How can SHRM chapters and members get more out of membership? Read on for a few ideas. This post is a part of the SHRM Chapter Leadership Guide.

HR Barbie, AKA Tamara in Ohio, asks the following:

I am so glad I found your site.  It is so important for the newly minted HR Professionals, like me.

It was extremely hard for me to transition into HR, and like you, I did not find an HR position until I began attending CSHRM meetings (Cleveland chapter).

My problem with SHRM in general, is that it is directed more towards the management side.  For professionals new to HR like myself, who only implements policy and is not a policy maker, it can be very off putting or in some cases a waste of time to attend.

I really want to join / attend on a more regular basis.  Perhaps in one of your next posts you can write about how we can make chapter SHRMs benefit all levels of HR.

I’ve heard from others like my buddy Tamara here, and I know it isn’t a local problem for her. I don’t know if these chapters are expecting the national chapter’s offerings to make up for their lack of value or what, but it seems pretty silly to me.

What can SHRM chapters do? Continue Reading »

Today is going to be exciting. I get to join the rest of my peers and kick off my SHRM chapter mentoring program (known as NASHRM Mentor University). Why is it exciting? Well, I get to spend some close, personal time with a wide range of HR professionals in all stages of their careers, and I get to do it for $50. While I debated the value of other high cost HR conferences, this thing sounds like it’s value-packed and dirt cheap. Check out the post below that I wrote forRocketHR after I found out about making the short list.

Want to get mentored? Well, you’ll have to wait until next year. This year’s participants in the NASHRM mentor project were announced last week, and I am thrilled to be on that exclusive list. The mastermind of this project, Rusty Brand, passed along this comment: Continue Reading »

Well, it’s been a little while since I dumped off a load of guest posts on you in an attempt to look too busy to post here. I know you’ve been dying to see what else I’ve been up to, so I’ll share them today. I love doing guest posts for my friends. It gives them a day off, and it gives me a chance to connect with a new audience. I try to do them in batches, because it makes things easier for me. It also gives me the opportunity to do a guest post blitz! Okay, maybe it’s not really as super cool as it sounds. I just link to ‘em. But hey, you get to visit a friend or two of mine in the process, so it could be worse, right? Let’s get the guest posts rolling! Continue Reading »

SHRM 2010… It’s coming up in just a few short months in San Diego, California. Are you going? Back when SHRM 2009 was going on, I was salivating to attend, and I was really looking forward to SHRM 2010. When I found out it was going to be across the US, my excitement waned. I can’t make that trip.

People often ask if I will be attending this event or that function. Remember, people, I’m an entry level HR pro (in terms of years worked, anyway). I do not have the means to support multiple conferences each year. And my employer being a nonprofit doesn’t really help, either. I’d love to be able to meet some friends (like my pals at HRCP), be a social media evangelist, and generally raise some havoc. But as of this moment, it’s not going to happen.

What I will be doing Continue Reading »

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

Continue Reading »

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.

Social media is growing, and there’s no end in sight. Recently, Kris Dunn came and spoke to my local SHRM chapter about social media and its uses for HR professionals.  It’s interesting that he was slated to come in August, because I had proposed a chapter blog shortly before then. I envisioned something like the work that Stephen has done with HR Gumbo, but probably not as awesome. Anyway, a few weeks of frenzied work behind the scenes led to the current site.

One potential issue was that we weren’t sure how the blog would play out in the long run. What if I moved away? What if I suddenly hated blogging? To smooth that wrinkle, I promised updates every week on Monday, since most of the people reading wouldn’t be able to keep up with more than that. After a year, we will reassess and see if we can draw in more writers, because I would like to do more with the chapter in a hands-on capacity whenever possible.

And RocketHR was born.

I’m hoping that it can be used as social media “training wheels” for the members of the chapter (and anyone else out there who’s delving into SM for the first time). The first posts are directed toward those fresh faces, so make sure and point people in that direction if you think they can learn something useful!

• Have someone you’re trying to convert to social media? The post on the social web might be helpful as a primer.
• Need to explain Google Reader to someone? Keep the Google Reader tutorial close at hand.
• Know something that might be useful to someone new to the social media space? Leave a comment!
• Are you new to this stuff? If so, then please let me know what you’d like to learn!

And as always, any assistance in promoting this new blog would help greatly in proving its worth as a tool for my local chapter. Thanks!

And the snazzy logo was created by my good friend Allen Robinson (@logicwriter).