What a whirlwind! Last week I spent two days covering the Tennessee state SHRM Conference in Nashville as part of the inaugural social media team.  That is right. This was the first year that Tennessee SHRM included a social media team.  Introducing HR pros to social media was a great honor and a great experience.

Because social media was new to the conference we ended up working with small groups and that gave the panel discussions and topics a much more intimate feel. We had users of all experience levels and were able to introduce social media platforms to a number of new people.  One of the best parts was getting to hear from senior HR pros like Dave Ryan and Mike Haberman talk social media and the workplace. Why you should care and how you can use it for recruiting and branding your company were the hot topics du jour.

In addition to introducing people to social media, we also spent some time attending sessions. Two of the most notable were:

Behavioral Interviews – More than Meets the Eye – In this session the presenters walked the audience through how behavioral interviews helped them solve a turnover problem. In their industry (hospice care) it can be difficult to find people who have the right skillset and can cope with working in a hospice. In the past they relied on luck and little interview training. Using behavioral interviewing with an emphasis on motivational fit helped them see lower turnover and higher quality candidates.

Leadership Development for Hi-Potentials Standing the Test of Time” Direct ROI on Operations of the Organization – Don’t be scared by that session title. The session was a great look at how Logan Aluminum implemented self-directed teams in their manufacturing facility(they only have two job titles in their organization: colleagues and leaders).  When that was successfully implemented they developed a training and development curriculum that builds colleague skills sets and helps groom the next group of leaders.

Haven’t heard enough about the conference? Check out Drive Thru HR, Chris Fields and I made a special appearance to discuss the conference (our part starts about 6 minutes in):