HR Star: Matthew Stollak

Call him the professor if you like but don’t say he’s not in HR. Matthew Stollak has been one of the more interesting finds as I’ve talked to HR pros in this series. Although he isn’t directly in HR, he is molding the future of the profession by teaching HR to students for more than a decade.

On top of that, he has also been incredibly active on social media and that’s what brought him to my attention initially. But a love for basketball and a passion for HR put him on my radar for good and his unique perspective on the world of HR (driven by academics, students and a network deep with HR relationships) is what continues to intrigue me.

How he entered the HR realm

It all started at James Madison College within Michigan State University where he pursued degrees in economics and urban policy. While getting his masters, he had an encounter with an HR class and he decided he wanted to move in that direction. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois in Human Resource Management. So that’s Dr. Stollak to all of you!

Like many professors early in their career, Stollak hopped around to several locations (Ohio and Mississippi) before settling on the cold winter hinterlands of Wisconsin. In a suburb of Green Bay, he’s an assistant professor at St. Norbert College where he has been since 2002.

Studies in HR and organizational theory

One of the great things about having someone in the academic realm so engaged with the HR community is the ability for him to research concepts that a traditional HR person simply has no time to work on. One of the more interesting studies he is beginning is whether social media policies have an impact on college recruiting. There is more anecdotal stories out there than actual studies so he is going to examine whether it is truly having the impact that many generational experts think.

Another thing he is studying is combining organizational theories behind losing key employees and college basketball assistant coaches. As he says, “Most studies of top management teams focus on what happens when the CEO leaves, or there is wholesale change, but there is little work being conducted on what happens when key top management players leave, while the CEO remains intact.” He will be focusing on how the assistant coach changes and how the team changes when coming into an established system and head coach.

It may be sports analogies gone academic but I’m strangely excited to see what impact an assistant coach really has on a team.

WISHRM and Social Media

Stollak has also been involved the student chapter at his college since he began there in 2002. His student chapter won the national HR games for college students in 2003 (his first year as adviser) and he has gone on to win the 2007 national adviser of the year. “I enjoy helping students learn and realize their own passion for a career they wish to pursue, particularly when it is an interst in HR,” said Stollak.

He has also been involved in the Wisconsin State SHRM Council. He has held a variety of positions in the organization (including now as District Director) and has pushed the organization to adopt social media more formally and adopting a social media director for the state council. We’ve seen state (and even some larger local councils) take this approach and it is slowly coming along. I hope to see more of this from other state councils as a precedent is set and results are seen.

Last (but certainly not least), he has a blog called True Faith HR that decidedly matches his thoughtfulness, wit and a love of sports and HR. You can also catch him on Twitter as @akaBruno where you can feel free to razz him about anything Michigan State basketball (off to a slow start as usual) or his utter lack of smell (Mmmm, freshly baked cookies).

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