Just as I expected, the annual SHRM conference in Las Vegas was fantastic!  In fact, it would be near impossible to spell out all the different perspectives that were shared and the takeaways that I received. So, in the spirit of brevity, I’ll sum it up with these 6 points.

1.    Facebook is a battleground

No matter how you slice it, Facebook is a mindshare land grab (that may be a Marenism btw).  We all know that over 700 million folks enjoy the blue and white social playground today, but what you might not know is how heated the battle for a professional platform has become.  BranchOut and BeKnown are at the forefront of this face-off and we are sure to see more in the near future.

While BranchOut has the head start, BeKnown has the financial backing of Monster and their incredibly well developed book of clients.

In essence, both are vying for the role of LinkedIn within Facebookland.  They are aiming to create a place where job seekers can limit how much is shared while taking full advantage of the Facebook numbers.  What’s better than networking with 100 million LinkedIn users?  Networking with 700 million Facebook users.

The battle has begun.  Now it’s up to the users to decide.  I would imagine by this time next year, we will know who the victor is.

2.    It’s all about engagement

If you have been putting off your plans for learning how to manage Gen Y and the generations to follow, your time is about to expire.  It’s all about engaging these newer generations of workers and making them happy.  “Why?” you might ask.

Well, just as before the recession, Baby Boomers are exiting the workplace and Gen Y is quickly taking over the majority role.  As this continues to happen, we should all expect to be overwhelmed by best practices in leading by example, peer management approaches and purpose driven workplaces.

It’s the future.  Accept it.

3.    Your people are your brand

For those of you who know me, you’ll know that I’m passionate about this one.  It was awesome to see so many folks speaking about and sharing the gospel on making people the selling point to your company.

Like it or not, winners and losers in the recruiting space will be decided by their organizations’ abilities to keep their employee populations engaged.  Fall short and the word will spread.  Thrive and your company will be rewarded with the best and the brightest.

If we embrace brand advocates, costs to acquire will go down.  We just need to get out of their way and let them tell the story.  The rest will take care of itself.  And, if you think this is still on the horizon, I suggest you start keeping an eye on thought leaders like Ryan Estis.  His presentation, Passion on Purpose, will show you the light!

4.    Show me the numbers

If you are a vendor in the HR space, be prepared to start showing your cards.  The times of solely displaying shiny objects and making a fortune are gone.  Buyers are critical and they want real results.

As I wandered the exhibitor hall, one thing became very apparent… dialogue is real and buyers want to know facts.  If you have a serious solution, this shouldn’t be a problem.  If you don’t, go back to the drawing board and start pulling some meaningful metrics… you’ll thank me later

5.    What is social media?

A couple of years ago, I would have hoped that this year would bring hoards of informed social media users to the HR space.  Instead, it seems that help is still needed… and not just with the advanced stuff.  We need to back up and bring on a new group of savvy social users.  We’ve perhaps grown bored of Twitter 101, but that boredom may be creating a roadblock for adoption.

Let’s face it, social is fun and for most of us involved with it, we’ve met some great folks and engaged in a plethora of new ways.

After this conference, I feel a renewed duty to help others get on board and I hope others join in.

6.    Company Culture Matters

Yeah, yeah, I know… the same old spiel.  But, listen up – it’s go time!

We live in a new age that values real more than shiny… an age that values transparency more than long-standing tradition.  If you think that your cultural edge is historical success, think again.  Cool new opportunities spring up every day.  It won’t be long before your talent is bombarded by something “better.”  So, it’s time to celebrate and establish your culture for what it is.

Don’t pretend… be real.  Understand that for the right person, your company is the perfect place to work.  It’s your duty to represent it well and give people something to take pride in… namely themselves and the hard work they do for your organization.

The bottom line is important, but giving people a central mission, an identity and a cause is more important.

Want to make it big?  Show how your employees are impacting the world.

So, again… this list could go on, but these were the six things that I was left with from the conference.  Perhaps a post on each would be appropriate.

I look forward to attending SHRM again next year.  If you haven’t attended in the past, I highly recommend planning in advance for the next go around.  You won’t regret it.

If you attended, what were your major takeaways?  Anything I completely overlooked?

