SHRM Blog

According to most sources, Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer was written in 1938 by a copywriter for Montgomery Ward. His name was Bob May and he wrote it for his 4-year-old daughter during the time of his wife’s struggle with cancer. There are multiple versions of the story that have differing timelines, but what’s important is Bob May’s focus on a characteristic that would (literally) out-shine all others – and how that had an impact on everyone involved.

We’ve all been in situations where out of the blue, we get an email announcement...

Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd century BCE, the Egyptians lost their leadership in the world of papyrus. Cai Lun (Ts’ai Lun) is credited as the inventor of paper – mixing hemp, tree bark, fishing nets and old rags. At the time, in 105 A.D., papyrus was widely used - in addition, bamboo and silk – even turtle shells - to record events. Bamboo was heavy and silk was expensive, and turtle shells were, well, cumbersome - so paper became a...

Washington, D.C., SHRM chapter president Nicole Belyna, SHRM-SCP, explains the value of providing career opportunities to a wide range of candidates and taking a non-traditional HR career path.

Some of the earliest known maps are believed to be cave paintings in Lascaux as early as 14,500 BC, perhaps illustrating the sky, or a route to a good hunting spot. In 1963, a wall painting was discovered in Turkey, dating back to 6200 BC, which appears to be a map of the town. Maps continued to evolve through ancient Egypt, Babylonia, the Roman Empire, China, Polynesia, Ancient Greeks to Medieval Europe all the way to today’s mobile mapping technologies. The history of cartography is long, global, and expansive, with great contributions over several thousand years from many different regions of...