The HR Field Guide? What's that about?
That's this site or blog or tiny pixelated corner of the internet - use whatever term you prefer. The name comes from those days when I'm sitting at my desk dealing with a new situation - yes, new situations, dilemmas, calamities, etc. still happen all the time, even after more than a decade in human resources - and I wish there was some sort of how-to guide, kind of like the ones they have for zombie attacks. That said, I imagine this is going to be less "how to survive the coming zombie workforce" and more about my thoughts, impressions, experiences, and other such ramblings from an ever evolving career.
So what's your deal?
Well, let's see, I have an MBA (and an MFA in writing), some professional certifications, and have worked in human resources everywhere from a plant floor to a corner office (I'm still not sure how that one happened). Over the course of my career, I've been entangled in everything from HR service operations to total rewards, talent management to internal communications, HR transformation to organizational design, employee and labor relations to policy administration, compensation to data management to, well, let's just say I've seen and done a little bit of everything over the course of my career including some things that don't fit so cleanly into the HR sandbox. Sometimes I take my show on the road and provide consulting to non-profits and institutes of higher education, sometimes I write articles that appear elsewhere, with some degree of frequency I manage to keep getting invited to talk with amazing audiences at equally amazing conferences. I have a habit of overusing the word awesome (it's not a habit I'm trying to break).
What do you plan to blog about?
The life of a human resources professional, the challenges and successes of it. Things I read about or find interesting and hopefully relevant to someone working in the same field as I do. Trends and topics in human resources. Articles or presentations I've created or will be providing here, there, and elsewhere. When possible I like to feature some of the awesome goings-on at other HR blogs and the like, maybe toss in a Q&A here and there. Occasionally, I'll probably get all philosophical, I suspect sometimes you might agree other times not so much. I pray that when I'm attempting humor it will come across that way and when I'm serious you're not laughing.
What's your favorite beverage? Food? Color? Word?
Are you sure these are really appropriate questions? Um, Diet Mountain Dew (or in a bind, a cold Diet Sunkist). Wow, I like food, this is a hard one ... burgers (the veggie kind). Blue, darkish almost navy but not quite. Why - not a question, just my favorite word.
What else do you have to say for yourself?
Husband, father (to both human and puppy), uncle, brother, bad golfer, teacher (no, really, I've been known to stand at the front of a class for a semester and get all up in a PowerPoint on topics ranging from ethics to human resources to management to employment law to all kinds of other things), so-so cook (though I do make a mean vegan white chili), I sometimes ramble about zombies and Doctor Who, I like to read and write and talk about reading and writing, I'm fairly certain The Hulk could take Superman in a fight (Batman could take both, he has contingency plans for these sorts of things).
How can I contact you?
You can click my name down in the footer and by the power of the internet I'll take over your mail program and pre-populate both the to and subject lines of an email. If you're on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram guess what, so am I - maybe we can connect, follow, circle (that's a thing, right?) or something like that?
