PHR Study Materials (cheap and free)

show me the moneyBecause of my involvement in the HR certification scene, I get asked often about PHR study materials. More often than not I recommend one of our courses along with another book or inexpensive study material, but the message below prompted a thought.

Hi! I am signed up for the PHR and looking for study materials. Since I’m in transition, my budget is super tight so I’d love to get something for less than retail prices. Thank you! Amy in Orlando

If I had to start all over again and study with the limited budget I have, what would I use to prepare?

Studying on the cheap

First of all, I’d look through the various resources for the PHR and SPHR exams I’ve gathered over the past 24 months. There are some great tools in there that are totally free and would be a good place to find some help. But you’ll only get so far with free stuff. In truth, I’d probably just use the same resources to study as I did for the PHR exam last year.

  1. Two pack of HRCI practice exams $70
  2. Anne Bogardus PHR/SPHR book ~$40
  3. Any other practice exams available

The bare essentials

I know there are a lot of people in transition right now and some of them are looking at certification as a way to help increase their marketability as a candidate. The bare essentials: Anne Bogardus book and the PHR/SPHR Self Study Course. You’ll get enough content in those two resources to successfully pass the exam.

How to get your employer to pay for it

If you are working and don’t want to pay out of pocket, here are some ideas on how to make that happen. I recently shot this video for the subscribers to the free SPHR/PHR email newsletter. It might give you some thoughts on how to reduce your cost and maybe even get your employer to pick up the tab!

Email subscribers may need to click through to view the video.

Trust, Clear Communication, and Project Management

This week’s been wild and crazy, but I wanted to share some fun (and thought-provoking) pictures I’ve seen in the past few days. Anyone else seen anything particularly neat/interesting this week?

Ain’t that the truth? Found here

Silly, but a good reminder of how important it is to communicate well! Found here

Where’s the HR part of this one? What would it look like? Found here

The proper care and feeding of employees

Managing employees is tough, but there are some fundamental principles that weave through the manager/employee relationship we can all benefit from remembering. Check out the short video below (transcript below that if you prefer reading) to learn more.

(Email subscribers may have to click through to view the video.)

Proper care and feeding of employees

  • People come to work for the money, and leave because of their manager (the research backs that often tossed-around phrase) .
  • All of the data comes from research done by the Corporate Leadership Council. They\’ve found that providing fair/accurate informal feedback has a 39% impact on performance. (The problem? We don\’t know how to give feedback for the most part!)
  • Never really thought of it this way, but the manager acts as a conduit whose primary role is to connect employee with company. They can directly shape the employee\’s perception of the organization, their team, and their job. (I\’ve really noticed this a lot when I didn\’t get the right tools and attention from my manager.)

Anything else you’d like to share that goes along with managing better?

HR Roundtable Discussions

My friend Steve Browne is known as the facilitator for the HR Round Table Discussions up in Ohio. The neat part about his efforts? He shares the notes with anyone and everyone so we can all benefit from the work of the group! Cincinnati News actually wrote a piece on Steve’s role in the Roundtable a while back. It’s an interesting read.

(He made me promise to remind you that it’s the group that does the heavy lifting and he just adds his own thoughts, but we all know he’s doing a great service to the HR community with this stuff.) :-)

This morning, he let me know that it was okay to share the notes with everyone, so if you’d like to see the archives of the discussions from the past few years, click the link below to check them out. A few topics they’ve covered over the years:

Click here to see the HR Roundtable notes (and get your learning on!)

Follow Steve on Twitter if you don’t already! @sbrownehr

Do you allow people to dress up for Halloween?

Two quick questions today. First, do you allow people to dress up for Halloween? Curious about it from a diversity of thought perspective. Some companies say “no way,” while others allow people to celebrate however they wish. Second, whether or not you allow it, is it acceptable culturewise? I’ve worked in places where it was allowed but nobody did it due to those “unspoken norms” in the organization. Not a fun place to work even on a regular day!

Curious about this holiday’s celebration (0r not) around the world. :-) And yes, you can comment on the cuteness of Bella and Bree even if  you have nothing to add with regard to the Halloween/costume debate!

HRM Conference in Tuscaloosa-My Experience

hr management conference university alabama

Lots of conference talk recently, but there have been some great things going on and I’d hate for someone to miss out on the good stuff if you don’t have to! I spent last Thursday and Friday at the Human Resources Management Conference in Tuscaloosa, and I really enjoyed the experience. I thought I’d share a few quick takeaways from the event.

