by Janine Nicole Dennis | Jul 9, 2013 | Life
This weekend was pure bliss as it was all about rest, relaxation and rejuvenation for me. Part of my rejuvenation, was due to my scheduled facial I enjoyed with my esthetician, Sybil. Every visit is a treat where I walk away less stressed, glowing and with some beauty goodies. My goodies this time around was the most recent issues of: The Beauty Authority: New Beauty Magazine.
Excited for my two latest issues, I went home Saturday to quietly indulge in the latest and greatest in beauty products and services. Along the way, was an emphasis on invasive facial plastic surgery procedures and what they do for all of us imperfect beings.
Did you know that…
According to the Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), rhinoplasty (the nose job) is the most popular facial plastic surgery procedure for the past three years. The reason for this popularity among both women and men is said to be because the nose is the “most prominent feature on the face”. It is the first thing a person sees when they look at another person. The procedure is cited as making a huge difference in a person’s apperance. When done well it can create a more balanced, symmetrical and harmonious appearance.
Good plastic surgeons state that there isn’t one nose for everyone it is all decided on a case-by case basis. The aim being that the final product blends in seamlessly with all of the other features of the face. The nose like any other facial feature should never attract too much attention. All things should be harmonious- collaborative even.
What if…
HR followed the strategy of all good facial plastic surgeons and particularly those specializing in rhinoplasty. Isn’t it our aim to make a huge difference in the business? It should be clear by now that there isn’t such a thing as a one-size-fits-all HR function. Sure, there are laws and regulations that we must abide by- trends that we should tune into-but much of what we do should and can be tailored to the business depending on the context and/or circumstances that are specific to that company.
Our best work and contribution is when we are able to make a difference by using a balanced and symmetrical approach. We are most successful when we aim to balance our practical knowledge of the HR discipline with our knowledge of people to create outcomes that are advantageous for the business.
HR should be the most prominent feature in a company because they are more often than not the first attribute of the company a new hire sees. However, we have to question whether our prominence is detracting from the business or attracting. This is an important question, because like the rhinoplasty- perfection is in the balance, symmetry and harmony of our practices. The nose that is overly boastful or prominent is one that is detracting from the rest of the face. Conversely, if a nose is too small to suit a face it is equally prominent as it is out of sync with the rest of the features. Upon first glance you can immediately tell something is wrong in both of these instances.
From this, our lesson is- HR can make an impact in the business, but in all our endeavors we should seek to create harmony in the business not unnecessary disruption. This means policies and processes that live in the realm of context and not theory. Policies that look for the balanced approach not ones heavily leaning or aligning with one side or another. They are ones that seek to satisfy all pertinent parties ( to the extent possible). It means listening to your internal customers and trying to create a symmetry between what you require and what they need to accomplish.
I leave you with this, if your nose (HR function) is asymmetrical, is unable to properly function or is grossly crooked you may want to perform an HR Rhinoplasty to restore balanced and symmetrical prominence to your organization. It may very well give your organization a new and improved appearance.
Janine Truitt
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Jul 2, 2013 | Human Resources
All too often, I have encountered people in leadership that walk around with this air about them. They are too good for you to stand next to. You ought not to breathe their air; for good measure just stop breathing when they are around. As a matter of fact, be sure not to speak to them unless instructed to.
What do I think about all of this?
Plainly, it’s a load of crap and businesses need to redefine or get clear on what leadership means. Leadership is not about putting on appearances or a power trip. It is a necessary and crucial role in the organization that offers visionary and practical guidance and administration over a particular portion of the business.
Your ego and assumed celebrity as a leader is not a license to misuse the autonomy and power you have over your employees. Your job is to guide more than lead; listen more than you speak. In short, be humble and get over yourself.
Engagement is so 2012.
When you foster an environment, where employees don’t feel empowered or respected you are building up to disastrous results. Never mind whether these two variables lead to a disengaged workforce. Forget that! Engagement is the least of your worries when employees feel belittled or not valued. Your biggest concern is the following statistic (which I have shared before), which is that 8 in 10 employees in your organization are prepared or would leave your organization today if they could. The other statistic of interest is half of those employees will be successful in finding comparable work and compensation.
