Tag Archives: #SHRM13

SHRM 2013 HR Carnival

For those of you not familiar, the Carnival of HR is a biweekly collection of great content from some of the other HR bloggers around the world.

This week I’m hosting a special edition focusing on the SHRM Conference. I did bend the rules just a bit to allow an intriguing post about the conference experience from a marketer’s point of view, but otherwise it’s a quick review of the event from some of the best and brightest that HR has to offer. Enjoy!

  1. My friend Paul Smith at Welcome to the Occupation shares Curiosity Killed The Cat.
  2. Jon Ingham kicked over Why Your Talent Aren’t Talent.
  3. Kevin Grossman pitched in his thoughts on Selling in the Workforce, based on Daniel Pink’s keynote speech.
  4. Melissa Fairman, who I was thrilled to finally meet in person, shares her thoughts on her Adventures at SHRM.
  5. Emily Jasper at The Starr Conspiracy gives us some ideas that marketing is using to Make Events Exciting for Those At Home.
  6. Jennifer Payne puts her Thoughts on Becoming More out at the Women of HR blog.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to share! I hope the rest of you in the audience will check out the content and let some of these other authors know your thoughts.

Maintaining Your Culture as You Grow

maintain culture growthAs you should know by now, I’m a firm believer in the power of a strong corporate culture. One of the sessions I looked forward to the most before I arrived at SHRM was the “Maintaining Your Culture As You Grow” session. I picked up some great ideas and wanted to share them here. If you are interested in more content like this, I have another post rattling around in my brain that I can write on the topic…

Some takeaways

  • Don’t let people tell you that you have to change everything as you scale up. Yes, you might have to make some changes, but they should be operationally, not at the core of what your company believes in. You might have to change processes or procedures that used to work flawlessly. Bottom line: what got you here won’t necessarily get you to where you want to be.
  • Springboarding off of that concept, there are times when it becomes necessary to remove long-time employees simply because they are unable to grow and scale with the organization. It’s painful. It’s unpleasant. But it has to be done or they’ll remain a weak link in the growth structure. The process for removing the person is simple (not easy!): respectfully acknowledge their significant contributions and then kindly and gently help them leave. That’s it.
  • Give hiring managers final say in all hiring decisions. Everyone on the interview team can vote, but when the hiring manager makes the call, everyone else needs to get on board with the decision immediately. No hemming, hawing, or “that’s not who I wanted.” Either give them your support or leave. Many companies rot from the inside out when too much finger-pointing becomes the common culture vs. organizational excellence.
  • Have your interview team members reach out to the new hire before their start date with encouraging comments and helpful tips. Many of us wait until day 1 to help them build those connections, but the sooner they start getting comfortable, the faster they will be productive employees.
  • One concept I’m not sure I really like, but I think it’s intriguing: only do performance evaluations on your highest performers. It’s a burdensome process otherwise, so make sure you get the most bang for your buck by only evaluating the best people. Make your strengths stronger instead of focusing on your weaknesses. [Again, not sure I like this, but worth discussing. My issue is that it’s a demotivator for employees who want to be great but don’t have enough coaching or communication to do well. This is going to further deepen those rifts until the potentially great B players walk out the door.]

I have other notes, but as I went through them I realized I already have started writing other blog posts about the specific bullet points. I have some good ideas here and hope to actually do a training session with some of our team to help them understand the implications for maintaining culture for the long haul.

What questions do you have surrounding culture or growth? What would you like me to cover in the future?

How to Improve Employee Retirement Planning #SHRM13

My favorite session at SHRM13? One that focused on 401ks. Yeah, sounds strange, right?

But it really was an intriguing session. The speaker discussed some of the behavioral concepts regarding 401k planning, retirement, etc. I have some good notes to share soon, but this was the one big takeaway that I got from the session. Check out the video below to learn how to immediately impact your employees’ financial readiness for “retirement.”

Subscribers click here to view

Let’s Get Rid of HR #SHRM13

This morning a great discussion popped up among the social media team at SHRM, and I just had to share. This will probably be a little controversial, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing…

Can we cut to the chase? Let’s get rid of HR. Managers should be doing “HR’s job.”

Because in a surprising number of cases it’s not really HR’s job.

Want your HR team to be useful and provide real value to the organization? Let HR focus on strategic activity, supporting the critical business functions, and planning for the future.

Why?

Because when you spend all day fighting fires, responding to emergencies (real or imagined), and generally acting as a crutch for managers who won’t manage, there’s no time for the activities that will truly demonstrate the value of HR.

Should HR completely get out of the practice of being a facilitator for employees and managers? A large portion of the support that managers request from HR is actually work that could (and arguably should) be accomplished by the manager.

Anonymous HR professional: But wait, my managers need me! They need my help. They don’t have time to help employees set goals, talk with them about performance issues, or discuss succession opportunities. I’m a critical piece of the puzzle!

Yeah, those HR pros are going to be hurting, because change never happens without some growth pain. For those that want to cling to the “power” they have by being a resource for managers, they’ll never be able to grow into true strategic players in the organization.

The choice is yours, but I’d like to explore getting rid of HR as it’s all-too-commonly practiced. It’s about time.

Just a Few of the Great Vendors at #SHRM13

I apologize in advance for looking like I’m worn out, the poor lighting, the shaky video, and pretty much everything else. It has been a challenge to connect to the wifi and 4g networks in the past few days!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE8SmRX1x6g

Video Notes

  • fun/funny shirts and other great recognition items-Baudville; conversation turns, as always to how to get our managers to give who don’t like to provide feedback regularly
  • hireology-hiring science, testing/assessments, interview guides, more to come
  • achievers-katie shout out, great platform, but same question–how to get managers to use? Make it a challenge/game. Might work. Not quite convinced yet, but better answer than I could come up with.
  • HRCP-great PHR/SPHR study tool, but relatively unknown. They have a pass or you get a 100% money back guarantee, and they’ve had a handful of people out of thousands actually ask for it in more than a year of the guarantee being in place. Great tool for SHRM chapters looking to help set up a study group for members.

#SHRM13 Kicking Off

(Weird wifi issues in my hotel prevented me from posting this on Sunday. Sorry!)

Yet again I’m amazed at the event that SHRM has put together, and (as I write this) it’s only Sunday!

There’s so much to say, but I want to focus on one question that’s occurred to me several times in the past 24 hours.

Why am I here?

Why did I leave my family hundreds of miles away (on Father’s Day!), give up a few days at work, and come to a distant city?

It’s simple, really.

My purpose is to bring session content to life, ask questions that help us all learn to DO human resources better, and help to share with those who couldn’t attend the event.

On a personal level, I also love seeing friends and making new ones. If you’re at the event and want to connect, I’ll be at the Hive Smart Bar on Monday from 12-2pm. Stop by!

I’m definitely taking advantage of the phenomenal collection of vendors here this week. I’m planning to meet with some great companies, including…

  • HRCP-they do HR certification
  • SilkRoad-onboarding, applicant tracking, learning management, and other software tools
  • Achievers-employee recognition tools
  • Hireology-prehire testing and evaluation tools
  • Baudville-fun and quirky employee motivation tools
  • Halogen-performance management software
  • And more….

Again, the intent there is to learn more about some of these innovative companies and how they might help you as an HR professional to do your work better, smarter, or faster.

Look for more content coming later, but for now, I just want to say thanks to SHRM for the opportunity!