SHRM-Atlanta

A recent online poll by Right Management of 104 HR Professionals revealed these results to the question: In your organization, is HR given a seat at the executive table?

• 37% – HR regularly influences strategic decisions
• 35% – HR sometimes influences strategic decisions
• 28% – HR doesn’t have a seat at the table

Other research, including studies by SHRM, reports that in order to earn a seat at the executive table HR leaders need to understand how the C-Suite thinks and communicates.  To move beyond HR conversations into Business conversations requires asking questions differently and establishing a business case for all HR initiatives.

Linkage, Inc. provides Navigating the C-Suite: An HR Leaders Guide, a brief resource of suggestions and tips for how HR professionals can breakthrough and be effective with senior corporate executives.  The tips include:

• Get to Know the CFO: align with the CFO by understanding financial terms, what are the top profit drivers of your organization, how investments are prioritized and measured, and how to you perform against key competitors.  The bottom line is that HR professionals need to completely understand how the company makes money to earn the respect and trust of the CFO.
• Get to Know the COO: he/she is focused on systems, strategies, and processes.  The COO wants HR to be focused on integrating and optimizing HR initiatives as a part of the broader organizational structure.  Reinforcing the corporate culture and brand through talent management programs is also an expectation of the COO.
• Get to Know the CEO: read the CEO’s speeches, annual report letter, quarterly financial reports and other company communication to understand the CEO’s strategies and priorities.  Major HR initiatives must be related to these priorities and HR managers and leaders need to be able to clearly articulate recommendations in the language of the C-Suite.

For more detailed suggestions and tips on how HR can better influence the C-Suite, check out Navigating the C-Suite: An HR Leader’s Guide.

The guide also recommends that HR professionals execute a personal development plan to ensure that they are capable of understanding, communicating and establishing trusted relationships with the executive level.

SHRM-Atlanta and UGA have joined forces to bring high-quality executive education specifically designed for HR practitioners who need more business acumen.  The HR Leadership Academy is designed for:

• HR professionals who are looking to advance their careers to the C-Suite level
• HR leaders who desire a better understanding of business acumen and strategic thinking
• HR leaders who will be required to drive significant organizational change and innovation

The 2012 program starts in February.  For more information and a curriculum overview please click HR Leadership Academy.

 
This post was provided by guest blogger Charlotte F. Hughes, HCS. Charlotte is an expert talent development professional with extensive experience in leadership and organizational development as an advisor to business leaders and HR in multiple industries. In her role as Learning and Development Consultant with Kimberly-Clark she is responsible for helping human resources and business leaders with performance improvement and learning solutions that drive business goals. You can connect with Charlotte on LinkedIn and read more from Charlotte on her TalentFocus Blog.

We would like to congratulate our HR Leadership Academy class of 2011 on their recent graduation!

UGA and SHRM-Atlanta have joined forces to bring high-quality executive education specifically designed for HR practitioners who need more business acumen.  By offering this exceptional experience locally for metro-Atlanta, our vision is to educate rising HR stars with high-potential to become strategic business executives and we intend to accomplish this in a cost-effective, time-sensitive and convenient schedule.

If you are interested in being part of the 2012 HR Leadership Academy, please contact info@shrmatlanta.org.

A special thank you to our sponsor of the 2011 HR Leadership Academy:

We appreciate your support and dedication to advancing the HR professional!

The popular TV show, Undercover Boss, is fun to watch and…to learn from. These leaders learn that, depending upon where you sit in your company, the perspective can be very different. On the show, these real bosses disguise themselves as employees and work at some low level positions in the organization to get a first-hand look and feel for the jobs. Most find the view embarrassingly different from their high-level perspective.

Two undercover bosses from this show talked to a packed house at the SHRM Atlanta meeting on the evening of April 21^st.  They shared video clips from the show, talked about what it was like to commit to doing the project, and, most importantly, lessons learned.

Coby Brooks, President and CEO of Hooters of America, emphasized that culture is everything (music to my ears) and that it is important to keep a culture that works. He indicated that it may be difficult as companies go from private to public, as Hooters is doing, to keep the family atmosphere. Coby also emphasized that people are not numbers, music to HR folks. Through working tough jobs down in the organization and meeting some employees in difficult family situations whom he might not have otherwise met, one of the lessons Coby walked away with was his intention to spend more time with his family. Even CEOs can have a difficult time balancing work and family life.

President and CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation, Joel Manby, discussed the importance of company values which are reflected in the performance appraisals of their leaders. The “how” work gets done and the numbers, “what” gets done, are equally critical. He emphasized the importance of healthy relationships and, to this point, said: “Your customer satisfaction will never be higher than your employee satisfaction.” (Research indicates that employee satisfaction is a six-month precursor of customer satisfaction.) During the recession, the company cut 5% of the vice-presidents’ salaries, gave no raises nor matched 401k plans. The company saved millions and was able to keep from cutting 500 jobs. Through constant communication, the result was that both employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction went up. Joel had the opportunity to meet some employees who had dire financial situations, which caused him to ramp-up the company foundation that awards money to employees for a variety of needs. The experience of being an undercover boss gave Joel the opportunity to hear “the unvarnished truth” which he indicated CEOs rarely receive.

In today’s “do more with fewer employees” mentality, do you and the leadership in your organization really know what it takes and what are realistic expectations of employees in their jobs?

