Jennifer McClure`

Equipping people leaders to navigate change — and design the future — with boldness and purpose.

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11 Human Resources, Recruiting & Leadership Practitioner Speaker Recommendations

I attend and speak at dozens of conferences each year – many focused on audiences of practitioners in the Human Resources, Recruiting and Leadership Development professions.

One common theme at all of these events? A paltry number of actual practitioners (i.e. professionals who work in their field at a company that they don’t own and/or isn’t a consulting firm and/or isn’t a law firm) on the agenda as Speakers.

I’m sure there are plenty of reasons for this, but my guess is that one of the biggest reasons is – practitioners are not “professional Speakers” who have the time or inclination to run the gauntlet required by many events in order to be considered for a coveted spot on the roster – let alone a keynote slot.

So what are you to do as an event organizer? Go get them. They’re out there. Many with tons of speaking experience and great information to share. Your conference or event will be better because you didn’t just seek out an author of some unknown book or a consultant or lawyer who will also agree to be a sponsor of your event. Trust me.

I’ve done the hard work for you. From the hundreds of Speakers I’ve seen and can personally recommend, I’m sharing my Top 11 below.

Steve Browne, SPHR – Executive Director of Human Resources, LaRosa’s, Inc.

Who’s That Guy? Steve is a fiercely passionate, intentional HR practitioner who wants to bring the entire HR community together. (Literally.)

Location: Ohio

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Culture, Integrating HR Throughout an Organization
  2. Using Conflict to Your Advantage
  3. Networking/Connecting with Others
  4. Innovation in HR that Sticks

Why Steve? I’ve seen Steve speak dozens of times and never miss a chance to do so. He’s often an event’s highest rated Speaker and gets invited back to speak at events year after year. He’s truly passionate about HR and is the profession’s biggest cheerleader. He’s an HR executive who tells is like it is – in a practical, fun and humorous way.

Blog: Everyday People
LinkedIn: Steve Browne, SPHR
Twitter: @sbrownehr

Broc Edwards – SVP, Director of Learning & Leadership for a fantastic community bank

Who’s That Guy? Broc is a speaker, writer, facilitator (and mountain biker) who is passionate about increasing the performance of business and humans. He seeks to play bigger, do better, and move the world.

Location: Texas

Keynote Session Topics:

  1. HR As A Competitive Advantage
  2. Next Level HR: It’s all about the User Experience
  3. Business Gets Done For, Through and By People. Period.

Why Broc? Broc is a practitioner whose sweet spot is the intersection of business and people. People are an organization’s only sustainable competitive advantage – and your audience needs to learn how to get the most out of them. Your audience also loves books by Speakers – and he’s written one – What Thinks You? A Fool’s Eye View of Human Resources.

Blog: fool (with a plan)
LinkedIn: Broc Edwards
Twitter: @brocedwards

Mary Faulkner – Director of Talent Management, ClearChoice Dental Implant Center

Who’s That Girl? Mary is a leadership & talent professional who works within organizations to help build better companies. She specializes in people and organizational development and spends her spare time thinking about self-awareness/accountability, neuroleadership, engagement, decision-making and other brainy type stuff. She’s also a random fact sponge and has a weakness for peanut butter.

Location: Colorado

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. The Disengagement Decision: How employees get there & how leaders can help them make the right decision
  2. Surviving a Matrixed Organization – A 12 Step Program
  3. The Leader’s Legacy: Understanding & controlling your impact on your company’s culture
  4. Connecting The Dots: Why HR should play the role of “connector” in an organization & how to do it
  5. Put The “Critical” Back Into Your Thinking: How HR can help business make better decisions

Why Mary? I’ve worked with Mary in the past and have also seen her present many times. She’s excellent – both in knowledge of Leadership and Talent Management, as well as the process of building an effective and engaging presentation. She will nail a seminar, training session or keynote at your event. I promise.

Blog:  Surviving Leadership: Your Survival Guide OF and FROM Leadership
LinkedIn: Mary Faulkner
Twitter: @mfaulkner43

Amybeth Hale – Platform Services Recruiter, Concur Technologies

Who’s That Girl? Amybeth has been working as a recruitment sourcing professional for over a decade and enjoys finding interesting and talented people for great opportunities. She’s got experience working with both third party recruiting firms and corporate recruiting teams at premier companies such as Microsoft, AT&T and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. Amybeth is also the former Editor of SourceCon.com, an internationally recognized recruitment sourcing publication.

