Hello from hot and steamy New Orleans. Many great bloggers have written about the first day of HR festivities, and you can follow the Twitter stream here, so I want to write about what I heard and saw at SHRM.
- HR people are old. There’s no two ways about it. FrannyO and I attended a fancy reception for HR people, last night, and there weren’t many people younger than me in the room—and I’m not all that young, anymore. (Believe me, that’s true.) Furthermore, SHRM’s leadership team represents an older (ahem) demographic. Who is out there beating the drums and recruiting young and talented people into Human Resources? If MBA graduates have Jack Welch to emulate, who is the face of Human Resources? Do we need a face?
- Networking is changing. You can’t tell me that trade shows, expos, and industry conventions [in any field] will last another 50 years. The expense of sending your employees to these conferences—along with the lack of sleep, decreased productivity, and general distractions that come from being drunk for more than 16 hours out of the day—isn’t worth it. Sure, it’s important to network. Sure, it’s important to meet people and learn from your peers. You can do the same thing in flash mobs and cheaper ‘unconference’ formats.
Don’t get me wrong. I love to see my friends (old & young) at SHRM and learn about new products and services from vendors. I also like to go have a drink at 2AM in my pajamas at a bar in New Orleans. (What? Did I really do that?)
I’m just not sure if these behaviors or ours are sustainable.
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| SHRM 2009 Day One |
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couldn’t agree more on the age issue. will certification changes further diminish the number of young people going into hr? It’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out in 2011.
Dude, I’m not sure if SHRM can be used as a representative guage for the age, energy, or enthusiasm of HR people. My disgust with SHRM is well documented, and it is my hope that they reason their membership is “greying” is that finally the next generatations are awaking to their irrelevance and inability to stay current on the issues that drive our decisions every day.
That said, have fun, rock NOLA!
The reason that everyone seems old is that the young folks, myself included, aren’t in the top HR positions and can’t afford to attend conference on their own dime.
In an era when everyone with a blog can call themselves an expert, I guess that people look old. Besides the agism of that comment, the other part is maybe, just maybe, people worked their way up to positions of leadership. That doesn’t come from just declaring that people know things — it comes from actually knowing them.
@Amy 2 Senior HR leaders, as a whole, don’t go to SHRM. Those are middle managers at best.
@HRPufnstuf I’m with you. I’m afraid SHRM’s irrelevance is showing…any organization that touts bestsellers such as “2,600 Responses for Managers in Performance Reviews” has no merit to me.
I think conferences will still exist, but three words are critical to conferences: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!! (and money, but I don’t care about that).
Oh c’mon, Frank. I’m not ageist. My point was more about the lack of mentoring the next generation of leaders. You know I like older men.
@tracy You’re right about location. I’m glad SHRM is doing this in San Diego, next summer!
@Amy2 Frank is right that this place is full of middle-managers; however, most middle-managers skew older. The SHRM population is over 40 (on average), female, and from companies with fewer than 1000 employees. I’m almost a part of that demographic!
@HRPuf I’d like to see SHRM focus on developing a new generation of HR leaders who are savvy, social, and focused on developing a bright and engaged group of HR professionals. They’re doing a strategic biz review, right now. I think they are on to this…
@akabruno I think you are the highlight of my conference, thus far!
I am a “young” HR person and I am not attending this year because my company cut our training budgets. Even if they hadn’t they view the national SHRM conference as being too Macro in scope for someone of my lowly status. I know, I know, but hey its not like I could afford to pay for myself to attend.
Besides if I had gone I probably would have bypassed the networking for some other NOLA fun. Not saying ya’ll aren’t fun and everything, but seriously the “hand grenades” alone are enough reason to leave the hotel.
@Lori I was awake for nearly 24 hours, yesterday, so I’m pretty sure that some fun is being had around here despite all the HR stuff. Wish you were here. Really trying to think about a way to create a foundation or system to get interested HR professionals to important networking events.
Laurie,
Thanks for the kind words. You’ve inspired me to start a blog of my own when I return from NOLA.
You said “Really trying to think about a way to create a foundation or system to get interested HR professionals to important networking events…” One would hope that their local SHRM chapter would be serving to meet that need. If not, the chapter is not doing their job for professional development.
YES – we need a “face” of HR badly, I think! Other than Toby from The Office!!!
Will it be you?!? How does one obtain this valuable position?
Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I think a lot of my generation and younger feel that they don’t know how to network effectively in a formal business environment. I know the idea of chatting with strangers while sipping on White Zinfandel sends chills up my spine. Even if there is someone I know I need to meet, I tend to shy away. Besides while HR is my career, I tend to view post conference hours in the same way I view post work hours……work free zones.
What I do enjoy doing is more informal networking events that give insight into the culture of the city I’m visiting. For instance in NOLA there are great ghost & vampire and cocktail tours that no one should miss. How much fun would it be walking around the quarter hearing about vampires and comparing it to our own HR trials and tribulations? My contact list is full of people that I have met this way and honestly since I know them on a “real” level I feel more comfortable making contact with them when I need them. Whereas too often the cards I get from the more formal events get tossed to the side afterwards.
There are my two cents…..use them as you wish.
You are so smart. And the old people are not just in HR. I work in the field of continuing education. I’m 38. Sometimes I’m treated like I just hit puberty.
The thing about the Gen X set, though, is when we do go to conferences, we seek each other out, and we hide out. So it’s not necessarily that we’re not there – it’s that we can’t handle the fake networking bullshit. We go out for drinks without the boomers instead.
@GenX That is so right about my behaviors and those of my age group. We did ditch a tweet up and go out drinking, last night. We didn’t network. We gambled and had fun.
@Lori You are so right. I would have love to experienced more of the culture + meet my peers. Instead, it’s all chardonnay or cheezy hurricanes.
@akaBruno 1. Awesome. 2. Seriously, you are so right; however, local chapters tend to get mired in local interests and local politics. I wonder which chapters are doing this right and which ones are failing?
Curious to see when, if, SHRM Board of Directors gets its first Gen X member, let alone a millenial. 2015?
@akaBruno Are you Gen X? I am, and I’m voting for you!