Although SHRM as the premier organization for HR professionals has taken its share of negative hits, I liked what I read about their new CEO, Laurence G. O'Neil, of which they reviewed over 400 candidates for the position.
Having served five years as senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Kaiser Permanente, a $40 billion not-for-profit health care organization, O'Neil is well prepared to lead SHRM into the fray.
No matter what side of the fence you sit on, affordable health care for employees in the U.S. has all but eroded away. Those who have any health benefits at all are thankful they have them, regardless of their premium increases. I won't go on a rant on how Kaiser is just as guilty as any other health care organization when it comes to contributing to this decline, but I'm encouraged that the Workforce article alludes to the fact that the new SHRM CEO may try to impact health care reform when Congress tackles it (yet again).
Let's see if Lon can be a voice for affordable health. Benefits are the number one topic for organizations today.
Post by Kevin Grossman
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3 comments:
Kevin, I agree with your overall sentiment ... but as a former Kaiser employee and a patient for my first 30 years, I strongly disagree with the comment about Kaiser being just as guilty as other HMOs. Kaiser is by no means perfect, but their model is radically different from for-profit HMOs where shareholders matter more than patients. This is an older article, but it sums up the differences well:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6738329/
My comment came from a very personal place - my own family's experience as Kaiser patients in the Central Valley, and while Kaiser's model may be different than most HMO's, I would argue that the patients didn't matter as much in our experience. I do hope it's changed since. Thank you for the article.
My colleague, Kevin Grossman, posted this blog about SHRM's new president and how he will hopefully be a voice for affordable healthcare. While I do agree affordable healthcare is an important issue for our Country, the extent to which SHRM should be involved in solving this problem is debatable. So I'll debate it :-)
Kevin's blog raises an important question - what should the new SHRM president's priorities be.
It's doubtful that SHRM can have any significant impact on healthcare in this country. If the entire Democratic Party can't impact healthcare what makes anyone think SHRM, regardless of who the president is, can have any impact. And should SHRM even focus on healthcare? I'm not sure employer members of SHRM want SHRM to tackle this issue. In fact, do the majority of SHRM members, which are mostly mid level HR managers, even represent or share the interests of their employers? There are other HR related organizations, albeit smaller than SHRM, who are in a better position to impact healthcare.
A more important question for SHRM's new president to tackle is how can SHRM best deliver on its mission? I don't think this question has been thoroughly examined. The mission of SHRM (summarized) is:
".....to serve the needs of HR professionals by providing the most current and comprehensive resources, and to advance the profession by promoting HR’s essential, strategic role....."
I personally have no issues with SHRM's mission although because HR is involved in so many diverse functions - from recruiting to employee benefits - it's difficult to deliver on this mission.
But should SHRM remain primarily a training / certification center? Nothing wrong with this. But even here, there is plenty of room for improvement. If you ask me (and nobody has), a loftier goal for SHRM - even more lofty than affordable healthcare - is to play a more integral role in talent management by helping HR (at all levels) acquire the skills to play a more strategic role in helping their employers identify, recruit, develop and retain better leaders. Because with great leaders, other challenges like affordable healthcare are more likely to be solved.
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