Keynote/Session Topics:

Amybeth can share key insights and deep experience in all aspects of candidate sourcing, prospect contact information gathering, initial prospect outreach, Internet mining, Boolean search query creation, appropriate use of social media for sourcing/prospecting.

Why Amybeth? Sometimes your conference or event needs a meaty presentation on the how-tos. For that, you need an industry expert who’s been there, done that – and continues to find new ways of doing it. I’m a long-time Fan of Amybeth and I’ve seen her present at several conferences. She knows her stuff and cares deeply about advancing the sourcing profession and building a good partnership between sourcers and recruiters. Amybeth is truly top shelf.

Blog: Check out her posts on SourceCon and ERE.net + ResearchGoddess.com
LinkedIn: Amybeth Hale
Twitter: @researchgoddess

John Hudson, SPHR – HR Business Partner, Discovery Communications/Harpo Studios, Inc.

Who’s That Guy? John is the lucky HR Business Partner that gets to work with both Discovery Communications and Harpo Studios (and yes, he’s met Oprah many times – but he can’t tell you about it or he’ll have to kill you). He’s an HR generalist who has supported business leaders in a variety of functions including insurance, finance, legal, IT, sales and production.

Location: Illinois

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Getting Your Foot in the Door Without Putting Your Foot in Your Mouth – everything from building a digital footprint to making connections and then sealing an interview
  2. Building Credibility and Relationships To Increase HR’s Influence

Why John? John was a featured Speaker at the 2013 SHRM Student and Faculty Conference earlier this year and was also the emcee at last month’s 2013 Illinois SHRM Conference. He brings a fresh perspective and new ideas to the work of #TrenchHR, and he’s passionate about mentoring other HR professionals and business leaders.

Blog: Official Blogger for SHRM’s We Know Next blog
LinkedIn: John Hudson, SPHR
Twitter: @johnphudson

Jay Kuhns, SPHR – Vice President of Human Resources, All Children’s Hospital – A Member of Johns Hopkins Medicine

Who’s That Guy? Jay gets fired up about leadership, blogging, speaking, doing HR differently, healthcare, social media, coffee and hockey.

Location: Florida

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Taking HR Social and Not Apologizing For It
  2. HR Transformation Is A Risky Brutally Long Process That Will Change Your Life

Why Jay? Jay is changing the way HR does business by doing more than just talking about it. He’s the real deal in terms of an executive HR practitioner that your HR and business leaders want to hear from. The 2014 Louisiana SHRM Conference has already booked him as a keynote for their event next year – because, or course, they only bring in the best HR Conference keynote speakers.

Blog:  NoExcusesHR
LinkedIn: Jay Kuhns, SPHR
Twitter: @jrkuhns

Trish McFarlane – Director of Human Resources, Perficient

Who’s That Girl? Trish is a career HR business leader, having held leadership roles at Big 4, public relations, healthcare and technology consulting companies. She’s currently the head of HR for Perficient, Inc., as well as the co-founder of HRevolution – a learning and networking event for HR, marketing and social media professionals and a co-founder of the Women of HR blog community. Another “co” to add to her credentials? She co-hosts the HR Happy Hour radio show, which focuses on talent management, recruiting, HR technology, leadership, careers and more.

Location: Missouri

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. HR Thinking Creatively: How to start a business from scratch
  2. Thinking Outside the (In)Box – Trends in HR Technology
  3. How Social Tools Empower the Organization
  4. Employer Branding and Employee Engagement

Why Trish? Trish regularly presents to audiences of senior level HR and business professionals and has been sharing her experiences as an HR Leader on her blog – HR Ringleader – for several years. She’s passionate about HR practitioners becoming educated in HR technology so they can recommend better business solutions to leadership and she is one of the few who is pushing the boundaries and seeking to expand the scope of HR within business.