The greatest concern businesses have today is turnover.
As job market confidence improves, these numbers can only increase. At the height of the recession, it was said that companies would benefit in some regard because employees would be less likely to leave given the economic climate. That was true as we saw layoffs increase over quits, but the first month of the recession in December 2007 saw 2.9 million people quitting. As of April 2013, we are down to 2.3 millionpeople quitting just four months into the year. Obviously, there can be many reasons why people have quit their jobs. However, the key is to ensure- to some degree- that it isn’t because of your hierarchy-driven, pompous leaders.
The greatest opportunity businesses have is retention.
A focus on leadership competencies that lead to successful business outcomes rather than haphazard promotion of ill-equipped leaders would be a start in ensuring you have a collaborative, respectful and engaging leadership slate. Encouraging bi-directional communication in place of top-down directives can also go a long way in giving your employees the autonomy in duty and thought that is needed for them to feel empowered. If you were diligent on the recruitment and selection side, you’re not worried about talent shortages- you already have great talent. Now all you need to do is to treat them right and retain them. It is often said people don’t quit jobs-they quit bosses. That being said, it would behoove you to continuously coach, mentor and hone the skills of your leaders.
It doesn’t get much simpler than this people!
Janine Truitt
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Jun 24, 2013 | HR Innovation
Amidst all of the HR knowledge transfer at last week’s SHRM National Conference in Chicago was an expo hall full of vendors catering to everything from health and wellness to applicant tracking systems. It became an overwhelming experience merely walking the expo hall and hearing all of the pitches and opportunities to give up your contact information in exchange for an iPad mini or something else.
Alas, I decided to focus my efforts on a single area. My focus was on technology that are aiding us HR practitioners in doing our jobs better. In my quest, to find the “techies in the ruff” I identified some innovative gems that I want to share with you.
Benefits
I had the great pleasure of meeting with the founders and executives of a company named ALEX The Jellyvision Benefits Counselor. Consider this: you start at a new company and your are sitting through employee orientation. The benefits representative is giving you the rundown on what you are covered for. Now, ask yourself these questions: How much pertinent information did you retain? Do you understand everything there is to know about your benefits?
If I had to guess your answer, it is probably “no” and “no”. As an HR practitioner that has been a new hire a few times, I can admit that I have not always understood my benefits and all of the coverages that come along with it. What the good people at Jellyvision were able to do was to create a virtual benefits counselor that counsels employees on their benefit offerings through the Jellyvision platform. Alex walks you through deductibles, copayments and is happy to stop or explain further anything you don’t understand. Your explanation of benefits comes in plain language with cartoon skits to both humor and inform you in the best way possible. I found myself extremely impressed and laughing during my demo.
If you can spare some continuous improvement dollars for the year, this is a product worth looking into.
HR Apps Provider
I wasn’t planning on visiting with this next vendor largely due to the fact that I didn’t know they existed. Thanks to a colleague of mine, I am so glad I found this product. We all know that cloud software is the future. I would even argue that cloud software is the present. While many have not caught on, there is no question that the flexibility and bandwidth of the cloud is going to be unmatched for sometime.
We can also speak to both the popularity and convenience of apps. The marriage of everything you love about the cloud, HR systems and apps are in HR Cloud. HR Cloud is a company that develops a cloud-based HR management suite that engages a company’s workforce with tools like onboarding and performance assessment with plug-and-play usability and cloud-based scalability. Since the company has developed an intuitive suite of HR cloud apps with an easy, self-service HR experience, HR Cloud truly empowers an organization with social tools that promote connectivity, ideas, support and recognition while also boosting employee participation, morale and productivity.
Productivity? Yes, please.
Who doesn’t want to be more productive? In fact, if you have been looking at things like mobile optimization-this is likely a good place to start.
Video Interviewing convenience has arrived!
Here’s another gem for productivity, rivs.com. Rivs.com is a Chicago-based company that is getting into the video interviewing game. With this product, you can conduct written, recorded or live interviews with candidates. Candidates can schedule themselves to suit their schedules and interviews are easily shared with hiring managers for their review. I can see this as a great pre-screening tool especially for those of you that work in high-volume industries like retail. As a recruiter, this has me swooning, because it would cut the time I spend on in-person interviews down by more than half.
