Our first stop will be in Ohio at the 37^th Annual Ohio Human Resource Conference.  It’s at the Kalahari Resort from September 16^th through the 18^th.

We’ll be talking to HR Professionals and vendors – and may even take a few trips down their awesome water slides if time permits.

There will be more information to come on this event, as well as initiatives in other states…

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Now that HR Whiz is fully operational, we are looking for individuals/companies/organizations to submit Guest Posts on topics our HR readers would like to know about.

The guidelines: It needs to be single-spaced, in Microsoft Word (Times New Roman – 12 – font) and no longer than 1.5 pages.  It also must address a relevant topic, current event, idea or anything else of interest to (or affecting) HR professionals.  Oh, and make it entertaining!

In return for your submission, you will get free publicity for you, your company or your service from our readers.

Contact us directly if interested.

Hopefully this post will help clarify some options available to you, if you work in HR or you “also do HR” as a part of your job.

I’ve been a SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) member since 1997.  There are over 250,000 members worldwide.  Their web site is the first thing I check in the morning and the last thing I check in the evening.  I’m not in sales, but even I would tell you that if you’re not a SHRM member and you work (in any capacity) in the field of HR, you’re doing yourself a tremendous disservice.  OK, taken from the actual SHRM web site (Membership Center), “If you need to have access to industry best practices, sample forms, policies and general HR information, timely legislative updates and the ability to ask specific HR questions, then SHRM membership is for you!”  Need I say more?

Whether or not you’re a SHRM member, you have the ability to join a SHRM chapter (sometimes called a local chapter).  There are more than 575 of them.  Most major cities have them.  I’ve been involved with one since 2004.  Again, shamelessly stolen from the SHRM web site, “The purpose of chapters is to provide a local forum for your personal and professional development; provide an opportunity to develop your leadership, managerial, public speaking and group decision-making skills; provide a local networking arena; and to provide a focus for legislative attention to local, state, and national human resource management issues.”  I hated to just cut and paste those quotes, but I couldn’t have said it any better.

SHRM would say that you should join both and I agree.  Honestly, if a SHRM chapter is running properly, you won’t see too much overlap with SHRM anyway.  So look at it this way – you get the big picture from SHRM and advance the profession locally through a chapter.

OK, really quick, if you’re a SHRM member, but not a member of a SHRM chapter, you are called a SHRM at-large member (a highly desirable person to SHRM chapters).

Please allow me to recap – networking, education and resources!!!

Thisis just a friendly reminder from HR Whiz.