Most everyone likes to know that they are appreciated.  Your kids, family members, neighbors… a simple and sincere compliment can often times help in building better relationships.  I’m not an advocate for making up compliments just for the sake of doing it – that would be counterproductive in the long-run.  What I’m talking about is simply taking the time out to recognize people around you when they do something that makes you happy.  Simple, right?

So, how does this apply to work?

Well, we spend a pretty good amount of time working.  In fact, if you take the amount of hours that you are around your co-workers as compared to your family, friends and neighbors… you are very likely balancing your life between the two realms.  So, just as it would apply to your home life, making an effort to recognize others can and should build goodwill at work.  So, why don’t more people do it?  Great question!  This could be a late night television list…

1. I’m too busy to worry about that stuff.
2. We are here to do our jobs.
3. We are adults, we don’t need special attention.
4. I gave him/her a raise – doesn’t that show I care?
5. I rated him/her high on their review.
6. It’s not really our culture.
7. I’m not into all that fluffy stuff.
8. Gold stars are so Jr. High!
9. They already know that I think they do good work.
10. We save our recognition awards for the monthly ceremony (wooop teee dooo!)

A SHRM Conference “Stand Out”

This was my first year attending the annual SHRM conference.  Press pass in hand, I wandered around looking for interesting things to write about.  I had been approached by at least 75 different companies to do an interview with their various experts – I wasn’t interested in that route.  I was hell-bent to find something different, interesting… something that made me sit back and say, “That’s going to matter!”  I found that in a company out of Michigan called Baudville.

To me, this was the diamond in the ruff I had been looking for.  You see, I wanted to share information about the SHRM conference through blogging and tweeting, but talking about hundreds of vendors really didn’t seem all that enticing.  The true interest, for me, was in finding a company with a fresh message, a staff that actually liked what they were doing and, last but not least, a keyhole to the “most interesting” for those of you who weren’t able to make it.  You are coming next year, right?

Baudville does something that other companies do.  They specialize in providing tools necessary for recognizing your employees.  Not a big deal in itself.  What is a big deal is the way that they present it and the how they encourage workplaces to be better.

In my conversation with Brad Darooge, CEO of Baudville, he made a comment that I had to write down.  “Recognition is just a word.  Ultimately, what we are trying to do is improve the relationships between companies and their workers.”  From a different person, I would have taken this as a canned response… but, Brad is not just saying it.  Baudville is pushing to change the way we exist at work.  Watch this.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHKbc2gxi-8

So, the question turns to “How?”

Through the use of funny, ice-breaking, artistic and cost-effective tokens of appreciation, Baudville is giving managers the ability to do more in a way that stands out.  Recognition should not be complex… it should be commonplace and easy to deliver.  It does not require a monthly meeting or a special ceremony.  It requires a sincere attitude and the understanding that people work for people, not companies.  If you disagree on that point, I invite you to sit with me for a day while I recruit people away from some of the “Best Places To Work.”  Come see… it’ll be fun!

Stephanie Lloyd wrote a great piece the other day on how our current economy is breeding a very dangerous situation for companies.  The delusion that paying less and getting more will last for any substantial amount of time is deconstructed with a powerful argument by Stephanie.

Losing great people isn’t cheap.  If giving them a small pat on the back could change that situation and save your company money, you may want to consider a more robust recognition program.  Baudville, in my opinion, is positioned very well to be a part of that growing need as we move forward into some pretty turbulent times in the area of retention.

Here is a list of some Baudville employees out on Twitter:

Brad Darooge – CEO

Kristy Sherland – VP of Product Development

Lilly Maric – Product Art Manager

Cori Curtis – PR Coordinator

Cindy Gilman – HR Manager

How are you recognizing your employees?  Have you seen anything truly innovative in a while?  Share your thoughts!

Disclaimer:  I was not compensated by Baudville in any way to write this post.  I chose them because I was impressed.  Their product, their people and their forward-looking approach left me feeling compelled to share more about this great organization.

Fast recap from Day 3 – Time is short… video is quick

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSwwNZ1JDzI

Since I started blogging, I have met some pretty awesome people!  Today was no exception.