Blog: HR Ringleader
LinkedIn: Trish McFarlane
Twitter: @TrishMcFarlane

Neil Morrison – Group HR Director UK and International companies, Penguin Random House

Who’s That Guy? A 17-year veteran in HR, Neil is a blogger, tweeter, agent provocateur aka loudmouth, merger of companies, changer of cultures, challenger of norms.

Location: United Kingdom

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Cultural Mind Shift in an Age of Discontinuity: How to transition organizations when everything has to change, but everything has to stay the same
  2. HR: The Driver of Organisational Performance: How a systemic approach can drive success

Why Neil? Your conference or event needs someone on the agenda who can talk about HR from a global perspective and also someone who can talk about HR in a way that provokes thought, change and action. (Here’s your guy.) Neil was recently named UK HR Director of the Year 2013 and he’s passionate about company culture, change, leadership, organizational development and organizational strategy. He also likes wine and cheese, so add that to his Speaker gift basket.

Blog: Change-Effect
LinkedIn: Neil Morrison
Twitter: @NeilMorrison

Lisa Rosendahl, SPHR – Human Resources Director, a federal healthcare organization

Who’s That Girl? Lisa is an astute business leader with more than 18 years of experience in human resources. She has led and provided expertise to strategic HR operations in both public and private organizations and currently works in a prominent federal healthcare organization. Lisa is also a co-founder of the Women of HR blog community.

Location: Minnesota

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Now Is The Time: Grow Up and Lead
  2. Breaking Down The Walls Between Human Resources and Our Customers

Why Lisa? Lisa is passionate about leading teams, developing others and building the relationships necessary to consult, advise and impact decisions as a business leader and an HR professional. She’s an engaging presenter who brings a relatable and seasoned perspective and who also motivates audiences with stories of how bringing the best of who you are to any situation can make all the difference in the world.

Blog: Lisa Rosendahl – Story. Flow. Tribe.
LinkedIn: Lisa Rosendahl, SPHR
Twitter: @lisarosendahl

Lars Schmidt – Senior Director Talent Acquisition & Innovation, NPR

Who’s That Guy? Lars is a change catalyst who believes strongly in blending best practices, technology, and relationships to develop and drive talent initiatives with limited resources; leveraging innovative recruiting techniques and building proactive and sustainable global talent programs. He’s got global talent acquisition and HR experience that spans a variety of industries including technology, web, media, non-profit, eCommerce and consulting sectors.

Location: Washington, DC

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Recruiting Lessons From The Trenches: How To Develop Social Recruiting Strategies That Work
  2. Recruiting To Win: Confessions Of An HR MacGyver

Why Lars? Lars has a wealth of experience in talent acquisition and HR and I’ve heard him speak many times. His presentations are a mix of how-to, practical tips and innovation. Your audience will appreciate hearing from someone who’s actually re-imagined a recruiting function and tried things that worked/didn’t work. Learn more about some of the work of Lars and his team in this article from The Washington Post.

Blog: Amplify Talent
LinkedIn: Lars Schmidt
Twitter: @ThisIsLars

Will Staney – Director of Recruiting & Strategic Programs, SuccessFactors

Who’s That Guy? Will’s career is a culmination of combining over a decade of sales experience with his passion, education, and track record of success with corporate recruiting using new media marketing tactics. He’s the guy who’s keeping up with (and implementing) emerging social, recruiting and HR technologies to ensure that SuccessFactors is on the cutting edge.

Location: Texas

Keynote/Session Topics:

Topics: Employer Branding, Talent Acquisition Social Media Strategy, Recruiting Analytics, Social Sourcing Tactics, Career Site Strategy/Design, Recruitment Marketing/Advertising Strategy (multi-channel/online campaigns), early talent programs (college/new grad recruiting)…to name a few

Why Will? Will has solid experience and success recruiting highly sought after talent in some of the most competitive industries in the world. He’s an award winner (Workforce Management’s 2013 Game Change award and Glassdoor’s Top 10 Social Recruiters) and he’s always one of the first to try new technologies. You may have seen him – he’s the guy wearing the Google Glasses.

