SHRM's Final Decision

I'm pasting below a series of emails and some notes so you can see what happened. It is very disappointing but I hope that when SHRM has new leadership they will consider that their products are in conflict with the livelihoods of some of their members.

-----
10/30/07 - I received a SHRM mailing advertising their program and I wrote to Martin:

"It was my understanding that I would see an email from you not only to me but to all the people who wrote to you.

When will we see your response?"

Martin responded that day:

"Thanks again for talking to Bob and myself yesterday. I feel our discussion was yet another important step in helping you understand SHRM's perspective and focus on our member's needs and our philosophy in building our programs and services for our membership in aggregate. We appreciate your perspective and feel we understand your point of view very well at this point in time.

I will put something out to you and your colleagues tomorrow to address your collective concerns. I would certainly hope that our response would address any lingering questions that you and your colleagues would have."

-------

Well, I still don't understand SHRM's decision and replied:

"It grieves me to say that I do not understand SHRM's perspective, that this program is a paid service competing with your members, that it does not match SHRM's mission and is in fact a "conflict of interest" with your own members. That's shocking considering that conflicts of interests are addressed in the ethical guidelines, so I know SHRM has given some thought to ethics at one point.

I am looking for your response to those who contacted you about this matter and they have been waiting for over two months. Each person who takes the time and energy to write to you represents more people who will not write letters. I know that some of the people who wrote are SHRM members and others had been considering joining."

--------

10/31 Martin wrote:

"Here is a quick update marcia. I have completed a response for your colleagues. I need to run this by a few people internally before I send it out."

--------

11/7 Martin wrote to the people who had contacted him and copied me:

"I have been in contact with Marcia Stein in response to her posting to you and a number of your colleagues recently. I listened to Marcia’s commentary and perspective and have made multiple efforts to help Marcia understand SHRM’s mission, both via telephone and email correspondence. I have heard from about nine people in your group, and respectfully submit a response that aggregates all of those perspectives. I am including a copy of Marcia’s original posting in the post script as a refresher for you to view.

I certainly hope that my response will suffice as an explanation and I would respectfully ask that you all not email me directly, as it is virtually impossible for me to respond to everyone individually. I have put forth my best effort in working with Marcia and feel I have made SHRM’s perspective as clear as possible for everyone. What follows below is that perspective. I appreciate your attention to this and wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors.

We at SHRM take our member concerns seriously and always look to satisfy as many of our 225,000 members as we possibly can.

SHRM has been offering products and services as part of our ‘contract’ with the HR profession to Serve the Professional; essentially providing the products, services and support necessary to help HR professionals be better at their jobs. This is one pillar of our mission statement and we take it very seriously. The other pillar is to Advance the Profession, so essentially helping to build and shape the agenda for the HR profession.

Again, our success in servicing the HR professional is predicated on the fact that we have taken steps in the past decades to produce products internally or in partnership with other organizations to address the full spectrum of HR needs.

These offerings include, but are not limited to; conferences, educational seminars (diversity, total rewards, creating a balanced scorecard, etc.), certification preparation products (the SHRM Learning System, the SHRM Global Learning System), assessment products (the HR Competency Study and tools), research, benchmarking products, e-Learning, etc.

In fact, we often times jointly produce research and products with, what could be construed as, our competitors. Most recently, SHRM co published a Corporate Social Responsibility study with other global associations. We do this because we look to address global issues and look to our association partners to contribute as being experts in their various geographies. We ultimately look to put the best information out there for our membership.

While the above list is not at all exhaustive, it does represent a portion of our offerings and shows how we address the various needs of HR professionals and how we plan to stay abreast of developing needs as we monitor our membership for new product and service streams that are necessary or where the membership feels underserved.

SHRM is probably, in some way, shape or form, in many spaces that could be interpreted as being competition for other associations, commercial enterprises, and consultancies. As you can see, a number of the above listed products and services overlap with products or services that consultants teach, create, sell or resell. The same goes for a number of commercial enterprises. We factor in all of these universes as we scope products and services that we feel are market viable and try to remain as aware of ‘impact’ as possible. We have an exhaustive internal process to vet the value of a partnership or a product or service to make sure we are offering our members the best possible solution that we can. Our membership expects that.

