Another Day in the HR Field

January is HR Month! It is also a good time to review all company policies and procedures from a proactive management standpoint. I think it's important to determine how prepared your organization and your employees are for natural or unnatural disasters such as what recently happened in Arizona. A few years ago many employers were hit hard by tornadoes here in Springfield and a shooting at our state's capitol and our mall all of which caused many organizations to more urgently considering disaster planning. Just as an example, during the tornadoes in Springfield, some businesses were completely wiped out, some had major damage, and some went without power for several days. One thing they all had in common was what to do with employees who could not perform their regular jobs. Did companies have a plan to pay employees? Did they have a plan in place to assign tasks to be completed? Was there sufficient communication early enough for employees to know what to do, or did they rec...

Today, being the fifth day on the job as the new State Director for Illinois State Council of SHRM, I thought I would share a few words. No, really our social media director, @DaveTheHRCzar, gave me a little nudge. I have plenty of time to write for our blog site among the overwhelming list of “to do’s on my desk from paid jobs not to mention our upcoming state Leadership Conference this Monday. So, I will be brief! First, I would like to share a little about my SHRM volunteer responsibilities over the years leading up to my current position on the state council. I joined our local chapter, CIC-SHRM, in the mid-90s and that’s about as clear as my memory gets. What I do know is that in 1997 I became active on the chapter board and joined SHRM in 1998 as a strongly encouraged requirement for being a board member. Before that I did not know anything about the national organization. In 2001, while still being involved in my chapter for another four years I joined the Illinois State Council...

Illinois State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management: Off to SHRM Leadership : "In 1997 when I first joined the largest HR organization in the world (now approaching 300k members), I really had no idea what an impact tha..."

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Top 10 Take Away's From SHRM10: An Education, HR, & Managment Perspective View more presentations from Donna Skowronski .

I'm quoted in: Good workers become good employees with proper motivation - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register

Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure (NOT!) of sifting through the piles and piles and piles of information about the Health Care Reform legislation. Most of which not really saying much because there is still so many unanswered questions. While my goal was to figure out what my fellow HR professionals need to know, do, and communicate in the very near to distant future, I discovered a couple very major things. Of course, I am like most of you waiting until I really had to dig in before I did anything about it. My nudge was two training sessions scheduled for this week and one today which will launch a big marketing push to deliver more programs on this topic. My discovery: 1) WOW-this is BIG! It was kind of like the light bulb going on and my past 20 years shining very bright in my face. In my personal and professional opinion this legislation is the biggest thing HR has ever had to conquer in quite some time. Bigger than the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) I found ...