My First HRUnite! Conference

This July I attended my first HRUnite! conference in Frankenmuth Michigan. HRUnite! brings together HR professionals at all levels and specialties to provide opportunities to connect and build powerful professional relationships with others in the #HRCommunity. It is an outlet for those trying to enter the profession, advance their careers and surround themselves in a judgement free and supportive community with a purpose to share knowledge, resources, ideas and professional development opportunities in a non-sales solicitation environment.

This small conference hosts around 100 HR professionals and ran for about 2 full days, if you attended the pre-conference labor law workshop. I did not do the pre-conference workshop, so I attended all day Wednesday (spoke on Wednesday!) and Thursday from 8-1. It was the perfect length of time to be away from work, but also wasn’t too long where I was overwhelmed with information and starting to forget about the sessions I first attended Wednesday morning. I loved how small it was – I had never been to a conference this size. My hotel room was right onsite and a 3 minute walk to the conference center within the Bavarian Inn and Lodge. I knew any time I showed up to the conference space I would have a seat. There were no lines ever (except when getting called up for lunch/dinner at the amazing buffet line!) and I felt comfortable sitting down at any table, as everyone was so friendly and willing to connect. The speakers were also attendees for most of the conference, so it didn’t feel like anyone was a celebrity or up on a pedestal. Everyone was there to network, engage, share their knowledge but also learn from each other.

I’m so excited I got to present a session with my friend Amanda Brunson, “Elevating your career – what every young and emerging HR pro should know” where we talked about our career stories, differentiating yourself in the HR job market and in your first role, gaining credibility, growing your HR business partner skills, using social media, and learning/professional development! I’m so passionate about sharing what has helped me advance my career to help the next generation of HR leaders. We had a great, engaged audience who took a lot away from what we shared. So grateful to our friends Tom Daniels, Erich Kurschat and Christie Engler who attended our session with enthusiasm and supported us!

Now onto all of the take-a-ways and learnings from the sessions I attended! I wrote a few impactful bullets that resonated with me from each of the sessions I attended.

• The conference kicked off with Jill Kopanis, where I wrote down that people remember the leader, not the repeater. Everyone knows Neil Armstrong was the first to be on the moon, people don’t likely know the name of the 7th person who walked on the moon. Ask what if? Think about all of the “rules” in your organization. Then think about all of the issues. What if I trained on this? What if I educated? What do I want to challenge? What if we took this same old manager training in this same old conference room outside? What if I made this more fun? When you really want something, you’re willing to take a risk. She inspired HR pros to get creative.
• Christie Engler did an amazing session on workplace ethics. We all as individuals have our own levels of morals and ethics of where lines are crossed. She went through various workplace situations that she has experienced with her clients and had us all discuss as HR pros how we would handle it. One of my biggest take-a-ways was to handle situations as they arise. Don’t proactively send out policies. Carrot vs. the stick concept. Focus on improving culture and positive change vs. monitoring and putting more punitive outcomes in place proactively that may not be needed. How leaders communicate/roll out a change makes all the difference because it impacts retention and engagement. And what is the intention behind the change? You could be negatively or unnecessarily impacting retention and engagement by putting a monitoring policy in place for example when it’s not needed. As HR, we need to tell the manager/owner etc what will happen if they decide to do XYZ, it’s up to them what happens next. We are advisors.
• Jill McCarthy led a session on communication. My biggest take-a-ways were to remember communication cadence and structure needed between people or departments for them to do their best work. Transparency and more communication is better than less. It got me thinking, what do my clients or coworkers need when It comes to communication? What do they appreciate? For example, when sending a meeting invite I always put at least 1 sentence in the body of the invite for context on what we will be discussing or what we can each be prepared with at the meeting. I’ve gotten good feedback on that, as all of our days fill up with meetings and we can easily forget what the purpose of the meeting was. Next, think about your intention behind the communication – is it to communicate basic logistics info, educate, energize? Adjust your tone and message accordingly. Lastly, think about your communication successes. Keep doing those things and use your super powers.
• Shawn Lee had a great message about reigniting. Live unapologetically. There is no other you! Life is too short. Bring it!
• Tim Sackett broke down AI for HR pros which was awesome! Some key things I took away were: ensure your organization has an ethical AI statement and AI use policy. When implementing new HR tech tools/AI, ask the vendor how was your language model developed and who trained it? This will give you good insight on any biases and how the AI was taught to answer, etc. Use AI in HR for all the small easy questions that are repetitive. HRIS systems continue to implement better AI around employee self service, helping employees find the answers to their questions and locate them to important HR documents or processes, so HR partners can focus on being strategic partners and thought coaches. Have semi-annual calls with your HR vendors and ask what AI tools they have. Ask what’s in beta and what is on their future road map so you can stay educated and up to date about what is coming and how to implement it.
• Tom Daniels led a fun session on leadership lessons from a podcast junkie! He went through his favorite podcasts and touched on an episode for each one where he learned an interesting HR or leadership lesson. This was so engaging as it held my attention learning about multiple different show hosts, their guests, and topics. Some of my favorites were: “trust travels at the speed of vulnerability” which I believe was from Adam Grant’s re:thinking podcast episode with Brene Brown and Simon Sinek. Other leadership lessons Tom shared were about the people closest to the work know the issues and have ideas to solve them, so involve your frontline workers before making decisions and rolling out something new you think will help. Lastly, the message of consistency really resonated with me. Going to the gym once for 9 hours doesn’t get you in shape. 30 minutes a day over time gets you in shape. Just going to the dentist 2xs a year doesn’t give you healthy teeth, you also need to brush everyday. One leadership retreat doesn’t make you a leader. Doing the consistent actions every day like asking people how are you and being a role model is what makes you a leader. Also during this session, I made my podcast queue for my 5 hour drive home from Frankenmuth to Buffalo! I listened to HR Besties (hilarious – episodes on LinkedIn being cringy and personality hires), Redefining Work with Lars Schmidt and Re:thinking with Adam Grant.
• Chris Allen presented on Visas and how to fill your talent gaps with international talent. He broke down in an understandable way all the types of visas, what they are used for, and an overview of what the hiring process for someone with that visa would look like.
• Lee Meadows was the closing keynote. My main take-a-way from Lee was that there is always a cost, so where do you want to pay it? You can develop staff internally to upskill them, or you can get a staffing agency to fill the opening. You can invest in good benefits for your people, or handle retention issues/the cost of continually recruiting. You can promote someone with bad/toxic behavior because they’re bringing in more revenue for the company, but at the cost of hurting the culture and other employees. Turnover, lawsuits, etc. There is always a cost, so where do you want to pay it? I encourage HR to get proactive to improve culture and retention, if not, there will be a cost.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you learned something new and will consider adding HRUnite! to your future conference list. A huge thank you to Tina-Marie Wohlfield for having me, hosting and organizing, and to the conference committee who made it a huge success!