Hey! I found another opportunity for you to network and develop yourself as a HR pro in 2012. You know my feelings about promoting stuff, so if I find something I think is worthwhile to share, I will.

Recently I had a cuppa with David Owens who is the Managing Director at HR Partners. We had a bit of a chat about HR networking in Sydney, personal development for HR pros and what we need more of. On the note of sharing, we got to talking about his HR Networking group and while some think it may be silly to promote another group, its important to remember; the more HR professionals working together and sharing information- the better for us all!

Basically the network provides an HR focused forum for practitioners to discuss current industry issues, listen to well respected and established HR professionals and most importantly, the opportunity to network!

They regularly hold breakfast meetings in a number of locations where HR practitioners are invited to come together to learn about a topical HR issue. Each breakfast will be hosted by HR Partners, and a specially selected guest speaker will present on a relevant HR ‘hot topic’. Guest speakers will talk about their area of expertise, or give insight into how they have approached a particular HR situation within their organisation. Time is allocated at the end for discussion and questions on the subject matter.

Each breakfast starts at 7.30am and is expected to finish by 9.00am.

Now the cost for one year’s membership is $180 (if you jump in now and get the early bird saving). While that might sound like a bit at first, that includes your access to the breakfast briefings (which is good because most other briefings in Sydney are in the evening) and access to past presentations. They have networks that run in Sydney CBD, North Ryde and Norwest.

In addition to formal meetings, they also run a LinkedIn Group, where members can raise questions, topics of interest, research or ask for advice on various subjects in a non-competitive and collegiate environment.

Another plus, is your free magazine subscription to Human Capital Magazine for 2012 (value of $90). Each addition will be delivered to your desk so that you can keep up to date with a Journal that is dedicated to the unique needs of Australia’s most senior professionals.

Each month HC examines the issues that are at the forefront of today’s people strategies and analyses the thinking of those who are at the cutting edge of the industry. The issues are timely and relevant, tailored to the needs of its high level readership.

As you can see, the price is not set to make money- just to cover basic costs, which is what I like, and with the magazine subscription I think its good value for money.

If you are keen, jump in now for the early bird special online here.

I’ve been holidaying in the US for the last couple of weeks, and it has been awesome to have a decent break away from everything. I spent two weeks doing a Contiki tour including New Orleans for Halloween, then to Orlando to visit Disney World, and then to Miami for some time spent on the beach. I got some “south in my mouth” and pretty much ate crab cakes, pickles and fried green tomatoes across America.I then spent time in New York and Chicago shopping up a storm, eating turkey and pumpkin pie for Thanks Giving and watching everything I could on Broadway. It was awesome.

In that time I’ve reflected on everything that’s important to me, what floats my boat and what I want to do in the future.

I’ve spent the last year at Lion, and have recently been made permanent which is fantastic. I’ve been working with the AHRI NSW Young Professionals this year and am pretty excited about the Christmas Party coming up.

And HR Club Sydney has continued to grow and be beneficial for many people, in different ways. However, after a few years I think it needs a bit of a revamp.

So, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the very best for the year ahead. Let’s catch up again in the New Year and see what is on offer then.

Cheers!

Jess

It is with absolute pleasure that I’m able to give away two tickets to RecTec today!

RecTec stands for Recruitment Technology Evaluation Convention. It is the only event dedicated to recruitment technology in the Australasian region.

If this were a festival, people would be talking about the awesome lineup. Check it out here. Each delegate also receives a free copy of ‘DIFFERENT THINKING‘ by Nicholas Beames. It’s a book on 20 of the most inspiration recruitment leaders in Australia.

If you’d like to snap up one of these passes, just leave me a comment on this post with your name and email address and I can liaise with you from there.

If you miss the free tickets from HR Club Sydney, jump online and check it out. Tickets are pretty cheap and it is also a great opportunity to meet other people.

22 Nov. Sydney. Be there or be square!

Happy Friday!

Just a quick one, to let you know about some further opportunities to meet with people in the Sydney HR Community.

13th October- AHRI NSW Young Professionals Evening “HR in the Hot Seat”

Come and join us on Thursday 13th October to hear from a number of HR Professionals including Alec Basinsky, National Partner – People and Performance at Deloitte talk about his experience navigating his way through the HR industry. We’ll be asking our HR professionals a number of challenging questions, and give you the opportunity ask questions as well.

This forum is open to AHRI members, AHRI student members and linked AHRI organisational members and is free of charge to attend. Please register here.

It would be great to see some university students there (and its free to become a student member) so please forward this information on to any students or grads you know.

