<p>On this episode Callie and Parker talk about how HR is at the center of everything because people and money are the center of everything business does (talk about influence!).<br /><br />Parker talks about being an organization leader first and an HR professional second. He and Callie about about how when HR is "cool" you're doing it right and there's a trickle down effect that creates positive outcomes. You'll want to be sure to catch this episode!<br /><br />---<br /><b>EARN SHRM RECERTIFICATION PDCs FOR LISTENING</b><br />Honest HR podcast episodes will help you build your competencies while you earn professional development credits (PDCs) toward your SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP recertification! All you have to do is listen to a full mini-series to earn PDCs! All relevant details, including the Activity IDs, are provided during the podcast recording itself.<br /><br />The Honest HR podcast is only one of SHRM's podcast offerings. And currently, it is the only one approved for recertification PDCs.<br />---<br /><b>This episode is Part 1 of a three-part series. </b>When you listen to all parts of the series you are eligible to receive PDCs for your participation.</p>
On this episode Callie and Parker talk about how HR is at the center of everything because people and money are the center of everything business does (talk about influence!).
Parker talks about being an organization leader first and an HR professional second. He and Callie about about how when HR is "cool" you're doing it right and there's a trickle down effect that creates positive outcomes. You'll want to be sure to catch this episode!
---
EARN SHRM RECERTIFICATION PDCs FOR LISTENING
Honest HR podcast episodes will help you build your competencies while you earn professional development credits (PDCs) toward your SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP recertification! All you have to do is listen to a full mini-series to earn PDCs! All relevant details, including the Activity IDs, are provided during the podcast recording itself.
The Honest HR podcast is only one of SHRM's podcast offerings. And currently, it is the only one approved for recertification PDCs.
---
This episode is Part 1 of a three-part series. When you listen to all parts of the series you are eligible to receive PDCs for your participation.
Callie:
Hey everybody. It's Callie back with another episode of Honest HR, if you're new, welcome. If you've been with us before, welcome back. I'm excited to have Parker on as a guest today, talking about becoming the sought after HR partner, part of the business acumen mini series that we're going to be entering with this episode here today. If you had been listening to the last couple episodes, you'll know that we are offering PDCs now for listening to our podcasts, but only if you listen to the full mini series. So this episode marks the first episode in the mini series two, and I'm excited to have Parker here. So Parker welcome. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you want us to know about you.
Parker:
Good morning. Oh, gosh. Well, first of all, let me say I'm excited to be here. I've enjoyed listening to Honest HR up to this point. I think it's a great new avenue for SHRM to reach a whole target audience that maybe they weren't quite engaging as much before, so this is great to be a part of the podcast. So thank you for inviting me. Also, just a little bit about me, I'm almost 18 years into HR career at this point. And have done pretty wide variety of things over that time. Have done most major technical or functional areas of HR and have spent probably the last 10 years or so in senior level or executive level roles.
So it's been a great experience for me from a career standpoint, because I've got to experience a little bit of everything. I've been in retail HR. I've been in public education and public sector HR, and now I'm in a Fortune 200 transportation industry. So I've kind of seen HR from a number of different perspectives. I've also been really involved with SHRM for a long time, so have been a local chapter president.
Callie:
Woo hoo.
Parker:
Yep. Shout out to SHRM there. I've been a local chapter president. I've served on two different state councils. I'm the state council director elect for the great state of Nebraska. So shout out to Nebraska there, if it's not just a state to fly over, so come see us in Nebraska. It's a great place to be.
Callie:
Yeah. And it's funny because Nancy from Nebraska-
Parker:
Shout out to Nancy.
Callie:
... one of my coworkers is actually... Yeah, shout to Nancy, was the person who connected us. I often ask my team members for guest suggestions and she said, "Oh, Parker would be great." You can see me doing the Nancy dance.
Parker:
Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
Callie:
Yeah, she is great. And so she was the person who suggested you coming on with me for the podcast. And another interesting thing about you and I is that you sat on the YPAC, the Young Professional Advisory Committee to SHRM right before I did.
