Don't miss this very special event! Over 30 practitioners, consultants and attorneys will lend their knowledge, skills and experience to HRA-NCA on February 27th during its one- day conference.

Join 200+ HR professionals and take advantage of all the conference has to offer. Gain practical skills and strategic knowledge. Attend educational sessions on employment issues, compensation and benefits, career development, retention strategies, performance management, legal matters and much more. Plenty of networking opportunities.

SHRM’s New Career Guide: What this New Tool Can do for You
February 22, 2007,6 - 8 p.m.

In this session, we will discuss the SHRM HR Career Guide. The SHRM HR Career Guide is an interactive online tool that enables SHRM members to plan their HR Career. This free SHRM member benefit provides HR Professionals with the ability to evaluate where they are in their HR careers today, where they would like to be tomorrow, and what SHRM can help them do to get there. This session will provide a guided tour through this tool and help provide information and direction as to how this tool can help map out a career plan for you. Tom Melanson, eLearning, Manager, SHRM, will lead the discussion.

For more information, please contact Stephanie Simpson at (202) 220-0767 or via email at ssimpson@fmi.org

The Job Seekers Group will resume Wednesday, February 14. Please note that our location has changed. We will meet at the offices of Lee Hecht Harrison, 1399 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 725, Washington, DC. The telephone number is: 202-637-0011. The building management requires that visitors check in at the front desk and present a photo ID. It is important to sign up for this event as we must provide a list of names to the security team in advance. A big thanks to HRA member Cynthia Ward to volunteering the space and her participation in the group.

If you have questions about the group or the new location, please contact Rina Pennacchia at HRAJobSearch05@hotmail.com.

Our January Professional Development chapter meeting was a lively discussion with Chris Lee. His presentation was on “Performance Conversations”, an Alternative to Appraisal. Our attendees received 2.0 recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI).

Chris provided an in-depth analysis on new 21st Century Management and the new thinking of a productive performance appraisal. Some of the important points to remember with performance appraisals are to (1) provide a good climate (2) include shared responsibilities, (3) shared meaning, & (4) the “conversations” should always be on-going.

Chris was able to show that conversation can be more effective then performance confrontation. This can be done through shaping the environment for open, honest and constructive two-way feedback through meeting four to six times a year instead of an end of the year one-way boss driven evaluation. He was also able to answer the question of legal documentation by making it clear that all conversations, whether informal or not, do need to be documented.

Our members enjoyed his interactive presentation and provided us with some great feedback: “thoughtful- inspiring”, “excellent content”, “timely topic - great presentation”, ”very knowledgeable”, ”will need to put this to use next week with my own appraisal”, “would have loved more time”, “spread the word”, etc.

Thank you to our attendees and your feedback. DON’T MISS our next event: HR SKILL BUILDING: Developing a Toolkit for Addressing Contemporary Issues, at our HRA-NCA one day conference on Tuesday February 27th at the Ronald Reagan Building.

BNA and HRA-NCA have established a Member Discount Program, offering HRA-NCA members access to an unparalleled set of HR resources designed to help you improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and management of your organization's HR function.

All BNA HR information resources are available via BNA's new online store, including both subscription services (i.e. BNA's flagship HR Library) and non-subscription services (i.e. audioconferences). Best of all, HRA-NCA is pleased to bring you these HR resources at a 10% discount, in cooperation with BNA, Inc., the industry's leader in HR information services.

You may look up these and other members' information in the HRA-NCA online membership directory, using various search categories. Log in through the "Member Login" on the HRA-NCA Web site home page. Keep your membership record up-to-date so we don't lose touch!

HRA-NCA Welcomes These New Members

HRA-NCA invites organizations to sponsor our newsletter - or any of the following: monthly speaker presentations, our Web site, special events, etc. Interested? Contact Tricia Riviere, HRA-NCA's PR & Sponsorship Chair, or access our information on the Web site.