted about creating and distributing video training for managers on an as-needed basis. Having trouble with conflict resolution? Send them the video with some tips and tricks to doing that better. Need some assistance with giving feedback to staff? There’s a video for that one, too.

And finally, I’ve had a lot of comments in person on this post about who is HR’s customer. Is it the employee? The manager? The job candidate? Senior leadership? The garbage man? Yeah, there are a lot of facets to consider and this one isn’t a simple question to answer.

Illegal interview questions and manager training-Guest Post Blitz #9 is a post from: UpstartHR

You may also enjoy...

• Difficult People, SHRM, and Enthusiasm-Guest Post Blitz #8
• Guest Post Blitz #6
• Guest post blitz #5

As President and CEO ’round these here parts, I’m going to be giving myself the day off. What? Oh, yeah. You heard me. It’s somewhere in that employee manual thingy I created if you want to flip through there. Eh, it’s somewhere near the back. Oh, never mind.

Today is my wedding anniversary.

So, what the heck does that mean for you? Well, you can check out a few posts I’ve written for my other HR blog or you can even get in touch with my softer side by checking out the note I left my wife on the adoption blog. Bring a hankie.

I’ll catch you guys later this week.

• Onboarding-gimme some intimate and personal contact, baby
• HR-let’s see some value and stop sucking, ‘kay?
• Customer service-optional? Stop sucking the life from your customers.
• Happy third anniversary to my amazing wife

As President and CEO, I’m… is a post from: UpstartHR

You may also enjoy...

• ALSHRM11-What you missed
• What I’ve been up to lately
• Illegal interview questions and manager training-Guest Post Blitz #9

These ideas for SHRM chapter leaders are a part of the SHRM Chapter Leadership Guide.

I often hear from other HR pros who are members of a local SHRM chapter that stinks. Depending on your chapter leadership, you could be having an amazing experience or a horrible one. Whichever you may be in, it wouldn’t hurt to pass this link on to someone at your local chapter. And if you are in a leadership position, explore the list. I don’t have all the answers (admitting that up front!), but I do love coming up with ideas that could really be beneficial for the average HR professional.

Here are a few ideas to make things more interesting and engaging for your members.

