Got it? Okay good.

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This is a pretty silly post title, right?

Especially if I want people to read my post and become regular readers. Getting a discount code is purely transactional. I wouldn’t get a single reader if that’s all there was here. And there is a pretty good lesson about it that is relevant to HR technology space.

Technology only works well when it is done in conjunction with your overall strategy.

People familiar with blogging and basic SEO know why I picked this post title. As far as I can tell, I’ll be the only page on the internet with a page title and h1 tag that specifically says “HR Technology Discount Code”. That’s search engine gold, baby. Add in Las Vegas and the year in the first line of text (along with the date of the post) and you’re pretty well covered. In the next few days, I expect to see a steady stream of traffic flowing in…

And leaving just as quick.

Head and hand moving in concert

My goal isn’t to get people to come to my blog to then just simply leave though. My goal is to attract long-term readers, get them to read through more of my material and connect in some way (subscribing, following on Twitter, etc…). A post title like this doesn’t encourage any of that.

I’ll get great technical results, sure. In fact, this post went about as perfectly as it could. But it didn’t align with my overall strategy for my blog so it could be considered a major failure.

One of the things they’ll talk about in Las Vegas is the importance of making your technology choices in concert with your strategy. In sessions, you’ll often hear horror stories of attendees going out with RFP’s that are a hundred times more complicated than they need to be (or a hundred times less complicated, though that seems more rare). All because they were sold on technological capabilities before they considered their core strategic necessities first. There are many people there that will be trying to fix past technological pains and you don’t want that to be the legacy you leave.

As much as I think the HR tech show is for the geeks of our industry, it can be just as helpful to those guys and gals in more traditional HR leadership roles telling those geeks what they need. It’s easy to become enamored by the shiny objects known as HCM software (especially when you’re running a piece of software on a server in the basement with a decade’s worth of dust on the cabinet).

If you don’t figure out your strategy, you could end up like me: running a post title that seems like a good idea (and is technically sound) but totally doesn’t fit the profile nor the goal of this blog. Only, I’m guessing your boss probably takes it a lot harder than the boss of my blog when you screw up like that.

Here was my takeaway from the show: Having an effective HR function has very, very little to do with the technology you have.

Seems like a strange message to get from a conference focused on HR technology and that’s got to be a little scary to vendors out there that sell themselves as the end all be all to their current and potential clients. But let’s back this up a bit to get some perspective on it:

1. Technology will not replace leadership – Of course, nobody explicitly sells their product this way but many vendors sell something that may replace parts of leadership or automate processes of leadership. Now if you have solid leadership, can automating processes improve reach and effectiveness? Sure. But you have to start with leadership.
2. Don’t put the cart before the horse – Don’t build your programs and processes around software, select your software based on your programs and processes. The biggest mistake is people seeing a problem and throwing technology at it without thinking about their culture, history and current process issues.
3. Execution is all that matters – We can talk about bells and whistles on products all day but the biggest thing most vendors sweat is implementation and execution. The software may be great but if employees and administrators don’t use it, you’ve already lost the audience.

And guess what? That last point is why HR has so much more impact on HR technology than the HR software providers. Not saying that there aren’t some bad products out there (there are, believe me) but that they aren’t the reason why HR is ineffective. Just like social networking isn’t the end of the world. Nor is HR process outsourcing.

I’ve got another post early next week but I wanted to thank Bill Kutik and the team over at HR Executive Magazine for allowing me to show up at the last minute.

That means that next week will have some fun conference updates. Maybe you’ll even see some video since the Fistful of Talent crew is going to be there. I am sincerely looking forward to grabbing some sessions, talking with vendors and meeting up with some of the best in the industry. And you’ll be able to follow all of the action here and on Twitter. Boom!

If you are going to be there, I’d love to meet you live and in person. Just hit me in the comments, contact page or on Twitter. Heck, if you’re in the Chicagoland area but not attending and want to get together for a drink or maybe a whole meal of food, hit me up too.

I have the day off today but it certainly doesn’t feel that way. I am way behind on e-mails, I have been sick since I got back from New Orleans and now my wife is sick. I’ve had a lot of time to think about my conference experience, why I ended up going and why I might do it again.