Parker:
Yeah. I think we passed each other there. Maybe, I think I left the year before you came on, so that was another great experience in my career. I was actually on the first, the inaugural YPAC, the first year that SHRM created that advisory committee. I was a part of that, which was a lot of fun.
Callie:
Yeah. And we're doing a lot of different things this year with that committee and I'm actually chairing the committee, or if that's what you call it, I don't know, leading it, whatever. But we're doing some cool stuff. So I'm excited that is still something that I am able to be involved in from sort of the other side of the seat, if you will.
Parker:
Yeah.
Callie:
Thank you for giving us your background. I'm excited too. We're going to start sort of with your education. You said you'd been in a lot of different industries and we're going to talk specifically about your time at Springfield. So you went from sort of HR manager to CHRO over a period of what I think to be 10 years as a quote unquote YP. Right? And I want you to sort of walk us through what that was like. So you touched pretty much everything in HR at that organization. And I would love for you to help us through your journey with that company and sort of how you went from that HR manager role to that CHR role, role, if you don't mind.
Parker:
Sure. Well, first, Springfield, Missouri, Southwest, Missouri is my hometown. So I went to college there and during college, I worked full time. And when I talk to-
Callie:
Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Parker:
Yeah. When I talk to college students today, I always say, everybody's journey is different, do whatever is right for you. But that launching point in my career made a huge difference because I was able to get a lot of really great experience that I could rely upon when I graduated to kind of propel me ahead of a lot of my competition. So that was where I started in retail, I worked in retail for eight years. And started as a part-time cashier and then went full-time and worked in retail through grad school. And by the time I left that company, I was in a management role and had some responsibility for HR, had responsibility for other functions.
And so I could really rely on that to help me kind of figure out what I wanted to do. And again, kind of give me an edge over the competition. So wanted to get out of retail, just to experience something different, thought that I would likely have to leave the community I was in. And this opportunity with Springfield Schools became available. So the opportunity was leading the benefits and compensation function basically at the time and applied and got that opportunity. And it was-
Callie:
Did you know Comp & Ben was what you wanted to do or was it just sort of [inaudible 00:06:25]-
Parker:
No, in fact it was not what I wanted to do really.
Callie:
Well, it's funny that you say that, because that was my first thought like, Ew.
Parker:
Yeah. Well-
Callie:
I said it.
Parker:
And I think like a lot of people's careers, right, you just sort of fall into some things.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
A lot of people even fall into HR kind of by accident. And I didn't do that, I knew I wanted to head into HR. But I took this opportunity with Springfield and it was a great opportunity because it's a large employer, about 5,000, a little less than that, 5,000 employees at the time. And a large health plan, a lot of retirees dependence on the health plan and a pretty big health plan spend. So I was in the deep end pretty quickly. I had a lot of great support there. I had a great team. I had some great partners from a vendor perspective that were able to help me kind of get my knowledge up to speed. And I learned a lot. It was just a really, really great opportunity. And then I went into, on the other side of HR, kind of did the employment and labor relations side. And got to do a lot of employee relations work, a lot of employee life cycle, talent acquisition kind of things.
And then led sort of HR generally, overall as an HR director. And then was an interim CHRO when our CHRO went on leave at the time. And we conducted a full search for CHRO which I was a candidate for, and then I was selected as CHRO, and spent the last five or so years in that role with that organization. And also just a kind of a dream job. I mean, it was a lot of people really aspired to a role like that, and I was certainly one of them. It was a large organization, executive level role, direct report to the CHRO, a lot of autonomy. I got to build a strategic plan for HR. I got to restructure HR, I got to transform a lot of HR strategies that were pretty underdeveloped in that organization, just because culturally, there wasn't enough momentum up to that point to change some things. And I got to do all that, so it was a tremendous opportunity.
Callie:
And one of my favorite things that you told me when we were talking about your time at Springfield was that you really felt that you were taken seriously and brought into almost every conversation, whether it had to do with HR or just the business in general. So can you sort of walk us through how you created that reputation for yourself within the organization?
