U.S. States with the Most Human Resource Professionals

There are a lot of blogs and websites out there comparing different states on a variety of attributes, such as religiousness, politics, environmentalism, etc. So why not compare states in terms of HR professionals?

Using the membership directory at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) as a proxy sample of HR professionals, I searched for SHRM members by state and recorded the results. To allow for a simple visual comparison, I have color-coded the results on the following map:

California (22,530) and Texas (19,834) have the most HR professionals by a wide margin. The next highest state, New York (14,748), has roughly 5,000 fewer HR professionals than Texas. States with the least HR professionals are Vermont (682) and Wyoming (465), with seven other states whose number of HR professionals do not reach 1000 (South Dakota, Rhode Island, Delaware, Hawaii, North Dakota, and West Virginia).

The map looks kind of cool, but in terms of useful information, the raw numbers don't really give us much. In fact, the number of HR professionals and overall state populations (taken from census.gov) are almost perfectly correlated (over 92%).

But what if we look instead at the proportion of HR professionals in each state? I took the number of SHRM members and divided it by the total population of the state to determine the overall percentage of each state's population that are SHRM members/HR professionals. The results of this analysis are found in the following map:

This map looks markedly different from the first. The highest percentage of HR professionals (.0041%) is found in Washington, D.C. - I know, it's not really a state - followed by Alaska and Virginia (both around .0014%), and then New Hampshire, Maryland, and North Dakota (all .0011%-.0012%). States with the lowest percentage of HR professionals are California, Hawaii, Nevada, West Virginia, and Mississippi (all .0004%-.0059%).

These results are a little more informative. First, we see that some of the lowest states in terms of raw numbers are actually relatively well-represented in terms of percentages (e.g., Vermont, North Dakota), while some that were highest in terms of raw numbers do not really have a high relative percentage of HR professionals (e.g, California). Second, for some reason, there seems to be more HR professionals relative to the general population as you move farther North in the U.S.

Finally, these data also reveal one of the potential weaknesses of using SHRM members as a proxy for HR professionals. SHRM's headquarters are in Virginia, just over the river from both Washington, D.C. and Maryland. Virginia, D.C., and Maryland were three of the top 5 in terms of percentage of SHRM members, which may reflect the local reach of SHRM more than the true proportion of HR professionals in each state.

The other thing that both sets of data make clear is that I am a huge nerd.

But if you happen to be one of the 682 HR professionals from Vermont and find yourself in a conversation with one of the 22,530 HR professionals from California, you can use this data to assert your state's HR superiority.

Halloween: 6 Tips for Avoiding a Workplace Nightmare

(image from monster.com)

October 31 is one day of the year where you never know what you are going to see. Zombies, superheroes, cartoon characters, celebrity doppelgangers, witches, and ghosts roam freely from house to house all night long. But even before the sun goes down, those same costumed characters can be found in a variety of workplaces. Before deciding if and how your organization will celebrate Halloween, it is important to consider a few simple tricks (and treats) that can help your festivities run smoothly:

1. Consider the Work Environment: Are there safety concerns if costumes are worn, such as on a manufacturing line or production floor? Ensure that you are not placing your employees at risk by inadvertently creating an unsafe environment. For example, one SHRM article suggests a pumpkin painting activity as an alternative to pumpkin carving. In addition, makes sure that costumes and decorations do not violate fire codes or OSHA safety standards.
   Do your employees interact with customers? If so, consider how the image that costumed employees may portray. What might be an acceptable costume in a theater or clothing retailer may be considered unacceptable at a family restaurant or financial institution. Remember that the front-line employees represent the organization to their customers.
   Finally, does celebrating Halloween in the workplace match the culture your company is trying to cultivate? These are questions you initially need to consider when determining what celebration (if any) is appropriate in your workplace for Halloween.
2. Determine the Invite List: If you decide that a Halloween shindig is in order, determine when it will occur (during work time? after hours?), and who will be invited. Are only employees allowed, or are significant others welcome? Is it an adult-only party or are families encouraged to attend? Make sure that the party environment, entertainment, and food/drink match up with the participants invited.
3. Communicate Expectations Clearly: If employees are encouraged to dress up in costume for Halloween, ensure that everyone knows what is appropriate. A minimum qualification should be that the costumes match your typical dress code by not being offensive, revealing, or otherwise in poor taste. Costumes that poke fun at religious groups, politicians, sexual orientation, race, or that may be otherwise inappropriate should be expressly not allowed. Similarly, if families are welcome, costumes that may not be appropriate for children (scary monsters, bloody zombies, etc.) should be avoided. Office decor (if allowed) should similarly reflect good taste. In addition to ensuring that everyone knows what is appropriate, you should also lay out the consequences of not following the guidelines.
4. Offer Awards: If employees are encouraged to dress-up, offer incentives to do so by providing prizes such as best, funniest, and most creative costume. Decorating work spaces and party activities (such as Pin the Bow Tie on Mr. Bones) can also have prizes attached. Ensure that the awards, prizes, and judging are all communicated clearly to employees to encourage costumes, decorations, and other activities tailored to the awards.
5. Do Not Make Participation Mandatory: While most employees may view Halloween activities as an enjoyable diversion from day-to-day work, an excuse to dress up in costume, and/or enjoyable interactions with coworkers, it is true that the origins of Halloween may make celebrating it uncomfortable for some employees. Whatever activities are done should be voluntary. Offer to let employees work from home or leave work early with pay if they are uncomfortable with celebrating Halloween, and ensure that no harassment takes place against anyone who chooses not to participate.
6. Consider Alternatives: Even if you decide that it is not worth the headache and potential complications that can arise from employee costumes or Halloween celebrations in the office, you might consider other ways to celebrate the season. For example, families might be encouraged to bring their children into the workplace after school for trick-or-treating, you could host a company luncheon, or you could stage a Fall Festival or Harvest Celebration.

