Lobby Day in Illinois Success

This is a post I started in April and just getting a chance to publish. My apologies for the delay. 

It's been a few years since Tami Ireland and I started the state legislative conference with then ILSHRM Director,

Carolyn Spherl.  With continued support we have had our ups and downs but yesterday put a smile on both of our faces for a couple reasons. Those reasons center around two things: 1) Growth & 2) Opportunity. 

Both of us have visited Capitol Hill in DC during the SHRM sponsored Lobby Day and have mirrored our approach as closely as possible. However, some years  have not even come close to this year especially as it relates to opportunity. 

If you compare the picture of our first year to this years, you can see the growth in number of participants. It's obvious to us that even though growth has been slow it is still growth. Can't wait to see what the 2015 ILSHRM / CICSHRM legislative event will bring next Spring. 

The opportunity I was referring to is seeing an HR related bill being discussed in detail on the Illinois House floor. In this case the Pregnancy discrimination bill introduced by representative Flowers (which has now been passed). In past years we visited the gallery but they have primarily been discussing issues not related to the workplace. 

So as I mentioned earlier both growth and opportunity has put a smile on our face and made us proud to have started this event on the first place. HR should be more involved in the goings on with thier state capitols much more than they are overall thought out the USA. Legislators have no idea how thier bills affect the workplace and employers in our state unless we tell them. Please visit your representives and senators!