Membership Director - News & Articles
A New Year…Your SHRM Membership Can Help You Reach Your Goals
Happy New Year! This is the time when many of us spend some time reflecting on the past and looking ahead to the New Year. You may have even made some New Year’s resolutions.
What are your resolutions as they relate to your personal professional growth and development? Are you the person, the professional, the manager, or the executive you want to be?
In Your Road Map for Success, John Maxwell shares 10 principles for improving your personal growth: 1) choose a life of growth, 2) start growing today, 3) be teachable, 4) focus on self-development, not self-fulfillment, 5) never stay satisfied with current accomplishments, 6) be a continual learner, 7) concentrate on a few major themes, 8.) develop a plan for growth, 9) pay the price, 10) find a way to apply what you learn (Maxwell, 2002).
If you have committed yourself to a life of growth, personally and professionally, your membership in SHRM can be a wonderful resource! The purpose of SHRM affiliated chapters is to provide a local forum for your personal and professional development; provide an opportunity to develop your leadership, managerial, public speaking and group decision-making skills; provide a local networking arena; and to provide a focus for legislative attention to local, state, and national human resource management issues.
Here are some of the specific ways your local chapter membership can help you reach your personal and professional goals:
- Access to HR professionals and companies in your community. This will create a network for you to tap into when gathering information on how other local organizations handle various human resource situations, procedures, policies, etc.
- Local professional development opportunities to improve your HR competencies and advance yourself professionally.
- Up-to-date information on pending federal and state legislation that may impact your company’s operations.
- Shared knowledge from HR generalists and specialists who provide information that might otherwise be difficult and/or expensive to obtain.
- Relationships and contacts with other local companies.
- Exchange of successful practices to make your organization more efficient, increase employee commitment, and help line managers’ carry out business strategy.
- Detailed and updated information on state and local labor market conditions and issues.
- The opportunity to obtain PHR/SPHR/GPHR recertification credits for attending chapter programming that qualifies for HR Certification Institute credits.
- Leadership skills development opportunities. Volunteer leadership roles are available in your local chapter or with the State Council.
Have you taken advantage of all the ways your SHRM membership can help you meet your goals? If you haven’t checked out your local chapter’s upcoming programs for 2011, you can find your local chapter here
/Chapters/LocalChapters.aspx.
Are you looking to gain current information on what’s going on in our State Legislature? Mark your calendars to attend one of our upcoming WI SHRM State Legislative Conferences. For more information go to
/Conferences/StateLegislativeConferences.aspx
In addition to the educational programs, think of the wealth of knowledge you can gain from your fellow members! One of my most important lessons learned is that learning from others who have “been there” and “done that” provides shortcuts. How many of us have learned from others and saved a lot of wasted time and helped us avoid obstacles we might otherwise encounter? Your SHRM membership offers you a connection to other local HR professionals who are more than willing to share their experiences and knowledge. Use your membership as a way to develop new contacts and stronger relationships with your fellow HR professionals.
Personal professional growth and development is all about you taking the initiative to improve yourself as a leader. You’ve already made the decision to be a SHRM member. Make 2011 the year you maximize your SHRM membership to help you reach your goals!
Happy New Year!
Sue Estes, WI SHRM State Council, Membership Director
References:
Maxwell, J. (2002). Your road map for success. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.