Let’s talk rewards and recognition
If you haven’t looked at your rewards, recognition and performance initiatives lately, chances are you haven’t noticed that employees aren’t impressed with the diamond encrusted watch or gold-plated pen you’ve been giving them in return for their efforts the past three decades. I know you mean well, but it is well documented that most performance practices are failures and rewards and recognition aren’t doing much for rewarding or retaining your employees.
Instead, why not check out Achievers. They have created a system that connects your performance indicators with rewards, recognition and engagement metrics. It allows you to socialize the recognition of your employees by allowing for transparency in your recognition initiatives while also allowing for things like peer-to-peer recognition. Essentially, your performance program will no longer be a once a year, bane of everyone’s existence task. With Achievers, it becomes a year long spree of recognition and the added bonus is your employees can choose gifts that meet their needs. The gifts are vast as they have relationships with everyone from restaurants to charities.
Why not make performance and recognition fun while being able to provide valuable analytics to senior management?
Social Branding/Jobseeking
How do you know what your former employees are saying about you? Yes, you could just do a google search, but why not check out Glassdoor. Glassdoor can be used from the perspective of both the job seeker and employer. For jobseekers you can get a real account of what a day in the life is like at a prospective employer. For employers it is a great opportunity to manage your online presence and message. Glassdoor like its name gives both the jobseeker and employer a transparent view of the good, bad and indifferent. From anonymous salary information to reviews of company culture this tool is fantastic for improving how you serve your most important customers- the prospective hire/applicant and your employees.
Depending on who you speak to technology is either helping or hindering HR processes. I believe that good vendor choices, proper implementation and a decent understanding of how technology can enhance what you do can go a long way in improving your value proposition to the business.
I hope you will check these vendors out and see what they can do for you.
Janine Truitt
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Jun 21, 2013 | Human Resources
SHRM National 2013 is now in the past, but there are business considerations to examine now or in the near future. It is hard to summarize a conference of this size and magnitude. However, I will share the business trends & HR considerations that I feel were dynamic and applicable for us HR practitioners in the trenches.
Social Responsibility
On Monday, Blake Mycoskie the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS, gave the keynote address to kick off the conference. His message was powerful as he described his journey in starting a business grounded in philanthropy. You see, TOMS is not just a company that sells comfortable, quality shoes. TOMS has a “one for one” model when it comes to their business model. What this entails is for every shoe that is sold, TOMS gives one free, specially designed pair away to a child in need of shoes. TOMS doesn’t stop at the shoes-they also do the same for those in need of suitable eyewear, sight-saving surgery or medical treatment.
Blake decided that he didn’t want to just sell shoes and eyewear and live happily in bliss with a lot of money. He decided instead that he wanted his business to stand for more. To date, he has given away over ten million pairs of shoes to children around the world in fifty different countries. He has not only managed to empower and engage his workforce through his philanthropic efforts but his customer base is equally engaged in the giving.
Social Responsibility isn’t the next HR buzzword. It is simply the human thing to do. During Blake’s address, I tweeted out:
The business consideration is this: Is “giving back” something you do ad hoc or is it part of your business strategy? There’s a difference between the two and it is important to know which team you are playing for. If ROI comes to mind when you think about social responsibility, try “giving feels good” or as Blake has seen in his own company:
The Culture Club
There has been a lot of discussion about culture over the past year and the discussion continued- as there were several sessions on the topic at this year’s SHRM National Conference. Out of the two sessions I attended on culture-both mentioned Zappos as a company that seems to have gotten culture right.
In the Glassdoor session on Tuesday with CEO, CMG Group (former COO of SHRM), China Gorman and Allyson Willoughby, Senior Vice President of People and General Counsel, Glassdoor- there was an interesting assertion made. The assertion was “culture is the right thing to do.” Culture has been discussed as being necessary connective tissue between the workforce and the company’s mission and values, but the “right thing to do” is a new concept. Why is it the right thing to do? It provides your workforce with a higher purpose and focus. Without purpose and focus, employees are just doing whatever and whatever is not a business strategy or a recipe for company success.
