SHRM takes a lot of heat for its ‘failures’. I’ve come to realize that much of that criticism is misplaced. SHRM is often used as a surrogate for the profession itself.

Like many national associations and franchises, the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a bundle of contradictory strengths and weaknesses. The local chapters offer amazing regional innovation and stodgy academia-ish tenure based networks. The national association is both lifeline and anchor for its membership. On the whole, the benefit SHRM delivers is significantly greater than the burden it creates.

SHRM serves its primary purpose, keeping its members up to date, and informed more effectively than most professional associations. The local chapters are the backbone of the profession. Much of the criticism aimed at SHRM ends up there because there is nowhere else to throw it.

The market offers mixed reviews of SHRM’s performance and validity. The venerable professional society has its share of competitors and naysayers. At the same time, over 40% of industry practitioners have a membership. SHRM certification is widely understood as a measure of competence. (It’s notable that there are competing certifications that emphasize human capital strategy.)

There are no other operations that can hold a candle to the SHRM infrastructure. With deep (but separate) penetration in local markets, much of the real SHRM action happens at the chapter level. There are feudal legacies in place in most regions of the United States. The local SHRM organization is often the best path to employment in the sector.

SHRM’s architecture and framework make the outstanding contribution of the local chapters possible. While there is an inherent friction between national and local operations, the benefit can be seen in the flowering of grass-roots initiatives. The national organization has a thankless job.

Without SHRM and its local chapters, HR professionals would drown in a sea of contradictory information. The organization provides, at its roots, the structure and data necessary to keep the profession viable. Critiques that don’t account for this fundamental value miss the boat.

Criticizing SHRM is the active past-time of a range of commentators, managers and pundits. Some of the flak is a direct result of the profession’s fungibility. HR is a different beast in different regions and different industries. Approaches to HR that work well in information/service businesses fail routinely in the manufacturing, hospitality and retail sectors. The manners and procedures required for effective execution in Birmingham, AL are a kiss of death in New York City.

It’s nearly impossible for an organization to simultaneously provide critical maintenance information and insight while teaching a profession how to innovate.

SHRM’s tendency to maintain a large moat around its silo is both structural and intentional. All professional associations share an inherent core belief that there are transferable skills and messages within the profession. The view comes at the expense of traction in some settings and is the source of the industry’s penchant for self-measurement and navel gazing.

A large chunk of the difficulty lies with the profession itself. HR is a jumbled bag of cats and dogs that vary from organization to organization. Any rational human being would have a hard time staying on top of the material. The networks that evolve outward from the local chapters give working professionals access to the expertise required to navigate the regulatory and region specific aspects of the discipline.

“Keeping up with it all” is a routine struggle for the men and women /component/page,shop.product_details/category_id,6/flypage,flypage.tpl/product_id,59/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,58/vmcchk,1/”>buy cialis soft who operate the vast majority of HR Departments. These folks are their organization’s eyes and ears in the battle to solve employee relations problems while staying one step ahead of changes in regulation. SHRM and its loose network of local operations serves these people magnificently.

SHRM is significantly better at the task of keeping its membership up to speed than professional associations in other areas.

Things are much less clear when the question turns to the creation of sustained value for the organization. In a land of best practices, no meaningful advantage can be developed. Almost by definition, a professional association is in the business of transmitting old stories and conventional wisdom. It’s the wrong place to look for innovation (or its seeds). In fact, it’s worth being a little suspicious when a professional association takes on the question.

Maximizing the value derived from Human Capital is an organizational contact sport. In mature industries, the process is formulaic. But, in young, expanding sectors, the rules appear while the game is being played. Sometimes, basic functions have to be radically reconceived in order to accomplish the organization’s mission. This is where all professional associations are their weakest. SHRM is no different.

The parts of the profession who are not served by SHRM fall into two categories: adaptive companies that insist on pure business results from their HR operation and those that get their information from another source. The first group is not really a potential SHRM customer and the second gets value from competing services, periodicals and associations.

The depth and intensity of the criticism aimed at SHRM may be the best indicator of its overall influence. As the factions /component/page,shop.product_details/category_id,6/flypage,flypage.tpl/product_id,59/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,58/vmcchk,1/”>buy cialis soft argue about SHRM’s validity and viability, the future of the profession takes shape. One of the most interesting aspects of the association’s integrity is its willingness to engage critics thoughtfully and patiently. China Gorman, profiled earlier in this series, works diligently to understand and incorporate new ideas and constructive critique.

It is likely that SHRM will be the only institution to make the Top 100 Influencers list. For the people inside the silo, it is a source of credibility, inspiration and information. For those outside its purview, perspectives range from frustration to admiration. SHRM is the one element of the HR ecosystem on which every member has an opinion. For everyine involved, it is a stabilizing force.

It’s hard to think of someone in the industry who is better connected than Gerry Crispin. The big company HR guy went from corporate to Ad Agency to author to general networker. Crispin’s influence is felt in the agenda at SHRM, the vast number of young professionals he mentors and the executives who network under his watchful eye.

A fixture on the conference scene, Gerry’s late career persona evolved as the result of working with Mark Mehler. (There are those who swear that they’ve never seen both men in the same room at the same time). The duo are responsible for CareeXRoads (an early guide to employment websites).