4th November- Social Drinks/AAGE Warm up

This has been organised by Ainsley Gilkes, who is the Attraction & Selection Manager (Head of Recruitment) at OneSteel and also the Director & Company Secretary at Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE). She’s a pretty amazing person to get to know and you’ll meet awesome peeps here too.

Cafe Lounge, 277 Goulburn St Surry Hills from 5.30pm for a few beers or cocktails. If you’re attending the AAGE Conference the following week this is a good opportunity to meet people or catch up, but everyone is welcome and feel free to pass on. Please let Ainsley know if you’re planning to come, as they’re trying to reserve a spot.

15th December- AHRI Christmas Party

I’m pretty excited about this one because I’m organising it and it should be lots of fun! It will be advertised shortly, but think canapes, drinks and loads of awesome HR people.

You might have already guessed that I’m pretty passionate about HR. It’s challenging but I am just so interested in making it a career to be proud of, because that’s good for all of our wellbeing right?

So what this means is yep, I’m all about HR Club Sydney and getting people together to share ideas about HR.

This year, I’ve also had the opportunity to take on the position of the AHRI Young Professionals Group Convenor. Some people have asked me about this recently and yes, my story is still the same- I’m about anything interesting in HR and learning as much as I can.

So I hope to be able to share and communicate ideas from both AHRI and also other neat stuff I find. This way, we all have access to everything and we can all kick ass.

Speaking of kick ass. Few things happening in September that I wanted to mention.

1) HR Club Sydney drinks- 13th September 2011- register via LinkedIn It’s been too long between drinks so let’s catch up to see who has joined the network and what the pressing issues are in HR in Sydney.

2) You may have read a post that I wrote ages ago about the book “Your Brain at Work”

Well I'm jealous of anyone who's registered to go to the AHRI Sydney Leadership Conference on 12th September, because he's speaking! Check out the program here.

If anyone is going and would be happy to write some blog posts to be shared on HR Club Sydney I would be extremely grateful!

I’ve never worked in specialist recruitment before, but when you sit in the generalist seat you realise just how crucial having the right people in the right place at the right time is. It’s not just about bums on seats; its the start of something big in your talent management process.

Now we all know how to place an ad on seek, and what questions to ask (or not ask) in an interview, but how many of us really know how to source the best candidates for our business?

It gives me great pleasure to provide information to you about the first Australasian Sourcing Summit, on 11th August 2011 at the University of Technology.

Bringing together sourcing innovators from Australia and New Zealand, the Sourcing Summit will highlight the important role of sourcing in the region. The Summit will provide attendees with the opportunity to learn from thought leaders, practitioners and organisations who are deeply involved in the local industry and are at the forefront of sourcing excellence.

Whether you are a sourcer, researcher, recruiter or HR professional there is something for everyone at the summit.

Here’s the exciting part. All HR Club Sydney members (you must be a HR Club Sydney subscriber and a member of our LinkedIn group) have access to a 15% discount off the ticket to the Australasian Sourcing Summit. Simply go to http://sourcingsummit.com.au/register/ and enter the code HRCLUB11 to receive your discount.

If you can’t raise the moolah to go along, or want to contribute to a research study on the sourcing profession please also consider filling out this survey http://sourcingsummit.com.au/sourcing-report/. There is currently a lucky draw for the chance to win a free ticket to the Sourcing Summit- you’ve got to be in it to win it!

Well hi there. Yes it’s been a while… one of my longest breaks yet. I like blogging, but I never blog because I feel I have to. I only write when I’m up for it and sometimes, other things take priority. So what’s been happening in my patch in the last few weeks?

For those who attended the last HR Club Sydney Event- thank you. Again, it is just fantastic to get to meet so many of you and think about some of the different challenges we face at work. It was a great opportunity to hear Michael McQueen speak, and thank you to Rookie Recruits for helping me organise for Michael to attend. Here are some photos from the evening so you can get an idea of what the HR Club Sydney events are like.

I’ve been learning heaps at work and getting some great experience in things I have not managed before. While challenging, there’s so much satisfaction at the same time. I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things and share some of this with you over the next few weeks.

I’m also very excited to have jumped in as the Group Convener for the AHRI NSW Young Professionals Group. My mind is racing with all the different things we can do for young HR Pros in NSW so please stay tuned and let me know if you have any ideas you’d like to share.

I’ll be at the Welcome Reception and Exhibition Launch for the AHRI National Convention on Monday 6th June at the Young Professionals meet up. It’s free to attend but you must register so please visit the AHRI website for details.

Helping you visualize the conference so far

First cab off the rank this morning was Theresa Gattung who is the Chair of AIA Australia. She is the former CEO of Telecom and was the first female CEO of a publicly listed NZ company when she commenced in this role. In 2006, she made Forbes list of the world’s most powerful women.

