SHRM Blog

Conferences are our own tribal gatherings, held in giant convention centers in fun cities like Las Vegas and New Orleans —  21st-century village squares. Aside from scrambling to catch every event we can and slyly peeking at each other’s badges, we listen to storytellers and reconnect with our shared sense of purpose.  We also eat too much, hardly go outside, and hit the hay at 2 am. Why sleep when we’re in a dreamworld of star keynote speakers and mind-blowing new tools?

What we’re doing at these massive events is a...

At the SHRM Annual Conference there is a lot going on.  You can see most of it right in front of you. The sessions, the exhibit hall, the SHRM Store and the like.  But what you may not know, because you don’t see it is this. Pretty much every day the SHRM Government Affair’s team is working to represent our collective business interest in Washington D.C.

SHRM has a staff of 12 people in the government  affairs department who work with Congress and many of the federal agencies (and even in...

How often do we hear that HR doesn’t get a seat at the table, or that they aren’t seen as adding value at an executive level?

Whilst this argument was a lot more prevalent a few years ago, the topic of conversation is still around today. As I’m sitting in the SHRM17 pre-conference session about Social Solutions for HR, Sue-Ellen Watts provoked the thought that perhaps HR isn’t being invited because they aren’t bringing anything new.

As HR professionals, we focus a lot on engaging our staff, but if we want...

This morning I had the pleasure of taking a few minutes to sit down with Rachel Carlson, CEO and Co-Founder of Guild Education and one of her colleagues Zach Rowe. I was interested in knowing more about what Guild Education has going on and what the Guild sponsored session Beyond Starbucks/ASU: The Future of Education Benefits  has in store for us Tuesday morning at 7am!

Education as a benefit could be very valuable in a hiring environment that screams skills gap and talent shortage every day. Without getting into the numbers we can...