Blog: Find Will on the SuccessFactors blog + RecruitMedia – Social Recruitment Guide
LinkedIn: Will Staney
Twitter: @willstaney

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So there you have it. Choose one or several from the list. Make the Speaker approval process easy for them. PAY THEM. The work that they will put into making a great presentation at your event isn’t included in their day job and their time is valuable. Please demonstrate that you agree.

Oh, and I’d love to join anyone on this list on the Speaker roster at your event. 🙂

Got another great practitioner to recommend as a Speaker at human resources, recruiting and leadership development events? Leave a Comment and tell me about them!

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of people strategies, leadership development and career growth. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact Us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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ROWE: Can We Afford To Manage By Results Only?

While attending a conference earlier this year,  I had the opportunity to hear from the Founders of CultureRX – Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson – who are also the authors of “Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It” – described as a field guide for how to operate in the new world or work. During their talk, Cali and Jody shared more about why they believe that it’s not Managers that suck in today’s workplace, it’s the way that we manage people that sucks.

Ressler and Thompson came to this conclusion several years ago while working at the corporate offices of Best Buy and dealing with some of the challenges associated with Best Buy’s “flexible work environment”. Cali (a frustrated department Manager) was constantly fielding questions from her team about what they could and could not do within the confines of the flexible work schedule policy – and Jody (a Change Implementation Manager) was assigned to work with her to resolve these issues.

To overcome many of the challenges created by a system where the clock was the foundation for how work is judged (“Sally worked 60 hours last week” or “Jim worked all weekend.”), Ressler and Thompson ultimately concluded that the definition of work needs to be changed. Work is no longer a place you go, it’s something you do – and defining work as a specific place and a specific time was an industrial age idea that was no longer the reality in the workplace.

With the advent of “knowledge work”, the world of work has evolved to the point that work is no longer defined as “Time + physical presence = results”. Now, the focus should be on the results of work – not on how the work gets done. Hence the concept of ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) was born, where each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done – and Managers don’t manage people or time and place, they manage the work.

With the ROWE concept, the Managers don’t dictate the “How” of work – they focus on the “What” of work. Everyone is measured on results – not just the knowledge worker. Work is objective, not subjective. Managing people, in the sense that “we must all be present in the office in order to communicate and collaborate” is outdated. In a ROWE environment, it’s about managing work – “the deadline for the deliverable is Friday, May 10th at 2pm”. As a result, the Manager is able to go from Hall Monitor to Coach and Mentor.

For many Managers and Human Resources professionals, the concept of ROWE may conjure up thoughts of anarchy and employees running amok, but Ressler and Thompson are quick to point out that in order to make ROWE work, there must be consequences if there are no results. ROWE only works if there is both 100% accountability along with 100% autonomy. In short, “no results, no job.”

I must admit that I like the concept of ROWE and I do believe that a majority of employees, if given the opportunity, will do what it takes to get their work done within established guidelines. But there’s almost always that same old 20% that ruins it for everybody. They’re the ones who don’t play well with others and do just enough to get by. They’ll hit their results, but someone in the 80% typically has to step up and take up their slack.

I’m also not sure that the ROWE concept works in all types of environments (although Ressler and Thompson say that in their consulting experience, it does). As someone who’s worked with companies in a variety of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing and food service companies, I see some difficulty in implementing an “every person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done” philosophy.

So what do you think? Do you have experience with ROWE in your workplace? Does it work, or is this something that sounds good in theory, but not always in practice?

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of people strategies, leadership development and career growth. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact Us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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What Keeps Senior Level HR Professionals Away From Industry Conferences?

shrm13

This year, I’ll be attending my 5th SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition June 16 – 19, 2013, which will be held in the beautiful windy city of Chicago.

It’s the BIG show. Picture 10,000 – 15,000+ HR and industry professionals all gathered in one place to get their learn on, to network and to shop till they drop in the Expo Hall for free squeezy balls, pens and drawings for iPads – and maybe a new product or vendor while they’re at it.

I find the conference, the people and the content incredibly valuable each year. But if it’s such a great event, why do senior level professionals make up such a small percentage of attendees at the annual conference – or equivalent industry events?

Check out the attendee breakdown from the 2012 SHRM Annual Conference below. Only 12% of attendees were from the top of the profession. Go to a local SHRM chapter meeting and this group is even less likely to be in attendance.

