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Come Fly With Me.... Even though I’m Not Certified!
By: Jim Granfor, SPHR

Would you climb in the back seat of a jet fighter with the pilot seat occupied by a well-intentioned school teacher? Would you knowingly mark a ballot electing a slate of officers to give you advice and make decisions on your behalf who never walked in your shoes as an HR professional? Finally, how many would want a doctor to guide you through a court proceeding during a wrongful termination case?

Why do many of us fall into the trap of allowing non-certified, non-human resource people to manage our own organization? It is that time of year where we are presented with a slate of officers to vote for.... And many will take the easy way out and select "ALL OF THE ABOVE." The problem is those we entrusted to watch over our society are putting non-hr, non-certified people on the ballot and we keep voting them in.

Keep in mind once voted in they will continue a cycle where our top leadership and many below that level are also non-hr and non-certified. Where does all of the hard work come into play for the thousands of HR professional that are certified and have attained a seat at the table within their respective organizations?

According to the SHRM website the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), formerly called the American Society for Personnel Administration (ASPA), was founded in 1948 by a group of just 28 individuals. These founding members anticipated the need for a national organization to represent the personnel profession. Their goal was to provide continued professional development opportunities, promote national networking, and to generally advance the interests of a profession they recognized as being in transition.

Keep in mind the second sentence above states that the founding members anticipated a need for a national organization to represent the personnel profession. Who can best represent our organization.... Someone who worked their way through the ranks as an HR professional and became certified in the field.... Or, someone else?

It is obvious to this writer the only way we are going to regain control of our own organization is to vote out non-hr, non-certified individuals by starting a write-in campaign at the grassroots level.

I suggest the State Directors use some of their time at the annual Leadership Conference to start addressing this as a major issue. Use your Membership Advisory Council (MAC) leader to your advantage. They can be YOUR tool to make serious, important, and significant changes. The MAC is supposed to work for you.... Not SHRM. They seem to be good at bringing the SHRM message down... it is time they started taking your message up. Keep in mind the message will fall on deaf ears because non-hr people run the staff and are a significant voting voice on YOUR board.

Think about the possibility of a write in candidate that each region supports. It takes away the fragmented single write-in candidate and unifies it at the regional level. In other words several states agree on a write in candidate who best personifies the profession, is a certified HR professional who would be willing to serve. If for example Southwest Central Region chapter members all wrote in the same name and excluded the non-HR types the bureaucrats put on the ballot we would have a lot better chance of getting our organization back to its roots. The key to turning SHRM around lies with the SHRM board. We must remove all non-HR, non-certified types from the board. The board selects and hires the staff.

SHRM is supposed to be your organization, founded for you as HR professionals.... It may take a few years to get our organization back.... But with your help anything is possible. Vote only for hr professionals who are also certified in our field. Put your MAC representative to work for you.... Not SHRM staff.

As for me.... I would not get into the back seat of a jet fighter with anything less than a certified professional pilot.... Why would I want a non-professional to run my organization?