What the Heck is with SHRM? with Joey Price and Lars Schmidt
Laurie Ruettimann
Trailblazing author, career advisor, speaker, podcaster, and leader. • Top LinkedIn Learning instructor in leadership and HR. • Still trying to fix work.
Today, my guests are Joey Price and Lars Schmidt, good friends of the show who you may have heard on past episodes. Today, they are here to talk about my favorite subject—what the heck is going on with SHRM?! For those not in the know, that’s the Society of Human Resource Management. They fired off a tweet that made many people unhappy just in time for Black History Month.
In this episode, we discuss that tweet, the future of work and human resources, and where an association like SHRM fits into the evolving HR space. This conversation is between three friends passionate about human resources and the esteemed institution SHRM. Still, we are honest about the reverence and disappointment that we hold for them.
So if you are ready to hear an honest take on the ups and downs of loving an organization like SHRM and what the heck is going on, then sit back, relax, and enjoy this fun conversation.
Punk Rock HR is proudly underwritten by The Starr Conspiracy. The Starr Conspiracy is a B2B marketing agency for innovative brands creating the future of workplace solutions. For more information, head over to thestarrconspiracy.com.
SHRM…What Did You Do?
When it comes to SHRM, we HR people all have a “more love than hate relationship” with the organization.
A hashtag that says #FixItSHRM was recently created, referring to a recent tweet released by SHRM featuring a graphic focused on improving DEI at work. Unfortunately, the photo used severely lacks diversity. To make matters worse, this incident happened right at the start of Black History Month.
This incident isn’t the first time, either. Similar issues with the organization were brought up in the past. However, the most recent tweet still holds a certain shock level for many people—including Joey, “It did surprise me that it’s 2022, of all the things we’ve gone through in the past few years about diversity and the reasons why diversity is on the forefront for a lot of minds and a lot of employers, for the largest body of HR to get it wrong, that was surprising.”
Lars shared a similar sentiment. While he doesn’t hate SHRM, he is “incredibly disappointed by them.”
DEI has been at the forefront for many companies. With the rise of social injustice and discrimination in the workforce, people want to see organizations genuinely put in the effort to change. “For the field of HR who has been through so much in the last two and a half years to have a “governing body” that just doesn’t seem to put in the effort, is just incredibly disappointing,” Lars shares.
It all boils down to relevance. Unfortunately, SHRM has not shown they are up-to-date with modern HR teams and functions. Because of this, Lars believes that “they’ve lost a whole generation of operators that they’ll never get back,” disappointing HR professionals working to create actual change.
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Getting Criticism on Criticism
SHRM has half a million member HR professionals in its ranks and is profitable for the first time in years. They are hitting all of the benchmarks for success. So when they see criticism online, their first thought is to criticize that criticism. But that approach begs the question, “Is all of this is necessary?”
More and more organizations are stepping up to become a venue where HR professionals can connect, share, and grow in the ways they want and need. SHRM is no longer the only resource available to HR professionals. “SHRM might say that a tree is falling in Twitter and is not making a sound, but the industry is saying otherwise. And I think the topics that are being covered in places like Lars, what you’re covering and your cohorts, and Laurie, what you’re doing on your show, are topics that we aren’t seeing SHRM cover. We’re not seeing analytics, AI, agile HR. We’re not seeing those sorts of things that are really what business leaders are looking for from HR,” Joey says.
The world of HR is changing, and SHRM’s tweeting incident seems to suggest that the organization isn’t in tune with the macro conversations currently happening in the HR space. “The world of work is changing, and HR has an opportunity to directly shape and influence what this looks like,” Lars explains. “We’re building kind of a new post-industrial revolution era of work, and we’re still getting articles on SHRM about dress code. Yes, that might be petty of me to kind of call them out on that, but I remember that came out in Q4. It was just like, how out of touch are you talking about tattoos at work?”
While many voices in the Twitter-verse tweet out different sentiments of criticism, there is truth to what they are saying. “We may be voices in Twitter, and they may say what they’ll say, but I think we’re onto something, and where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And again, we all love SHRM. So we want to see it win. It’s an institution. It’s not just the people in it; it stands for something. It means something. Just want to see it relevant in the years to come,” Joey says.
What Can Be Learned
SHRM has an opportunity to learn and grow, but that can’t happen without first changing the dialogue and putting diverse voices within the organization.
“I don’t think they’ve got the right voices steering where they’re going. I think that again, there’s a huge population, particularly on the leading modern, progressive wing of HR, that has nothing to do with SHRM. And so even if they were speaking to SHRM, SHRM’s certainly not listening to them,” Lars shares.
While putting new voices into the organization will help drive change, listening to what others are saying can create a modern future for the organization. “SHRM prides itself on being the voice of HR. And I think right now, it should be the ears of HR. Listening to what folks on Twitter are saying, what industry is saying about HR,” Joey says.
SHRM’s efforts to listen to what people are saying means connecting with them without just brushing off the criticism. “It would really be reaching out to some of those leaders who are on the cutting edge, bring them in for round tables, maybe evaluate board positions and content ideas and see what can be done to guide the conversation as opposed to being reactionary to it,” Joey says.
People in This Episode
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HR Writer | Talent Acquisition
2yLars & Joey definitely hit the nail! Like most critics of SHRM, we don't hate them. If we did, we won't say a thing. We WANT them to be better.
a creative media person.
2yJoey!! Proud to say I was one of your first customers!
Helping recent college grads launch well into life and vocation | Husband to my amazing wife | Dad to my amazing kiddos
2yWoah, Joey and Lars?! Solid! (also know as the #bashbrothersofHR...heard it here first, lol!)
Account Executive ❤️ Corporate Wellness
2y😅 now it makes sense. I’ve been speaking (trying to speak) with a couple of HR leaders lately and they had SHRM on their titles. Those were the ones who had no time to learn what's new, what's trending, and discuss & improve their digital workplace and employee engagement strategies. It just blows my mind, how a person can come so high up in the organization without filling up their knowledge. They remind me of burned old Redwood trees. Tall strong looking but empty inside and ready to fall. Thanks for sharing this 🙌🏻