  • Learned some really interesting stuff on employee engagement and managing people (but haven’t had the change to write on it yet). The title I have in mind for that one is called “the proper care and feeding of employees.”
  • It was entertaining to watch as the speaker discussed high level engagement concepts while the audience was asking about more mundane employee issues like using too much time on the phone and not coming to work on time.
  • Running an HR department with only one person is incredibly difficult, but it can be done.
  • Watching a panel discussion is more fun than listening to a traditional lecture, because the interactivity is higher and asking questions is encouraged. The moderator was worried before a session began that we would have extra time, but the audience asked so many questions that we had to cut some people off due to time constraints!
  • I confirmed my dislike for legal updates, although the lawyer that talked about the marijuana growers unionizing was pretty hilarious. :-)
  • Using social media as an HR tool has its challenges, but the payoff can be more than worth the effort.
  • I’m seeing more and more people who are interested in trying their hand at social recruiting, but for one reason or another, they don’t ever give it a shot. I encourage you to learn what you can and try it out. Some of the success stories I’ve heard have been astounding.
  • Definitely encourage you to check it out next year!

Click here if you’d like to learn more about the event.

HRM Conference: Social Media with Kris Dunn and Dawn Hrdlica

Yes. I know how to use social media. But I want to be in the middle of a group of HR professionals who battle in the trenches every day and hear what they want to know about the social stuff. While I love doing what I do, I understand that there\’s a whole other world out there of people who could really use this stuff (if only they knew how or what to ask). That\’s why Project:Social was started.

By the way, I\’m coming to you from the Human Resources Management Conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Check back for more coverage of the event!

The fun for me actually started before the actual session. I had the opportunity to share my lunch hour with Dawn and we talked on HRevolution, deep career issues, and blogging. Plus I got to show off pictures of my girls. Always fun. :-)

Killer Quotes

“[Why did I start using this stuff?] I just wanted to start learning about social media for recruiting.” Dawn Hrdlica-Burke

I\’ve received more than I\’ve given with social media/blogging. That\’s why I do what I do. -Kris Dunn

Your handbook is already there to help remove people who have a major error in judgment. Don\’t need a special social media policy. –KD

“Hey, nobody died” (in defense of asking forgiveness, not permission, for testing social tools). –KD

Who I follow in social media: not only people who put out content, but also people who share other resources that are not theirs that are helpful to people in the profession. –KD

I never trust a blog that blocks comments. Controlling the conversation doesn\’t work. –Dawn

social media + HR: Employer branding, recruiting, and career advancement for HR in a digital world

Ten reasons to use social tools

  1. Sucks to be a dinosaur (don\’t be leapfrogged on strategy)
  2. Rock and roll is dead (so is print)
  3. Elvis,Tony Soprano, and the internet (other generations thought they were fads)
  4. elearning is turning into ulearning (don\’t wait on content from SHRM/HRCI)
  5. Toby from the Office (show that you are growing/engaged)
  6. You\’re so vain (Have you googled yourself? What does it say about you?)
  7. I trust people I meet on the net (people with online brands)
  8. You can build professional authority without posting beer bong pics (it’s really not hard to keep it professional)
  9. Network/connections will drive knowledge transfer (be involved to observe what\’s going on)
  10. There\’s better food at the Marriot than at the Motel6 (market pays for rare skills (social media, for instance))

Pitfalls, Landmines, and other practical advice for HR rockstars in the trenches: You say you want a social media revolution

Ten barriers to social tool usage

  1. Don\’t have the access (54% are blocking completely, 90% blocking some)
  2. Don\’t have the tools (already have other stuff filling my work slate, is there room for another piece?)
  3. Underestimating the time (posting a job=5 minutes of work, building a network of social contacts=greater than 5 minutes)
  4. Being overwhelmed (start small—lurk/observe!)
  5. I don\’t get it (well, your grandma does)
  6. My company won\’t let me go public (go internal!)
  7. IT and marketing took over my world (be prepared and be a partner,  not a flunkie)
  8. Where\’s my ROI (time vs. dollars)
  9. I fought the law (don\’t be stupid)
  10. You, you control freak (can\’t control every other conversation, so don\’t try this either)

My thought: The fact that companies don\’t really trust end users/employees is where a lot of the friction (blocking social sites) comes from. If you didn\’t trust them, why in the world did you hire them?