Happy Friday!

Just a quick post to tie up some loose ends from the last week or so.

• A HUGE thank you to Bill Boorman, Geoff Webb, Maha Akiki, and all the sponsors (including Jobsite, TempWorks Software, and HRM Direct) for an outstanding time at TRU London 2.  I have already posted about the event and will continue to write about some of the ideas that bubbled up there.  Although the TRU Crew brought me over to the event, all the opinions I share about content are purely mine.  It was an amazing learning experience and I can’t wait to share more about the dynamics of HR, recruiting, and technology from a global perspective.
• Thank you to Victorio at Creative Chaos Consultant for sharing my guest post in his ‘Put Up or Shut Up’ series last week.
• Last week I had a contest as part of  ’The HR Hangover: A Contest for You‘ post.  Well, if you haven’t read the comments, go back and do that.  I had several great “guesses” but there were two that stood out.  They are not only well thought out but hilarious too.  Congratulations to the book winners April Dowling and Krista Francis.  You guys can be my HR manager anytime!

Have a fantastic Friday. If you’ve got something great you’re doing- maybe a HR or recruiting conference, good book you’re reading, some fun weekend plans….share them with me in the comments!

Do you feel like you have a good handle on all the business skills you need to be as successful as possible?  No?

Well, Victorio Milian over at Creative Chaos Consultant blog has the cure for that.  Several months ago, Victorio started a series of posts under the “HR 101″ umbrella.  He then reached out to some strong leaders in the HR industry and had them post about topics such as finance, internal communications, PR, HR technology, law, and statistics, to name a few.

Now, you can get all these great posts in one convenient place, the HR 101 e-book.

Download your copy here, refer your friends and colleagues, and please be sure to let Victorio know that you appreciate his efforts by commenting on his blog or tweeting at him here.

I’ve heard people who say that in order to be successful in human resources, you must have a Human Resouce degree.  Others say you MUST have a PHR or SPHR certification in addition to your degree.  Still others say you should not have a HR degree or certification, you should be an MBA with real-world experience.  Just this past week at the Senior HR Executive Conference I heard some of these ideas plus executives who believe that you can take someone with operations experience and turn them into the perfect HR pro.  So, who is right?

The answer is simple: there is no “perfect” recipe. It depends on the company, work environment, culture, and role the person will fill.  Certain skills are paramount to being a strong business professional regardless of whether that person is in HR, marketing, advertising, finance, or operations.  What this conversation and debate tells me is that there are currently HR professionals out here who could be doing more to demonstrate their value.  I assert that if you only have a HR degree, certification, MBA, or operations experience, you will not be the ideal HR pro.  You need to have skills from each of these components in order to truly be a successful business leader.  There are some key skills you can focus on obtaining or improving that will ensure you will be able to remain relevant in 2010 and beyond.

Strong human resource knowledge

This is a MUST.  Now, obviously this can be learned in a degree program or by studying for certification, but it goes beyond that.  It involves REAL LIFE experience working with employee issues.  You must have experience

• actually picking up the phone and recruiting candidates
• interviewing candidates in person for all levels in the organization
• investigating reported issues
• coaching and counseling
• understanding and applying HR related laws
• handling the compliance (I-9′s, Visas, etc.)
• developing talent through strategic and tactical approaches to training

Finance and Internal Communications

These are areas where many HR professionals are weak.  From a finance and accounting standpoint at a bare minimum you must be able to understand general accounting principles and be able to read and interpret a balance sheet.  If you cannot do that, you need to set that as a goal.  How can you advise your CEO, CFO, and other company leaders if you cannot interpret the financial results of the company?  Strong financial acumen will help you drive the business forward.  Then, in terms of internal communication, you need to be able to effectively communicate the policies of the company in a way that aligns with the company strategies.  For more detailed information on how to improve your skills in this area, check out the HR 101 series by Victorio at the Creative Chaos Consultant blog.

Innovation

The HR professional of today and the future needs to have the spirit to innovate.  It is critical to success.  If you plan to sit back and just do the day-to-day role, you will not help move the company forward.  Our world changes fast and innovative ideas will be the catalyst to propel your HR career.  Challenge yourself each day or week to come up with an innovative way to handle something differently.  Hold your feet to the fire to make sure you are accountable for keeping your department from getting stagnant.

Global Effectiveness

Technology has made the world a much smaller place.  More companies are global than ever before, so more HR professionals need to have an understanding of what is going on in global markets.  Are you making yourself aware?  Are you reaching out to gain understanding of other countries laws, financial systems, and culture?  This is something you should focus on if you are not already.  Today’s HR leaders are responsible for driving the success of people around the world.

HR Technology

To the average HR generalist or specialist, HR technology is the “big bad wolf” of the story.  It’s the one thing we’re all afraid of.  In order to really be successful at running an effective human resources department, you need to have a solid understanding of your current HR technologies as well as staying abreast of emerging technologies.  You will need to understand how to evaluate your systems effectiveness as well as be able to identify technologies that will support the data needed to make strong business decisions for the company.  A good place to start is by reading and following blogs by Naomi Bloom, Steve Boese, Michael Krupa, and Bryon Abramowitz.  You should also follow the writings of Bill Kutik at Human Resource Executive Online.

So, how do you measure up?  What other skills do you believe are critical to being a successful HR professional in the future?  Let me know in the comments.

It’s been a bit since I highlighted someone in this series of posts.  Just to recap, I am highlighting different HR bloggers so we can get a better understanding of why they got into blogging, what their daily HR job is, what inspires them, and some general day-to-day information.  So far, I’ve been thrilled to have interviewed Kris Dunn (The HR Capitalist), Mike VanDervort (The Human Race Horses), Laurie Ruettimann (Punk Rock HR) and Lisa Rosendahl (Leadership, Growth, & Human Resources).

