Student conference not just
for aspiring HR professionals
About 30 percent of attendees are
from other disciplines. Many see
networking opportunities.
By
Janet Wiscombe
 or many of this year's 200 participants at
SHRM's Annual Student Conference in
San Diego, the subject of human resources
takes a back seat to talk of more immediate experiences.
And for Casey Hunsucker, a senior
in management and marketing at Indiana Institute
of Technology, that means airplanes.
To get to San Diego from Indianapolis, Hunsucker
flew on an airplane for the first time in
his life.
"In the movies, planes are bigger," notes the
21-year-old budding entrepreneur. "I also saw
the ocean for the first time. I consider this a
productive vacation."
As in past years, Indiana Tech has one of the
largest contingents of college students at
SHRM. But of the 20 attendees, many aren't
planning careers in human resources. Chuck
Salvwetti, SHRM's manager of student programs,
estimates that about 30 percent of the
students who come to the convention are from
other disciplines, including engineering and
computer science.
"It's a little discouraging," Salvwetti says. "We
want them to be lifelong partners with SHRM."
Salvwetti says he has found in recent years
that students are a lot more savvy about their
careers. "They understand the importance of internships
and meeting people. Our surveys
show that they overwhelmingly say they want
more mentoring opportunities, more intern information.
We don't do job placement per se,
but we certainly are ramping up our efforts in
the area of jobs."
SHRM's student program was created in
1965 to promote interaction between human
resource management students and practitioners.
Since the first chapter was chartered nearly
40 years ago, the program has experienced explosive
growth. It now includes more than 430
affiliated student chapters and nearly 10,000
student members.
Though there are some students who are old
enough to have grown children of their own,
they tend to be college-age juniors and seniors
at schools ranging from places like Indiana
Tech, with a student body of 3,000, to large
state universities such as California State University,
Stanislaus, the chapter that is hosting
this year's student conference.
Stanislaus, located south of Modesto in California's
Central Valley, was asked to be the
main organizer because there are no SHRM
student chapters in San Diego and few in the
state, says Wendy Howay, SHRM chapter president
at Stanislaus.
Howay is beginning a new job in the HR department
at her college. She says the student
sessions on mentoring, networking, diversity
and workplace change are very helpful in getting
a broad sense of the profession.
"Students are here to help develop their
chapters—and themselves," Howay says. "HR
is a growing profession. It is one of the most important
areas in business."
Some of the participants at the student conference
are earning college credits for attending.
But for most, the real benefits aren't quite
as easy to define, says Jeffrey Walls, a student
adviser at Indiana Tech who has been bringing
students to SHRM for 12 years.
"We were at a karaoke bar in Washington,
D.C., at a SHRM conference in 1993 and one
of our students—who had a job at GM putting
lug nuts on cars—met someone in HR at GM
and was offered a job in management.
"Our students are already getting ready for
the conference next year in Washington,
D.C.," he says. "SHRM is a phenomenal experience."
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SHRM positioning itself
for international expansion
The association's annual report
reveals efforts to make human
resources a more strategic player.
By
Jonathan Pont
 rowth in global business will shape
human resources more than anything else
in the coming decade, according to comments
by SHRM president and CEO Sue Meisinger
on Sunday afternoon. But among the business
in which SHRM's members work, she says the
international component is still "low on their
list of priorities."
For SHRM, the growth in overseas business
led in 2004 to the establishment of an internationalization
strategy. Elements of that strategy
are getting special attention this year, rising to
the top of the list of SHRM's continuing global
efforts for its nearly 200,000 members.
In February, the organization released results
from a survey it conducted in 23 countries and
11 languages. And last year, a SHRM affiliate
launched a new certification intended especially
for a global audience. Initial reports bode well
for it: The number of test-takers exceeded expectations
by 50 percent, according to the annual
report. This year, SHRM plans to open offices
in India and China and establish HR
executive exchange missions in those countries.
And on the radio, SHRM will lend its name to a
new program in which CEOs discuss the importance
of human capital issues.
But Meisinger says that despite the speed
with which many companies intend to expand
global operations, HR is still left out of the loop
until the last minute. "An HR manager might
get a call on a Friday night from a CEO about a
new office in Belgium, asking, ‘What do you
know about Brussels?'"
Sunday also marked the official release of the
SHRM annual report for 2004. The nearly 50-
page document shows the organization implementing
a host of new programs over the past
year to better align it with the changing nature
of the practice. And while globalization is a major
theme, the HR effort to become a more
strategic partner runs through much of what
SHRM is doing to remain relevant in a changing
environment.
Those efforts include structural
alignment: SHRM has streamlined
its presence for its members, establishing
seven regional councils. But
the primary goal is education of its
membership. One initiative for 2005
is studying the feasibility of establishing
generally accepted HR standards
and practices.
SHRM also released annual surveys
that detail its research in areas
of benefits, the future of the U.S. labor
pool and employee satisfaction.
What makes employees happy are
five things: benefits, pay, work/life
balance, job security and feeling safe
in the workplace.
But the top five aspects for HR
professionals are the relationship
with an immediate supervisor, management
recognition of employee job
performance, compensation, benefits
and communication between
employees and senior management.
The disconnect, says SHRM
chief knowledge officer Deb Cohen,
is how HR and employees define
job satisfaction. "If you are an
HR professional, you think strategically
about how to make everything
work," she says. "You aren't
necessarily in the head of the employee."
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