Author Archives: Ben

#HRevolution tickets for sale!

HRevolution tickets! Get ’em while they’re hot!

A few quick notes about the HRevolution tickets:

  • Discount for quick people-If you are one of the first 20 people to purchase tickets, you get $25 off. Snag one quick!
  • What you get for your money-Cost includes a meal on Friday evening plus Saturday breakfast/lunch/snack. It also helps us to cover the costs of the meeting space. We are still the cheapest (and coolest ;-)) event for HR/recruiting pros around!

Times are tough (duh)

There are a few ways for you to lower your costs of attending and still get the full benefits from being an HRevolution participant.

  • Room sharing-I shared a room with one guy at HRevolution ’09 and two guys at HRevolution ’10. As long as the trend doesn’t continue (four guys is a bit much, right? :-) ), I’ll be sharing room costs with my fellow attendees to make it more affordable in 2011. Some of the people who have roomed together in the past are now great friends and I’d like to think HRev helped with that at least a little.
  • Individual sponsors-I’m talking with a few companies to sponsor individual attendees as a sort of “scholarship.” If you are a company who’s willing to help someone attend this amazing event, contact me. It’s cheap ($150), will get you some kudos, and helps you to create a die hard fan. :-)
  • Carpooling (?)-I spent nine hours driving/riding to Chicago in May 2010. It was rough. But, again, it was a cost saving measure and all three of us were able to pay $30 for gas instead of buying 3 plane tickets. Plus we shared ideas and got the conversations started before we even arrived. Atlanta isn’t the hub of the universe, but it can still be less than a nine hour drive! If you’re interested in this, I recommend using Twitter with the #HRevolution tag and anyone who’s interested can reach out to you. Just a thought!

One more thing

If you are attending or interested the least little bit, let people know on LinkedIn. Same for our Facebook event. Share it. Hug it. Whatever it takes, just help us get the word out!

Hope to see you there!

Human resource career opportunities (My HR career #2)

In a recent post I talked about HR careers and how to get a job in HR. Today I’ll cover career opportunities for those in human resource jobs, specifically how to create career growth opportunities from within your job.

How I grew my career opportunities

I’ll go ahead and admit it: my first HR job wasn’t super strenuous. Surprised? Probably not. Most people in their first HR roles usually end up filing papers (me), handling the dull/routine tasks that nobody else wants (me), and generally wasting their time and energy on things that an admin or temp could do (me again). I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the opportunity to move into the HR profession, but if you have someone with a degree in HR and some enthusiasm, but you’ve kept them in a filing/admin type job for over six months, you’re wasting their brains and hamstringing yourself. They won’t do it forever.

That lack of stress and responsibility left me feeling like my free time could be used in a better way. At that time I had already started blogging to share about my new job and what I was doing/learning, but I really threw myself into it. I started using Twitter and LinkedIn to build connections with other human resources professionals around the world.

I was able to grow a little in my day job, but it seemed like there weren’t many opportunities for growth/challenge. Without Allen (my mentor and best friend) guiding me, I’d have sunk into a slump months ago.

Even with a full time work schedule, I had time for a few activities in my spare time…

  • Interacted daily with VP/director level pros and thought leaders in my field
  • Cofounded an HR conference that drew attendees from around the world
  • Wrote an eBook targeted toward my industry’s certification exam
  • Created and solidified dozens of partnerships with other blogs and businesses
  • And most importantly, I established myself as an expert in my niche both locally and nationally

Yes, I have this whole world of stuff that I do outside my day job, but the full time gig is still what pays my bills and keeps my babies fed. And unless you’ve been briefed on my online (empire) activities, it just doesn’t sound very impressive to say, “I’m an HR blogger.” Eventually I came to the realization that the day job needed to keep up with the pace of the rest of my activities, and I started looking for another job.

Most of us have made some job changes in the past few years. You’ve heard my story. What prompted that change for you?

Other posts in the HR Careers series:

SHRM Leadership Conference-Panel on D&I, Flexibility, and Social Media #SHRM10Lead

There was a great panel this morning at the SHRM Leadership Conference about some of the “hot” HR issues, including Diversity and Inclusion, Workplace Flexibility, and Social Media. Check out the short video below where I talk about some of the interesting quotes I heard.

(When I tested the video, it played without the lag between the visual and the audio. But them someone told me it was showing weird for them. Sorry about that if it’s broken, but just listen. As always, it’s the content that counts!)

Video Notes:

  • Eric Petersen-importance of separating the things  a 20 year old does and the things that make a generation different.
  • Lisa Horn-workplace flexibility isn\’t just for women. Yeah.
  • Curtis Midkiff-Continuing the conversation after a conference is one of the best uses for social media.

Yeah, it’s not exactly what I came here for, but I thought they were interesting enough to share. :-)

SHRM Leadership Conference-Why I Came

Why would I take a few days away from my precious family to attend the SHRM Leadership Conference? It\’s simple, really. I wanted to see and hear from other people in the SHRM volunteer community. I created the SHRM Volunteer Leaders LinkedIn group to help connect and collaborate with these people. But that was just the first step. Now the Rock Your Chapter eBook is out there and I want to keep the conversation going about how to make chapters better.

