President’s Pen
by Andrea Davis Cranfill, SPHR

One of the exciting aspects of our HRACI is our affiliation with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Annually, SHRM hosts a three-day conference for volunteer leaders at the chapter, state, and national levels. This year, HRACI sent five volunteer leaders, including Cherilyn Stephens, President-Elect; Nancy Holland, Vice President of Programs; Helena Masters, incoming Vice President of Membership; Debbie Williams, Treasurer; and myself. As we prepare for new programs and chapter initiatives in 2006, this year’s leadership conference gave us many new ideas and an even greater sense of energy around how great our chapter can be!

Sharing Best Practices
We attended a day-long breakout session with super-mega chapters (more than 1,000 members). We joined that peer group because HRACI is currently 950+ members strong and growing! We wanted to learn what the most successful of the largest SHRM chapters are doing to serve their members. We spent time sharing best practices in the areas of member recruitment and retention, volunteer recognition, succession planning, chapter programming and speakers, non-dues revenue, senior member involvement, serving the professional, and advancing the profession. We look forward to incorporating many new ideas as we continue to plan for 2006.

SHRM Annual Business Meeting
We attended the SHRM annual business meeting featuring Sue Meisinger, President and CEO. For those of you who are SHRM members, you might be interested in some of the highlights of Sue’s annual report to the membership:

1. SHRM membership is projected to exceed 207,000 members by the end of 2005. At-large membership (SHRM members who are not also local chapter members) continues to grow at a faster rate than local-chapter membership, which had a slight dip (66% at-large and 34% local-chapter.)
2. Once again, the SHRM board of directors has voted NOT to increase annual membership dues for 2006.
3. The year-to-date pass rates for HRCI certification exams are: SPHR – 58%, PHR – 66%, and GPHR – 65%.
4. The SHRM website was recently relaunched with a new look. Pop-up ads have been eliminated from the website based on member and volunteer feedback.
5. HR Magazine is celebrating its 50th anniversary and will be commemorated with a special 13th issue in December.
6. More than 100 new courses will be added to SHRM e-Learning by year-end.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at president@hraci.org.

Andrea Davis Cranfill, SPHR
President-HRACI

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Now is not the time to let your membership expire!

Is your name in the hat to win one of two give-aways to attend next year’s Indiana State Conference? You have until December 31st to rejoin and be eligible to win!

Membership renewal is upon us for those that joined HRACI in 2004 or prior. Use one of these three convenient renewal methods:

• Online at www.hraci.org
• By mail (download a word document to fax or mail)
• In person at the November and December monthly meetings

As HRACI membership is based on a calendar year, 2006 renewal is $75. This individual renewal amount will enable us to continue providing a strong value for the membership and defray ever-increasing expenses.

Continue to be a part of your local HR organization by joining today! You will be one of many who belong to a Superior Merit Award Chapter.

VP of Membership                   Director of Membership
Rog Greenawalt                       Helena Masters

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Three-quarters of Employees Looking for New Jobs, Says New Survey

(Alexandria, Va., November 16, 2005)— Seventy-six percent of employees are looking for new employment opportunities, according to the 2005 U.S. Job Recovery and Retention Survey released today by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and CareerJournal.com (http://www.careerjournal.com/). Sixty-five percent of HR professionals indicated they were concerned about the voluntary resignations at their organizations. To prevent a mass exodus, almost half of the organizations surveyed are implementing special retention processes to keep their employees.

The percentage of organizations implementing special retention processes had increased to 49 percent in 2005 compared with 35 percent in 2004. HR professionals have found that competitive salary, career development opportunities, promoting qualified employees and flexible work schedules are among the best employee retention strategies. Although salary increases are often perceived as the most valuable incentive for employees to stay with their current jobs, they are also among the most difficult to provide because although the economy is improving, organizations are still somewhat cautious to increase spending.

“The loss of talent has many implications for a company, especially when the organization’s core, middle-management level employees leave in large numbers,” says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerJournal.com. “HR professionals are challenged with creatively engaging the people in their organizations, which will be a difficult task since more than three-quarters of employees are either actively or passively engaged in a job search.”

“Offering competitive salaries for the market is important to employees, however, compensation alone is not sufficient for a complete retention strategy,” said Susan R. Meisinger, SPHR, president and CEO of SHRM. “Career development opportunities and work/life balance are important for today’s employee, and employers must consider these types of issues in their retention practices if they want to develop successful organizations.”
There are many strategies other than financial incentives that organizations can employ to keep their employees. Creating programs that help employees see their potential for growth within an organization, working with managers to develop career paths for non-management-level employees, creating a more favorable work environment, and implementing better work/life practices such as flextime and telecommuting can have an impact on reducing employee turnover rates.