Here’s the second trend/consideration:
You need to know the answers to these questions and so do your employees. Remember it is all about giving your workforce a purpose and focus that leads to productivity and intended financial and non-financial outcomes.
Business Threats and New Opportunities for HR
The last trend/consideration of importance were emerging business threats and the need for HR to be aware and vigilant in providing solutions for these threats. The threats as stated in Jack Smalley, SPHR’s mega session: “Why the Best CEOs are Turning to HR to Lead the Organization Through Today’s Top Five Threats” were:
1) The ability to innovate
2) Businesses losing their competitive advantage
3) High costs of reckless hiring
4) Being able to retain top talent
5) Regulatory Concerns
The following statements by Jack Smalley, SPHR summarizes the immense importance of these threats:
In addition to high costs of reckless hiring, there is the consideration of reckless retention as explored by Karen Michael, Esq in her mega session called : “Bad Bosses/Big Losses: The Top Legal and Business Strategies to Fix the Boss and Save the Cost”. She discussed the pricey payouts and damaging outcomes caused by retaining bad leadership and creating toxic environments. It was an eye-opening look at the impact that bad management has regarding turnover, unneccesary litigation and poor morale. Workplace Bullying was also cited as being an important business consideration that companies should monitor and manage carefully.
This was the most compelling statement in her session:
Essentially, this means make sure your policies around discrimination, workplace bullying and the proper handling of an investigation are thorough and consistently enforced. No complaint is too benign that it shouldn’t require at least a conversation. Don’t be that employer!
SHRM National provided a lot of food for thought. There are some different rules of engagement at work in business and the economy and it is very clear after this conference that HR needs to be able to rise to the occasion in helping our partners navigate these complex issues.
What will you do to “become more”? I look forward to hearing from you.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Jun 17, 2013 | Human Resources
I arrived in Chicago on Sunday and already it has been a blast. From the moment, I arrived here I have been meeting so many online friends and have received hugs, kisses, and handshakes. It is amazing!
I am a huge proponent for social media and the power of engagement and learning that comes with it. However, that power or engagement has a shelf-life. At some point, there is an intrigue that leads to offline interest. You aim to get more than the 140 characters. You want to know more.
What’s the social lifecycle?
The social lifecycle is you meet online, then you engage with others on social. From the online engagement you move your relationship among the various social platforms as the relationships progress. From the consistent engagement online over time there is maybe an offline phone call, Skype session, or other mode of communication-which eventually ends in a real-life meeting when and if it is possible.
My social relationships have come full circle and are so much more meaningful now that I have shook a hand or had a conversation. Social media is a catalyst for relationships-however, eventually, the full meaning of everything you have built online should culminate into a live, breathing interaction.
I’m just one day into completing my social lifecycle and already I see the impact. From vendor relationships to meeting fellow HR bloggers, I am truly “becoming more”than an avatar, 140 characters or a blog post. I’m a person and people want to do business and/or connect with other people.
It is very easy to get caught up in social media and the ease of communicating from afar, but ultimately that gets old.
For those of you that will be stopping by “The Hive” and/or attending social media sessions for the purposes of getting started-know that it is a powerful tool, but not beginning or end of your networking or relationship building.
Make those online connections count while you’re at SHRM and complete your own social lifecycle. Use this opportunity while you are here to “become more” and make your relationships mean more.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Jun 10, 2013 | Life
I’m not a huge basketball fan, but I will watch intermittently during the regular season and finals. I recently watched the press conference with Lebron James after a Game 1 loss to the San Antonio Spurs and his words struck me…alas there is an HR lesson or two here.
Essentially, the press asked him questions about the public opinion of his effort in the game when his team falls short. In essence, the reporter was alluding to this premise that he could do more despite the tremendous effort he puts forth most games. To this question, James responds, ” I do what’s best for the team. What’s best for the team doesn’t always result in a win.” The reporter goes on to ask if public opinion of his effort makes him feel like he should be more aggressive; to which he responded: “No, I can’t get involved in that honestly, because I’ve done more and lost before.” “I can’t really get involved or care. I don’t really read too much. I know what I say to you guys and I know the questions you guys ask me, but I don’t really read too much of what people say. I do what’s best for the team. What’s best for the team, it doesn’t always result in a win.”
