Greetings GMA SHRM Members –

Though we’ve yet to have our first real snowfall, the holiday season is upon us. As we wrap-up 2017 and look to 2018, I wanted to be sure to cover a few upcoming events and reminders.

At our November PDS, we hosted a food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank. Through food and monetary donations, we were able to provide 157 meals. Thanks to all who contributed!

We had a very successful Student Night Out on November 16th. The event was held at M3 and we had 40+ students and many professionals attend to network with students, answer questions in a panel format and share their HR experiences. This event has grown over the years from a pure grass roots effort and is a fantastic benefit that we offer to the student chapters we support.

Our first PDS of 2018 will be on January 16th and will focus on Recruiting in a Competitive Environment. What better way to start the New Year than to get tips and tricks for recruiting in this increasingly competitive job market? The full 2018 PDS schedule will be released soon – keep your eyes open! We will be hosting our annual Strategic Planning Event on January 19. We open this event to our membership in order to give each of you the opportunity to weigh in on our future initiatives and priorities as we develop our strategic plan. If you are interested in attending, please save the date and email me at melissa.chadwick@bakertilly.com for additional details. Even if you cannot attend, please share your ideas with me in advance of the event!

Each November, SHRM hosts a “Volunteer Leader Summit” for the board members for SHRM affiliate chapters across the US to come together in DC for 3 days of leadership training, best practice sharing and collaboration. This year, we had 2 board members attend along with our Chapter Administrators. It’s amazing that our GMA Chapter is one of the largest in the Nation and always exciting that other chapters look to us for how they can be more successful. Our attendees always walk away with new ideas for programming, events and recruitment of new members and this year was no different. If you have considered joining the board, attending this conference is just one of many perks you receive!

Are you getting the full benefit from your GMA SHRM membership? In addition to the 5 free PDS’s a year, you also can take advantage of advertising our guest policy, joining a committee, networking with one of our partners to see how they could assist your company, attending an HR Networking Roundtable, posting in the Idea Exchange or stopping by one of our networking or revealed events. Make 2018 the year you expand your HR network and take full advantage of your membership!

I hope everyone has a safe, healthy and happy holiday season. I hope you get to take some time away from work to recharge, reenergize and spend time with those you haven’t seen in a while. We look forward to seeing you at our January 16 PDS, HR Resource Roundtables and spring networking event. As always, if you have thoughts or ideas to share, please reach out to me at melissa.chadwick@bakertilly.com.


Best Wishes,

Melissa Chadwick
President
GMA SHRM

SHRM Advocacy Day in Washington, DC

Submitted by:  Jeff Palkowski, Director of Government Affairs GMA SHRM and SHRM Advocacy Captain (Wisconsin 1st CD)

On November 16th GMA SHRM President-elect Tammy Wacek and I participated in the SHRM Advocacy Day in Washington, DC as part of the SHRM Volunteer Leader’s Summit.  Over 400 SHRM members from across the US as well as Puerto Rico and Guam participated in meetings on Capitol Hill with US Senators and members of Congress to discuss legislative issues that are important to the human resources community.
 
The largest state delegation for the Advocacy Day was from (you guessed it) Wisconsin with a total of 21 participants from local SHRM chapters across Wisconsin.  Our state group met with staff members from the offices of Senator Ron Johnson and Senator Tammy Baldwin.  We talked about the role of SHRM and our membership in Wisconsin (nearly 6,000 members), discussed proposed changes to education assistance deductions (Section 127) in the proposed tax reform legislation in Congress and the “Workflex in the 21st Century Act” which is a bill recently introduced in Congress to provide employers with a voluntary option to provide workplace flexibility and paid leave options to employees which would satisfy any state or local paid leave requirements.  You can find information about this legislation from SHRM Government Affairs here: http://www.advocacy.shrm.org/workflex
 
After our Senate meetings, we separated and participated in similar meetings with the staffs of our members of the House of Representatives.  Tammy met with the staff of Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District and I, along with SHRM members from Racine-Kenosha SHRM and Blackhawk SHRM met with the staff of Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.
 
All meetings were scheduled directly for us by SHRM, and we were all well prepared for our visits by the SHRM Government Affairs Team.
 
Overall, this was a great opportunity for all of us to share our stories with our elected officials in Washington, DC and participate in the process of advancing our HR profession through both education and advocacy.  Hearing directly from constituents about how federal law and policy changes directly impact our employers and employees is something that elected official want to hear about from back home.
 
If you would like to be informed of timely issues that SHRM is tracking at both the state and federal level by signing up as a SHRM Advocacy Team Member,  please visit the SHRM Advocacy Web Page for more information:  http://www.advocacy.shrm.org/about?1 
 
If you are interested in a similar experience at the state level, consider joining your HR colleagues from across Wisconsin at the 2018 WISHRM Day on the Hill which will be held on February 21, 2018 right here in Madison.  Registration for the event is now open here:  http://www.wishrm.org/2018-Day-on-the-Hill



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Federal and State Legislation Tracking – Quick Hits

• Workflex in the 21^st Century Act (H.R.4219)
• Upward Mobility Act (H.R. 4135)
• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1)

• Exemption for WFMLA When Covered by FMLA (SB 490)
• Employment Law Standardization Act – Sen. Kapenga & Rep. Hutton
  • Currently being circulated for co-sponsors to be introduced in December, 2017.  More details to follow.