A few weeks back, I was contacted by Disney to set up a meeting while at the SHRM conference.  I was pretty excited to meet with them.  I suppose that we all have that little kid inside somewhere – or, at least, I hope you still do!

Around noon today, I met up with Terry Brinkoetter and Stacey Thomson who are here at the conference chatting with HR pros about the Disney Institute.   We headed over to Emeril’s for a New Orleans style lunch – awesome food!  In fact, I may have more than experience to take away from New Orleans… this food is out of control awesome!

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t familiar with the work that Disney Institute performs.  I didn’t even know that it existed.  Pretty bad, I know… but, hey… it is what it is.  Luckily, I had Terry and Stacey to fill me in!  I can’t think of a better way to get up to speed quickly.

So, the short story is that Disney Institute has a variety of leadership and development courses for people to be a part of.   Drawing (no pun intended) from their years of experience developing a successful organization, they have assembled, what sounds like, a pretty impressive array of courses.

In the next few months, I’ll be heading over to Orlando to see for myself.  When that time comes, I’ll be sure to give you my feedback about the training and how it may have an impact on you.  Of course, I also made sure that I could “Live Tweet” from the training… I’ll be doing finger exercises until then to get conditioned

Who’s your favorite character?  I’m going with Tigger…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uae2NjEoVFg

Just finished up the panel at the SHRM Staffing Management conference here Las Vegas. Here are a few thoughts…

Well… I wish I had a ton of great stuff to tell you all about today, but it was pretty much occupied by travel.

Regardless, the day had a few adventures.

Leaving San Antonio, I was fortunate to sit by a gentleman from Australia named Kelvin.  He is visiting the U.S. for the first time and traveling the country with his friend Marty who lives out in Washington, D.C.  Now, I’m not sure if you have met many Australians, but, in my experience, they have always been great people.  Very easy going, open to new ideas, easy to have a conversation with.  So, despite the cramped airplane, it was a great flight.

Once I arrived to Las Vegas, I was greeted by my Sister.  We headed out to the Hilton Las Vegas so that I could get checked in.  I must say, this city has grown tremendously since the last time I visited.  I’m not quite sure how they pack all of the hotels every night… or do they?  As we drove down the strip I pondered how much money is spent every single minute in Las Vegas.  Can you imagine how much money is poured into the slot machines?

After getting checked in to the hotel, we headed down to the lobby.  My Sister went ahead to play slots for a few minutes while I headed over to the SHRM registration area.  Given the time, most of the people had already cleared out.  I went over to the exhibition hall to see what I could see.

Among other things, I came across a booth for Bernard Hodes… read the sign in the picture.

While I knew that this question was one of the hot ones… it was interesting to see it so vibrantly displayed on a booth from a pretty well-known company.  It leaves me wondering how a large brand is going to communicate such a personal approach to other corporations.  I hope that they do.  The people at the booth were great!  I told them about Red Shoe Project and asked them to bring in their red shoes tomorrow… hopefully they will.

After walking the grounds a bit, I headed over to the official SHRM display booth to see if I could catch China Gorman in the act of Twittering… unfortunately, I arrived too late.  Fortunately, I was able to meet a couple of SHRM employees (Nicole and Christina) who were still around for the passing visitors.  We spent a few minutes talking “Twitter” before I headed off to meet back up with my Sister.

On the way out I ran in to Matt Adams from NAS Recruitment.  He is going to be on the panel tomorrow for Social Media in HR.  You can find him on Twitter under the username @madam.  He might even be sending out some Tweets from the stage… we shall see.

Walking out of the main area, I ran in to an attendee of the conference (Dennis) and struck up a conversation about social media.  He really viewed this whole movement as a great thing for HR.  In summary, his determination was that social media will end up holding companies more accountable for being honest and transparent in their hiring practices.  I tend to agree with him.

So… I finally met up with my Sister and we headed out to a local restaurant for some Vegas-Style steak.  Good stuff!

All in all, the day was pretty long.  As a regular night owl, I’m up way to late and I know that morning will come way to soon.

That’s it for now.  Hopefully I’ll have some really informative stuff for everyone tomorrow.

Is there anything that you want me to find out while I’m at the convention?