SHRMingham

Let’s Talk Leadership!

The Birmingham Society of Human Resource Management is partnering with the SHRM Alabama State Council to bring a premiere leadership event for HR Professionals to Birmingham!
 
"Transforming HR in 21st Century Organizations: What HR Competencies are Required for Success."
 
This event will feature Dave Ulrich. Recognized for years as the most dynamic HR professional in the world, Dave Ulrich will spend a full day in Birmingham discussing HR competencies and leadership development. The event will also include workshops, lunch and a reception.
 
The event will take place on December 2, 2009 at the Cahaba Grand Conference Center from 9:00 am – 5:30 pm. It costs $75 to attend and we're offering a $45 student rate.
Visit www.bshrm.org to register and secure more information.
 
Want to know more about Dave? Click here.

Our Top Stories in the 5th Edition of SHRMingham...

Our top stories in the fifth edition of SHRMingham (click on the story links or simply scroll down for the goodness):

1. VIDEO - The BSHRM interview with SHRM COO China Gorman at the National SHRM Convention in New Orleans....see our interview with China at SHRM National...

2. Local Stuff - Undergrad HR Program at UAB Recognized for Alignment with SHRM’s Curriculum Guidelines...

3. All Workplace Jerks Don't Have to Scream - The Information Hoarder... You know them, you love them... the hoarder who kills your organization...

4. Discretionary Labor/Effort - Why Your Company Needs to Think Like a Yahoo Community...

5. Take a Sip of the Zappos Kool-Aid With "Dr. Vik" (and Zappos Insights) - You love ordering shoes fromm Zappos, but did you know they're a leader in company culture?

6. Fired for Talking Smack About the Company On Facebook... Of course you're going to click on this...

Enjoy and comment by clicking through on the title of each article and then clicking "Comments" at the bottom of each post.  Tip your editor on story ideas and hate/don't hate at kdunn@daxko.com.

Our top stories in the fifth edition of SHRMingham (click on the story links or simply scroll down for the goodness):

1. VIDEO - The BSHRM interview with SHRM COO China Gorman at the National SHRM Convention in New Orleans....see our interview with China at SHRM National...

2. Local Stuff - Undergrad HR Program at UAB Recognized for Alignment with SHRM’s Curriculum Guidelines...

3. All Workplace Jerks Don't Have to Scream - The Information Hoarder... You know them, you love them... the hoarder who kills your organization...

4. Discretionary Labor/Effort - Why Your Company Needs to Think Like a Yahoo Community...

5. Take a Sip of the Zappos Kool-Aid With "Dr. Vik" (and Zappos Insights) - You love ordering shoes fromm Zappos, but did you know they're a leader in company culture?

6. Fired for Talking Smack About the Company On Facebook... Of course you're going to click on this...

Enjoy and comment by clicking through on the title of each article and then clicking "Comments" at the bottom of each post.  Tip your editor on story ideas and hate/don't hate at kdunn@daxko.com.

SHRM09 Interview - China Gorman On the State of the SHRM National Conference...

True story - I'm getting ready to talk to China Gorman (SHRM COO) on Tuesday at the SHRM National Conference, and a dude walks up to China and rips off something like this:

什么是伟大的一天!

China said something back in the same language.  Then the dude ripped off something like this:

真实的故事-我正准备跟中国戈尔曼（人力资源管理学会首席运营官）周二在人力资源管理学会全国会议，并猪头各界高达中国和列了这样的!!!

At which point China indicated she didn't speak the language.

So the guy points out her nametag and says words to the effect of "But your name is China, so I...."

Awkward silence.  The guy was dead serious.  Dude, If you're reading this today, you were a super nice guy, but I had to share that story... Duuuuuuude....

ANYWAY, since this was the first SHRM conference I've attended in awhile, I thought I would sit down with China and talk about the state of the Annual SHRM Conference.  The video of our conversation is below and the topics include:

1.  WARMUP - what were China's favorite moments at the SHRM conference in New Orleans?

2.  Welch and Kotter - Those were the two hot speakers this year, how does SHRM intend to keep the business/HR flow going in future years? 

