I’m not sure how many of you knew it, but I have the honor of serving as the chairman for the SHRM YP committee. Not sure what that is? Well, the video below will clue you in. I talk about some of the things the Society for Human Resource Management is doing to target young professionals and a few reasons why it’s a hot button issue for me.
This week is going to be a busy one for me, so I’m considering a full week of videos. I recorded a handful while I was out of town last week, and if I can pull them together, you can listen/watch instead of read this week. Enjoy!
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So Ben, serious question for you: What exactly is SHRM doing to prepare the HR leaders of tomorrow? (Other than pushing HR certifications)
The guy in charge of reaching out to the the young HR pros is Chuck Salvetti. He is passionate about doing his job well and wants to give the future leaders in the HR space the tools they need to do the job well. I’ll see if I can rope him into responding to your comment, Chris, because of all the people I’ve met at SHRM, Chuck is one of the very best.
As far as my interactions on the committee, they haven’t pushed certification much at all. And with the new changes, people can’t even think about getting certified without some experience in the field anyway.
Ben and Chris: one of the most important initiatives that SHRM has undertaken in recent years is the focus on advising business programs at the undergraduate and the graduate level on appropraite “HR” curriculum to be included. SHRM’s team, after intensive research, created an HR curriculum template that colleges and universities are adopting or using as a guide in ensuring that if students get a degree (grad or undergrad) in business with a concentration in HR, they’ve mastered all the appropriate content. This is a huge step — and more than 175 institutions around the world have adopted this SHRM-recommended curriculum. I think this is going a long way in preparing young and early-career HR professionals to be successful.
@China – Cool stuff. I have a masters in HR, so I’m certainly not anti-education, but what are your thoughts on the criticisms people raise regarding professors who have been out-of-the-field for a decade or three?
Can professors who aren’t actively practicing professionals really teach this stuff with authority, even if the curriculum was set by people who are in the trenches?
I think this is a great start, but I’d also love to see more of a focus on experiential learning. Like all things life, real learning comes from putting the stuff you’ve studied into action.