Parker:
Well, and I'll say it was like that eventually, it wasn't like that at the beginning.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
Right, because definitely a lot of tenure in that organization and here's this guy that's recently graduated from grad school coming in and what does he know? I think a lot of us face that regardless of your age, if you're going into a new industry, if you're going into a different part of HR you haven't done before. And certainly if you're a young professional, you face that. So it was an issue, yes. But it wasn't something that I intentionally tried to overcome. I think this is similar to the issue that HR professionals deal with where they say HR doesn't have a seat at the table and I want that. And so I'm going to make the case to the CEO. I'm going to sort of pound my fist and stomp my feet until that happens. And I don't think that's the most effective approach.
I think if you employ some strategies in your own leadership style and in your own work ethic, and you focus on those and you really work to be the best HR professional and best leader you can be, then naturally you are going to build a reputation. You're going to build a more effective approach over time. You're going to be relied upon more, just naturally and organically. And then that transforms over time. And I think that's what I did in Springfield, I was genuine, I was myself. I worked really hard. I first really got to know the business because I didn't know education and everyone thinks they know education because we've all been a student at some point, but there's a lot to it. There's a lot that goes into being an educator and to running an organization that size. So I got to the business first and foremost, and then I spent time getting to know the people.
Callie:
So getting to know the business, I think is a really tough thing for us to do as HR professionals. Do you have any tips or suggestions in how you went about doing that?
Parker:
Well, I think HR is at the center of everything. I've always said, I think people and money are at the center of everything that every business does. And if you can figure out how to connect whatever it is that you need to know to people, if you're in HR, to people, you can kind of get that in and that door in to the organization. So I just spent a lot of time, I rolled up my sleeves. I went out, we had a lot of facilities throughout the area. I got to know the people. I tried to be as visible as possible.
And when people saw me coming initially the first conversation they want to have is about HR. And I would kind of redirect and say I'm not... I mean, that's fine, if you want to talk about that or if there's an issue there, but I really want to know about you, how you run your piece of our organization. What makes you effective as a leader? What hinders you as a leader? So I tried to ask really good and intentional questions. And I tried to just put aside my agenda and focus on the agenda of the organization and the agenda of the leaders. I strive in my career just in general to be an organizational leader first and an HR leader second. I want people to see me as someone who has a responsibility in the organization that just happens to have an accountability for HR. And I think that getting people to see me in that way really helped me there as well. And it helped me get to know the business.
Callie:
I like that. And I feel, you probably don't feel this way, but that was very profound, I think. To be a organization leader first and an HR leader second, I don't think we always do that as HR professionals. Right. We come in and say, HR is the most important because that's the way that we feel. And some in some organizations that's the case, but in most organizations, it's how we make money is most important. And frankly, that's how we run businesses and that's how businesses are successful. So I love that you approached others and said, tell me about what you're doing rather than saying, hey, this is HR.
Parker:
Yeah. Well, and you can think about it.
Callie:
I love that.
Parker:
I mean, how many times do we all recall times when we needed something in HR or we wanted something in HR and it didn't get prioritized in the overall scheme of either the budget or the strategy or the organization. And I've been around the table as a CHRO when I came into the discussion trying to advocate for something, but in the conversation, I said, you know what? This issue, my priority is not as significant as the others that I'm hearing, so it's going to take a backseat. And that hurts sometimes, but that's what you've got to do, because if you are seen as the HR silo and you don't take into account the needs of other parts of the business, and you don't have the ability to kind of objectively identify other pieces that will have a bigger impact on the business than what you're talking about, and you can't recognize that then you lose credibility pretty quickly.
And I think a lot of HR functions and sometimes HR professionals fall into that trap because it is easy to get that tunnel vision. I mean, again, we can all think about times when we've been focused so intently on something that you lose that perspective. So it's been important to me throughout my career. And it's, I think something that I still try to hold onto today.