The main reason I went was to speak at the conference on a panel about HR blogging. Everybody has asked me how it went. I always tell people that it went great but that I feared we spoke to an audience that already had an understanding (or at least curiosity) about using blogging and social media as tools. I’d really like to explore how to reach out to people who aren’t using these tools. It is my hope that future sessions of this nature will be given a better timeslot (the last session of the conference is pretty brutal). I thought the idea of live broadcasting over the internet was outstanding though. Here’s another trend I hope SHRM embraces as well.

I came into the panel with three points I wanted to emphasize

1. Anyone can blog – It is a skill like writing a newsletter or a memo or learning a new software program.
2. Blogs can make you smarter – I’ve learned more from blogging than what I’ve given back.
3. Your blog isn’t part of the press – Even though it isn’t, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a wealth of information to be gained.

The conference experience was great if not a whirlwind. I met up with people I had only known through long lines of communication (including our entire HR blogging panel) and was introduced to hundreds of new people that I didn’t know beforehand. Kris Dunn hit upon something in his post that explains why my conference experience may be different than other’s: I connected with my niche. I connected with fellow bloggers and social media interested people in our space. I connected with companies who are doing cool things in this space. Outside of that, my conversations with other HR professionals were mostly along the typical networking paths.

SHRM is a huge organization. If I had come by myself without an established group or niche to connect with, I would have been disappointed with my experience. The enormity of the conference coupled with many of the sessions being repeats of content I’ve received through other local events would have made it hard for me to sell it to my employer.

Mark Stelzner’s idea about appealing to the stratification of HR professionals in their current role (generalists, managers, VPs, etc…) is a good start. I think SHRM also talked about different tracks to take depending on your skill level. Neither one of them matters if SHRM doesn’t help encourage some community built around these niche areas in their membership. Maybe SHRM Connect (SHRM members only) helps. I don’t know.

What I do know is that SHRM members should have hope about the organization moving forward. SHRM COO China Miner Gorman has shown she has what it takes to lead the organization forward if it is willing. SHRM’s Public Affairs staff treated bloggers as well as any of the traditional press. I honestly don’t have a single negative thing to say about the execution of the conference or the SHRM staff I worked with.

Will I go next year? I hope so. San Diego is my second favorite west coast city and is a quick two and a half hour direct flight down there with no time zone change. I am hoping we can get another chance to talk about blogging or social media to SHRM members. More importantly, I hope to meet up with my HR niche and continue to work on advancing HR.

In conclusion, my feelings about raging against SHRM haven’t changed thanks to the conference. I saw people that, given the same opportunities as everyone else, went hunting for swag instead of making connections or going to sessions. Being a rockstar in HR has nothing to do with SHRM and everything to do with how you operate.

I spoke in the morning with Silkroad about their talent management suite and what they are seeing from their client companies. I was familiar with their Red Carpet on-boarding software but didn’t know much about it either. The most exciting part (to me at least) is that they are launching a blog soon. My advice? Keep it real and keep it focused on delivering great content.

Jennifer McClure (Cincy Recruiter) told me that her post about her post about executive presence just blew up. It was picked up by Guy Kawasaki and retweeted everywhere. Great to see the recognition for all of the great content she puts out.

After my meeting, I headed over to a session about effective planning put together by blogging buddy Sharlyn Lauby of HR Bartender. I loved the presentation but people said I looked grumpy. Hey, I loved the session and the message. Thoughtful planning cures a lot of organizational woes. Great video in the presentation too.

After that, both Sharlyn and myself went to lunch with my good friends and sponsors Halogen Software. Great conversations especially between a practitioner, vendor and consultant about performance management (surprise!). Honestly, this is one conversation I walked away with a different point of view than the one before. Call my wife, she won’t believe it.

I touched base with the Bureau of Labor Statistics because they reached out to me. I was honestly shocked they would contact a blogger to talk to about their new programs. They were really fantastic though and talked about some resources that HR professionals can use to get started talking about compensation and benefits. All of this, of course, free of charge. Glad to see them make the effort.

Lastly, I talked with Benefitfocus to talk about how their benefits software helps companies improve their overall benefits comprehension and enrollment levels. They actually had a customer that was sort of a walking testimonial which I thought was a different marketing tactic for sure.