I’m glad to see that HR professionals at all levels attend the conference and keep coming back year after year.

So why don’t the senior level pros consider it a “must attend” event? What’s missing for them?

I’d love to hear your feedback and thoughts in the Comments section.

Let’s talk about how we can connect with the upper levels of HR in a meaningful way!

SHRM13 Attendees

I’ll be speaking at the 2013 SHRM Annual Conference this year for the second year in a row – twice! I consider a huge honor!

If you’ll be there (register here), I’d love for you to join me!

MEGA SESSION: The Future of HR: Four Keys For Creating Competitive Advantage Through Innovative People Strategies (1.25 Strategic HRCI credits)

MEGA SESSION: Talent Shortages & Skills Gaps: Equip Your Organization For New Battlefronts In The War For Talent (1.25 General HRCI credits)

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of recruiting & human resources strategy, employment branding and leadership/career development. We offer keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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Using Social Media In HR & Recruiting [SLIDESHARE]

Since signing up for a LinkedIn account in early 2006 (member #5,852,039 here), I’ve considered myself a “Social Media Anthropologist”, because I love to study how social media affects the entire employment process – from personal branding, job search, employment branding, recruiting, human resources and employee development.

During that time, I’ve sought out and followed many of the pioneers in our industry who are leading the way and companies who are implementing “best practices” – and I’ve utilized social media to expand my network, attract and recruit talent, communicate with employees and build my personal/business brand.

In the last 8 years, I’ve had the opportunity to share what I’ve learned (and what I’m learning) with business leaders at a variety of industry and corporate events, and I often share those presentations privately with my clients via my Slideshare.net account.

Recently, I opened up several of my previous presentations for public access on Slideshare and I’d like to share one of my Using Social Media In HR & Recruiting presentations from 2012 with you here.

Since the world of social media is constantly changing, this presentation is constantly evolving and regularly updated. The latest version will be the basis for my upcoming pre-conference workshop at the 2013 Louisiana SHRM Conference in Baton Rouge on April 7, 2013. In this workshop, we’ll be digging deeper into developing a social media strategy, choosing tools, managing time and content, as well as “social” recruiting.

I’m looking forward to learning more and sharing more about how social media impacts the employment process in 2013!

Share Your Feedback:

I’d love to hear from you on the challenges you face with implementing a social media strategy in your organization. What do you want to learn more about? What’s new and exciting to you? Share with me in the comments and help me to make 2013’s presentations even better!

 

Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of recruiting & human resources strategy, employment branding and leadership/career development. We offer keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services. 

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What Do CEO’s Expect From Strategic HR Leaders?

Recently, Human Resource Executive Online (a great publication worth reading) republished a interesting checklist from Bloomberg Businessweek listing “What CEO’s Expect from CHRO’s”.

I’m kinda in love with this list, so if you’re HR, (even without the lofty title of CHRO), check it out. Ensuring that you’re focusing your time, energy and efforts on these activities is a great way to position yourself within your organization as an HR/Business Leader.

What CEO’s Expect From CHRO’s

  • Collaborating to design and communicate a Vision for the company.
  • Building a pipeline of qualified, energized people to fuel the company?s growth.
  • Selling the company to the “talent population”, in person, via traditional media and online.
  • Reinforcing a culture that emphasizes ingenuity over irrelevant, one-size-fits-all metrics.
  • Teaching all employees, starting with the CEO, to tell the truth at work.
  • Shifting the HR function away from a break/fix model to an embedded function in every business segment.
  • Installing just enough HR process to meet the company’s regulatory compliance needs but not so much that people are stymied or infantilized.
  • Building a culture of collaboration that fuels every important program at the company.
  • Asking team members every day for input on business activities, their own careers, and life in general — not via a sterile, once-a-year employee engagement survey.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
September 19, 2012

What would you add to this list?

Want to learn more about making the leap from HR Leader to Business Leader? I’ll be reprising my 2012 SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition mega session at the upcoming 2012 Nonprofit HR Conference on October 8th in DC and at the 2013 SHRM-Atlanta HR Conference April 29 – 30, 2013. Check out more upcoming events on my Speaking & Conference Schedule HERE!

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