Callie:
Yeah. And one of the things that I've... So SHRM developed a strategic planning workshop that a lot of the field service directors on my team go out and facilitate for our chapters. And one of the conversations that seems to really have light bulbs for people is turning the HR organization from a pull to a push organization. So rather than having to, for example, pull data that you know other organizations or departments have access to that would help you in making decisions. What if we could change it to that department, knowing that HR needs that data and pushes it so that we don't have to continually ask that question?
Parker:
Sure. Yeah. I think that's true of, use data as an example there, but I think that's true of lots of other facets, right, of what we do. In an ideal world, I'm not pulling information from people, right. I'm not going to them and I'm not getting downloaded, hey, here's what I need HR to do for me.
Callie:
Right.
Parker:
I'm a part of that conversation. So I'm sort of pushing in the HR strategy, I'm pushing in the work of HR and integrating that into the work of the business. And then we're coming out with a better outcome because we were able to work on that together, as opposed to the business working in a silo, telling HR what it needs. HR working in a silo and we're not getting anything done together. So I think that's also really key. But I know from our conversations Callie, you've been in situations that you've felt that as well in your background. Right?
Callie:
Absolutely. Yeah. I've really tried in a lot of the roles that I've had to be part of the conversation when it starts rather than an afterthought. And then have to be brought in, and like you said, be downloaded on the conversations that have already happened.
Parker:
Yeah.
Callie:
That's definitely something that I've tried to do, but it doesn't always work. It's really dependent on the organization that you're at too.
Parker:
Culture. Yeah.
Callie:
And if you can shift, right, if you can shift your organization to be an organization where that makes sense, it's a game changer, I think.
Parker:
And I think a lot of it has to do with relationships as well.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
So as I think about kind of being the best partner HR can be, we've talked about getting to know the business. The second thing that I think is key is getting to know the people, right. I mean, you've got to have really strong relationships and not just professional relationships, but you have to know kind of how people are engaged at work. What are they bringing to work with them every day? Obviously there are lines from what you're not going to cross, but you need to know. I mean, I've always tried to get to know people on a personal level and understand who they are and kind of what makes them tick. So that also, I think has a big impact in what you were just talking about. If the culture's not there yet for the organization it's a big ask to say, let's turn this whole shift and make a cultural change. But if you think about it in terms of I'm going to kind of get to know individuals. I'm going to win individuals over sort of one at a time through my ability to just build relationships with them.
And I'm doing that because that's actually the way that I'm wired. I want to get to know people. I'm a very people person, and I want to know what's going on with people in their lives. So if you can do that and then you can rely... They say, hey, I know HR, I know Parker, I know Callie. They could definitely help me here. Let me give them a call. That all of a sudden people start doing that as one person and then it's two people. And then you just, before you know it, you've made a cultural change without ever really intending to.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
And it's happened organically. And it's happened in a way that will really lend itself to HR effectiveness down the road.
Callie:
Yeah. And I remember one of the roles that I was in, I was an HR manager at a company. And I had this very profound moment where I recognized that there was one department head that all of the other department heads sort of looked at for guidance. And I thought to myself, that's the person I need to get buy in from. Right. That's the person I need to create a relationship with, because if that person has a good relationship with me, every other department who has issues and comes to this department head will say call Callie or call HR. HR is cool, guys.
Parker:
Absolutely.
Callie:
You know?
Parker:
Yeah.
Callie:
So finding that one person and creating that relationship really does have a trickle down effect if you do it right.
Parker:
Yeah. And doing it right is key because we all know if you have a good experience, you tell one or two people, if you have a bad experience, you tell like 40, right. And so you don't want to mess that up because if in your example, if you have a bad interaction with that person, for whatever reason, then you've had the exact opposite effect of what you intended.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
So yeah, that's a great idea and a great thought.
Callie:
So true. So you said this before and I wrote it down, so I want to revisit it. You made the comment that this-
Parker:
You wrote it down.
Callie:
I did. I did.
Parker:
My goodness. I feel it.
