As part of the SHRM Influencer team, we were asked to kind of do a debrief of our SHRM Annual experience this year. For so many people this was their first live event in over two years. I spoke to so many HR professionals who could not have been more excited to be back in person!
It was interesting that there was very little talked about around Covid and the pandemic. I think it’s safe to say, we’ve reached peak exhaustion over this topic. There was a ton of talk about the “Great Resignation” and the impact it was having on HR and Talent pros and their organizations. I probably spoke to over a hundred different HR pros from around the world and every single one was having talent issues.
Attracting talent, retaining talent, developing new talent, you could feel the pain from these conversations. I felt like we were all in one giant therapy session! After two years of pandemic-related HR issues, we are now having one of the biggest talent crises in the history of HR! But, what I saw and who I met, were energized HR pros looking to get better, and it’s actually really inspirational.
SHRM Attendees are in the Top 10% of HR Professionals Worldwide!
SHRM attendees actually might be in the top 1%, but I feel safe saying top 10%. Why? Very few professionals in any function will actually take the time and resources to develop themselves. It’s less than 10% for sure across all professions, unless it’s mandated, like annual development for doctors, etc. This is why the SHRM certification, to me, is so valuable because it forces us to be better each year. To sharpen the saw, and there’s no better place than with thousands of HR pros doing the same thing.
We all know that just having your SHRM certification doesn’t automatically make you a better HR professional than someone else. There’s more to it than a certification. But, I will argue that taking that step to become certified shows a commitment to your profession that very few have, and thus, you are more likely to also reach and succeed in the other parts of HR that will make you a top 10% HR professional in the world!
What I know, for a fact, is that when I’m at an SHRM conference, like Annual or Talent, I constantly get introduced to like-minded people who love HR and Talent, love “talking shop”, and genuinely care about making their workplace better. It’s so powerful to be in that environment.
Will we always be able to do the right things and make the impact we want? No. That’s reality. That’s business. But, developing ourselves and our networks gives us the opportunity to be ready when the time comes when and where we can have that impact.
What was the most valuable part of the SHRM Annual Conference?
Honestly? It’s the people! It’s the membership!
I mean I love the content and the expo and all the fun stuff, but after I leave and get back home, it’s the people I most remember and connect with. The SHRM community and being a member of this community has a value like none other.
Tim Sackett, SHRM-SCP, SPHR is the President of HRU Technical Resources a leading IT and Engineering Staffing firm headquartered in Lansing, MI. Tim has 20 years of combined Executive HR and Talent Acquisition experience, working for Fortune 500 companies in healthcare, retail, dining and technology. Tim is a highly sought after national speaker on leadership, talent acquisition and HR execution. He also is a prolific writer in the HR and Talent space, writing for Fistful of Talent and his blog The Tim Sackett Project. Tim is married to a hall of fame wife and has three sons and one dog. In 2015, he was named one of the Top 50 Recruiting, and HR Thought Leaders to follow on Twitter by Glassdoor, which gives him mad street cred with his teenage sons. He is a lifelong workplace advocate for Diet Mt. Dew fountain machines and hugs.
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