Category Archives: General

Quick Hits from Sunday at #SHRM10

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?

It all comes back to people

In a frantic rush to prepare for SHRM10, I’ve been brushing up on my “elevator speech” to describe who I am and what I do when I meet new people. As a neat little test, I built a Wordle using a sample text snippet from my blog to see if it gave me any ideas. Check the image below.

The thing that sticks out to me? Despite everything we all talk about in the HR/recruiting space (including tools, strategies, and technologies), it still all comes back to people.

Neat, huh?

#SHRM10: newbie lessons, my plans, and your thoughts

So… I’m going to the  SHRM10 conference! Check out the video below. I also have my video notes below for your immense enjoyment.

Are you a decision maker or an influencer?

I signed up for this webinar a few days back and was quite surprised at one of the questions on the attendee survey. Check out the video below for more.

(Subscribers may have to click through to see the video)

Now that you’ve watched the video, take a moment and turn it over in your head. Give it some thought and hit me in the comments. I want to know if you think you are a decision maker or an influencer and why!

In honor of Father’s Day

In honor of Father’s Day, I was invited by a friend to write a short tribute to my dad, Brian Eubanks. Please head over to check it out along with a few others who share about their own experiences. You’ll also see where my rugged good looks come from. ;-)

By the way, this isn’t the first time I’ve written about my parents, either.

To all the dads out there, I hope you have a great one. I’m going to be a dad very soon as well, so I’ve paid attention more this year than any in the past.

Guest Post Blitz #6

I\’m notorious for being unorganized, but I have several guest posts that 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!

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.

As a sequel to my own Google Reader Tutorial, I shared a post with Mike Krupa of InfoBox telling about Continue reading →

An Open Letter to HR on Policies, Regulating, and Training

AKA An open letter to HR professionals who think it’s a good idea to regulate the snot out of everything

Dear fellow HR professionals,

Hey! So, I’m not sure if you know much about me, but I’m a different kind of HR guy. I like being open and honest and treating people like… Well, people. Our employees aren’t children (and if they are, that’s a whole other issue!), so why do we treat them that way?

This ain’t my first rodeo

I talked about this before in a video. I attended a supervisor training where we spent two whole days listening to people whose favorite phrases were don’t do this and don’t do that. I can understand setting those minimum standards, but I don’t understand why there’s no attempt to reach higher. Why aren’t we giving our people lessons on coaching and leadership in addition to the rest of that stuff?

Think about it Continue reading →