3.  Dave Ramsey - What happened?  Why were so many attendees talking smack?

4.  Why aren't there more pure HR practitioners presenting at the show?

5.  What are the toughest issues SHRM faces in providing a great experience to HR practitioners in the field?

6.  SOFTBALL: What's China's favorite Sheryl Crow song?

7.  Next Year's Music: Can I get a he** yeah for AC/DC?  Or since it's in San Diego, how about some local flavor with a little Blink-182?

Take a look.  Thanks to SHRM for having the HR Capitalist, Fistful of Talent and BSHRM teams out to cover the show.  A trip worth taking... (email subscribers, click through on title for video of interview...)

KD + China Gorman from Fistful of Talent on Vimeo.

Note - I knew as soon as I said it that AC/DC formed in Australia, but I'm steeped in the band's European history, like the fact that Bon Scott died in London... I'm a little surprised that China didn't correct me on that one... Anyway, it'll be good to see the boys in San Diego.  You want a band from down under?  Go find the lead singer from Men at Work...

Undergrad HR Program at UAB Recognized for Alignment with SHRM’s Curriculum Guidelines

From a press release this week down at UAB:

"On July 21, 2009, the Undergraduate Human Resource Management (HR) Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was recognized as a program that is in alignment with the Society of Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) curriculum guidelines.  SHRM is the nation’s premier professional organization for human resource management.  This recognition is a result of a strong curriculum, faculty coverage of the appropriate body of knowledge for the profession, and the support of university administrators who are attuned to changes in the business environment.
 
According to Professor Jack Howard, “This is a reflection that the HR Program in the School of Business is a high quality program that prepares its graduates for success in the profession.  While this is a statement of the quality of the program in the School of Business, it also communicates to businesses and organizations that they can hire our graduates with confidence that they are equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities to contribute to their organizations from the day that they begin their employment, whether as an intern or a permanent employee”.

What's it mean?  In simpler terms related to the connection with SHRM, Howard indicated in an email exchange that the recognition means the material in the undergrad is consistent with the material presented in the PHR exam, as well as what HR professionals are expected to perform once they enter the profession.

All Workplace Jerks Don't Have to Scream - The Information Hoarder...

You've read enough about jerks in the workplace and "no-jerk rules", and you've probably come to the conclusion that the ranter and/or the screamer are the most destructive teammates you can have in the workplace.

Not me.  I think the folks who don't give you all the information are the most dangerous.  That's the person who will smile at you, then fail to give you the information needed for you or the team to thrive.  They're more dangerous because you can't tell who they are in the workplace unless you really pay attention...

I'll call them the "Information Hoarder".  Some folks call them non-collaborative, and they exist everywhere...

From Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace:

"I just spent 3 hours coaching a client who is now forced to deal with a highly intelligent, high-performing manager who isn't viewed as collaborative. By anyone. No one at any of their worldwide locations gave him decent feedback on teamwork and collaboration. And this has been happening for a few years. (He continues to achieve all of the goals set out for him--and no one dislikes him personally.)

I sat down and spoke with the manager some months ago about these perceptions and what that might mean to his career. He understood that people didn't see him as collaborative. His take on it is that they are universally wrong. He communicates when he believes it's necessary. I told him that he had to simply initiate more, share more information--even if it didn't make sense to him--and mend some strained relationships with those who thought he was actually hiding something. He listened, gave intellectual rebuttals for why that didn't make sense, and chose not to do anything differently.

His management career is finished...at least with his current employer. He'll probably have a shot at being an individual contributor in a specific discipline; but upward mobility is no longer a possibility."

The Information Hoarder holds a lot of data, but likes to keep it to themselves for the sake of power.  The managers at your company will often avoid confrontation with this flavor of jerk so they can make it through the next month or quarter.

I once knew an information hoarder so focused on controlling access to information that he/she refused to share an existing customer list with new sales reps.  The solution if the new sales reps needed to contact an existing customer?  The hoarder farmed out the necessary name and number, one contact at a time, as needed.  They also gave it verbally, refusing to email or write it down.

That's control and hoarding at its best.  Trying to get info out of the information hoarder?  Bring a lot of questions, because their logic tells them that if you didn't ask, they aren't lying - even if they're thinking of questions you should be asking while you're talking to them.