We feel it is our duty as a full service association to address member needs as they arise and as we are able to address them. This includes both investments and the creation of products and services that have an attached revenue stream. We have been operating as such for decades and we have incorporated this into our governing instruments. We are fully compliant in our legal and ethical rights as an association to conduct our business in the way we have in the past and will continue to do so into the future. We invest our revenue stream into efforts that serve to Advance the Profession, such as CEO Exchange. We are held accountable as a responsible association to have a reserve balance in place and I welcome you all to look at our annual report to see these numbers. Please see the following link, http://www.shrm.org/annual/07ARFinal.pdf. We look for direction from our membership, in aggregate, as we scope out and ultimately produce products and services. Please bear in mind, we will continue on this path as we constantly monitor the pulse of our membership.

In closing, I would like to thank each and every one of you for your patronage and support. I truly hope that we can serve your needs in the future.

Thank you all for your attention to this perspective."

SHRM UPDATE

SHRM saga update: it took a full two months for me to talk with Martin again.

In August, Martin said that it would take some time to evaluate my comments as SHRM had taken time to make the decision to offer services and they would need time to review my objections and their objectives. I said that was fine as I would be away for all of September, but thought I would have an answer at the beginning of October.

I emailed Martin October 5, copying Bob Carr and Sue Meisinger. There was no response and I emailed him again October 15. Martin then responded:

“Thanks for your outreach … and for the outreach of your colleagues. I have received and saved all of the correspondences.

Bob and I have been working on a response and I will get something out to you by the end of next week, as I have a busy travel schedule this week. I appreciate your patience.”

I wrote to Martin on October 5: “I sympathize with your travel schedule, however we spoke and I emailed you August 22, almost two months ago, and my colleagues and I are awaiting your response.”

I wrote October 22:
“It is two months since we first spoke and I emailed you. I have not heard a decision from SHRM and am very disappointed by this lack of responsiveness. I am one of your long-term members and a big promoter of SHRM. What additional information do you need? How much time will it take before we have a decision? You have members and prospective members waiting to hear from you.”

Martin wrote October 22:
“As I had stated below (please see highlighted sentence), I am crafting a response which you will receive by the end of this week, as I had promised. Thank you again for your correspondence. If you will remember when we spoke, I had stated that it would take a couple of months before I could address your concerns. I am keeping to the agreed upon timetable.

We value all of our members, and we make sure that we address concerns and perspectives in a timely and informative manner. I appreciate your feedback and continued, long term support of SHRM.”

Bob Carr wrote on October 22:
“I am writing in response to your email and apologize that we have not gotten back to you sooner. With notable exception, the harassment prevention program that we offer to our members has been very well received. We regret it if our decision to provide a valuable service to our members may have impacted your business – that clearly was not our intent.

In keeping with our mission, this service offering was designed to help HR professionals meet a specific set of legal requirements in a low–cost, efficient and effective manner. We have offered e-learning programs for many years and this offering was designed to complement our other offerings. Many of our existing information products – toolkits, white papers, forms and templates – are designed to do the same thing as the harassment prevention: help HR professionals meet an ever-growing set of information and compliance needs. Our goal with this offering is, as always, to provide the most essential and relevant tools available to HR professionals. Given the ubiquitous nature of certain kinds of information, it not unlikely that same information could have also have been obtained from a consultant. However, that circumstance alone should not preclude us from serving our membership as we determine best.”

Bob provided me with his phone number and called. He does not agree with my point of view and even alluded in conversation – and I do not think he intended ill however this recipient took it badly – but he said that perhaps SHRM could help me find some additional area in which to work. Perhaps his intention was good but the impact was that I felt I was being told that they could give me career guidance and perhaps lead me to a different way of earning income.

I asked for a write-up of the result of our conversation but have not received one. Maybe they are sending it in the mail, but it seems I should have received something.

I was contacted by the administrative assistant to set up a time to speak with Bob and Martin, and we spoke October 29. They feel that their goal with the etraining product is to provide a “resource”. I still feel it is entering the service definition. They checked with their General Counsel on what a not-for-profit means as it pertains to this product and they are comfortable that they are within their boundaries and mission.

