Another Day in the HR Field

One of the most important outcomes of my Organizational Behavior class is the self analysis each student completes during the course.  There are several assessments covering topics such as personality, leadership, decision making, and more.  This coupled with a semester long look at how individual, group, and organizational behavior affects the results (good or bad) of a company leaves each student with their own impression of what it takes to be a good leader or manger.  The following is a brief summary of just how one of my A students Galen F. Schneider views the world as it relates to the topic in the Title above:          Five big traits every good manager needs to possess in order to succeed not only in the business world, but also as a manager, are: 1.        A high motivation to manage 2.        A moderately high to high self-monitoring tendency 3. ...

Is compensation a numbers or a head game?   I think it is a little bit of both, and here is why.   My story with comp starts when I was just in high school and college.   I really wanted to go into accounting because I thought that numbers were fascinating.   I had taken every single business class in high school and had intended to earn a Business Administration degree because I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life back then.   My dream was to be business women wearing suits, making decisions, and managing people.   What that actually looked like in terms of industry of specific field in business, I had no idea. While in college I had to take intermediate accounting, statistics and calculus as well as higher level classes.   Intermediate Accounting was just not fun and I ended up stopping at that point and changing my major.   I had finished my statistics class and my calculus but I didn’t move on to the higher level ma...

On Tuesday of next week I will be speaking at the Illinois Association of Community Action Agencies (IACAA) conference.  This is the third year I have been invited and paid to speak at this event.  I am looking forward to sharing everything I know on building a solid resume.  Not just the document itself but all the KSAs you need to have in your pocket to put on your Linked In profile or an old fashioned paper resume.  The following is a glimpse at the advice I plan to share: The session will explore KSA's necessary for an Emerging Leader and identify an action plan to get there. We will also take it to the next level by building an ideal resume that can sell in this era of social recruiting. Learn the latest sites where you can share the KSAs you have.  Who Are The Emerging Leaders? Corporate leaders typically look to the top-rated 3 percent to 5 percent of their employees as candidates for fast-tracking. The June 2010 Harvard ...

Some would say the title above was a misnomer. Basically how can one possibly vacation while they are working. Years ago I use to define vacation to my management team as rest and relaxation. At the time I was trying to make the point that employees should be planning their vacation time and not be using it for unexpected absences such as sick days. While I still agree vacation should be for rest and relaxation there are times working on vacation is either required or a choice. The required is and should be very rare in the case of an emergency only. It's definitely not something that is preferred. The choice for me is the same as my day to day working habits. I balance the needs of my family with the needs of my work. I realize I have more flexibility than someone with a typical 8-5 schedule. However, I think that many of us chose to do some work on vacation regardless of our typical work schedule in order to minimize the horrendous backload of work that we would return to i...

On February 18 th 2012 a group of four UIS students traveled toIllinois State University in Bloomington for the 2 nd annual SHRM HRCompetition.  This was the first one thatUIS has ever participated in.  Wereviewed a couple of Human Resource cases about a month before the competitionin preparation, but we had no idea what to expect.   When we got to ISU we weretreated very professionally.  We wentthrough a couple of presentations in the regards to Human Resources and whycompanies need them.  Our team was then escortedto our room where we would be spending the next four hours.   The idea behind thesecompetitions is that a group is given a case to review.  No one except the person handing out thecases knew what they were. The cases could be about companies with law, harassmentor personnel issues.  After given thecase we then had four hours to deliberate and come up with a solution to theproblem that would inevitably better the company.  We ...

Illinois State Council of SHRM: SHRMLead from Students Perspective : Guest Post  by McKenzie Cunningham, UIS HR Student Last weekend was SHRM’s Leadership Regional Summit in Dallas, Texas.   My prof...

I have had the pleasure of knowing, Joe & Jason, from  Talent Anarchy for almost a year now.  They are unique, talented and genuine.  They keynoted at our conference last year and the reviews were so magnificent that we are proud to bring them back again by way of "popular demand".  Take a couple minutes to watch the following videos and I know you will agree!!! http://youtu.be/7wcqprMCAS4 http://youtu.be/2OIzXwolyWs The ILSHRM conference will be August 6 & 7 in Oakbrook, Illinois.  I hope you will consider joining us and flying your "HR Freak Flag with us!"