The ever-opinionated, Greg Popovich chimes in with further commentary after this press conference in support of James which provides even more depth to this discussion. See here for those comments.
How does this translate to HR?
As I and thousands of other HR practitioners prepare to gather next week for theSHRM National Conference in Chicago, I think it is important to ask yourself: are you doing what is best for your teams? Your teams in this context would be the internal customers you serve (C-Suite, hiring managers, employees etc.). Are you doing the best you can by your external customers (candidates, new hires, passive seekers etc.)? If the answer is “no”, try to seek out the solutions at SHRM National for becoming the best partner your team could have. This means attending relevant sessions, engaging vendors and having conversations with your peers about what they are doing to be the “best” partner in their organizations.
Are you winning?
According to Lebron, “yes” and “no”. As an HR practitioner, you have to make decisions that affect the business everyday. Some decisions like business decisions will garner wins and some will not. The goal is always to win, but how do you pivot and recover from a loss or poor decision? Isn’t the pivot and recovery far more important than always winning? If every battle ends in a win for HR or in business, there would be no lessons to be learned. I’m not urging you to make less conscientious decisions, but I am saying that we can stop beating ourselves up for being fallible as a profession.
Stop talking about the “proverbial” table!
I won’t bore you with the definition of the “table” in HR. You know what it is. We speak of it as though it is the “table” that Jesus Christ sat down to last supper at- you know the one where the cool C-Suite types sit with their loathing of HR and all it comes with- yeah that table. The way we stop asking for permission is to “occupy the table”. You don’t occupy and disrupt the fear and loathing of HR haphazardly; you disrupt and occupy with purpose. As the story with Lebron James suggests, it’s not about what people say about us or what is written- it is about what we do as practitioners in our organizations every day. Yes, we will benchmark. Of course, we will read some snark about how we are becoming obsolete or what we do poorly; but by and large, if we stop talking, trust that we know what we are doing and focus on the needs of our teams- how could we go wrong?
The truth is we will do wrong, we will make mistakes. The point is to stop repeating the same mistakes for decades. The aim is to progress with the tide, if that is what translates to you serving your teams the best. The action item is to kill all the noise about how we don’t add value. Fervently reject the notion that other practitioners can do what we know we do best and that is to- manage human capital to deliver successful outcomes and deliverables for the business.
With that said, I urge all of my fellow SHRM National attendees to go into next week with a renewed sense of self. Come learn and engage and discuss ways that you can occupy your table. For those of you not attending SHRM National, your call to action is even more immediate- occupy your table today and join the rest of us in changing the perception of one of the greatest professions around.
See you in Chicago!
Acknowledgement: The concept of “Occupy the Table” is the love child of a talented group of professionals. My thanks go to colleagues in this brain trust Tom Bolt, Steve Levy and Joey Price, bloggers all. Don’t be surprised if you hear more from us on OTT or #occupythetable in the near future.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Jun 4, 2013 | Life
Photo Credit
SHRM National Conference 2013 is fast approaching and I must say, I am excited.
As a member of this year’s social media team, I am fortunate to have an opportunity to cover this fantastic conference and contribute to the very important cause of ‘No Kid Hungry’.
On Sunday, June 16th, several social media personalities/HR professionals including myself will be playing a game of kickball to raise money for ‘No Kid Hungry’. I’m probably crazy for joining the team since I have not played kickball in easily twenty years. However, I am praying in advance for no injuries and lots of fun.
Am I crazy for doing this?
Not really, but I am crazy about my children and children in general. I also think it is absolutely crazy that 1 in 5 children in this country will go hungry this year. That is a ridiculous statistic for a country with our wealth.
I can’t fix all of our childhood hunger issues but I can support, advocate, and take action to ensure that I assist those that can fix it and that is ‘No Kid Hungry’.
I am asking you the “The Aristocracy of HR” community to assist me in abolishing child hunger with a small donation for this cause.
