The Arts Club of Washington provides an elegant and gracious site which once served as the executive mansion for President James Monroe in 1817. Heavy hor d'oeuvres and open bar. Registration and Networking will be from 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. The program will start at 6:30 p.m. The new 2008-2009 officers will be installed and volunteers will be recognized. As in the past, a book signer will be part of the program. This event is complimentary to HRA-NCA members and non-members. Please register in advance as space is limited.

In partnership with Washington SmartCEO magazine and Washington metropolitan chapters of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Helios HR proudly announces the 2008 Helios HR Apollo Awards™. The Apollo Awards recognize organizations that promote employee growth and development as an integral part of their organizational culture.

Celebrate this year's winners at the Apollo Awards breakfast ceremony!

Let your voice be heard! HRA-NCA is offering the chance for you to visit the offices of your Representatives and Senators to talk about issues affecting today's HR Professionals. We'll do all the prep work -- scheduling your visits and providing you with talking points. All you need to do is show up!

Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
No registration fee -- Lunch provided

Space is limited and on a first-come, first- served basis.

Questions and RSVP to:
Eric H. Oppenheim, SPHR
HRA-NCA Vice President of Legislative Affairs
eric@republicfoods.com
(240) 644-6542

The awards program is designed to assist HR professionals in meeting their career goals. Individuals may apply for either a $1,375 education scholarship or a $750 certification scholarship. A total of 100 scholarships will be awarded.

Application Deadline: July 15, 2008

Eligibility: National SHRM professional, general and associate members pursuing a college degree or working towards PHR, SPHR, GPHR or California certification are eligible to apply. SHRM student members and local-only members are not eligible for these awards. Chapters and state councils may also apply for scholarship funds to support certification training programs.

Awards: 60 certification scholarships of $750 each and 40 academic scholarships of $1,375 each will be awarded. Applications will be judged based on region.

Each region has a total of $20,000 to distribute which guarantees that there will be 20 scholarship winners (12 certification awards and 8 academic awards) in each region.

How to Apply: Visit Regional Scholarship Program to print out an application or learn more about the scholarships.

Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) hosted HRA-NCA's first job shadowing day on May 13th. HR Director, Leanne Vigliano, the Administrator, Stephen Nordholt and the Department Heads actively participated in a half day event that inspired such feedback from students as:

"well organized," "thanks for feeding us," "I had a great time," to "hire me," "you rock," and "I will definitely visit again."

Students participating in the job shadowing day benefit in many ways: increased awareness of new and emerging career fields; opportunity to expand self-awareness about career interests; discover the importance of math, science, writing and personal management skills to all careers; and most of all, to develop an occupational day dream that can come true with hard work and perseverance.

If you would like to volunteer to host students in a Job Shadowing event, or would like to volunteer on the Workforce Readiness committee, please contact Cindy Gurne, 703- 647-7452, cbgurne@careercentralonline.com

The honorees for the 2008 HR Leadership Awards of Greater Washington have been announced. The HR Leadership Awards honors HR resources executives for outstanding contributions to their organizations and in the field of HR management. Established in 2001, the awards recognize HR leaders for their contributions in 6 areas: Leadership, Strategic Alignment, Innovation, Mentoring, Community Services, and Promoting Ethical Behavior. Once again, the HR Leadership Awards recognizes exemplary human resource leaders who serve as business strategists, change drivers and thought leaders in industry and government through the greater Washington, DC area.

The honorees will be acknowledged and winners announced on June 3rd and 7th at the annual gala event. This year's gala features keynote speaker, W. Stanton Smith, National Director, Next Generation Initiatives at Deloitte & Touche USA LLP.

Visit www.hrleadership.org for a list of honorees and to purchase tickets for the gala.

Are you in the middle of creating your professional development budget for 2008? As you are planning, remember to include your 2008 HRA-NCA dues for yourself and your staff. Being a member of HRA-NCA gives you a unique opportunity to network with other HR professionals in the DC metro area and enjoy the many learning opportunities that are offered. There are many exciting programs planned for 2008 and we look forward to having you join us again next year!

The SHRM Foundation has funded more than $1.4 million in rigorous academic research to advance the HR profession. Current SHRM foundation-funded research projects include the topic areas of: HR professionals as team leaders; performance appraisal programs; the influence of telework on work-family balance and organizational effectiveness; the aging American workforce; and managing global talent. The cumulative effect of multiple research studies is to discover and document what practices work best, and under what conditions.

What does that mean for you? It means enhanced credibility. Imagine proposing a new program to senior management and being able to cite solid research to demonstrate the benefits of your proposed change. Indeed, research advances the knowledge base and ultimately influences the practice of human resource management. For example, the widespread use of structured interviews is based on multiple research studies that clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of this practice. To review the results of recently completed SHRM Foundation research, visit www.shrm.org.

Professor Mikki Hebl's industrial organizational psychology lab at Rice University is seeking a group of human resource managers as participants for a brief (10-15 minutes) on-line resume study. If you are interested in participating, please click on the link at the end of this article to access the survey.

Project description: Studies in psychology have historically used convenience samples of undergraduate students as research participants. This raises issues when authors attempt to generalize their findings to what is often a very different actual population of interest. This is particularly true in the field of industrial-organizational psychology. Working adults with experience in their field often see business-related issues quite differently from inexperienced college students.

Towards this end, the study aims to examine differences in how human resource professionals and undergraduate students evaluate job candidates. Rice is interested in which types of work and academic experiences are valued more or less highly by the two groups. Participation would involve rating the hireability of 5 hypothetical recent college graduates for an entry-level management position on the basis of their resumes, and providing some basic background demographic information. Please take a few moments to assist in this important study!

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 website 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 website, special events, etc. Interested? Contact Chris Cramer, HRA-NCA's PR & Sponsorship Chair, or access our information on the website. For this issue, sincere thanks to the following sponsor.

Attend the American Strategic Management Institute’s Audio Conference: HR Measures, Metrics and Analytics

The audio conference HR Measures, Metrics, and Analytics will take place May 13, 2008 from 2:00-3:30 p.m. EST.  This 90 minute session will discuss why HR Professionals can show bottom-line results to the organization by using metrics.  Chris DeVany, Founder of Pinnacle Performance Improvement Worldwide will discuss benchmarking your organization’s human capital approach in addition to how you can enhance the effectiveness of your HR strategies.

For more information on this audio conference call Laura Holzman at 703-894- 0481 or go to: http://www.asmiweb.com/webcast/f476.ht ml

FREE Posting and Pre-Screening Service for Non-exempt Jobs

A community-based 501(c)(3) organization, WORC assists Greater Washington's diverse population in finding jobs that can lead to sustainable careers. WORC serves as an employee referral agent between employers in DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia and our region's workforce development organizations.

• WORC distributes a weekly eNewsletter, the WORC Job Board, to over 600 workforce development professionals. It contains hundreds of job openings for non-exempt positions.
• WORC collaborates with the area's workforce development organizations to identify and screen resumes - ensuring that qualified applicants are referred to hiring managers.

- 1 out of every 4 resumes referred to an employer by WORC receives an interview.
- 88% of WORC-referred individuals are still employed.

Are you looking to access a pool of qualified, pre-screened employee candidates? Please contact David Remick at 703-769-3712 or remick@worconline.org.

Visit WORC at www.worconline.org.