In the survey, employees and HR professionals agreed on the top reasons employees left their organizations—better compensation elsewhere (41 percent of employees, 50 percent of HR professionals), career opportunity elsewhere (34 percent of employees, 51 percent of HR professionals) and dissatisfaction with potential for career development at organization (25 percent of employees, 31 percent of HR professionals). About one-quarter (23 percent) of employees stated that being ready for a new experience was an important reason to begin or increase the intensity of their job search.
SHRM and CareerJournal.com conducted the survey to determine opinions about job recovery and the effectiveness of retention strategies from the perspective of both HR professionals and employees. The survey questions were e-mailed to randomly selected SHRM members, yielding 435 responses from HR professionals, and a convenience sample of CareerJournal.com visitors who comprise the employee sample, bearing 465 responses.

About SHRM
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world’s largest association devoted to human resource management. Representing more than 200,000 individual members, the Society’s mission is both to serve human resource management professionals and to advance the profession. Founded in 1948, SHRM currently has more than 500 affiliated chapters and members in more than 100 countries. Visit SHRM Online at www.shrm.org

About CareerJournal.com
CareerJournal.com is The Wall Street Journal’s award winning career site targeted to executives, managers and professionals.

About Dow Jones & Company
Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ; www.dowjones.com) publishes the global Wall Street Journal with its international and online editions; Barron's; the Far Eastern Economic Review; Dow Jones Newswires and Indexes; and Ottaway newspapers. Dow Jones co-owns Factiva with Reuters, SmartMoney with Hearst and CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe with NBC Universal. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and U.S. radio stations.

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by Terri Ryckaert, HRACI Director of Communications
and Susan Martin, Communications Committee

Indiana State Representative David Frizzell and Deputy of Health for the Indiana Department of Insurance Carol Cutter shared a few of the details of the 2005 Legislative Session during the November 17th luncheon meeting. “We’ve done more than daylight savings time,” said Frizzell. Faced with a $550 million structural budget deficit, the state was in a crisis position during the legislative session from January through April of this year, according to Frizzell.

During this session, the General Assembly proposed 74 initiatives. Fifty-nine were passed, five were partially passed, ten did not pass and nine were enacted through legislative action. Frizzell stated that a few of the accomplishments included:

• Establishing tax credits for businesses moving within the state of the Indiana
• Modernizing the insurance structure for the state
• Increasing dollars per student for education
• Funding for education to follow the child, not the school
• Controlling school construction

Carol Cutter discussed Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and how the governor is pro-active with the support of a state level Health Savings Account. She encouraged attendees to speak with insurance agents and have them help explain the cost of medicines to their employees. Cutter stressed that, we as consumers need to be informed consumers. “You need to decide where and who you have procedures done that suits your pocketbook”, said Cutter.

What’s on the horizon for the 2006 Legislative Session? Frizzell stated that property taxes will be the number priority for the General Assembly. They will also try to work on basic health insurance and long term care insurance. Frizzell predicts that we will see more emphasis in the next year on long term care.

For more information visit the following websites:
http://www.in.gov/idoi/health/ Indiana Department of Insurance

State Representative David Frizzell
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_republicans/homepages/r93/

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The Society for Human Resource Management Foundation funds research, publications and education to advance the HR profession and enhance the effectiveness of HR professionals. To support its important work, the SHRM Foundation conducts an annual fundraising campaign and all contributions to the Foundation are tax-deductible.

If you have not done so already, you may make contributions online at https://sapphire.shrm.org/foundation/form2.cfm. We will also have contribution forms available during the November and December HRACI luncheon meetings.

We encourage you to visit the SHRM Foundation website (http://www.shrm.org/foundation/) to view currently funded HR research projects, foundation research findings, information on grant applications and other foundation resources.

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December Informal "Get-Together" on a Wednesday

What: Human Resource and related folks meet, talk, and enjoy a drink or two.

Why: Just a place and time for HR types and friends to “get away” for a bit. No planned agenda or presentations, just casual discussion, advise, war stories, or just relax and network.

Who: You and any guest(s) you want to bring along!

When: Wednesday, December 14th, 6:00 PM, The Jazz Kitchen, 5377 N. College Ave. Broad Ripple area. 253-4900. Ask for the HR group. (Location will change each time we meet) Call me if you have any questions. See you there!

Contact Greg Medcalf, 317-788-6890, ext. 257 with any questions.

Dera Wilson
Jeri Garner
Kelley Ison
Melodie Yarnell
Traci Shaffer
Emily Goddard
Gregg Ballard
Robin Livesay
Andrea Resnik
Jill Britt