Recently I blogged about the message we were sending to young girls after seeing a message on International Women’s Day. I talked about how I had been brought up to believe that I could do anything I wanted to, and Theresa started off explaining that her upbringing was much the same.

She talked about being accustomed to the philosophy “Be, do, have” from her father.

“You can be whatever it is that you want to be and be anything you dream of, but you have to do the work. Anything is possible. Girls should have the same options as boys, but you have to do the work.”

This was really interesting because yesterday a few speakers mentioned how much they had been influenced by messages when they were younger telling them that they should be seen and not heard, and that their primary role in life was to be a wife and presumably a mother as well.

The message is clear- we need to empower girls from a young age (well actually I think we should empower all young people no matter where they live or how much money they have) that they can be anything they want.

Theresa then went on to tell us some amazing stories about how she met her mentor, Dr Sharon Lord. She started out by explaining that years ago she used to cut out clippings from newspapers about Women who had achieved in the Corporate Sphere in Australia, New Zealand and America.

“I’m sitting in a boat off the coast of San Diego and I look over and I think, that’s Dr Sharon Lord. So I go over there and I say ‘Excuse me Dr Sharon Lord, you don’t know me but you are in my clipping file. She was pretty stunned as you might imagine.”

Dr Sharon Lord is an internationally acclaimed leader, management consultant and motivational speaker with a distinguished career in academia, business, and public service, Dr. Lord has devoted her life to “empowering individuals and organizations to unleash their full creative potential: building bridges of understanding across genders, races and cultures; and anchoring the female principle on the planet.

Her career is a “template for breaking the glass ceiling.” As the first female Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Tennessee from 1969 to 1980, she was a “moving force” in the creation of the UT Women’s Athletic program which became the UT Lady Vols.

As U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration, Lord served as the highest ranking woman in the Pentagon, with the rank of a three-star general. She was awarded the Secretary of Defense Outstanding Public Service Medal – the first woman to be so honoured (Source).

Theresa goes onto to say that Sharon had just gotten married to the man who was about to commence as the CEO of Telecom New Zealand. This meant she was about to come and live in Wellington.

“Isn’t that amazing. She’s from Tennessee and I meet her on a boat off the coast of San Diego! Sometimes life is stranger than fiction”.

From there, Dr Sharon Lord became a good friend and a mentor, and Theresa credits her with helping her make the transition from middle management to Senior Management.

Key Learnings from Theresa’s Journey

• One person can make a huge difference and you can really achieve anything you set your mind and heart to do. There’s also huge power in a collective group of people coming together with a clear focus and intention to make something happen.
• Whatever situation you are in, surround yourself with the best people you possibly can. If you are hiring, hire the best people you can. One of the reasons why I was promoted in each of my roles was because the first thing I did when I got into a new role was to try and sort out my successor. We (and particularly Women) like feeling indispensable, but the problem with that is that you do make yourself indispensable and you don’t provide the opportunity for others to flourish, so surround yourself with great people because if you don’t it’s harder for you to move on.
• It is no good having one woman on an executive board; it’s no good having one woman on an executive team because they are completely marginalised. There is a lot of research that shows that you have to at least get to the 30% level to make gender not matter. It takes getting to the 30% level for women to feel comfortable in their own skins to not be worried about fitting in, which inhibits their ability to contribute to their fullest potential.
• Ask for feedback and act on it. In this technological work you won’t know everything so don’t be afraid to say that you don’t know everything and be prepared to be seen acting on it.
• Take advantages of opportunities as they are offered to you. Sometimes they come packaged in a ribbon and other times, it’s not so obvious.
• If you want your team to act collegiately, you must role model that yourself. There is no contest between what you say and what you do- what you do will always win.

Theresa also has a book that you may be interested in called “Bird on a Wire- The Inside Story from a Straight Talking CEO”. Check out her website for more details.

Next up today, I’d like to share with you a talk from Dr Eileen Doyle. She is the Chairman of the Hunter Valley Research Foundation, and is a Director of Boral Ltd, Hunter Founders Forum, GPT Ltd and the CSIRO (My former haunt!). She has an amazing resume which you can check out here.

Dr Eileen Doyle was here to talk to us about the nuts and bolts of directorship, and what it means to be a Director in 2011.

So very briefly here are a couple of the notes I managed to scribble down:

So what are Director’s responsibilities?

You need to personally understand the role of a Director and what that means. What are your personal responsibilities? And don’t wait for them to tell you or send you on a course to tell you- it’s your personal job to understand this. Part of this, is understanding what the law requires you to do as well. There is actually no formal qualification to be a Professional Board Member; you should however join the AICD in Australia though to keep up-to-date with what it means to be a Director and your responsibilities.