I asked what about the ethics of doing this. SHRM presents a code of ethics for HR practitioners:

“CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Core Principle
As HR professionals, we must maintain a high level of trust with our stakeholders. We must protect the interests of our stakeholders as well as our professional integrity and should not engage in activities that create actual, apparent, or potential conflicts of interest.
Intent
To avoid activities that are in conflict or may appear to be in conflict with any of the provisions of this Code of Ethical and Professional Standards in Human Resource Management or with one's responsibilities and duties as a member of the human resource profession and/or as an employee of any organization.
Guidelines
1. Adhere to and advocate the use of published policies on conflicts of interest within your organization.
2. Refrain from using your position for personal, material or financial gain or the appearance of such.
3. Refrain from giving or seeking preferential treatment in the human resources processes.
4. Prioritize your obligations to identify conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof; when conflicts arise, disclose them to relevant stakeholders.”
I also feel this decision goes against the SHRM mission statement: “Our mission is to serve the needs of HR professionals by providing the most current and comprehensive resources, and to advance the profession by promoting HR’s essential, strategic role.”

The SHRM bylaws state:
“Section 3: Purposes. The purposes of the Society shall be to promote the use of sound and ethical human resource management practices in the profession and: (a) to be a recognized world leader in human resource management; (b) to provide high-quality, dynamic and responsive programs and service to our customers with interests in human resource management; (c) to be the voice of the profession on human resource management issues; (d) to facilitate the development and guide the direction of the human resource profession; and (e) to establish, monitor and update standards for the profession.”

Bob said that SHRM does provide job leads and that might conflict with members who are in agencies. I don’t see the correlation as every professional organization I know offers job leads and it would be expected that SHRM would do this, too.

Martin had said that he found his name in my blog and felt I had misrepresented what he said/felt. I don’t believe I did – he really did not seem to understand why this would be a bad idea. And Martin or Bob, if you’re reading here, I invite you to respond on the blog so interested readers can know your thoughts.

SHRM does not seem to feel it is a conflict of interest to change from supporting HR professionals and providing up-to-date information to a model of actually competing with their membership and offering services that consultants would typically provide.

SHRM does not see any ethical violations and does not seem to feel it is important to promptly respond to member complaints or questions. A few people from my professional group had written to Martin and he had not responded at all.

I asked that SHRM respond not only to me but to each person who did write. I hope you hear from them.

As for me, I’ve been a SHRM member for over a decade and I have referred to them on many occasions, telling people to join, too. I had renewed my membership in August and have almost a year to reflect on this situation and determine if I want to support a professional organization that has become a competitor in this arena.

Outrage: SHRM selling product, not only providing information

I wrote this to the HR Group and feel it deserves a posting here.
------

I don’t usually write this type of email and if you’ve been on the list for awhile, you know this. If this email is not of interest to you, please delete. I won’t send a follow-up for over a month so this is not the start of some spam. Please do not send comments via email to me at this address: I don’t have time to read and respond right now. Thanks for understanding!

I’m a long-term SHRM member and I received an oversized glossy postcard from SHRM and then an email notifying me of a new product. They are offering as a product the mandated harassment prevention training in etraining format.

I’m truly outraged for a number of reasons.

A large part of my business is as a preventing harassment trainer offering workshops, webinars and etraining. I purchase materials, keep them updated, include recent cases along with business and personal experiences. I spend hours learning, researching and practicing this material and additional time and effort helping my clients with the proper paperwork. I pay a monthly fee for a webinar program and had purchased expensive software for the etraining portion. I pay for errors and omissions insurance solely because of this training.

Now SHRM, my professional organization, is selling an etraining product. I never expected that this organization would be my competitor and I feel so betrayed.

My prices are competitive with SHRM as they are with the CA Chamber of Commerce and I’m not worried about that aspect.

I expect SHRM to update us on new developments, train HR professionals on compliance issues, offer articles and a database of knowledge. They do all that very well and I’ve referred many people to SHRM over the years.

