The Power of Networking –

CVSHRM Opportunities for Connecting with Colleagues

Rick Schemm, HP&A Solutions

One of the best ways to generate new ideas or perspectives, request insight or advice, share experience, tap the wealth of knowledge of others, or gain candid feedback is to engage in dialogue and exchange with colleagues. We sometimes ourselves having new projects, issues, or challenges and trying to gather our resources, while it turns out that another HR Professional in our area faced the same challenges and can give great advice on how to proceed.

CVSHRM has established several different Networking groups that can help you in your times of need. These groups are made up of between 8 and 15 individuals who do extensive work in the topic area of the group. They come together about once every 6-8 weeks to share their experiences and ask questions from one another, and then between the meetings they share documents, advice, and answers to questions from a member of the group.

There’s no cost to participate in a Networking Group – it’s an added value of your membership in CVSHRM! If a part of your work responsibilities, tasks, and projects fall within the topic area, you can join in the conversation.

Here are the current groups that are up and running. If you have an interest in participating in one, please contact the Coordinator listed next to the Group’s name.

 Employee Benefits Lonna Brantner [email protected]

 Compensation Administration Denise McMahon [email protected]

 Payroll Administration Rick Schemm [email protected]

 Recruitment and Selection Kathy Facklam [email protected]

 Menomonee Area HR Group Deb Schultz [email protected]

 Sole Practitioner Group Shelly Pryse [email protected]

In addition, two Groups serve HR professionals based on the size of the organization and its impact on the role of the HR Executive.

 Sole Practitioners Shelly Pryse [email protected]

o Designed for smaller organizations (usually about 120 employees or fewer) where there is just one HR Professional on staff, perhaps accompanied by an administrative assistant  Strategic HR Deb Schultz [email protected]

o Designed for large organizations with large HR departments where the participant in the Networking Group is an Executive with the organization and serves on the Leadership Team

And for HR professionals who work or live in Menomonie, we’ve formed a Networking Group that meets in Menomonie and discusses the full range of HR issues (i.e., not specific to any one area of HR). If you’re interested in joining this group, contact Deb Schutlz at [email protected]

We are currently looking into the idea of creating a new Networking Group to discuss issues that come up in unionized organizations. This would be called the Labor Relations Networking Group. If you have an interest in being a part of this new group, contact Jamie Gower at [email protected].

Come and join one or more of CVSHRM’s Networking Groups and get the help and support you need to be successful.

Moving forward, we expect the launch of these additional groups:

 For Sole Practitioners (a 1-or 2 person HR Department) – we have facilitators already identified and are expected to begin before year-end. Professionals who work in these areas will be engaging in questions and discussions focused on the unique situations of working in small organization, working for a sole or family owner, finding resources for those one-time projects that don’t usually come up, and ideas on how to balance the workload and use technology in a small department.

 For Operational or Functional groups such as Compensation, Payroll, and Recruitment and Selection – these will be similar in design to the current Employee Benefits discussion group that has been up and running for some time. Professionals who work in these areas will be engaging in questions and discussions to learn from each other some best practices, lessons learned, and available resources for projects they are engaged in at their workplace.

These exchanges are intended to be small groups who meet with regularity as defined by the group, with no costs of participating (unless the group determines there needs to be some to cover expenses of running the group). More importantly, they are expected to offer stimulating dialogue and an opportunity to directly connect with other CVSHRM members in a worthwhile way! In addition, a natural extension of this concept is to align volunteer mentoring relationships intended to assist with the development and learning needs of others through expanded discussions and additional insight aimed at providing a broader and deeper understanding of an HR discipline, process, or system than work responsibilities normally allow or involve. The intent could also include focus on the development of skills for strong leadership. The possibilities are rich; stay tuned!

Please feel free to approach either of us with your questions or interest in participating in future groups, in seeking a mentor and/or in offering to share your expertise with others.

We are very excited to bring these 3 new forms of Discussion Groups to you as an added value of being a CVSHRM member. Would you like to be a part of one of them? If you meet the definition of the Strategic HR Networking Group and are interested in participating, please contact Deb Schultz at [email protected].

If your position and/or your interests are more aligned with the new Sole Practitioner Discussion Group or one of the “topic-specific” Operational Discussion Groups, please contact Yvonne Williams at [email protected]