Hopefully these suggestions help you avoid the pitfalls that can occur when celebrating Halloween in the workplace. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to my own soiree . . . Argh! Where did I put my pirate hat?

Happy Mother's Day

(image from momtograndma.com)

Just a quick note to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. You are the real full-time human resource managers - 24 hours a day, without sick days, vacation time, or retirement. Your influence will live on for generations. I salute you for your tireless efforts in raising the next generation.

The Purpose of HR

I am working right now to put together a training on the subject of effective HR practices, and one of the first questions I plan on asking the training group is this:

"In one sentence, how would you describe the purpose of HR?"

In my research (a.k.a. Google search), here are some of the answers that I came across:

• HR's duty is to bring the best people into the best position.
• HR exists to protect a company from its employees.
• The purpose of HR is to fulfill organizational goals by implying tools which focuses on enhancing performance with concern for its employees.
• The purpose of human resources is to live.
• The HR department is to is there to guarantee that the right candidates get appointed to the right task at the right time and the job offered to them utilizes their capabilities to the maximum, adding to self-motivation and leading to better performance.
• HR is there to hire and fire.
• The HR function is to hire, train, motivate and support productive employees.
• An effective Human Resource department facilitates the execution of your company’s mission within the boundaries of employment law.
• HR's sole purpose is to take the fun out of work for everyone.

I have my own thoughts on the issue, which I will save those for another post. But I want to hear your perspective. Do any of the answers listed above ring true to you? Or is there a better way that you would describe HR's purpose?

Doing Things vs. Getting Things Done

Note: Every once in a while on this blog, instead of focusing on the weird and unique, I will actually try to offer tips and advice and make a genuine contribution, like with this post.

If you are like me, sometimes you feel like you are just spinning your wheels at work - always doing something, but not seeming to get anything done. It is a frustrating feeling that, if left unchecked, can sour your own perception of your work contributions and your job fulfillment.

In essence, it is important to understand that there is a difference between being busy and being productive. A recent blog post on The Happiness Project  refers to it as Fake Work and Make Work. In other words, sometimes it is easier to be busy than to be productive.

One model that I use to ensure that the work that I am doing is productive and effective is the 2x2 model of urgent and important work, as described by Steven Covey in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

According to this model, there are four quadrants where we spend our time:

Important & Urgent - These activities are important to you, to your job, and/or to the company for which you work. In addition, these are extremely time sensitive and need to be done soon, if not immediately. Examples might include rushed jobs on a tight deadline, serving in-store customers, trying to hire a new employee immediately because a recent employee quit unexpectedly, and work that has been procrastinated until near its deadlines.

Important & Not Urgent - These activities are similar to the activities above in that they are important to you, your job and/or your company. But unlike the activities above, they are not extremely time sensitive. Examples might include jobs and/or goals on a long-term deadline, preparing in advance for upcoming meetings, and modifying job descriptions for upcoming positions that will need to be filled.

Urgent & Not Important - These activities take precedence on your time, while they are not important for you, your job, or your company. Examples include coworkers stopping by unannounced, some phone calls, and getting roped into helping another employee at the expense of your own work.

Not Urgent & Not Important - These activities are not important at all to you, your job, or your company, and they are not urgent either. Examples include personal emails and phone calls, browsing the internet, online chatting, and playing games.

To me, the secret of getting things done is to spend as much time as possible in the Important & Not Urgent sector, where you are making progress and accomplishing tasks on your own time line and with a minimal amount of stress. The other three sectors may give you the illusion of getting things done, when in reality, you are merely doing things. Let me explain what I mean by breaking down each sector.

Important & Urgent: It is true that when you spend time in this category, you may actually be getting this done, but you do it at the expense of additional stress and a heightened likelihood of making mistakes. The more frantic and urgent you feel, and the more pressure to quickly complete the task, the more likely you are to miss some steps or make some mistakes along the way, which results in additional work and additional stress in having to do this work over again.

I have a co-worker that loves to live in this quadrant. He is always, in his own words, "putting out fires and running in a thousand different directions." I have to admit that, at times, it can be difficult working with this coworker because I am not called in until something is critical and needs to be done immediately. So, by being drawn in to his Important & Urgent quadrant, all of a sudden I find myself in my Urgent & Not Important quadrant - helping my coworker put out his fires, while neglecting my own work.

Urgent & Not Important: This is the sneakiest of all of the categories. Because the activities in this area are urgent, you get the impression that you are actually making a difference and getting work done. The problem here is that, while you may be completing these urgent activities, it is not making a dent to your important job-related tasks. This truly is "spinning your wheels," getting caught up in urgent work without getting important work done. And when you do that, then your Important & Not Urgent work starts moving closer and closer to that Important & Urgent category, creating more unnecessary stress.

Not Urgent & Not Important: Sometimes, you just need to take a break. Studies have shown that a quick walk, a healthy snack, and maybe even a quick game of solitaire can be beneficial to your productivity. Where you run into problems is when these activities become counterproductive. When you are overly stressed about upcoming deadlines or a heavy workload, it's tempting to just walk away or to ignore the work by escaping into internet browsing, online shopping or similar activities. But once those activities are completed, your important work is still there waiting, as the deadlines creep even closer. You have done nothing to help your situation, and may have even made it worse.

- - - The Bottom Line Tip - - -

Spend as much time as possible in the Important & Not Urgent quadrant. By focusing on your important tasks before they become urgent, you have more time and attention to give. You will be less prone to make mistakes, encounter less stress, be more productive, and get things done!