Nice....

Discretionary Labor/Effort - Why Your Company Needs to Think Like a Yahoo Community...

Let's roll out a couple of organizational realities today to get into the topic at hand:

1. You've got employees.

2. The employees come to work each day.

3. The employees give you minimal effort without you asking.  That's what you get in exchange for salary, benefits, etc.

4. You can get more than minimal effort for your money in several ways. You can scare your employees through punitive measures (although the returns are short-lived), you can become best in class in measuring results and performance management, etc.

5. It's hard to get more than minimal effort.  Damn hard.

6. The easiest path to get more than minimal effort is to hire people who traditionally give more than the minimum.

7. There's only so many of those to go around.

8. For everyone else (those that migrate to giving the minimum), you've got to come up with a culture and strategy that engages employees to give more than the minimum (I'll call this DISCRETIONARY EFFORT), often with no financial rewards.

In short, you need to think like an online community.  You know the type of community - one like Yahoo Answers that engages readers to provide increasing amounts of time and labor with no direct path to increased rewards.  All because they LIKE AND ARE ENGAGED BY THE CONTENT/TOPICS and get a non-financial high from contributing.

Need an example?  How about ThisNext out of Santa Monica and how it corrals the sweat equity of volunteers.  More on getting free labor from the engaged user at BusinessWeek:

"It's dawn at a Los Angeles apartment overlooking the Hollywood Hills. Laura Sweet, an advertising creative director in her early 40s, begins to surf the Net. She searches intently, unearthing such bizarre treasures for sale as necklaces for trees and tattoo-covered pigs. As usual, she posts them on ThisNext, a social network where people exchange shopping leads. Why does she spend so many hours each week working for free? "It's sort of a cool feeling that you're influencing people," she says.

A half-hour's drive to the west, a serial entrepreneur named Gordon Gould strolls into the Santa Monica offices of ThisNext. Gould has managed to entice an army of volunteers, including Sweet, to labor on his site without pay. Traffic on ThisNext is soaring, with unique visits nearly tripling in a year, to 3.5 million monthly. Revenue comes from advertisers, who pay to display their wares amid so many shoppers. What's in it for the volunteer workers? "They can build their brands," Gould says. "In their niches, they can become mini-Oprahs."

Here's how it works: Entrepreneurs like Gould build meeting places that provide visitors with tools to express themselves, mingle with friends and strangers, and establish their personal "brands." The result, when all goes well, is an outpouring of creativity. These bottom-up efforts have produced not only ThisNext but also YouTube (GOOG) and even American Idol.

The challenge for managers all across the economy is to harness as much of this free labor and brainpower as possible to their own enterprises. From universities to the computer labs of Internet giants, researchers are working to decode motivations and perfect the art of enlisting volunteers. Prabhakar Raghavan, chief of Yahoo! Research, estimates that 4% to 6% of Yahoo's (YHOO) users are drawn to contribute their energies for free, whether it's reviewing films or handling questions at Yahoo! Answers. If his team could devise incentives to draw in an additional 5%, it would enhance Yahoo's pages, bringing more traffic and advertisers to the site. Incentives might range from contests to thank-you notes."

Now think about your company, specifically our exempt/salaried ranks.  They've got a choice if you aren't really focused on what they are doing.  They can do the socially acceptable norm (40 hours) and go home.  Or, you can figure out what makes them tick, maybe give them tools to work remotely so they can find work/life balance, and watch the hour count go up as they become more engaged in their role and the mission of the company.

It's the holy grail of engagement, and it's part hiring for motivation, and part motivating and engaging once they're in the door.  I suspect much like the woman featured in the BW clip above, the secret sauce to this type of engagement is part praise, part visible scoreboard, and part future career promise for the individual moving forward if they put in the time.

Kind of like why I blog each day, right?  Think about it and figure out what you can do to create that type of "discretionary effort" in your employees.  Remember, they don't have to give you the last ten hours of a 55 hour workweek - the key is to make the value proposition better than Xbox or TV... without money...