This week, I am excited to be sharing information on a HR blogger who’s work I love to read, who is fun to collaborate with, and who is always one of the first people I talk tweet with early on weekend mornings!  Many know him only as Victorio M or the Creative Chaos Consultant.  He is a HR pro in the retail industry and he brings a completely new spin to looking at HR issues.  He is a creative writer and someone who is very giving with his fellow bloggers.  The HR blogging community is better because he is part of it.  If you’re not following him on Twitter, you can find him as @Victorio_M.

With that, I give you……Victorio!

What time do you start your day?  Are you a morning person or more of a late-nighter?  I wake up at 5 AM (yes, I did say that) and get to the office between 7:00 and 7:30 am. I prefer early mornings to late nights, work-wise.

It’s time to head to work, how do you get there (car, subway, bike)?  I’m guessing because you live in New York it’s not by car.  Until someone makes teleporters (or I have more money than some small countries to afford parking in Manhattan) I’ll take public transportation. Besides, it’s my secret weapon-my commute is long enough for studying. It’s what helped me get my SPHR this past December.

What is one thing you have to do every day to start your day right?  Coffee!

You work in Human Resources in the retail industry?  How do you provide HR greatness there?  HR is there to support the business, so I work to make things easy for those in the field. Have you ever worked in a retail store? It’s hard; these guys should have gotten a stimulus package, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve worked in that environment for a lot of years so I understand.

Simple really is better when dealing with a diverse workforce. Clear communication is probably the biggest challenge, so I work to provide effective methods of transmitting critical information to those that need it. Also, I work behind the scenes to reduce or eliminate processes from the field’s workload. Something as simple as updating a form or creating a better report can make a difference in terms of time and energy saved. We want everyone to be focused on the customer. 

As the Creative Chaos Consultant, you sound like you embrace change.  How do you think HR is changing and what are some key areas HR as a field should really focus on in the next 3- 5 years?  I’m still pretty new to HR so I’m only going to make an educated guess. HR is going to be a profession dominated by two groups. The bigger one will be composed of administrators, while the smaller (and more lucrative) group will be composed of those that master the art of persuasion and innovation-how to organize and motivate people to accomplish critical organizational goals. So if you want to make money you’ll either control the first group (e.g., as a provider of outsourcing services) or you’ll go into HR consulting or freelancing. Generalists like me are becoming dinosaurs.

Answer the question “If I hadn’t ended up in HR, I’d be ____________”.  Probably still working in the stores. I’m only 4 years removed from working in that environment. Retail is what I know and love.

What is your favorite HR and non-HR reading?  I have about a dozen HR blogs on my Google Reader and it’s getting to the point I can’t read them all. They’re too prolific and I’m too busy! As for non-HR stuff, I’m a comic book/speculative fiction geek. Some recent books I’ve read include Gentlemen of the Road (by Michael Chabon), Wikinomics (Don Tapscott/Anthony D. Williams), and Cerebus (Dave Sim). 

It’s lunchtime.  What type of food are you going after?  My wife’s an excellent cook so more often than not I’m eating great home cooking! The other benefit to bringing my own food (aside from saving $$) is that it frees up my time to do other things, such as meeting up with other HR pros. Once you’re able to line up your schedules, it’s as simple as finding a Starbucks that’s convenient. So far I’ve done this with Jessica Lee (not Starbucks, but close), Matt Cholerton, Lisa Macabu, and others.

 Afternoon slump?  What do you do to re-energize during the workday?  Coffee!

It’s quitting time.  What is your life like after your day job?  I go home and immerse myself into my family life-wife, two kids, and a cat. The hour or two leading up to my kid’s bedtime is more exhausting than work, if you can imagine. I want to be a good parent, so I’m running around trying to do 20 different things-bath, teeth, dishes, homework help-and not fall asleep on the couch while watching TV. I fail at that last task more often than not. 

What got you into blogging and how do you find time to work that into your day?  How do you come up with your ideas for posts?  Like a lot of bloggers I thought I had something to say beyond the comments I was leaving on other people’s sites. My perception changed also, in that I used to believe that blogs were narcissistic. I still feel that way about most of them but I see the value of that mind-set if it’s combined with a strong desire to deliver something valuable to your readers.

 As far as time and ideas, I secretly have this genetically engineered chimp that does the blogging for me. I just do the quality control. Seriously? I take a lot of notes and when one of them resonates with me I’ll develop it further until a blog post is born. Also, I put some pressure on myself to deliver fresh content so part of my brain is constantly thinking in ‘blog’ mode. However, the biggest source of ideas are other HR pros. I love to learn from them and when they agree to collaborate with me it just continues to keep me excited about what I do!

Bonus Question:  What is the best piece of HR or business advice you’ve received?  I haven’t gotten it yet. I’m not a big believer in that ’1 big moment’ where you obtain a certain clarity and things magically get better. I’ve had “Ah-ha!” moments, but I notice that the world still continues to revolve after, so just get back to living. I’ve been inspired by, and continue to be inspired by, so many people that I can’t distill it to a single incident. The good, bad, and ugly lessons of retail, HR, and life has been the greatest teacher for me, and I’m still learning. 

Thank you to Victorio for sharing with us all.  If you would like to be highlighted, or if you would like to recommend someone you’d like to learn more about, leave a comment, DM me at http://twitter.com/trishmcfarlane, or email me at trisham89@hotmail.com.