No donation is too small and all are appreciated. Click here to make a secure donation via my personal fundraising page.
If you will be at SHRM in two weeks, come to Grant Park, Field #1 from 7pm-8pm to see me and other social media personalities duke it out for hunger! It’s going to be a riot!
Also, be on the lookout for the tweet-a-thon on June 11th. Dovetail Software will be donating $1 every time someone tweets with the hashtag #SHRMKickball and@Dovetail and a link to our game webpage is mentioned. Click here for the official game page.
Let’s make a difference for all of the children in the U.S. We focus so much on the future of our children. Let’s first make a better present for them by making sure no child in this country ever goes without food.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Jun 3, 2013 | Life
A good job description helps the company develop a criteria and fit for the organization within a certain discipline. That is, the job description is where the company decides what knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies are needed to successfully perform a certain job.
A job description is a document that is helpful to recruiters, hiring, managers and new hires from the perspective of ensuring that:
1) Recruiters understand the full scope of what the person is required to do.
2) The hiring manager is clear on what is essential to the performance of the position as well as identifying key performance indicators by which the employee will be evaluated.
3) New hires and employees are aware of the full scope of their duties and responsibilities.
In essence, the job description is a great internal document for many reasons. However, your internal job descriptions are not and should not be the job posting. Some will further argue that it isn’t even a basis for your job postings.
Your job posting needs to be attractive and it should be designed to be read in under one minute; especially since, recruiters spend even less time on a candidate resumes. In addition, we should be focused on telling the real story of day-to-day life at ‘Company X’ not boring candidates with a lot of text.
To be successful in attracting the talent you seek, employers will have to think like candidates and less like themselves to be successful in their recruitment efforts. This may even include taking the leap of faith into social media to give your positions greater visibility.
How can you learn more about this?
Join me and David Clark, Senior Manager, Product & Operations for CareerBuilder on Wednesday, June 5th at 12pm EST/11am CDT for our “High Performance Postings” webinar. We will be sharing our best practices and ideas for how you can revolutionize your employment brand through leaner, candidate-targeted job postings.
Click here to register now.
For those of you that love a good hashtag like I do and want to follow on Twitter, please use #HiPerfPost.
I hope to see you there!
by Janine Nicole Dennis | May 28, 2013 | Life
Photo Credit
Saturday, May 18th, was the much anticipated #truNewYork event at the Stack Exchange HQ in New York City.
I was amazed by the amount of thought leadership and learning that occurred at this unconference. I am thoroughly a fan of no powerpoint presentations in the place of topical conversations that flourish organically in an effort to leave every participant with some meaningful takeaway. The learning and plethora of new ideas that emerged as a result of real discussions around HR and business was platinum. That is to say, you cannot attend one of these events and walk away without something you can use in your work. It is like free consulting hours for your HR issues.
I was lucky enough to lead a conversation around HR’s usage of social media. The concept is called ‘Social HR Minimalism’.
For those of you familiar with the concept of ‘Minimalism’, you know that it is the smallest impression of art garnering the greatest impact. ‘Social HR Minimalism’ is the development, implementation, and maintenance of a social footprint using the least amount of time and resources resulting in the maximum amount of visibility and impact.
What does this mean for the busy HR professional?
It means that there are no more excuses to be made about not having time for social. The foundation of my concept is simple. You will spend 100 days observing, learning and engaging. These are the three areas that I have identified as being meaningful to the HR practitioner. Social has to be meaningful to the work of the HR practitioner. When you make social meaningful, you can begin to quantify those aspects that will assist them in doing their job better. Is this the beginning of social media ROI? Perhaps, but I won’t go that far. What I will say is by the end of those 100 days, most reasonable people will find that they were able to find something in social media that is useful to them.
How does one become an ‘Social HR Minimalist’?
By embarking on this social journey/experiment, know that it is not about instant gratification. This concept is about influence and community. When you become more influential and when you are a part of a larger community, you will find the answers to filling positions and/or those daily HR conundrums. It’s about challenging yourself to learn and share knowledge. It is also about observing what works and what doesn’t.