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Compensation & Benefits

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Professional Development

Workforce Readiness & Diversity

Successful Student Night Out

Submitted by: Alicia Genin, Sr. Talent Acquisition Specialist at Quartz
 

The Education & Professional Development Committee is pleased to share our continued success and expansion of the Annual Student Night Out Event. This year’s event was hosted by M3 Insurance, and took place on Thursday, November 16th from 6-8 pm. Over 40 individuals were in attendance, with students representing UW-Madison SHRM, UW-Whitewater SHRM, Madison College, Edgewood College & Herzing College.
 
Attendees were able to network with HR professionals and students from other colleges and universities, as well as participate in a panel discussion with 4 HR leaders from various industries. Student participants were very engaged in the discussion, and had many great questions for our panel members. Discussion topics included, but were not limited to: preparing for a career in HR, educational opportunities for HR professionals, daily HR experiences and HR problem solving. Brittany Hanson closed our evening by promoting GMA SHRM membership to all those in attendance, sharing her experiences and information on GMA SHRM volunteer/networking opportunities, events, scholarships and certifications.
 
This event is not only beneficial to students attending, but also for GMA-SHRM members! Students were asked to submit resumes to be compiled into a resume book available to our professional members. If you have a need for an HR intern or entry level HR professional, please reach out to one of the committee members for a copy of the resume book and access to candidates that have already shown an interest in getting involved in the local HR field!
 
A special thank you to our panel members: Angel Hammer, Corporate Recruiter, M3 Insurance; Arlette Kambwa-Gitau, SPHR, Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP), ABS Global; Barbara Waters, SHRM–SCP, SPHR, Director of Human Resources, American Printing Company; Harper Donahue, Interim Director of Human Resources, City of Madison. Thanks also to Abigail Nadler, Dawn Zeimet & Angel Hammer, of M3 Insurance for hosting, and Brittany Hanson for speaking at the event! Finally, thank you to the Education & Professional Development Committee members for all the hard work and dedication in planning and creating such a special and successful event that continues to grow each year.

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Welcome New Members!

GMA SHRM welcomes the following members who joined our chapter in October 2017!

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Movin' Up

Congratulations to Amanda Sturm on her new Human Resources Coordinator position at Frank Productions, Inc! Amanda has her PHR certification and is her company’s sole HR practitioner. Amanda is interested in connecting with other HR professionals who have been sole practitioners or started HR from the ground-up. If you are also looking to network and happen to be in charge of day-to-day HR duties as well as strategy at your organization, please visit our member directory for contact information to get in touch with Amanda and other GMA SHRM member just like her. 

Have you started with a new company? Has your organization recently promoted you to a new position? Or do you want to recognize a new person or promotion within your department? If so, we want to hear about it. Send us an e-mail, and we’ll publish your good news in the next HR InTouch!  
 

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In Transition

If you are a member who is in between jobs, or who is currently employed but seeking new positions or career paths, write us a brief description of your skill set, areas of expertise, what you’re looking for, etc. Send us an e-mail. We’ll publish your information in the next HR InTouch.

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HR InTouch Guidelines

Article Writing:

Do you have an interest in writing for the HR InTouch? We have an interest in learning more about your area of expertise!

Why should you volunteer? Top three reasons: 1) to share your knowledge and experiences to educate others; 2) to become more connected in the HR and Dane County communities; and 3) to contribute towards the advancement of GMA SHRM and the HR profession.

The first step is for you to choose a submission option: you can pre-submit an article to GMA SHRM at any time for us to use in any of the upcoming newsletters, you can sign up to write for a particular month, or we can put you on a list of people to contact in future months whenever we need articles.

Article length:

Because the HR InTouch is now in an online format, the size is flexible. The article should be engaging and hold readers’ attention. Include the core information in your article, and we will advise if it is too lengthy.

Solicitation:

GMA SHRM is conscious not to allow solicitation through the articles, in an effort to protect the interests of our partners and members. The nature of the article should be educational (i.e., what are the business advantages of having a product like yours) or informational. Otherwise, if you truly are interested in advertising through the HR InTouch, you can work with our Marketing Committee. As a rule of thumb for article writing, if the submission relates to a for-profit event, or specifically markets your company (vs. your industry), it is an advertisement, and should be purchased. If it is a not-for-profit event that your company is hosting, or an announcement (i.e., a SHRM member recently joined your company), it is an acceptable addition to the HR InTouch content. If you have any questions related to the appropriateness of your submission, please contact us.

If you have questions, or to submit an article, contact GMA SHRM at chapteradmin@gmashrm.org .