Callie:
Hopefully our listeners couldn't hear me scratching away on my side. But you said that Springfield, this job at the Springfield Public Schools might have been your best job ever.
Parker:
Oh, yeah.
Callie:
So help us understand your decision to leave it.
Parker:
Well, so Springfield is also a great community. Shout out to Springfield. If you haven't had the opportunity to go there. I feel like we're doing travel and leisure in addition to Honest HR today.
Callie:
Yeah. Except we've been to Nebraska and Missouri, so far.
Parker:
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Callie:
Yeah, right.
Parker:
Okay. Maybe not quite as glamorous, but anyway. Yeah. So it is a community of, relatively small community, I think maybe 150,000 in the city limits and then a larger Metro area around that. So depending on your definition it's not a huge city. Springfield Schools was the third largest employer in the city behind two major hospital systems. And so that's just some context to kind of tell you, to give you a little bit of a picture. I've been 11 years with Springfield Schools. It was one of the largest or employers in the community. And I just really, I had been through a lot there. I'd been through two CEO transitions, the latter of which I was very involved in helping that CEO to transform and implement his strategic plan.
I had turned over every major rock in HR. We'd done a lot of HR transformation there. It would be easier to name the things we didn't change over that 11 year period than the things that we did. Because we made a lot of change with the team, who again, did a fantastic job navigating that with me. So it just really kind of felt like a good opportunity, a good time to step back and decide, okay, I'm at a bit of a turning point here. I've done, I've climbed most of the mountains in HR, I've been through some CEO transitions. There was a major legislative change in Missouri that affected the way that we interact with labor unions. We went from basically no labor unions to five labor unions with my time there.
Callie:
Wow.
Parker:
And I was the chief negotiator on those contracts. So I'd had all these big experiences that a lot of people in HR want to have over their career, and I'd kind of gotten in about 11 year period there. So it was just a good kind of natural moment for me to reflect on that. And I wanted to continue to grow. I wanted to continue to learn. My wife is from Nebraska and we'd spent time in Missouri, our married life up to that point. And so we were thinking about, okay, if we make a change, would Midwest make sense, and is there something that's a day's drive from both our families kind of thing.
So it just kind of was a natural evolution, I would say. And then I did kind of go through the search process and looked at a few different opportunities and ended up coming to Nebraska. And when I made that decision, I said to my CEO at the time, I recognized that I may be leaving the best job I'll ever have. And it was a very difficult decision to do that, because I reflected back on when I became the CHRO there. And you've seen the movies where the person in the movie kind of gets the job and all of a sudden they're in the office and they're like looking around and it's that pinch me moment, like, oh, my gosh, I've made it. And I definitely had that in Springfield, I had worked really hard. I had tried to do everything I could do to get to that spot. That was a big goal of mine. And then I got there and I spent some time in that role.
And then for me to make the decision that it's probably time to you look at something else was a really tough, tough decision. And the CEO had been so great. He was a great friend. He's still a good friend. And he had given me so much autonomy and support and had done so much for me, and trusted me implicitly. And that was a big deal for him because again, he was from outside the organization and he was a new CEO. So he didn't take that lightly when he trusted me. So it was just difficult to do, but I think that's a decision that we all have to make at different points in our career.
Callie:
And it sounds you made the decision for... Yeah. You made the decision for a professional and personal growth.
Parker:
Oh yeah, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. And I mean, I would have loved... I could have stayed in Springfield and I could have been happy and I could have been with all of my professional connections, my friends. Again, it was my hometown. I'd been fine. But there's this little voice inside you that kind of sort... I don't know, just a little bit of a guidance, right? Like, okay, is there something else out there that you haven't experienced that would help you? Because I am an HR nerd through and through, right. I'm completely, I love this, this, this field. I love this profession. I love almost everything about it. And I have a desire, a really strong desire to continue to get better at it and to continue to experience it in different ways that I haven't before.