My concern is that they are using the membership database, and a portion of the dues to create and mail marketing materials for a product that will take away work from people like me. There is no way that a small company like mine can purchase the SHRM mailing list and have the marketing power and budget to compete.

I contacted Martin Schuebel, the contact for these projects and copied Sue Meisinger, the President of SHRM. Martin responded copying Bob Carr. I spoke with Martin over 40 minutes today.

SHRM’s mission on the website states: “SHRM serves the needs of the human resource management professional by providing the most essential and comprehensive set of resources available. In addition, the Society is committed to advancing the human resource profession and the capabilities of all human resource professionals to ensure that HR is an essential and effective partner in developing and executing organizational strategy.”

I believe the mission is to help professional development by providing resources not create a product and sell it directly to members, some of whom will financially suffer as a result.

I asked Martin if SHRM will also start doing comp plans for companies, doing their recruiting, offering outsourced HR solutions. Martin does not understand the analogy. Offering this type of product is a slippery slope. Once it’s “acceptable” for one product, others will soon follow – you can bet on that.

The back of the SHRM magazine has paid advertising. This is different than SHRM offering a product and selling it directly to members.

Martin said that the only things he has heard have been positive, but he’s only heard from a few people who have taken the course. I never saw the ads till this week and imagine others may be concerned but may not have had time to respond.

Martin said these decisions take time to make and they thought a lot and asked some members before offering the course. They did not poll vendors, trainers and consultants in California. He said that he would discuss this with Sue and Bob, but given the conversation I do not hold out much hope.

The only thing that will help is if you agree with my stance, please email Martin, Sue and Bob immediately. If you know a person or organization that may be interested in responding, please forward this email.

Again, the addresses are mschuebel@SHRM.org, Smeisinger@SHRM.org, Rcarr@SHRM.org.

Thank you.

Violence at School and in the Workplace

In my last mailing to my networking list, I wrote about the killings at Virginia Tech and included a note that in 1988 at ESL in Sunnyvale, Richard Wade Farley had stalked a female engineer and when rejected, came in to work and killed seven people and injured four others.

I included tips about what to do in such an emergency, and I did hear from some readers.

First – to review the tips:

Ronn Owens on KGO radio and had an FBI profiler on the show. She talked about this kind of person and what you can do in case of emergency. I’d like to share her tips and those of some callers. Some tips I knew and some I didn’t.

1. Have a plan for emergencies and practice it. Have your kids practice and hold regular drills. Practice at work so that all know what to do.
2. If you need to barricade yourself in an office, move whatever you can against the door and don’t stand near the door – the shooter may try to shoot through it.
3. Tap Plastic sells fiberglass that is very sturdy and can actually be used as a clipboard. You can bring it into a meeting and it would not look out of place, but if you are handling a contentious or dangerous event or person at work, you might bring this with you. This plastic can actually protect you against a bullet.
4. If someone is shooting at you and you are running, run in a zigzag manner (not in a straight line). {I didn’t know about this but my husband did because he watches old war movies.}

We can all debate about gun control or how to identify a dangerous person from an annoying or weird one. Many of us in HR are in the position of dealing with difficult employee relations issues that can escalate into violence. We should all be alert, aware of our surroundings, practice escape plans, and hope for the best. As I said before, it’s rare but it does happen. There is an article about workplace violence at http://faculty.ncwc.edu/TOConnor/300/300lect07.htm

Next, to the emails.

With her permission - Gwyneth Anne Freedman wrote: “I was at ESL when Farley went on his 'fatal attraction' shooting spree. One interesting tip from that experience, some people climbed up into the ceiling. The ceiling had those cardboard type tiles that pop out, and some people had the where-with-all to think about climbing up into the ceiling (putting the tiles back in place again)to be out of view, and hopefully out of harms way. It worked for them. While it may not always be practical, or comfortable, it does offer another alternative based on the situation and environment.”

I can’t begin to imagine what it was like at ESL that day.

I also heard from a few people regarding gun control, some took me to task for not using the opportunity to talk about it.

