As SHRM18 winds down and 20,000 +/- HR professionals get ready to head home, it’s time to reflect a bit on what we saw, heard and learned during the conference.
Mary.Faulkner
Bio:
Mary is a talent strategist and business leader with over 10 years experience in helping organizations achieve their goals. After working on the Operations side of start-ups and small companies, Mary landed in HR by way of learning and development, with extensive experience in leadership and organizational development, coaching, key talent planning, performance management, business partnering, HRIS, process and policy creation, and instructional design.
In addition to her work within companies, Mary authors a leadership development blog (www.survivingleadership.wordpress.com ) to continue the dialogue around the challenges of leadership – both being a leader AND being led.
Screen Name:
Mary Faulkner
History
- Member for
- 7 years 9 months
Articles by Mary Faulkner
This week, I am attending the SHRM National Conference in Chicago, where I am both speaking AND covering the event as part of the SHRM Blogging Group. Follow us on Twitter with #SHRM18 and #SHRM18Bloggers.
June 19, 2018
If you’re like a lot of long-time practitioners, it probably means a dark, dusty room filled with file cabinets or shelving, file folders filled to bursting with documents that track the course of an employee’s employment and benefits. It may be orderly, it may be messy, but it’s probably on paper.
Bobby Zaepfel wants you to start thinking different about record keeping.
May 14, 2018
I’ve had the opportunity to go to a lot of different conferences, and I see a lot of keynote speakers who are considered experts in their fields. They are successful because enough people think enough of what they’re saying makes sense and support it. They’re also successful because they are engaging speakers who connect with their audience and make everything sound brilliant.
June 20, 2017
The Monday of any SHRM conference is usually jammed packed and high energy. It’s the first full day of sessions. People are excited to check out the sessions they mapped out for the day, and they aren’t yet exhausted from talking to the 18,000 attendees at #SHRM17.
June 19, 2017
Today saw the beginning of #SHRM17 in New Orleans, where 18,000 HR pros have descended upon the city for learning, fun, and reconnecting with old friends.
The shenanigans kicked off early in the morning with pre-conference workshops, but the sessions began in earnest after lunch, with concurrent sessions and SmartStage speakers. But the main event REALLY kicks off late in the afternoon, with the appearance of Juana Hart and our first keynote of the conference.
June 19, 2017
When you schedule a talk with an employment lawyer who is speaking at #SHRM17, you’re never really sure what you’re going to get. I mean, sure, you’ll get an expert in his field who knows a lot about employment law and how it impacts HR professionals. But these meetings are typically at least an hour long. Good lord, what if he’s BORING?
May 17, 2017
I recently had the opportunity to chat with speaker Allison West about her upcoming sessions at #SHRM17. If you’re not familiar with Ms. West’s work, you should be – she’s one resource you want to have on your side.
May 1, 2017
Take a couple of minutes and conduct a brief experiment.
March 10, 2017
The funny thing about catchphrases or business buzzwords is that they initially came from a good place. They were a language shortcut—a quick way to convey a situation, philosophy or other basic tenet of business that didn't require a lengthy explanation. Everyone ‘got it’ because they had all lived it and didn't need the back story.
February 1, 2017
Okay, it doesn’t necessarily need to be your travel policy; but I think it’s particularly useful for this exercise.
Allow me to explain.
January 25, 2017
Every year at the SHRM National Conference, you see all sorts of blog posts about how the content is great, but it’s really about the people you meet and the relationships you build. Hell, I’ve even written that blog post.
June 30, 2016
The Society for Human Resource Management – or SHRM – recently released some very interesting surveys around employee engagement and talent acquisition. Both reports have some very interesting information, so I highly suggest you download and give them a read.
April 21, 2016
The Intro Bit
If you know me, follow me on social media, or just make up a fake backstory about me (please make me a pirate), you probably realize that while I like to laugh and have fun, I’m not a particularly “up” person.
March 15, 2016
Once upon a time, I had a chance to work with a vendor with a really cool product that enabled you to measure the culture of your organization (they’re called RoundPegg – look them up, as they are awesome). At one point in the process, we had an option to decide to test the entire company and get a true measure of our culture, or handpick people we felt “represented” our culture. This was kind of a big deal, especially given where I was working at the time.
January 27, 2016
Note: This week I am at the Annual National SHRM Convention in Las Vegas, NV. And in case you’re wondering if it it’s hot in Las Vegas in July, the answer is HELL YES. The heat…my god, man, THE HEAT.
Not everyone likes to go to conferences.
There are a lot of people. Vendors look desperate. There are too many sessions that seem to look the same, and if you have to get on one more shuttle bus, you may burst into tears.
June 30, 2015