Since joining the IHRIM Board of Directors, I’ve given a lot of thought to how we better engage our members through the various educational channels we offer.
I firmly believe that IHRIM as a membership organization, and an advocate for the HRIT profession, will be strengthened if we can create an active, collaborative, supportive, and vocal group of members who see value in the education and networking that IHRIM was founded to deliver. The challenge, as you know, is that we all face so many competing demands on our time that it isn’t always possible to participate in IHRIM activities, even though we might want to.
That said, a long-term goal of mine is to have every single IHRIM member contribute just one hour of their time to an IHRIM event, volunteer activity, or collaborative endeavor – speaking on a webinar, helping to organize a meeting, participating in research, attending a community meeting, or just answering a peers’ question on an issue related to HR technology. I’ll use the phrase “one-to-many” to describe it – donate one hour of your time in 2018 to help the IHRIM membership at-large achieve a positive outcome. This is still a work-in-progress, so I’d appreciate your ideas on what we can do to encourage contributions from all of our members.
A more realistic goal, one that I have already begun work towards, is to identify the percent of members that attend at least one IHRIM event in 2018. Since the beginning of January, I’ve been tracking which IHRIM members have attended any of the 6 virtual events – webinars and HRIP courses – we have so far delivered. My intention is not to look at individual data per se (although I would like to thank those of you who have already attended at least 3 events!) but to measure progress towards a target of having 70% of our members attend at least one educational offering in 2018. It’s a stretch, but there is no reason why we shouldn’t encourage as many of you as possible to listen to a webinar on GPDR, or attend the Talent event in Cleveland, or to make sure that your HRIP certification remains current. After all, you are spending your hard-earned dollars on IHRIM and we want you to get as big of a return as possible – participating in our events makes that a real possibility.
We’ve got a robust set of education opportunities on the horizon, from the partnership with the University of Chicago to the forthcoming “Talent” and “Data” events scheduled for July and November, respectively. Please read more about these and make sure that you sign up as registration becomes available.
I will report back on progress towards the 70 percent goal at the end of March. In the meantime, feel free to contact me at mcollins@ihrim.org with feedback or questions.
Mick Collins
IHRIM Board of Directors
Vice Chair
