I’m growing.

After spending the last several years at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, I have made the challenging decision to take a position at another organization.  My time working at Children’s has truly been some of the most rewarding of my career.  Being able to see how my actions have an impact on the people that care for pediatric patients gave a special value to my work.   The leaders and staff I had the pleasure of working with have been extraordinary people.  They are caring beyond what any parent could hope for, they are top-notch in their knowledge and experience and they are the passion that keep St. Louis Children’s Hospital running.  I am grateful to have been a part of that.

But sometimes, even when you are in a good place and doing exciting work, opportunity knocks.   When first contacted about a position through LinkedIn, my initial thought was to refer the company to several HR professionals I knew.  However, the more I learned about the company goals and the energy and drive behind it, the more it sounded like an opportunity I wanted to consider for myself.

I am excited to say that I will be taking a position as the head of HR for an IT management consulting firm called Perficient.  Perficient is well known for the high level technology solutions they provide to their clients.  Their strong partnerships with the likes of Oracle, IBM and Microsoft coupled with the professional services firm model make this role a perfect fit for me.  I’m excited to have the opportunity to come in and create strategic solutions from a people perspective.

The next month will be full of transition for me.  It will be a time of reflection on all I’ve learned in my career  and how I can best bring that to my new team at Perficient.  I will hold my colleagues from St. Louis Children’s Hospital close in my heart as I make the move and I look forward to building new and exciting relationships at Perficient.

I’m glad I paid attention when opportunity knocked.

Any words of advice as I start on this portion of my journey?

• First, any time an organization spends time, money, and effort to recognize and thank employees for the work they do, it’s a great thing.  More and more, we’re hearing that companies are not doing this for a variety of reasons.  For me, it was inspiring not just to have an event to get the employees together, but to take time out to recognize milestone anniversaries of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, and forty years of service.  Yes, I said FORTY years of service with St. Louis Children’s Hospital.  That is amazing.  No only that, there was one employee in attendance who has been there for fifty-eight years!  How many companies can boast longevity like that?
• It was also a night to honor the Leadership Award winner and the President’s Award winner.  They used FaceBook pages to highlight each nominee and made time to talk about each person while showing their “FB page” on the screens for the audience.
• The emcee talked about the new iPhone app “Kid Care“.  Click the title to link to the app.
• The theme of the evening was “Connecting the Best” and every part of the presentation portion of the night was centered around using social media.  As you can imagine, I was thrilled.

Here are a few examples of how social media fit into the evening’s festivities.

It may be a bit challenging to see, but for those people who use Twitter, I’m sure you can see that there is a Twitter profile up on the screen at the event.  They showed us the @STLChildrens active profile on Twitter so we could see what was being talked about online.

When you’re running a 24/7 hospital, there are always going to be employees who have to work and are not able to participate in events like the Employee Recognition Gala.  So, they arranged to use Skype and gathered some of the employees together so we could talk with them live during the event.  That’s what is being projected on the screen in this picture.  It was certainly fun for the approximately 1,300 in attendance to see live.

I’m proud to work where we’re using social media.  We are on the path and I’m sure we’ll hit some bumps along the way, but at least we’re out there….CONNECTING with the Best!

Thank you and kuddos to the planning committee for the Employee Recognition Gala.  Be sure to check out the St. Louis Children’s Hospital FaceBook page and become a fan!

I’ve never written about my employer on my blog before but since this is my last day, I want to say a few words about Fleishman Hillard, Inc. For those who are not familiar with them, FH is an outstanding global PR agency.  I cannot tell you how many colleagues I have there who really are some of the smartest, nicest, most innovative people.   And, if it wasn’t for the digital courses offered there, I would have never started this blog or learned to use Twitter.  For that, I am grateful.  So, if you are in need of public relations services, please be sure to check out their site.

I would like to give special recognition to Bill Garber, Patty Slocomb, and Georgia Constantin for being the support system for me.  I learned so much from you.  I’d also like to recognize two of my “digital buddies” Brian Batchelder and Chris Frede.  We’ve learned a lot from each other on how to use the social media space.

I am excited to tell you that I will be starting a new position on Monday as a HR Business Partner at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

SLCH is one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country.  It is also the pediatric teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine, ranked the 3rd best medical school in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.    Most importantly, it is also the hospital I trust my own children’s health with.

I am thrilled to be joining one of the most innovative HR teams I know of.  Their vision of the future of HR aligns with so many of the discussions that were prevalent at HRevolution and other more recent conferences.  I am excited to use my social media skills to enhance the HR department.

So, as I prepare for my first day, here are my questions for you:

• What is the one thing I should definitely do or think of when starting a new job?
• What is the one thing I should NOT do?

I’m hoping for some serious advice as well as some fun “what not to do’s” in my comments. Thanks for your support my friends.