Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from SHRM 2022 at the New Orleans Convention Center, it’s time for Workplace MVP. Brought to you by R3 Continuum, a global leader in helping workplaces thrive during disruptive times. Now, here’s your host.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:20] Hey, everyone. You’re host, Jamie Gassman here, and I am coming to you from the SHRM 2022 Expo Hall. And I’m in our show sponsor, R3 Continuum’s Booth. And joining me is Sue Greene from the PA SHRM. Hi, Sue.

Sue Greene: [00:00:35] Hi, how are you?

Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:36] Good. So can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you got into H.R. industry and just share a little bit about your career history?

Sue Greene: [00:00:48] Yeah. I sure can. Well, first of all, thanks for the invite, I think. But on the same token, though. I’m 20, probably approaching 25 years now in some fashion or form in workforce development human resources. I started my career as an employment manager at a local hospital.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:06] Wow!

Sue Greene: [00:01:07] And it just – yeah, and it was interesting even then, 25 years ago. They were looking for somebody with business background and not necessarily H.R. background because they thought, well, you know, we can teach you the H.R. stuff. And they were like forward thinking folks, similar to how SHRM looks at it today. It takes all blends of your skillsets to be a real business partner in your company.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:28] Yeah. No. I would agree with that. And now you do a lot with SHRM. So tell me a little bit about the work that you do with SHRM.

Sue Greene: [00:01:33] Sure. I started as a state council member at PA SHRM at the local level. I was a chapter president. And there’s a whole litany of volunteer roles that you can kind of work your way through, and having been on multiple different committees, voluntold, volunteered, however that all works. And most recently I’m now sitting at the state director level for PA SHRM. And our role is really a liaison piece between local chapters at the state level in Pennsylvania and then their conduit to SHRM national. So, we get to promote workforce development. We have core leadership areas for college relations, for students, membership, of course, and there’s legal and legislative, all of those different pieces that are extremely important to companies.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:02:28] Yeah. And so, in looking at the work that you guys are doing at SHRM, what are some of the challenge areas that you’ve been seeing that your group is focusing on and helping your members to get more education on and more information on?

Sue Greene: [00:02:41] Well, I can tell you, just from a priority sake from SHRM and at the state level and local level, we want to make sure that, first of all, we’re an association-driven group. So, dual membership is really important to us. So, I’ll just take a second on that. So that means if you have a local member but they may or may not have the full resources of what SHRM offers at the national level, white papers, you know, just experts to talk to. So we’re promoting pretty heavily that you should be a dual member, both with SHRM and with the local. But everything we’re hearing is still very workforce retention being as key as it is hiring right now, because it’s just as we’ve all heard anybody it’s like two jobs for every person out there right now.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:03:27] Wow! Wow! So, I really think that –

Sue Greene: [00:03:28] It’s really a shortage.

Sue Greene: [00:03:30] Definitely a shortage. And I know we’ve had a lot of, you know, throughout the course of the SHRM show today, just a lot of conversations around creative ways for retention, things that employers need to be thinking about. So do you have any, like, educational events coming up or things that, you know, H.R. leaders in your area can attend in person?

Sue Greene: [00:03:52] It’s interesting you say that. In August, I want to say this 5th and 6th of August out towards the Pittsburgh area, we’ll have a more leadership-centric conference for folks that are belonging to the local chapters that are either on their current boards or aspire to be. And we’re excited. We have three really great keynotes that we’ll have. It’s a full day. It’s not like it’s multi-day. It’ll be plenty for them. But our big deal is in September. We have our big annual conference in state college at Penn State University. We’ve had it there for years. It’s more the central part of the state so folks can come in, and that has a whole litany of different tracks and different, and that’s a multi-day event.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:04:35] Yeah. I suppose there’s a lot of very important information for these H.R. leaders to grab a hold of, especially me. Even at the national event, I know there’s several different tracks. Is there something that you as an H.R. leader and with the PA SHRM that you’re excited to take in from this particular conference?

Sue Greene: [00:04:52] You know, it’s just nice being on site.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:04:56] Yeah.

Sue Greene: [00:04:56] I hate to sound that way. Yeah, it’s been a couple of years because, you know, we kind of had to all pivot and figure out what that means. So it’s been really good to see colleagues that I haven’t seen face-to-face. Zoom’s okay. But I will tell you, I have – it’s encouraging just – my breakouts and just with Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. today, just the motivation and wanting to make a difference and to truly cause the effect ’cause it’s been – you know, the drum keeps beating there, but that’s probably my biggest takeaway, is that we can make differences small and large.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:05:30] Yeah. I love that. It’s such a great, great thing to take away. I have not heard that yet on the show, so that’s very awesome. Well, if anybody wanted to get more information on your upcoming PA SHRM event, how would they go about doing that?

Sue Greene: [00:05:43] Probably the easiest way to find us at the state level is pashrm.org, on the our website, then that goes on down to the local level. So they would actually, depending on where they live across the Commonwealth, they could tap into any local chapter and get connected there too.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:06:00] Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining us. It’s been a pleasure to talk with you.

Sue Greene: [00:06:04] Yeah. Thanks for the time. Appreciate it.

Outro: [00:06:10] Thank you for joining us on Workplace MVP. R3 Continuum is a proud sponsor of this show and is delighted to celebrate most valuable professionals who work diligently to secure safe workplaces where employees can thrive.