I had an opportunity to meet up with Judy Clark from HR Answers in Portland which was just fantastic. I am not joking when I say we spent an hour and a half talking and we hadn’t met in person before today. One of the best conversations I had at the conference and that’s not a joke. We’ll be getting her set up blogging but she is already on Twitter and is a great example of a leader in HR who really and truly gets it.

We had the big tweet up Tuesday night too and I think most people who RSVP’d ended up coming for most of it. Thanks so much to Austin from WorkNOLA and Franny Oxford for organizing it and the sponsors for their help with the food. Just a couple quick thoughts about this event:

• Turnout was great and we even had some of the SHRM exec Twitterers in our midst. Next year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the numbers triple if we continue to adopt technology at this pace.
• I love that Gary Rubin (SHRM CPO) shared with Laurie and I that he had such passion for William Shatner’s “music.” Interesting facts that you share become easy ways for people to remember you. And honestly, I think Shatner is brilliant too.
• Please take an accurate photo of yourself for your icon. It helped people spot me very easily (I am easy to spot and sort of loud so that may have helped). I blanked on a couple people tonight because I had a hard time associating their Twitter icon with them.

After the tweetup, Laurie and I were going to go out to dinner with Mary Ellen Slayter from SmartBrief Workforce. This turned into a huge group of 14 people having a loud, fun time at Broussard’s in the French Quarter. It ended with Michael Long playing guitar. You know we like to party.

Tuesday was the last of my formal meetings and Kris Dunn asked me if I would schedule that way again if I had the choice. I told him Monday was too much but that I loved the way Tuesday worked out. I thought it was important to maximize my opportunities at SHRM.

My presentation tomorrow will be live streamed on YourHRGuy.com today starting at around 11:30am CENTRAL time zone. Stay tuned!

What is next for the resume?

Is there going to be a new form of resume? Is it going to be the same for all eternity?  Something in between.  Here is the reason I ask this question.

As skills in a workforce goes up, it is going to be harder to quantify all of the skills required to complete in the global economy as an employee.  When you consider a mature employee with 20 years of experience in all sorts of areas, do we simply live with the prospect of leaving this guy out of consideration or do we get a resume that is 20 pages long or is it … something else.

In our interconnected world, someone who is far more brilliant is going to come up with a way to better quantify our experience and to give reliability and meaning to that. Here are my guesses as to what it is not going to be:

1. A resume or any permutation of such as we know it
2. Blogs
3. LinkedIn or other social networking sites
4. CD/Web based powerpoint or flash presentations

I can be convinced otherwise though.  Feel free to link to this, comment here or post this question elsewhere but it is something I am truly curious about and am interested in.

Take for instance the supposed necessity of meeting in person at a centralized conference to essentially do three days of networking (which most HR guys would say is the most beneficial). I don’t need to meet people in person to network. Give me a phone number or an e-mail address and we’re good to go. Coming to a central location for a conference is cumbersome to a global network of HR professionals. If we have embraced telecommuting, internationalized employees and communicating creatively in a digital age, why are we still meeting in person?

Now meeting people in person may be “nice” and “useful” but sometimes it isn’t practical. It isn’t practical for me. It doesn’t seem practical for people to be in Washington D.C. right now (even if it is closeby). It isn’t practical for the HR guy in India. The in-person interview has started to fall by the wayside in some companies (especially ones where working by telephone and e-mail are more important). I’ve hired people without meeting them in person. What’s the big deal? If I ever do meet them, it won’t be out of necessity.

While HR may be trying to position themselves as “change agents” or at least “not-that-opposed-to-change-at-least-compared-to-a-couple-decades-ago,” these old school meetings with these (mostly) old school vendors who offer old school solutions (sometimes wrapped in pretty new packaging) are going to become outdated. Attendance at conferences in almost all industries has gone down. With podcasts, video-conferencing, e-mail, instant messaging, blogs and more and more experts communicating on a regular basis rather than limiting their comments to an expensive, cumbersome conference, there isn’t a compelling reason to go.  It isn’t surprising that other professionals have found better things to do with their time.