1. Want to convert more website visitors into members? Use a video on your sales page.
2. Don’t have an amazing website? Get one.
3. Make new members feel welcome. Create a simple one minute welcome video telling people that you appreciate them joining the team and share it immediately after they join.
4. Create an onboarding program. Your company probably has one, so why not a SHRM chapter? It’s all about setting expectations from the very beginning, and establishing a set method for assimilating new members into the chapter is a good way to do that.
5. Reach out in multiple ways. Facebook pages and/or LinkedIn groups take a few minutes to set up and can be updated as frequently or infrequently as you like. Offer people multiple ways to connect and don’t force your own communication preferences on your members. Email blasts work, but they don’t allow for bidirectional communication. You’re missing out if email is your only communication medium.
6. Offer multiple volunteer opportunities and offer them multiple times. Let people help in areas they are geared toward, and make sure you make it known how to get involved as a volunteer if/when someone changes their mind.
7. Offer free events. Contrary to popular belief, HR pros don’t make as much money as doctors, lawyers, and actors. Offering high value free events is a great way to pull people in before it’s time for a paid event.
8. Archive everything. Every event you can record is an opportunity to market the chapter, increase revenues, or just keep up that nostalgic buzz HR people seem to love so much.
9. Send a newsletter. Yes, it can be via email, but it doesn’t have to be a list of announcements. Make it worthwhile. It should read like a blog post, not a press release.
10. Start a blog. We did, and it’s generated some great intra-chapter conversations. If you need help with this one, just let me know and I’ll get you up and running.
11. Share blog posts with your people. I mentioned how to do this in another post on how to get more out of your SHRM chapter membership.
12. Create a welcome kit. It can contain links to: the video in #3, the blog in #11, or the content in #14.
13. Create unique content that is only available to members. Anyone can attend a chapter seminar/meeting/function if they pay. Let’s give our paying members something extra, huh? Record a pre-event interview with the speaker and share the link only with members. There are dozens of ideas for this one!
14. Offer extra networking time. That’s a big reason people join these chapters, and the meetings are often crammed into busy schedules. Give people more time to just chat.
15. Create multiple survey points for adjustments. Survey your new members on what they want. Survey your current members on how you’re doing. Survey people who are leaving on what made them go. Get some data and use it.
16. Offer smaller events. Yes, it seems counterintuitive, but the smaller the event, the more people participate. You never know how much that short dude in the back of the room really knows until you stick him in a round table discussion and let him participate.
17. Develop collaborative projects and case studies from (and for) members. Make that networking in #15 really work for people. Give them ideas for projects to work together on and let them create things that could benefit the whole chapter.
18. Pair with nearby chapters and offer large events. Find one of those big name people and bring him/her in. Share the cost with another chapter so it doesn’t cut into finances so much.
19. Bring in new blood (voluntarily). Please don’t let your volunteer pool stagnate. If you have the same ten people volunteering day in and day out, you’re going to kill your volunteers.
20. (Don’t) kill your volunteers. Make it very simple and easy to connect if someone shows an interest in volunteering, and let them go where their strengths lie if there’s any possible room.
21. Have an informal voice too. You can talk in the uber-formal voice that is expected of a SHRM affiliate without always being a stick in the mud. Have some fun with your members! This profession is too serious not to laugh often. Like this picture for instance. Rejoice and be glad that your SHRM chapter meetings don’t look like that!
22. Pair student chapter members with professional chapter members as an informal mentoring gig. It’s a great way to lead the student members into a professional membership later on, and it gives value to both parties.
23. Get a website that doesn’t make your eyes bleed. Yes, you may have one already, but if it has a bounce rate above 80% then you’re doing something wrong. See #2 for more info.
24. Do webinars (free!). Using something like Dim Dim‘s free service to create small webinars for your people. You can even use it to test drive a speaker or topic. If it rocks, then you may want a full chapter meeting on the topic!
25. Make an effort to be more diverse. We hear about diversity often, but this time I’m pushing my own darn self interests (wink wink). How many of your volunteers are under 25? We are going to be the next generation of HR directors and VPs. Spending time working alongside the other more experienced superstars in the chapter is a great professional development opportunity for us.
26. Make people who aren’t even local want to join. This sounds strange, but there’s a chapter around where I live that gets people to events that are not local at all. Some of them drive 2+ hours for events there, because they’re that good. Strive to be that kind of chapter!
27. Find out why people join. Do more of that.
28. Find out why they leave. Do less of that.
29. Find out why they stay. Keep that up.
30. Get member generated content via contests. If you do go the blog route, keeping up a steady flow of content can be tough at times. Why not get others to do it for you? Get a sponsor to donate something (books are great) and offer it in a contest to a person who writes a comment on a post. Maybe you could ask how to handle a sticky issue or something similar that is sure to get a lot of responses…
31. Figure out what works for you. There’s nothing wrong with ideas. They’re free, and they are abundant. It’s the actual doing something that is the hard part. Sift through the ideas, find a few that make sense for your chapter, and give ‘em a shot!

Learn more about the SHRM Chapter Leadership Guide.

Anything you’d like to add to this list? Let me know in the comments!

30+ Ideas for SHRM Chapter Leaders is a post from: UpstartHR

You may also enjoy...

• SHRM Chapter Planning and Marketing
• What I’ve been up to lately
• Getting hit by a bus-the importance of succession planning

AKA

As if I don’t run my mouth enough on my own blog…

Maybe we'll still be friends when we are old?