And I wanted a bigger organization. So to go to a Fortune 200 company, again, is an opportunity that a lot of people don't get. And it was a good decision at the time. It still is a decision that was a good decision. I've learned even more. I've had more experiences, I've grown more as a professional, so it's been great. But again, you can speak to that too. You had career transitions that I know you made, that were intended to help you professionally and personally throughout your background as well.
Callie:
Absolutely. Yeah. I made a similar decision to go from a small organization to a large organization, which included really a step back arguably from a title perspective. But it really, the role itself gave me a lot of growth opportunities and potential because of the size of the organization that it was at, and because of all the change that the organization was going through. So, yeah, I've been in a similar place where I made a decision to make a career move and it was specific to being able to grow more and bigger. And just have some additional opportunities that I wouldn't have gotten in a role that I was sufficiently happy in. But yeah, I mean, we all have to sort of look at what we're doing and understand if we're happy, great, but there's always that question of what am I going to do tomorrow that helps me, or keeps me engaged and growing? And if we can't answer that question in the role that we're in now.
Parker:
Yeah.
Callie:
It might be time for us to make a change.
Parker:
Well, yeah, I completely agree. And sometimes it's about that feeling of, okay, I've also kind of done what I came here to do.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
I've fulfilled the mission, and what mission is next? And I'm sort of in that, that's sort of the way I think as well. I can tell, I need a challenge. I need a continuous sort of goal in front of me. But you mentioned the title thing, so I think that's an important conversation as well. Can we talk about that? Can we talk about the title?
Callie:
Yeah. Yeah.
Parker:
This thing as well?
Callie:
You bet.
Parker:
So what did you think about when you got the offer for the second job you're referencing that had an arguably lesser title, was that a big deal for you?
Callie:
It wasn't at all, honestly, because I felt, I always sort of think of how would I explain this to other people if they asked me. Because eventually I'm going to be looking for another job and a recruiter's going to be sitting in front of me saying, why is this title different than your previous title? And I knew that the story that I would tell would have to be about the company specifically, and all companies have different structures when it comes to the jobs that they have. And being a larger company, the HR department was just bigger and differently structured. And I knew that I would be able to tell a good enough story to somebody else to make my move make sense to them. And frankly, I didn't really care if it made sense to other people because it was the right move for me in that moment. But I knew that I would get to a place where I could tell that story and that narrative appropriately.
Parker:
Yeah. And so kind of thinking ahead and being prepared to be able to do that. Yeah. That makes sense.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
I've always thought titles have not been, I've not been hung up on titles. It's not been something that I've been focused on. I always focus on impact. I want to be able to have the type of impact that I want and that I think HR needs to be effective in organizations. And so if I don't have that impact now, my goal is to get to a place in my career. And whether that's a job or a title or whatever is secondary, but to get to a point where I can have that kind of impact. So that was important to me. And then also the learning and growing thing, because CHRO was my title, well, I mean, where am I going to go from there? I don't want to be the CEO. Right.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
And so anything I did or any job I took was going to have a perceivably lower quote, unquote title. But again, it's not something that I was tremendously focused on. To your point, you have to probably talk about that when people want to talk about it down the road, for whatever reason. But it was a great opportunity for me to learn a different part of HR, a different context of HR, much, much bigger organization. So that's kind of what I think about. And I think sometimes people do get too hung up on titles and it prevents them really from making what could be a really great decision for their career or a great decision for their organization, because that's a stumbling block. They can't get it, can't get over the sort of the veneer, right. Which the title is just kind of the outer, the crispy candy coating on the outside of the job.
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
The important thing is what's inside. Right.
Callie:
Right. Yeah. And we're coming to the end of our time, and so I want to sort of circle back to what business acumen really means from an HR perspective. So if you could give our listeners one good suggestion about how to gain that business acumen within their own organizations, what would it be?
Parker:
Well, we talked about getting to know the business and we talked about some ideas for that. We talked about getting to know the people and some ideas for that. I think the one additional point I would make that I think is probably the most important, and that, is you've got to find a way to have... And I'm going to use the word empathy. I don't think that's the perfect word, but that's the one I'm going to use in this moment. It's the only one I can think of, but you got to figure out how to-
Callie:
It's early. So I'll give you, I'll let you use that.