Here is my response:

Part of my childhood was in rural North Carolina and at that time, in that place, there were a lot of farmers. Most people bought food from the store, too, but many raised their own and when they wanted meat, they took their guns. (Not my family, though.) The only accident I ever heard about was one of the boys down the street playing around and he shot his own leg.

There are still parts of this country where there are hunters who bring home their meat in this way. I could never ever do that.

There are also some parts of this country where if you called police in an emergency, no one would get there on time. They have guns to protect themselves. A very distant relative, a 16 year old girl, was at home alone when she heard men break in. She grabbed the gun and hid, scared, shaking, and praying for safety. Thanks goodness they did not find her as who knows what would have happened.

You might think from reading this that I am pro-guns, but I am not. I think most people in the States have no reason to have a gun. There is absolutely no reason in the world to have semi-automatics on the street: no one hunts anything but people with those.

After Columbine there was a Million Mom March and a lot of people were talking about gun control, Michael Moore made the documentary "Bowling for Columbine". And nothing happened. The horrible thing is that Lobbyists are running the show and the President will do NOTHING to stop this madness. People will have to reach their own conclusions as I did many years ago.

So we have the gun issue and then we have mental health and the fact that we can't keep dangerous people locked up on the speculation of what they might do. The murderer at the college had actually been confined for mental health reasons but they had to let him go. I don't know what the answer is, but handling a mentally ill and dangerous person the way they had to under the law is not correct.

And then we have an extremely violent society. No joke: I am very worried about the direction of our society in a lot of ways and the violence we are seeing is one portion of the worry.

At election time I remind people to vote and ask all candidates for local, state and federal offices important questions. Flag burning is a distraction, not an issue. We have a complicated world with a lot of difficult issues and don't need sound bites. Our top officials get into office after serving on local commissions and such, so we need to pay attention from the local level up.

I will be reminding people about this in the future, rest assured. I realize I'm in a position to express some ideas and hope people come to the same thoughts I have.

Considered for Cambridge Who's Who

It's so very exciting! I've received a letter that I am being considered for inclusion in the "Honors Edition". Whoopee!

Having received these letters occasionally, I know a scam when I see one. I did do a search to see if others have written about this. You can look at http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/08/ala-sells-me-out-to-scam-artists.html to read an annoyed librarian's thoughts.

What these publishers do is send thousands of mailings to people and hope that some of them want to pay extravagant sums to see their names in print. Doesn't mean a thing.

My letter is now in the recycle bin.

Exploring Changes and I Wish You Enough

This is probably frowned upon among professional bloggers, but since I'm an occasional contributor I hope to get away with it.

I sent this note to a professional group I'm in, and the response was so favorable I decided to save it to the blog. I hope you enjoy it.

"Aside from the shock of 2007 around the corner and doesn’t time fly, this month our son turns 18. Jason’s entry into this world changed everything for me. I am proud of his accomplishments, love to listen to his guitar playing, enjoy his jokes and his funny accents. He’s a smart and interesting person who is figuring out what he wants to do in life. I worry about his future just like all the other parents I know. If you have children in your life you know what I mean.

Many of the people in our group are doing the same as Jason in that we find ourselves thinking about what we want to do, who we are, what value we can bring to our society. And I think of myself in the same way. Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living.” {He said this in Athens in 399 BCE. You can read about him at http://www.granpawayne.com/courses/EXAMLIFE.HTM}

I’ve told Jason that he has a lifetime ahead of him and that he will change his mind along the way, pursue different paths. Studies I’ve read and life experience have taught me the value of being open and flexible. Honestly, in my 20’s, I never would have imagined all the things I’m doing now.

And on another topic…

Growing up, Chanukah was a minor holiday but fun, and we did exchange small gifts. My husband is not Jewish and his family enjoys Christmas. There’s a lot of shopping going on. I’m asked each year what I’d like.

I’m a consumer, but I look around my home and see very little I need, just some items here and there that I enjoy. A few years ago, I received a beautiful story from Irene Basistei. It’s called “I wish you enough” and I found it online at author Bob Perk’s website http://www.bobperks.com/wish.htm. You might enjoy reading it.
If you’re moved to donate to the community, there are many people who need your help. You can evaluate many organizations at http://www.charitynavigator.org/."

I wish you enough.