Let's roll out a couple of organizational realities today to get into the topic at hand:

1. You've got employees.

2. The employees come to work each day.

3. The employees give you minimal effort without you asking.  That's what you get in exchange for salary, benefits, etc.

4. You can get more than minimal effort for your money in several ways. You can scare your employees through punitive measures (although the returns are short-lived), you can become best in class in measuring results and performance management, etc.

5. It's hard to get more than minimal effort.  Damn hard.

6. The easiest path to get more than minimal effort is to hire people who traditionally give more than the minimum.

7. There's only so many of those to go around.

8. For everyone else (those that migrate to giving the minimum), you've got to come up with a culture and strategy that engages employees to give more than the minimum (I'll call this DISCRETIONARY EFFORT), often with no financial rewards.

In short, you need to think like an online community.  You know the type of community - one like Yahoo Answers that engages readers to provide increasing amounts of time and labor with no direct path to increased rewards.  All because they LIKE AND ARE ENGAGED BY THE CONTENT/TOPICS and get a non-financial high from contributing.

Need an example?  How about ThisNext out of Santa Monica and how it corrals the sweat equity of volunteers.  More on getting free labor from the engaged user at BusinessWeek:

"It's dawn at a Los Angeles apartment overlooking the Hollywood Hills. Laura Sweet, an advertising creative director in her early 40s, begins to surf the Net. She searches intently, unearthing such bizarre treasures for sale as necklaces for trees and tattoo-covered pigs. As usual, she posts them on ThisNext, a social network where people exchange shopping leads. Why does she spend so many hours each week working for free? "It's sort of a cool feeling that you're influencing people," she says.

A half-hour's drive to the west, a serial entrepreneur named Gordon Gould strolls into the Santa Monica offices of ThisNext. Gould has managed to entice an army of volunteers, including Sweet, to labor on his site without pay. Traffic on ThisNext is soaring, with unique visits nearly tripling in a year, to 3.5 million monthly. Revenue comes from advertisers, who pay to display their wares amid so many shoppers. What's in it for the volunteer workers? "They can build their brands," Gould says. "In their niches, they can become mini-Oprahs."

Here's how it works: Entrepreneurs like Gould build meeting places that provide visitors with tools to express themselves, mingle with friends and strangers, and establish their personal "brands." The result, when all goes well, is an outpouring of creativity. These bottom-up efforts have produced not only ThisNext but also YouTube (GOOG) and even American Idol.

The challenge for managers all across the economy is to harness as much of this free labor and brainpower as possible to their own enterprises. From universities to the computer labs of Internet giants, researchers are working to decode motivations and perfect the art of enlisting volunteers. Prabhakar Raghavan, chief of Yahoo! Research, estimates that 4% to 6% of Yahoo's (YHOO) users are drawn to contribute their energies for free, whether it's reviewing films or handling questions at Yahoo! Answers. If his team could devise incentives to draw in an additional 5%, it would enhance Yahoo's pages, bringing more traffic and advertisers to the site. Incentives might range from contests to thank-you notes."

Now think about your company, specifically our exempt/salaried ranks.  They've got a choice if you aren't really focused on what they are doing.  They can do the socially acceptable norm (40 hours) and go home.  Or, you can figure out what makes them tick, maybe give them tools to work remotely so they can find work/life balance, and watch the hour count go up as they become more engaged in their role and the mission of the company.

It's the holy grail of engagement, and it's part hiring for motivation, and part motivating and engaging once they're in the door.  I suspect much like the woman featured in the BW clip above, the secret sauce to this type of engagement is part praise, part visible scoreboard, and part future career promise for the individual moving forward if they put in the time.

Kind of like why I blog each day, right?  Think about it and figure out what you can do to create that type of "discretionary effort" in your employees.  Remember, they don't have to give you the last ten hours of a 55 hour workweek - the key is to make the value proposition better than Xbox or TV... without money...

