Tuesday Report on the SHRM Atlanta Conference: Credible Activistism and Mobile Employees

The 20th Annual SHRM Atlanta conference is rolling along on it second day. The sessions continue to be good. I added a session earlier on Being a Credible Activist delivered by Vicki Hess of Catalyst Consulting. Vicki is has a professional speakers certification and it shows in her delivery. Smooth, engaging and interactive. More importantly however she spoke on being a Credible Activist, one of the competencies developed by SHRM and Dave Ulrich in HR Competencies: Mastery at the Intersection of People and Business. Here are some tidbits from my twitter stream of her session:

• Direct impact on ROI= Credible
• Passion, integrity, selflessness, and commitment make for a credible activist
• Professional paradise for HR is being productive, satisfied and energized
• Beliefs and mindsets drive actions and outcomes
• Build credibility by knowing the business and telling the truth
• You can be an activist by identifying the elephant in the room and pushing boundries
• Practice HR with an "attitude"

Obviously a twitter stream does not do justice to her presentation. But the result of this presentation for many was the "OK" to have a voice in HR.

The second session I went to was another compliance session on Minimizing Unintended Risks from Today's Mobile Workforce presented by Rayna Jones an attorney for Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, LLC. Her message was somewhat sobering talking about employer liabilities for employees using mobile devices while driving, employer liabilities for "off the clock" work by employees using these devices and employer liability for what she called "textual harassment." Some very good policy advice. I will be posting about this subject more in the next week or so. So stay tuned.

The conference wraps us this afternoon with a silent auction so there will be some happy HR people later today.