Let’s Celebrate: The Carnival of HR is here

Welcome to my first Carnival of HR. I am pleased to host this time with a special December theme: Let’s Celebrate your proudest achievement in HR. As HR people, there are a lot of things we take for granted when we do them, but that we would single out if one of our employees would do them. So it’s high time to celebrate all our achievements in HR!

I’ve received a number of posts on this theme, and I would like to thank everyone who submitted a post for their special effort. As you read through the posts, you’ll notice that the achievements are very different, but they have a consistent theme: it’s mostly ‘little’ things that we are proud of and that can make a big difference. So let’s celebrate!

Ben Eubanks looks back on one of his best achievements this year, and explains why he finds that a reason to celebrate in Flexible Schedule Policy vs. Core Business Hours. He feels proud because “It’s the little things like this every day that make me glad that I’m in HR” and I could not agree more!

Ian Welsh shares with us what he is most proud of in My Best HR Achievement. Like Ben, he focuses an every day HR topic and what he had to do to pull it off. Especially the people connection was important to him. Let’s hope however, that our bosses are more appreciative of our efforts, than Ian’s boss was of his!

Krista Francis describes her recent successes in What I’ve Been Working On. For her, just like for Ian, being accessible to her colleagues is really important and she tells us what she did to improve daily communications with her people. Once again, changing a simple thing makes all the difference.

Jesse Lyn Stoner celebrates Collaborative Leadership and shares her experiences with us in her contribution: 8 Things Collaborative Leaders Know. She makes a good argument for using (the people in) the network to create success.

Linda Fisher Thornton continues on the leadership topic with 10 Thinking Traps (That Ethical Leaders Avoid). with a creative approach on descriptive names!

Lizzy Maldonado is proud of the “killer culture” at Starr Conspiracy and asks us: ‘Left-brain Vs. Right-brain — Does Your Culture Satisfy Both?’ in her celebration of what makes a company a best place to work.

I also received some miscellaneous posts that should not be missed:

Naomi Bloom introduces us to “Interrogatory Configuration” in her post. As she states: “The tools described here are intended to put HR analysts and leaders in the drivers seat, once and for all, in terms of crafting their own organization’s use of shared true SaaS”. And we all know what an important topic SaaS for HR is these days, so highly recommended to read.

Melissa Prusher shares with us her Lessons Learned at GSC SHRM: Part II. She focuses on mobile strategy and brings up some interesting points for everyone embarking on this journey.

And last but not least, Stuart Rudner gives us some excellent advice on ‘bad faith’ damages in his post Are ‘damages formerly known as Wallace’ still relevant?

Thank you all for submitting your posts this Carnaval. One of my best achievements of 2012 was using social media better, participating in groups like the Carnival of HR and meeting so many knowledgeable and helpful HR people online. Thank you all for sharing with me and I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season.