Take a Sip of the Zappos Kool-Aid With "Dr. Vik" (and Zappos Insights)

If you've been kicking around the blogoshere for at least a month, sampling different HR and Talent blogs, chances are you've come across the stylings of Zappos.  You know the company - widely espoused to be one of the most progressive workplace cultures in America, with the following features:

1.  All employees are on Twitter.
2.  They'll pay you $2,000 to leave the company after your training is complete.
3.  They've got a personal coach named "Dr. Vik" as part of their talent team.
4.  No offices, only cubes at Zappos, even for the CEO.
5.  The Zappos HR Team includes titles like "Assistant Cruise Ship Manager".

Ever want to dig in deeper to the Zappos vibe?  Now you can with a subscription service from Zappos called Zappos Insights.  I missed the launch of this, so here's how the service was described in late 2008 AdWeek:

"For those seeking brand religion, an unlikely shrine has emerged in the desert the past few years. It sits near the Las Vegas airport: the headquarters of online retailer Zappos.

Over the past few years, executives from dozens of companies, including Southwest Airlines and Best Buy, as well as ordinary customers, have made the trek to see its operations up close. The tour has undeniable Zappos touches: each department has its own greeting, and in-house motivational guru Dr. Vik has visitors sit in a throne for a Polaroid snapshot.

Now the company hopes to turn the intense interest in its culture and approach to business into a moneymaker. This week, it plans to roll out Zappos Insights, a subscription video service that lets companies ask questions about the Zappos way and get answers from actual Zappos employees. It will charge $39.95 per month for subscriptions.

The service, said CEO Tony Hsieh, is targeted at the "Fortune 1 million" looking to build their businesses. "There are management consulting firms that charge really high rates," he said. "We wanted to come up with something that's accessible to almost any business."

Zappos' legendary commitment to customer service has made it a darling of the marketing intelligentsia. In nine years, it's grown to be on track to sell $1 billion of goods this year, expanding from shoes into apparel and even electronics.

Despite the feel-good vibe, Zappos is not immune to the current economic turbulence. Last month, Zappos cut 8 percent of its workforce."

Interesting service and might be worth your time to check it out, if only for a few months.  Warning - I would pay the $40 only if you've got a chance to implement some of what you've learned.  If you can't, you'll more than likely be frustrated by all the cool stuff you see.

Additionally, be forewarned the site looks to be tailored as much to customer satisfcation as it does pure culture tools.  But, the more you dig in, the more you see they're strongly linked.  Zappos pursues the culture goal as a means to achieve higher customer satisfaction.

Even if you don't subscribe, lots of free tools out there for you to review.  My favorite?  An interview with "Dr. Vik", the personal coach.  Interesting as you listen to Vik speak.  If you're a traditional HR person, you're automatically thinking Vik is a gimmick.  Then you listen to what he's saying, and you change your mind.  At least I did. 

Check out the offerring at Zappos Insights, and if you do nothing else as a HR/Talent pro, check out the Dr. Vik interview here.

If you've been kicking around the blogoshere for at least a month, sampling different HR and Talent blogs, chances are you've come across the stylings of Zappos.  You know the company - widely espoused to be one of the most progressive workplace cultures in America, with the following features:

1.  All employees are on Twitter.
2.  They'll pay you $2,000 to leave the company after your training is complete.
3.  They've got a personal coach named "Dr. Vik" as part of their talent team.
4.  No offices, only cubes at Zappos, even for the CEO.
5.  The Zappos HR Team includes titles like "Assistant Cruise Ship Manager".

Ever want to dig in deeper to the Zappos vibe?  Now you can with a subscription service from Zappos called Zappos Insights.  I missed the launch of this, so here's how the service was described in late 2008 AdWeek:

"For those seeking brand religion, an unlikely shrine has emerged in the desert the past few years. It sits near the Las Vegas airport: the headquarters of online retailer Zappos.

Over the past few years, executives from dozens of companies, including Southwest Airlines and Best Buy, as well as ordinary customers, have made the trek to see its operations up close. The tour has undeniable Zappos touches: each department has its own greeting, and in-house motivational guru Dr. Vik has visitors sit in a throne for a Polaroid snapshot.

Now the company hopes to turn the intense interest in its culture and approach to business into a moneymaker. This week, it plans to roll out Zappos Insights, a subscription video service that lets companies ask questions about the Zappos way and get answers from actual Zappos employees. It will charge $39.95 per month for subscriptions.

