SHRM's New Baby Named!

As you read in my most recent posts, SHRM has announced new certifications that will be available in 2015. Several have referred to the fiasco with the announcement and relationship with HRCI as a DIVORCE. While that may or may not be true as the two organizations proceed, SHRM has announced the name of what I have referred to above as their new Baby. They are the SHRM-CP (Society for Human Resources Management - Certified Professional) and SHRM-SCP (Society for Human Resources Management - SENIOR Certified Professional). Here is what the logo's will look like:

Of course, as a career long volunteer for SHRM, I don't mean that in a condescending way. However, it should be treated as such due to the delicate situation that has been created between the two organizations and primarily within the community who is very concerned about the impression this makes on the non-HR community. I know the latter, is by far my biggest concern as I have worked so hard over the years to advance this profession and serve the professional. I do realize the latter is in the plan from SHRM to allow current professionals to obtain the new certifications very easily once they are available. So from what I understand when I go through the certification steps mentioned in a previous blog post, my name will appear as the following in all my professional signatures:

Donna Rogers Skowronski, MEd., SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Wow, that’s a lot of letters. I'm glad I don't have to introduce myself as such. Just kidding. In addition, to the name, SHRM has also announced how this certification process will be governed.

As you can see above, SHRM has also decided how the credits will be handled via SHRM affiliates. What I don't have an answer to yet is, how they will handle pre-approved providers like my company, Rogers HR Consulting, who has been a provider of PHR/SPHR HRCI certified programs since 2007. I have sent my question to the email about and waiting to hear back. I am sure a lot of organizations like myself as well as associations, universities, etc. are very curious.

Having just completed my year as a Membership Advisory Committee (MAC) for SHRM in December, I was considering applying to serve on the HRCI board. Now it seems I will need to make a choice as whether I apply to SHRM's new governance board or the stick with my original plan. Both will have an impact on the certification/educational needs of the professionals I have been serving as a volunteer for SHRM affiliates since 1997. Of course, neither of them may elect me, if I applied so it could be a non-issue. End of my SHRM volunteer career? Who knows? I am still on the ILSHRM board as College Relations Director and I am one of the co-advisors for the UIS Student Chapter aka PStarHR so it's not likely.

If your are going to #SHRM14 be sure to stop by one of the three offered SHRM Certification Town Hall meetings hosted by my friend Brian Dickson and his team. I am sure they will answer all your questions. Remember, HRCI is not going away! Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter and give me a shout out to meet in real life (IRL) at the conference if you plan to be there.

55 Active Job Search Sites (Updated 7/19)

I had a company encouraging me to update this list over the last couple of months. Since they focus on veteran hiring and I am a veteran supporting other veterans I am happy to add the following to this original posting from 2017. Silent Professionals is a free veteran recruitment service. Their differentiating factor is that they focus on a very specific subset of veteran employment which is the combat arms veteran. Their site is much more than just a job board because they actually provide a service behind it which is all free to the veteran. As combat veterans themselves, with a vast amount of experience in the private security sector, they are able to use that experience and influence within the industry to act as trusted advocates for the veteran candidate. They boast an incredible 84% job placement success rate for candidates that they recommend to employers. One of the reasons they're able to do that is because of their focus on jobs for combat veterans who are seek...

MORE Consolidated List of SHRM Certification Announcement Posts with LINKS (Updated)

UPDATE 5/21: Added one more post and link below from Workforce.com not found last night when I originally wrote this post. On the eve of my attempt to help our local CIC-SHRM members make sense of the news of last week at our bi-monthly meeting tomorrow, I did another search. Again, I will wait to comment fully about my own understanding and opinions until after I get a response from SHRM regarding a question I have that has yet to be addressed and I hear again from our regional MAC rep on a call I am scheduled to participate in on Thursday. However, I do want to rescind and revise a comment I made in my earlier post. Last week I stated the following which is not entirely true: “The fact that the HRCI Executive Director did not receive advance notification leaves me a bit disappointed for a variety of reasons.” The HRCI Executive Director did know about SHRMs plans because she is part of the board where the topic was discussed. However, she did not know the communication would go...

Transgender Drug Testing

Recently, a client asked me if they needed to adjust their drug testing policy so a transgender employee could choose the gender of the person observing them urinate for a test. Obviously, the person wanted the employee to feel comfortable with who was in the room with them. First of all, having another employee watch you urinate can be uncomfortable for anyone, for any reason, but it is a requirement for some drug tests in order to ensure that the testee doesn’t bring in a bag of someone else’s urine to exchange as their own. If the reason is not obvious, it is so they do not test positive when they know they have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. So, I did some research and thought it would be good to share this information for other employers, managers, small business owners and HR managers who may have similar questions. What are the requirements to be an observer for a direct observed collection? According to the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing ...

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