Whew! If I look tired, it’s because I am. :-) Little sleep, getting up early, and blocking out a time for a session at every opportunity is getting to me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not learning and doing a lot of interesting things. Check out the video below for my short recap of the day through noon.
Category Archives: SHRM
10 Simple Truths of Great Service at #SHRM10 (Video)
Here’s a short video I shot during a break. I talk about the great session I was able to hit on customer service earlier today. Check below the video for a few highlights of the session.
(Subscribers may have to click through to view.)
Great customer service
- It’s not just for external customers. Apply it internally and you may benefit as well.
- Shift your bell curve. If you aim for standard service or you\’ll fall short half of the time. Aim for amazing service and you\’ll be above average most of the time.
- Great service trickles down. There are times that the business impact of providing a knock-your-socks-off level of service might seem minimal. While business impact may not be immediate, it will come out somewhere down the line. Ever heard of Zappos?
- Customer needs are fairly simple (even if they’re not always easy).
- Companies need to find and share their own service legends. Organizations should collect and internally share customer service stories. One neat idea is to aggregate them and create a small booklet to share with employees.
I wrote on customer service recently on my other blog. Have any stories about amazing service that you care to share?
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?
#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.
HRCI-Social Media Makeover
Okay, HRCI (Human Resources Certification Institute), it’s time for a social media makeover! I alluded to this post when I was talking about everything else going on in my world recently. I am doing my best not to be mean-spirited or rude, because that doesn’t help anyone do anything better. Everything I say today should be taken with a smile. :-) (<–Like that!)
HRCI on Twitter
Near the end of last year, I realized that HRCI was on Twitter. Being a lover of HR certification, I was thrilled to see them there. I had a few back-and-forth chats with Alexis, and we shared a few tips and ideas back and forth. Fun was had by all. Although they were using their URL in every. single. tweet. I was still inclined to give ’em a break.
Flash forward to the past few weeks. They’ve been doing work on their website. How did I know that? Well, they’ve tweeted over a dozen times in a three day period about what you can do on their website. Okay, so they’re sharing. That’s something, I suppose. Continue reading
Interview with Curtis Midkiff, SHRM’s “Social Media Guy”
Before I went to HRevolution, I heard rumblings about a new guy on Twitter. Curtis Midkiff (aka @shrmsocmedguy) is SHRM’s new guy in the social media space. And with China Gorman stepping out (video below), they’re going to need someone stepping in to keep ’em on the right track in the social space. I caught up with Curtis for a quick email interview earlier this week…
- How did you get connected with SHRM?
SHRM has been exploring ways to maximize our use of social media platforms both as an organization and as a service to our members. As a part of that one of the first items that our CEO and the rest of the global leadership team decided was that there was a need to have someone added to the SHRM staff that could be a leader in the area of social media and how we use it to engage our employees and our members. And I am lucky to have been the one they selected to carry out the job.
- What is your goal as the “SHRM social media guy?”
My goal is to really to work with the folks here at SHRM to make sure that we are using social media tools as a way to educate and engage our members while also connecting with others within the HR profession to increase awareness of SHRM. I also hope to be the Ashton Kutcher of the HR Twitter world…can you help me get to a million followers Ben? [Considering my paltry 2,400, I’m probably not the best resource, Curtis. :-) ]
- What’s something fun/interesting that most people don’t know about you?
Hmmm, I am a buffalo wing conneisseur with in-depth knowledge of that subject. I will be releasing a list of the best wing spots prior to the SHRM annual conference…stay tuned.
- The 2009 conference blogger panel was a big moment for those of us in the HR/social media space. Any idea how SHRM is going to involve social tools in the SHRM 2010 conference?
I am excited about what we are doing in that space this year. In addition to being able to follow us @shrm10 and on Facebook, this year we are debuting the social media lounge. This will be an area at the conference for registered bloggers to congregate to post their blogs and videos. We will have plasma screens, video back drops, and computers kiosks and wi-fi as well. In addition, we are going to have a “blog squad†of SHRM members that will cover the people, places and events of the conference. The blogs and videos that we post will be featured on the annual conference website.
We are also hosting an official tweet-up on June 28th at a secret location in San Diego… How\’s that for marketing? But seriously, we are going to host an event for folks to connect the dots with their “tweepsâ€.
- If someone is on the fence about attending SHRM 2010, what would you say to push them over?
They will get to hang with the SHRM social media guy, wouldn\’t that be enough? And once their laughter died down, I would say that there are a number of people working hard here at SHRM to put together a conference that is worth every penny. Another interesting event this year is our voluntourism event with the uso where shrm members will create packages that will be sent to our troops.
The sessions are going to be great and folks will get to connect with over 10,000 hr pros in lovely san diego. And hall and oates are gonna bring back the 80s and some good memories.
Make sure you catch up with Curtis (Curt?) on Twitter. He’s @shrmsocmedguy over there!
China Gorman’s “Thank You” Video
30+ Ideas for SHRM Chapter Leaders
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. Continue reading