The service, said CEO Tony Hsieh, is targeted at the "Fortune 1 million" looking to build their businesses. "There are management consulting firms that charge really high rates," he said. "We wanted to come up with something that's accessible to almost any business."

Zappos' legendary commitment to customer service has made it a darling of the marketing intelligentsia. In nine years, it's grown to be on track to sell $1 billion of goods this year, expanding from shoes into apparel and even electronics.

Despite the feel-good vibe, Zappos is not immune to the current economic turbulence. Last month, Zappos cut 8 percent of its workforce."

Interesting service and might be worth your time to check it out, if only for a few months.  Warning - I would pay the $40 only if you've got a chance to implement some of what you've learned.  If you can't, you'll more than likely be frustrated by all the cool stuff you see.

Additionally, be forewarned the site looks to be tailored as much to customer satisfcation as it does pure culture tools.  But, the more you dig in, the more you see they're strongly linked.  Zappos pursues the culture goal as a means to achieve higher customer satisfaction.

Even if you don't subscribe, lots of free tools out there for you to review.  My favorite?  An interview with "Dr. Vik", the personal coach.  Interesting as you listen to Vik speak.  If you're a traditional HR person, you're automatically thinking Vik is a gimmick.  Then you listen to what he's saying, and you change your mind.  At least I did. 

Check out the offerring at Zappos Insights, and if you do nothing else as a HR/Talent pro, check out the Dr. Vik interview here.

Fired for Talking Smack About the Company On Facebook...

Hey oversensitive legal departments - let's open up social networks at work and get the knowledge transfer/communication/business networking advantages that come with it. 

What's that?  You're afraid they'll say something derogatory?  Sure they will, but didn't they acknowledge all that legal stuff we have in the handbook?  Can't they be held accountable for that at anytime?

Plus, even if you restrict access, don't those policies apply when they talk about your company in unkind terms off the clock?

Sure they do - just ask the NFL's own Philadelphia Eagles, who just fired a worker for slamming the organization on Facebook.  From ESPN:

Dan Leone, who the Inquirer said worked as a west gate chief, was unhappy the team let Brian Dawkins sign with the Denver Broncos in free agency. According to the newspaper, Leone posted the following on his Facebook page: "Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver ... Dam Eagles R Retarted!!"

Despite deleting the comment, Leone told the Inquirer the Eagles fired him by phone days later.

"I shouldn't have put it up there," Leone said, according to the Inquirer. "I was ticked off, and I let my emotions go, but I didn't offend any one person or target a specific individual. I was just upset that we lost such a great guy. Dawkins was one of my favorite players. I made a mistake."

Leone said he was shocked to lose his job of six years.

"I apologized for it," Leone said, according to the paper. "I apologized 20 million times. I never bad-mouthed the organization before. I made one mistake and they terminate me? And they couldn't even bring me into the office to talk to me? They had to do it over the phone? At least look me in the eye. To get done dirty like this, I can't believe it. I'm devastated."

Note to self - calling management "Retarted" may produce varying results.  Note to Facebook - can we get a little spellcheck over here?  Please? 

Open up the network.  They're doing it whether you prevent access or not. Get the benefits...

Hey oversensitive legal departments - let's open up social networks at work and get the knowledge transfer/communication/business networking advantages that come with it. 

What's that?  You're afraid they'll say something derogatory?  Sure they will, but didn't they acknowledge all that legal stuff we have in the handbook?  Can't they be held accountable for that at anytime?

Plus, even if you restrict access, don't those policies apply when they talk about your company in unkind terms off the clock?

Sure they do - just ask the NFL's own Philadelphia Eagles, who just fired a worker for slamming the organization on Facebook.  From ESPN:

Dan Leone, who the Inquirer said worked as a west gate chief, was unhappy the team let Brian Dawkins sign with the Denver Broncos in free agency. According to the newspaper, Leone posted the following on his Facebook page: "Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver ... Dam Eagles R Retarted!!"

Despite deleting the comment, Leone told the Inquirer the Eagles fired him by phone days later.

