Today I don’t have to ramble at you (aren’t you thrilled?). My pal’s going to do it for me. My buddy Allen Robinson has given me permission to republish the post he’s written about his SHRM experiences. He says they’re not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. I’m not going to agree or disagree with his assessment, but I will shut up and let Allen do some talking. Here we go!

How many times have you heard that SHRM is more or less a waste of space, a dinosaur of an organization or just not meeting the needs of the HR community? I have been hearing this more and more lately.

My view of SHRM apparently is different than the growing disdain among my fellow HR Professionals. As I was developing my knowledge of HR at the University of Michigan, I was given a great deal of support by SHRM either directly or indirectly. There in lies the key to why I feel that SHRM is still a relevant organization.

While in college, I went on to become the President of the student chapter of SHRM at my University. I’m not saying that to toot my own horn (Trust me, its doesn’t amont to a hill of beans), but because this is a good example of SHRM creating an opportunity that allowed for great personal growth. Without SHRM, there would have not been an affiliate chapter at the University of Michigan nor the opportunity to further my knowledge of HR so easily.

Another example of SHRM’s relevance to me would be the HR certification and the HR Games. Again, while still in college, myself and two other HR majors studied and competed in 2005 HR Games. The information we gained in the preparation for these games was above and beyond what we were learning in our college curriculum. It just seemed to me that SHRM was making it possible to walk away from college with a much more well rounded understanding of Human Resources.

I understand that both of my examples are from the start of my HR career, but that does not mitigate the importance that SHRM had on my growth as a HR professional. I feel that if the only accomplishment SHRM does day in and day out is to bring awareness to the field along with providing students a wealth of information, then they are relevant and important. I dont look to SHRM to solve all of the worlds HR problems.

Ultimately, what I am expressing is that there is and will be a lot of good that SHRM has done for the field of HR and we should pay them just a little respect once in a while.