The construct of ‘Social HR Minimalism’, says you must consistently spend 20 minutes observing, 20 minutes, learning and 10 minutes engaging for the first 50 days on whatever social platforms you feel are most meaningful for your business and customer base. The last 50 days you do everything in reverse; which means 20 minutes, engaging, 20 minutes, learning and 10 minutes observing. Essentially, we are talking about less than an hour of your time daily to observe behaviors on social media, learn through a chat, a webinar, a podcast, reading a blog and lastly engage with other HR practitioners.
I have found that people that are “too busy”, have all the time in the world. If you are one of them, I implore you to chronicle your day to see how productive you really are. I will bet you that there is some unproductive time in your day that you never realized was unproductive. Why not utilize that unproductive time to do something that could catapult your career or brand to the next level? Moreover, when something has meaning for you, you will likely make time for it. This concept is designed to help you find your way in social media by discovering those aspects that are most meaningful to your work.
There were a number of notable social HR figures at my track that echoed the importance and value of social interaction both online and offline. All in all, no one discounted the power of social media and each attendee walked away with an arsenal of reasons why they should get started. In addition, they were all charged to get their peers involved too. As I mentioned, it is all about community. The strength of the social HR ecosystem is dependent on the constant influx of progressive, knowledgeable HR practitioners constantly joining and engaging.
So….
Now that I have given away some of the goodies I shared at #truNewYork, what will you do with it? Will you share it with you anti-social media HR colleagues or boss or will you hoard this information for yourself? The time is now if you haven’t yet explored social media. It isn’t like it is going away anytime soon. Become a ‘Social HR Minimalist’ and let me know how it works out for you. I’m always here to support.
Many thanks to Bill Boorman for giving me the chance to explore this concept at #truNewYork. It was indeed a rare treat!
by Janine Nicole Dennis | May 16, 2013 | Life
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I am excited to preview the upcoming #truNewYork event coming to New York this Saturday, May 18th. This will be the first time I am attending the event and clearly I’m ambitious because I will be leading a track as well.
The #tru unconferences are the result of Bill Boorman’s creativity and non-conformist style in collaboration with Aki Kakko from Joberate. Just recently, Craig Fisher has joined forces with both Bill and Aki to form a new company that combines #tru unconferences and Craig’s successful #TalentNet Live Conferences.
The essence of these unconferences is they get people at a venue in cities around the globe to discuss topics like: social recruiting, employer branding, passive talent acquisition, HR Tech in by using a group discussion format. There are no powerpoint presentations, no exhibition halls, no scripts, no dress code just networking, discussions and well coffee breaks and drinks. Each topic is moderated by a track leader who lays the foundation for the conversation and engages the track attendees.
#Tru events are a refreshing change from the usual structured conference. It’s about connecting people and having real discussions around the hot topics in HR. Cool right?
My track is called ‘Social HR Minimalism’. Here’s a snippet of the concept and what attendees can expect on Saturday:
The concept of ‘Social HR Minimalism’ is based on the fact that we have long known that most HR and business people have cited that “time” is a major reason for not participating in social media. I have often heard people say ” Janine, how do you do it? Who has the time to invest in this?” I’m way too busy.” The truth is people are indeed busy with work responsibilities and social media seems like another thing to add to their to-do list. My track will help people look at what they are spending time on and provide a simple methodology for getting engaged in social media where it doesn’t greatly impede other responsibilities.
‘Social HR Minimalism’ is my way of helping HR practitioners to understand the reasons their business should be on social media, why there is always time to learn, and how they can get on the social media bandwagon with little time and resources spent doing it.
I was one of those HR types that had “no time” or “interest” in social media. I really was busy and if someone would have told me 3-4 years ago that I would be as invested as I currently am- I would tell them they were crazy. It can be done.
If you think my topic of ‘Social HR Minimalism’ is interesting, consider joining us on Saturday from 9am-6pm at the Stack Exchange offices. There will be many more innovative and interesting tracks with some fantastic HR thought leaders. There’s still time to register, click here for more details. For those of you already attending, the hashtag for my track is #SocHRMini.
I hope to see you there!