Here is some advice:

1. Leaders are still a “work in progress.” It is never too late to learn.
2. Requiring leaders to have expectation setting discussions with employees allow reality testing as long as employees are encouraged to provide honest input.
3. As your business reorganizes (and it will over time), make sure that you continue to reality-check job expectations. Overwhelming people creates stress and lost productivity, not to mention a revolving door of employees leaving to find better places to work as the economy continues to recover.

Remember, it is about creating a belonging, learning and contributing culture that allows employees to do their best work. Employees want to do a great job. They will as long as they (1) belong to an organization that they are proud to work for, (2) have opportunities to continue to learn, grow and develop and, (3) believe they are contributing to the success of the business.

If you are a boss, how can you get the unvarnished truth and have some of your own lessons learned?  As an HR leader, how can you help leaders in your organization do the same without having to go undercover? Although, spending time in employees’ shoes can do wonders! So, perhaps, go undercover to find out how your employees feel about your organization and whether they are enabled to do their best work…of course, without retribution.

Jane S. Goldner, Ph.D. is president of The Goldner Group, a firm that works with clients to create a successful culture that attracts, engages, and retains top talent. She is the author of Driven to Success: A 10-Point Checkup for Achieving High Performance in Business and is a frequent keynote speaker on that topic. www.thegoldnergroup.com

It has truly been my pleasure and a distinct honor to serve as your president for 2010.  This year has been filled with accomplishments for your SHRM-Atlanta chapter.  I’d like to take this opportunity to share just a few of the highlights with you.

Looking to our future, the SHRM-Atlanta Board of Directors and Executive Team engaged in a strategic planning process earlier this year.  The outcome was a new, bold vision for the chapter:  “SHRM-Atlanta – Working for a Better Atlanta.”  To begin the implementation of activities around this vision, we launched our first, very successful, Signature Luncheon event at our Fall Conference.  With support from our sponsors, we had excellent attendance of 115+ HR and business executives from the Atlanta community.  I encourage you to watch the video of the panel discussion to hear various perspectives on Atlanta’s economic opportunities and challenges.  The Board completed quite a bit of operational work as well, establishing many processes, policies and procedures for our chapter governance and operations. Now, each new leadership team has a strong foundation on which to build.

To continue growing our membership numbers, we undertook a new project to benchmark our membership numbers with comparable chapters and evaluate our strategies around membership growth.  When the analysis has been completed, a final report with recommendations will be made to establish new membership targets, plans, and timelines.  Concurrently this year, we strengthened the Ambassador program and conducted a Recruiter of the Year membership campaign which generated 25 new members.  We are the official sponsor of the DeVry SHRM Student Chapter and we became the new official sponsor of the Georgia State SHRM Student Chapter.

SHRM-Atlanta served the community in many ways this year.  We participated in a very successful Virtual Career Expo with 11 Alive WXIA TV station to provide job assistance to callers.  Over 100 SHRM-Atlanta volunteers participated in this two-night event, as well as many staff from the Department of Labor.  Together we helped 2,300+ job seekers who contacted us with questions.  We strengthened our relationship with the Atlanta Business Chronicle through a number of activities.  SHRM-Atlanta continues to be tapped to participate in articles, interviews and newsworthy activities by both ABC and AJC.

If you participated in our 20th Annual HR Conference, you saw that we partnered with Technology Association of Georgia (TAG).  TAG sponsored a Technology Row in our showcase and offered a track of programming.  Next year, this partnership will continue and TAG will provide content for a new HR and Technology Track in our conference.  SHRM-Atlanta co-hosted the PADV event “When Violence Goes to Work”.   And, we continue to support the Mayor’s Youth Program providing workforce readiness programs to City of Atlanta youth.

In 2010, we achieved the highest attendance ever for 20th Annual HR Conference.  Outstanding programming, extensive marketing efforts and new social media efforts all contributed to attendance.  We continue to evolve and improve the sponsorship offerings associated with the conference.

SHRM-Atlanta successfully launched the HR Leadership Academy in partnership with UGA Terry College of Business. 29 participants completed the program and received a UGA Advanced Certificate in Business Strategy, as well as a Certification from SHRM-Atlanta and 65 strategic CEU credits.  The program received extremely high ratings and several of the graduates have advanced to senior HR leadership roles.  To support our HR members in job transition, we conducted another HR Helping HR event which was very successful.  And, we added a 6-month extension to the existing 6-month free job transition membership.  We launched a new Perimeter GEM in 2010 with strong attendance and evaluations.

The SHRM-Atlanta chapter will be hosting SHRM’s 2012 Conference in Atlanta.  Preparations are already underway to recruit and organize over 1,000 volunteers to serve on several different teams helping out at the SHRM annual conference.  18,000+ attendees are expected to attend that conference and we will be working hard to showcase our city and chapter.  The opportunity to volunteer is now posted on the SHRM-Atlanta home page.

As I complete my year of service as your president, I want to take this opportunity once again to sincerely and wholeheartedly thank each and every one of you who contributed your time, energy, creativity and passion to SHRM-Atlanta this year. YOU are the reason we accomplished so much! Thank you for all you did to ensure the highest quality professional development and networking opportunities are right here in Atlanta.

Looking ahead to 2011, rest assured that there is a yet another great leadership team in place who will continue to take SHRM-Atlanta forward.  I encourage you to get/stay involved, give back, participate and attend.  It is tremendously rewarding and worthwhile.

Happy New Year to you and your families!

Elizabeth Wysong, SPHR
SHRM-Atlanta 2010 President