I\’m looking bigger than my own little chapter. Yes, I\’m dedicated to helping them and have already set aside 2011 to serve as the Social Media Coordinator/Webmaster for NASHRM, but I want to connect with other leaders to learn and grow (them and me).

A few good examples

The LinkedIn Group: Mark Christensen initiated a discussion about having a time to talk about state best practices during the Leadership Conference. The discussion received a lot of comments, and (surprise surprise!) SHRM then added some time to talk about it. If that doesn\’t make you feel good that they are paying attention (somewhat, anyway), then I don\’t know what will.

Chapter director collaboration: My friend Bobbi Wilson found out recently that she was going to be the Certification Director at NASHRM for 2011. In an effort to help her get started on the right foot, I reached out to my network to find other certification professionals at other chapters. I gathered some names and email addresses and passed them along to Bobbi.

Now tell me this. If this is her first time as our chapter\’s certification person, do you think she\’ll do a better or worse job now that she has 5-10 people to brainstorm with? Yeah. That\’s a micro example of what my eventual goal is with this SHRM volunteer leader stuff.

Connecting isn’t optional

LinkedIn connections HR

I tweeted this last night during a conversation, and it started a great discussion with some of the people I was sitting with. At one point earlier today, someone actually said the words: “I\’m connected enough.” I had to roll my eyes at that. There\’s no such thing. Just because you can do what you do now without a solid network in place doesn\’t mean you\’ll always be able to handle what comes your way.

Networking is a great way to prepare for those “Ahhh! What do I do?” events. Just like in the job search, by the time you\’ve lost your job it\’s too late to start networking. Same with this. Don\’t wait. Join in. Use some of the tools and see what you can do. Need a hand? Here\’s a social media mentoring program.

Let\’s stop living in our little bubbles. It just doesn\’t cut it anymore.

Rock Your Chapter Free eBook

So… I finally finished the Rock Your Chapter eBook! It’s been a long time coming, but I hope it’s really useful to the volunteer chapter leaders out there. Know someone who’s in a leadership position with a local chapter or state council? Share this guide with them. I’d appreciate it and so will they. :-) I’m passionate about helping our volunteer leadership with leading and growing their chapters, and this guide is just a small piece of what I’d like to do overall. Thank you to everyone for your support!

click to downloadClick here to download.

Want to help?

I love giving these things away for free. The best part for me is knowing that it’s helping a person somewhere that I don’t even know, simply because someone like you shared it with them. Here are a few ways you can help me (and other chapters in your area):

  • Send an email to your local and/or state board with the link to this page
  • Share the link on twitter
  • Post it on your local chapter or state council Facebook page or LinkedIn group
  • Tell other volunteers you know about how much you enjoyed it (assuming you did!)
  • Tell me about how it helped you so I can make the next one better

Testimonials for Rock Your Chapter

Ben hits the nail on the head. “Rock Your Chapter” rocks!!
Posted by Lori Goldsmith, SPHR, GPHR
Thanks for putting your ideas on paper and working to make us all better.
(Cincinnati HR)
Posted by Julie Johnson
Hey Ben – nice work!
Posted by Michael VanDervort
This is great stuff! I will share with the Guam and Saipan chapters and let you know the results. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
Posted by Katherine Gillespie Dote
Ben,
Nicely done. Finally had a chance to download and read. Will happily pass along to others as well!
Thanks!
Posted by Bradley Galin, SPHR
Great book Ben. I printed it, read it and have sent links to my Chapter Board Members. I also posted a link on both the Georgia SHRM State Council LinkedIn Group and the Georgia SHRMState Council Membership LinkedIn Group!
Posted by Kevin Smith, SPHR
Ben: Thank you. I am sharing with our Board (Charleston West Virginia) and State Council Director.
Posted by James Wells, SPHR, IPMA-CP
Great guide! I’ll be sharing with my board colleagues in the Volusia/Flagler Chapter (Daytona Beach, FL)
Posted by Cheryl Perreault

Your document “Rock Your Chapter” is excellent. Thank you. As the Charleston West Virginia Chapter 2011 – 2013 President I have shared with our Board, and as a West Virginia State Council District Director I have encouraged the State Council Director to share with each Chapter in our State. Thank you.
Jim

Congratulations on your production of a useful tool for chapters.  Many of your ideas will fit any non-profit organization. Thank you for your efforts.
Mike

Good stuff. I\’ll be sharing with my local ASTD chapter during our board retreat in December.
Traci Cuthbertson

SHRM Leadership Conference-DriveThruHR Interview

Just finished a podcast about the SHRM Leadership Conference with my good friend Bryan Wempen of DriveThruHR. We talked about local SHRM chapters, the volunteers that make up the backbone of the organization, and my sweet little babies. :-) Click the button below to listen to the show.

Listen Now

Also, my good friend Dave Ryan had a go with Bryan on the show just before I got a chance to get on. Dave’s interview can be found at this link. Big shout out to Dave for allowing me to share his hotel room for SHRM Leadership. I offered to sleep in the floor, but he got his room changed to have a second bed just for me. I promised him blogging assistance in return. :-)