Did you hear the sonic boom the evening of November 6^th?  I did, but that was only because I was on hour 10 of my 12 hour drive from home in Tallahassee, FL to HRevolution in Louisville, KY.  Fifty or so HR bloggers and social media advocates came together for a two day event to share, discuss, eat, drink and be merry.  My experience was truly amazing.  I plan to have more details of the happenings in a later post, but first a self-indulgent top 20 list of things I learned about fellow HR bloggers.

1.   @sexythinker can eat a mad breakfast is both sexy and a thinker!
2.   Do not give @HR_Minion replicas of Louisville sluggers, your laptop will never be the same.
3.   @BenEubanks has Diet Mt. Dew coursing through his veins and can walk on his hands.
4.   @ADowling sees dead people, specifically “ladies in white” that haunt the Seelbach.
5.   @SteveBoese is seriously concerned about the ROI of wearing pants!
6.   The airlines have been saved by @MarenHogan – she purposely misses flights.
7.   @TheLance pays members of the audience to shout out that he is the “smartest man in the room.”
8.   Did you know that @lruettimann is a bifurcating trophy wife? @kenruet is one lucky guy!
9.   @ewmonster will in fact cut a b*$@!.
10.   Apparently @blogging4jobs is an extrovert – who knew?
11.   @tlcolson may wear steel toed work boots to work but she will look damn good in them!
12.   @joanginsberg IS taller than her avatar.
13.   Don’t worry, according to @stelzner, he really is a man.
14.   You can place blame on @akaBruno, he’ll accept.
15.   The Ultimate Twitter Lurker is @logicwriter.
16.   @TrishMcFarlane is a freak wrangler.
17.   @theredrecruiter gladly takes requests to sing Kumbaya.
18.   Shh, @BKRecruiter is secretly THE Burger King!
19.   @designtwit is an enabler of our need for bacon love. I think someone ate their bacon pin!
20.   I @SteveMGHarrison enjoy driving…A LOT.  Next time can HRevolution be in Europe? I will take a canoe!

Enjoy HRevolutionaries and feel free to add your own in the comments!

Keith Ferrazzi

Anyone who read my earlier post is aware of how much I have been looking forward to hearing Keith Ferrazzi speak at HR Florida.  Keith presented one of the Masters’ Sessions entitled “Relationships for Group Success”.  He is the author of two bestselling books emphasizing the importance of relationships in our personal and professional lives.

Keith’s two hour presentation included several “group work” sessions in which we were encouraged to use his relationship development ideas.  Each attendee’s experience was affected by what they learned through listening and interacting with others. It has taken several days of reflection to summarize my “take homes.”  Here they are:

*Relationships are fundamental to our success!

*Deep social bonding among team members will result in greater success for the team.

*It is essential to develop a strategic plan for our lives.  What do we want to achieve in 30 days? 3 years? Long term? (We must know where we’re going before we can map out a route to get there.)

*Find two people with whom to develop “lifeline relationships.”  Lifeline Relationships incorporate peers who we care for and respect. These relationships should be mutually beneficial and include the core values of honesty, transparency, and accountability. (Note the concept of “mutual relationship” – people are not a commodity to be used and tossed aside.)

*Ask for help: “What do you see me doing that holds me back?” (Friends can help someone recognize and move beyond negative behaviors and subliminal patterns.)

*Remember feedback is a gift. It is information to be processed just like all other experience.  Take it or leave it, but always say “Thank you”. 

We often hear the saying – “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” There is some truth in this statement; we are who we are because of our relationships with others. The relationships we develop at work, chapter meetings, conferences, and volunteering in the community help us to grow personally and professionally.  In Human Resources, as in life, “what you know” is critical, but it is in relationships with others that we are able to leverage that knowledge to make a difference.   

“It starts from the top down.”  We hear this expression used in so many ways.  Whether it’s referring to a manager’s need to supply the fun, positive attitude at the office in order for their staff to reciprocate, or how business tax cuts are supposed to, in turn, create more jobs.  Currently, the HR industry is failing to follow this time-proven model.  Starting at the top with corporate America, we as HR professionals need to encourage companies to demand graduate degrees from their exempt-level HR staff.  This will filter down, benefiting all HR professionals, current and future, by earning us more respect, more decision making power, and by helping to recruit the best and brightest college students who may still be undecided about which field to enter.

If corporate America does not encourage its exempt-level HR staff to earn graduate degrees, then the HR profession will be severely limited in how far it can develop and grow.  In its current form, the HR function will never be considered as an equal by the other facets of business, most of which are required to have those graduate degrees for employment consideration and promotion (i.e. finance, accounting, marketing, etc.)  This transition needs to take place before we get left behind just like bookkeepers have.  Before the college degree boom 10-20 years ago, a bookkeeper was a prominent, respected occupation that did not require any education, just experience with ledgers.  Times have changed.  Nowadays, who would hire someone to handle your ledger without a college degree?  Businesses used to value experience over education, but that view has reversed and industry-specific knowledge and formal education training are essential. 

Welcome to my conundrum.  As a soon to be Florida State University grad, majoring in HR, I am looking for graduate schools that offer an MBA with an HR concentration.  Unfortunately, out of more than 2000 universities in the country, there are only 13 HR graduate degree programs that are fully aligned with the curriculum standards established by SHRM!  How can this be possible you ask?  There is a direct correlation between what degrees businesses demand from their employees to what universities offer.  Because most companies are not promoting the pursuit of HR graduate degrees by not demanding it from their staff, schools do not offer it.  In turn, students are not encouraged to further their education HR.

This is preventing us from lassoing the best and brightest college students into our field.  They might end up choosing safer, more well defined routes such as finance and accounting.  After graduation from a top program, finance professionals are offered an average starting salary of $20,000-$30,000 more than someone with a degree in HR, depending on prior experience.

In order for our profession to be respected as equal and for us to be trusted with the decision making power we so deserve, this change needs to take place.  Whether personally considering earning a graduate degree or not, all HR professionals should encourage their companies to start demanding these degrees from their HR staff.  Otherwise, we may end up obsolete,  just like the bookkeepers.