Parker:
Yes, thank you. Yep. It is early. I haven't finished my coffee. You got to figure out how to envision the impact of whatever it is HR is working on, on the business. And you got to put yourself in the shoes of the business leaders who are going to consume your product in HR. And you got to figure out whether or not that is going to be a successful implementation, or a successful transition or whatever it is. And the best way to do that is to engage them throughout the process and help them bring business into HR and bring HR into the business. There should be an integration there. And I think often HR does something and then takes it to the business and says, hey, look at this. Don't you love this? And the business says, not really or it's okay, but I didn't ask for it.
Callie:
Nah.
Parker:
You know?
Callie:
Yeah.
Parker:
Or it's okay, but I don't understand why we're doing this or what value this will bring to the business. So if you do the first two things that we talked about well, if you know the business and you know the people, then you have to use that information and those relationships to put yourself in their shoes. And to help you, as an HR professional, know how whatever it is that you're doing is going to impact. And then use that information to shape what you're doing so that you can deliver a product that is really going to meet the needs of the business. And I think if you do those three things and you do them well, and you focus on what you can control in the moment and the little steps along the way, then that will all add up. And it will create a reputation for you as an HR professional and for HR in general, that really helps you to propel your strategy and HR forward and helps integrate it into the business. I think that's the key, really.
Callie:
And I feel like once HR recognizes how important it is for them to understand the business, one suggestion that I have for HR departments that realize that is to make sure that they make it easy for other employees within the company to also understand the business. So one of the things, and I'm going to do it, even though this isn't really the platform for it. But one of the things that SHRM has done recently for our employees is this sort of SHRM, the business of SHRM course where we teach people what it means to be SHRM. What we offer, how we make money, how we do what we do and why we do it. And that, it has been a game changer for the way that we run everything within our walls. So if HR has realized how important it is to be a business partner, find a way to make it easy for other employees within the organization to also become a business partner and understand the business. Because I think that changes the way that we do things in every organization and department we have.
Parker:
Absolutely. Yeah. And it should, right? I mean, that's what it's all about, helping people understand the business. So yeah, I totally agree.
Callie:
Well, Parker, I appreciate your time. I'm so pleased that Nancy was able to put us in contact with each other. If our listeners want to connect with you and continue the conversation, sort of pick your brain about becoming that sought after HR business partner, how can they connect or reach out?
Parker:
Sure. You can get me on Twitter at Parker_McKenna, or you can find me on LinkedIn, Parker McKenna.
Callie:
McKenna is spelt?
Parker:
M-C-K-E-N-N-A.
Callie:
Okay. Wonderful.
Parker:
And I'm not on Instagram yet. I don't know why. I guess I'm in like the 1%. I have to do that at some point, I suppose.
Callie:
Well, I'll tell you if you do it now-
Parker:
Me and Kim Kardashian, I'm not sure.
Callie:
Well, and if you go on Instagram now, tomorrow there's going to be a different platform that you have to consider. So yeah, I know.
Parker:
That's true.
Callie:
I would just say, be comfortable where you're at and then just let everything else figure it itself out. But thank you again for your time. Listeners, if you want to connect with me, my name's Callie, last name Zipple, Z-I-P-P-L-E. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at SHRM Callie Z. You can also find more information about the podcast itself on the shrm.org/honesthr website. We do look for topic and guest suggestions there. So feel free to just check us out on that website as well. We appreciate you being listeners. We appreciate you coming back or being new, whatever it is you decide to do.
And as I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, this episode is part one of miniseries two. Next week's episode will be part two of three. We'll provide you with the SHRM professional development or PDC code for listening at the end of the final episode of this mini series. And you must listen to all parts of the mini series in order to use the PDC code towards your SHRM re-certification. As always thanks for being SHRM certified and for listening to our honest HR podcast. Have a good one, everybody.