Every once in a while I get the chance to write a little something for some of my friends. In an effort to repay their kindness, I share the links with you in case you’re interested in checking one out. If you’re interested in seeing some of my previous escapades, click here for the Guest Post Blitz archive.

Victorio at the Creative Chaos Consultant (gosh I love that name!) blog put out an interesting challenge early this year. He wanted people to either commit to their goals or shut up about it. It was appropriately named the Put Up or Shut Up Challenge. A few weeks later I shot him an email detailing my progress so far. Click here to see how I fared with the Put Up or Shut Up challenge.

April Dowling at PseudoHR is a fellow geek. When I asked if I could write a post that involved science fiction, zombies, and giant meteors (and still tie it back into the human resources profession, mind you), she was thrilled. Click here to see how science fiction makes me better at HR.

RocketHR, the blog that I run for my local SHRM chapter, has a post from yours truly every Monday. Recently I talked about how to look brilliant, a free HR eBook, and free HR podcasts. As of now, there aren’t any other contributors over there, so if you subscribe to RocketHR, you’ll be getting a little more me each week (and can’t everyone stand to get a little bit more of me?).

HRevolution has been on my mind lately, especially since we just opened up ticket sales for this year’s event. While it’s not exactly a guest post, I did design the HRevolution website, and that definitely took more effort than a guest post. I have to say that when I started in HR I had no idea I’d end up building blogs/websites as a side job. But I love it!

Anyone else read something cool they’d like to share? Maybe something you’ve read in the past week that really hit the spot? Drop it in the comments so everyone can benefit.

Guest post blitz #5 is a post from: UpstartHR

You may also enjoy...

• Illegal interview questions and manager training-Guest Post Blitz #9
• Guest Post Blitz #3
• Uncovering manager development opportunities

This post on SHRM chapter planning and marketing is a piece of the SHRM Chapter Leadership Guide.

Today I had the opportunity to meet with the NASHRM Webmaster (anyone else think “webmaster” is the coolest title ever?) to go over some ideas for the upcoming year. In just a few short weeks, we’ll be starting 2010, and I will officially become the “Assistant Webmaster” for NASHRM. We both have some great ideas for making this chapter the best. How many other SHRM chapters are thinking about…

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Rebuilding the site with the user in mind
• Blogging
• Email newsletters

I bet there aren’t many. I’m thrilled to have such a great guy to work with on this project. Erich laughs about being a lurker in the social media space, and I keep telling him that I’m waiting on a guest post for the SHRM chapter blog. It’s a fun experience, and neither of us is new to this whole social media thing.

Back on topic: I’m so excited to see what we can do with this thing. There has been a lot of talk lately about how SHRM may or may not be worth the expense, and we are looking at this redesign with that in mind. Some of the questions in the forefront of my mind:

• How can we provide enough value to justify membership?
• What can we do to help those HR pros “in the trenches?”
• What can we do to open their eyes to the competitive advantage of social media?

I’ve been talking a lot with other professionals in the past few days. The topic has been the difference between local and national SHRM membership. While I can make a great case to people for joining a local SHRM chapter, it’s harder for me to do that with national membership. However, that doesn’t mean local always wins. For instance, two of my friends went out of their way to get involved with their own local chapters, and they were pretty much turned away!

Some local SHRM chapters just plain suck (yep, I said it).

Let me give you a hint if you’re involved with a local chapter somewhere: you are selling membership. You aren’t a charity, you’re a business. Act like it. Sell your members on the benefits of your organization. If you can’t succinctly tell prospective members the benefits of joining, then maybe you should revisit the reason your organization exists.

Are you a member of a local SHRM chapter? Do you get anything out of the experience? Why or why not?

Images by worldislandinfo.com and dan taylor.

SHRM Chapter Planning and Marketing is a post from: UpstartHR

You may also enjoy...

• 30+ Ideas for SHRM Chapter Leaders
• What I’ve been up to lately
• Attracting, retaining, and engaging members of your SHRM chapter