"I shouldn't have put it up there," Leone said, according to the Inquirer. "I was ticked off, and I let my emotions go, but I didn't offend any one person or target a specific individual. I was just upset that we lost such a great guy. Dawkins was one of my favorite players. I made a mistake."

Leone said he was shocked to lose his job of six years.

"I apologized for it," Leone said, according to the paper. "I apologized 20 million times. I never bad-mouthed the organization before. I made one mistake and they terminate me? And they couldn't even bring me into the office to talk to me? They had to do it over the phone? At least look me in the eye. To get done dirty like this, I can't believe it. I'm devastated."

Note to self - calling management "Retarted" may produce varying results.  Note to Facebook - can we get a little spellcheck over here?  Please? 

Open up the network.  They're doing it whether you prevent access or not. Get the benefits...

Our Top Stories in the 4th Edition of SHRMingham...

Our top stories in the fouth edition of SHRMingham (click on the story links or simply scroll down for the goodness):

1. VIDEO - The February Meeting Recap - Topic - Stephen Thomas King and "Releasing Genius" in HR... 

2.  March Meeting Preview - Why HR Pros Need to Figure out Social Media (Blogs, Twitter, RSS and more...)

3.  Something called the Community Relations Committee has recruited half the membership of BHSRM to participate - why aren't you on the list?

4.  Expensive Trips for High Performers in a Recession - Ditch Them Even if Someone Else is Paying?

5. Working at One of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" - Meaningless If Your Manager Doesn't Rock...

6. Resume Writers - One Business That's Up in a Bad Economy - And You Thought Wall Street Was Unregulated...

7. Employee Generated Videos - If You Want to Make a Hit, You've Got to Make it Quick...

8. The SHRMingham Interview - Sharon George of UAB...

Enjoy and comment by clicking through on the title of each article and then clicking "Comments" at the bottom of each post.  All articles in this one are by Kris Dunn with the exception of #3 and #8, which were penned by CRC Mastermind Dawn Hrdlica.  Tip your editor on story ideas and hate/don't hate at kris.dunn@sourcemed.net.

Our top stories in the fouth edition of SHRMingham (click on the story links or simply scroll down for the goodness):

1. VIDEO - The February Meeting Recap - Topic - Stephen Thomas King and "Releasing Genius" in HR... 

2.  March Meeting Preview - Why HR Pros Need to Figure out Social Media (Blogs, Twitter, RSS and more...)

3.  Something called the Community Relations Committee has recruited half the membership of BHSRM to participate - why aren't you on the list?

4.  Expensive Trips for High Performers in a Recession - Ditch Them Even if Someone Else is Paying?

5. Working at One of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" - Meaningless If Your Manager Doesn't Rock...

6. Resume Writers - One Business That's Up in a Bad Economy - And You Thought Wall Street Was Unregulated...

7. Employee Generated Videos - If You Want to Make a Hit, You've Got to Make it Quick...

8. The SHRMingham Interview - Sharon George of UAB...

Enjoy and comment by clicking through on the title of each article and then clicking "Comments" at the bottom of each post.  All articles in this one are by Kris Dunn with the exception of #3 and #8, which were penned by CRC Mastermind Dawn Hrdlica.  Tip your editor on story ideas and hate/don't hate at kris.dunn@sourcemed.net.

VIDEO - The February Meeting Recap - Topic - Stephen Thomas King and "Releasing Genius" in HR...

If you missed the February meeting, you missed a great networking crowd and some solid thoughts about how you can release your inner genius in HR.  Don't we all have an inner genius?  Mine comes out when I'm playing Xbox and tends to hide when it's time for pure administrative matters.  Our speaker at the February meeting, Steven Thomas King, gives you the one minute version below.  

PS - if you have vertigo, you may want to lean to the right while viewing.  I swear Dawn was holding the camera upright, but he seems to be leaning more than Wile E. Coyote while chasing the Roadrunner... 

(Email subscribers - click through to website for videos if you don't see them below)

Special thanks to Managed Healthcare Administration for sponsoring our February meeting.  Meanwhile, if you are wondering who Managed Healthcare Administration is and what they do, here's a rundown from MHA's Evelyn Barbee....