2014 A Year In Review

It's time once again to complete my annual performance review.  This is a time for reflection, documentation, and most importantly improvement.  I have been participating in the annual review process most of my professional career.  Typically it's been a meeting with my supervisor where they go over a checklist type formatted document that all managers use in the organization and basically tell me how I scored.  In the academic arena the tables are turned a bit where it's you telling a committee in written form what you did, how you were evaluated, and what your going to do about it. The latter is the most important aspect, in my humble opinion, because the process requires you to sit down and determine what your next steps are as it relates to improvement in all areas of your professional work.  For me that is teaching, advising, community service, training, speaking, blogging. consulting and branding. 

Part of my reflection is to look at what I have been writing over the year and I know it's about half as much as I wrote the first few years with only 15 posts this year compared to 23-31 in 2011 to 2013.  I'd say a big part of the first half of year would have had a lot to do with my dad dying, learning about my paternity and new family members, and being hospitalized.  After that it seems the focus has been on catching up and working on getting healthier which is still a focus in 2015.

The year began with a summary of all the 2014 HR Webcast Series that I was doing for the UIS Continuing Education Department that has since been disbanded.  As a then pre-approved provider of HRCI programs I had been providing webinar training for this program for approximately three years.  It was a program that was initially intended to accommodate all types of training from faculty campus wide but the majority of the time only my webinars appeared on the website.  I personally did not have time to market the programs so they started taking up way more hours than what I was getting with only 38% of the revenue.  Personally, I have benefited with extra time the last half of the year since the program was cancelled.

Like this year, I wrote a 2013 Blog Post summary which was then followed by a few posts related to speaking and appearing on HR related programs such as:

• Psyched for Year 2 on HR Speaking Circuit - Announcing the upcoming speaking engagements at #LASHRM and #MOSHRM and reflecting on those from previous year.
• #LASHRM Down - What's Next? - Shared some insights into my experiences speaking at the Louisiana SHRM conference with Dave Ryan for first time with a co-presenter.  Previous state conference experiences at #MOSHRM, #KSHRM, and #MNSHRM had been on my own.
• Made It to the BiG Time - Speaking at #SHRM15 - Ecstatic Shout Out for First Ever Invite to Speak at the biggest HR conference in the world #SHRM15!  We will also be presenting this program at the #MOSHRM15 conference in August.
• Going Live where I give a shout out to the Drive Thru HR appearance Dave Ryan and I made to discuss our upcoming HRDepartmentOfOne.com program to be presented at SHRM15 at 11:00 am on Wednesday, July 1, 2015.

The biggest blogging impact I made in the community (and my entire blogging experience since 2010) was related to the big SHRM announcement that rocked the HR world about the new #SHRMCertification.  The entire four part series drew 4,410 views overall.  While I was surprised about the announcement and had my own opinions, I tried to stay neutral and share all the various communications that went about the news in a way that allowed readers to link to what was new up until it started to become old news.  Thus the series consisted of the following posts:

• A Summary (with Links) of ALL “SHRM Certification Announcement”Communications Thus Far (UPDATED) This post was updated a couple times since it was first posted just after the original announcement from SHRM and later HRCI. This post had 1170 views.
• MORE Consolidated List of SHRM Certification Announcement Posts with LINKS (Updated) This too was updated a couple of times since it was originally posted.  This post had 930 views.
• An Unfortunate Reality: SHRM & HRCI At Odds This was a post sharing a bit of despair over what was going on in the HR community related to the split between the two organizations that had made the biggest impact on my career.  This post had 624 views.
• SHRM's New Baby Named! Like it's name, this post announced the official name of the SHRM Certification program which had not been named before it's announcement the month prior.  The timeliness of the naming came just before the Annual SHRM Conference in Orlando.  This post had 847 views.
• Absence Doesn't ALWAYS Make the Heart Grow Fonder: My Thoughts on SHRM Actions of Late This was the first time I didn't stay neutral and shared some personal feelings about what I experienced between SHRM and HRCI at the conference.  This post had 893 views.

So maybe the service I provided to the community researching and pulling all the writings into one post gaining thousands more viewers than normal made up for the fact that I wrote less in 2014.  Additionally, a few more posts in the year covered an event I attended (Lobby Day in Illinois Success) and an overall review of my consulting business (Lucky 13) celebrating then 13 years in business and over 100 client file reviews conducted over the summer.

A couple students guest blogged on my page this year with an intro related to the topic from me covering Internship and Diversity.  They are: 

•  The Value of an Unpaid Internship was written by summer intern Samantha Wilits who got a job as a recruiter for a hospital in Decatur last fall.  I am so very excited for her and it is not often a student can go directly into an HR position from the outside.
• Inclusive Leadership: Leverage your Diversity for Optimal Results was written by undergrad Libby Bair who's exceptional writing skills for an extra credit submission blew me away.

Finally, I blogged about my very first STRATEGIC (or should I say BUSINESS) credit approved program from HRCI HR Metrics & Workforce Analytics.  While this may not seem like a big deal, it is not easy to prove to HRCI you have developed a program with enough emphasis on business to get this approval.  I delivered the program in Decatur and Peoria SHRM chapters last year.  This year, I have plans to deliver in Mattoon, Metro East Area, and Springfield.

So while I was feeling kinda down at the beginning of this write up, I guess I didn't do all that bad! Of course, this is only the reflection as it relates to blogging.  This performance evaluation process takes a while.  Good thing it's not due till my birthday.  Happy 2015 to all!!

ADDENDUM: How could I forget Women of HR posts? I had two last year that were very personal and direct.  To keep with the theme of the site itself, I always try to write about personal experiences as a women and learning lessons that can help others in the workplace:

1. Women Can't Do Anything Right! #BULLSHIT This was a perception based piece that focused on how to overcome this sentiment and understand those in the workplace that may have a defense mechinisim in their personalities that may be based on this belief. 
2. Is She Really a Bitch in the Workplace This was another perception based piece that focused on women in the workplace who are called a bitch for getthing their job done to include to other related posts from others included one on Forbes.

I also guest blogged on the ILSHRM page regarding the SHRM Certification situation: Some Light Reading of "SHRM Certification Announcement" Communications in May.