They have evolved the brand to its current incarnation, the CareerXRoads Colloquium.The Colloquium is a vetted group of effectiveness oriented peers who want to improve their game while measuring and assessing their performance. The group holds six events a year to discuss recruiting issues. The maximum attendance is 40. In order to qualify, the prospect has to be passionate about Recruiting, willing and able to share company data and be analytical.

At a typical function, participants break into teams that compete to reinvent a subset of the Recruiting process. Each get together and the interim flurry of information are designed to stimulate insight. Crispin takes great delight in introducing these aggressive professionals to new ideas about quantification and assessment.

Underneath that soft hearted HR exterior lies the sharp mind of an engineer. Crispin is a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology with a BE in Engineering. In spite of multiple graduate degrees in Organizational Development, he finds himself ever more fascinated with things you can measure.

The attention he pays to things that can be calculated extends way beyond the Colloquium. This year Gerry is helping move the HR profession towards standards. Championing an initiative started at SHRM, Crispin believes that standardizing definitions will help the HR craft become a profession.

According to SHRM Online,

SHRM will “actually begin to oversee the [HR] /component/page,shop.cart/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,58/vmcchk,1/”>cialis trial pack standards across the globe,…Once these standards are created, local HR leaders can use them “to manage their practices more effectively in their workplaces, and [the standards] will be connected to what we do with certification … Having operating standards rather than using an ad hoc approach to manage HR operations will allow HR to act in a manner similar to other professionals…. It can lead to SHRM becoming “the arbiter of HR standards not only for the domestic U.S. marketplace but also across the globe.”

It’s a heady agenda (and one wonders how the rest of the world will feel).

Crispin is also a vocal advocate of the importance of community in life long learning and improvement. He gets it from the details of his life. Each year, Crispin and 80 of his closest relatives camp out for a week of cooking, singing, parenting, grand parenting and all around summertime fun. Ask him to show you the pictures.

Influence takes a variety of forms. Gerry Crispin plays the soft spoken good listener who is as happy to share credit as he is to get it. A generation of HR Leaders turn to him for tactical and personal advice. He oils the wheels of progress.

Crispin is a patient advocate of change. Playing the long game, he focuses on accumulating incremental moves to accomplish large objectives. Being a part of a detailed plot for world dominance is just what you’d expect from him.

John Sumser is the founder and CEO of TwoColorHat, a company specializing /component/page,shop.cart/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,58/vmcchk,1/”>cialis trial pack in market strategy for HR – Recruiting Vendors. You can keep up with his other stuff at johnsumser.com. Follow the rest of the Top 100 Influencers project.

Influence is one part position and leverage and one part personality. There are some things you just can’t do unless you have the right job. While many of the key influencers in HR-Recruiting have built their spheres over time, others move through careers and end up in positions that cast a big shadow. Occasionally, you run across someone who is able to harness a big position in a way that no one else has.

As the COO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), China Gorman is helping the organization navigate new waters. As the HR profession matures and faces a stream of pending disruptions, it’s primary professional association is beginning to shift its focus. These days, relevance and viability are not a given. It’s more than a little amazing that stodgy old SHRM is moving with the times.

Talking with China, you could be excused for thinking that SHRM was always open to external influence and was a hyperadaptive enterprise. Typically that’s not what professional associations do. It certainly isn’t the track record of the leading HR association. Long derided for being out of touch with members and the times, no one is more surprised than I to discover that there is real change brewing.

New executive leadership brings new focus. The new President and CEO, Lon O’Neill was Chief of HR for Kaiser Permanete and a managing partner at Heidrik and Struggles. Gorman, herself, has a really deep background in outplacement with real P&L responsibility and a growth track record. This means that the talent acquisition and management agenda is on the front burner. The organization’s leadership is rooted in business and strategic responsibility.

We talked for a long time about the disruption headed our way. From her perspective, HR is built of two pieces: Compliance and Talent. Part of the future she imagines is a strengthening of the gap between the two. One is a strategic issue and one, hygiene. You have to get the hygiene stuff (payroll, comp benefits) right. The money is in Talent related matters.

She was the interim CEO at SHRM while the search committee found her a new boss. Years as a serious player in various staffing industry prepared her well for senior decision making at a trade association. She is often the face of SHRM on Capitol Hill. Gorman is heavily interviewed and always engaging. She hosted /content/view/30/62/”>buy cialis generic the blogging panel at SHRM’s annual conference.

Part of the change that Gorman is shepherding is an expansion of SHRM’s influence and stakeholder base.

She tells the story of HR at WalMart. The company moved HR away from the stores, centralizing some functions and outsourcing others. After some time, it became clear that having an effective HR Department in the store was a better approach. When Walmart decided to bring the function back to the local level, they chose an interesting development partner: SHRM. While being very careful not to step on toes, SHRM is moving well beyond its established /content/view/30/62/”>buy cialis generic parameters.

Nothing could be better for the profession.

Gorman’s story is so compelling that we’ve scheduled a second round of interviews with her to clearly define the changes she is helping to make.

John Sumser is the founder and CEO of TwoColorHat, a company specializing in market strategy for HR – Recruiting Vendors. You can keep up with his other stuff at johnsumser.com. Follow the rest of the Top 100 Influencers project.