Today is my first day back in the office from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference in Las Vegas. While at the conference, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the human resource bloggers I follow all year on Twitter and through my RSS feed. Since these individuals are known for their expertise on everything human resources, I asked them each to share their employee recognition advice for HR professionals and managers. 

Rachel Salley (@rachelsalley)from the Career Anarchist blog stopped by the Baudville booth twice to complete her interview! Thanks for your dedication, Rachel! Visit the Career Anarchist blog to read her musings on the SHRM Annual Conference, employee engagement, and more.

Jessica Miller-Merrell (@blogging4jobs) also stopped by twice to chat with me about social media, HR, and employee recognition. Jessica is well-known in the HR industry for her blog, blogging4jobs.com. She’s apparently also one of the most popular SHRM attendees. She confided that she had six parties to go to on Monday night!

Matthew Stollak (@akabruno) of the True Faith HR warned us that as a professor, he would give us an academic response to our question about employee recognition. We didn’t mind! We thought his answer was great.

It was wonderful to finally meet Sharlyn Lauby (@sharlyn_lauby)in person at the conference this year. Sharlyn is president of Internal Talent Management Group and blogs at HR Bartender, so we talked about how to use recognition to make training more effective. We were able to give her an exclusive sneak peek into some exciting new products we have coming out in September.

Finally, we see the “Pin Man” every year at SHRM. Since we’re big proponents of lapel pins, we had to interview him to learn more about his impressive collection. Naturally, we added a new piece to his collection!

Overall, the bloggers all echoed the same sentiment: that employee recognition is important and is most effective when it is personalized to the recipient and sincere. What’s your piece of employee recognition advice for HR and managers?

The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference  starts on Sunday, June 26, and the Twitter world is already a buzz with attendees connecting, sharing tips, and preparing for the conference. We asked our team of veteran attendees what advice they would offer SHRM conference goers. Read their advice before you pack your suitcase and head to Vegas!

1. Wear comfortable shoes. You do a lot of walking inside the convention center. That exhibit hall is bigger than it looks! Cori, Marketing Communications Specialist

2. Bring a sweater. It may be hot outside, but usually the air is cranking inside the convention center. Cindy, HR Manager

3. Make a conference plan. The SHRM Annual Conference can be overwhelming with all the session options and hundreds of exhibitors. Set goals for the show and make a plan to make sure you get to the right sessions and vendors. Cindy, HR Manager

4. Bring something back for your team in the office. Your team held down the fort while you soaked up the learning (and some sun), so recognize their extra efforts! Take back a small gift for each member of your team. Lilly, Product Art Manager

5. Network. Share ideas and make friends with other SHRM attendees. One of the best parts of the SHRM Annual Conference is talking to attendees and meeting new people! Lilly, Product Art Manager

6. Take advantage of the free giveaways. The SHRM expo hall is known for its giveaways and freebies. In our booth, you’ll find super tote bags and delicious cupcakes. We’ll also introduce you to our sister company, IDville. David, Inside Sales Representative

7. Attend an after-hours event. Last year’s Tweetup was a great place to meet with attendees in a more casual and slower-paced environment than the exhibit hall. For a list of the different events happening at the conference, jump over to the Blogging4Jobs blog. Cori, Marketing Communications Specialist

8. Be inspired. Take advantage of being in a new city and a change of scenery. Find something that can inspire a new project. Last year in San Diego, I took some photographs of a ship in the harbor that I incorporated into an art piece. James, Designer 

9. Learn a lot. The SHRM conference is the premiere place for HR professional development, and the sessions should be the first priority for attendees. But the learning doesn’t end when the sessions do! Make an effort to learn from other attendees and exhibitors. They have lots of good information and tips to help you do your job better! Cori, Marketing Communications Specialist

10. Have fun! Even though SHRM is a business trip, it’s a business perk! Go ahead and explore the new city, meet new people, bond with team members, and make memories. Take advantage of your time outside the office. Lilly, Product Art Manager

Learn more about Baudville at the SHRM Annual Conference. We will have lots of exciting things happening in booth #3427! 

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

It’s that time of year again… when tradeshow related-tasks are constantly added to my “to-do” list… when I develop anxiety over what clothes to pack…and when I’m kept up at night worrying about my booth arriving on time. In the midst of all the tasks and stress, I focus on the human resource professionals I’m going to meet and reconnect with - they make it all worth it!

That’s right, the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference is upon us! In two weeks, I’ll be stationed in booth 3427 in the Las Vegas Convention Center talking to attendees about all the easy, effective, and affordable employee recognition solutions Baudville has to offer.

By now, I consider myself a SHRM Annual Conference Veteran. That’s right, capital “V.” Although I can’t touch the attendance records by some attendees (many have been going for 10+ years!), this year marks my fifth return to the largest human resource conference on the planet. And it’s going to be a hot year!

We’ll have lots going on in the Baudville booth, and new faces eager to share the Baudville story with attendees. Here are a few things you can expect in booth 3427:

- Sunday night cupcake reception featuring decadent treats from GiGi’s Cupcakes. But hurry! They go fast!
- Free tote bags with the cleverest HR sentiment at the show
- New staff t-shirts – what will they say this year?!
- Exclusive Print and Posts on our SHRM catalog
- A chance to win your very own Baudville t-shirt
- Top recognition products that can transform your culture
- Super Hot Rocking Markdown for everyone who stops to say “hi”

 
Baudville staff show off their unique shirts at SHRM 2010.
This year, you can win your own Baudville shirt!

As you can tell, SHRM is going to be rocking in Las Vegas. Stay connected with us for all the conference festivities by following Baudville (@Baudville) and me (@coricurtis) on Twitter, and sign up to receive our blog posts via email so you don’t miss any of the action!  

See you in two weeks!

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

The Baudville team took some time to reflect on their experiences at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference in San Diego, California. They each shared their favorite memory from the few days we spent at the conference. You can see the pictures from the event on our Facebook page. What did you like most about the conference? Share it with us here!

“I loved spending time with other HR professionals discussing the fun topic of recognition.  Because I am HR, it was an instant connection with the attendees. “  Cindy, HR Manager

“I really enjoyed the Tweetup on Monday night. It was a great opportunity for Baudville to meet in-person the bloggers we follow online. I also love talking to customers and hearing how they do recognition and use our products in their organization.” Cori, Public Relations Coordinator

“I would have to say some of my favorite memories from SHRM would have to be the exuberant reactions people had to our products. There was one lady who couldn’t proclaiming that our products were brilliant. It was just great to hear so many compliments and put faces to our customers.” James, Designer

“I enjoy talking to customers who take some time to linger in the booth, learn who we are and really look at our stuff. While the opening night is exciting and busy, I appreciate even more the people who are genuinely interested in starting or continuing recognition.” Laura, Creative Manager

“I was literally shocked at the amount attendees and how they surrounded our booth trying to get our HR tote bags.  I felt like I was in the running of the bulls with the amount of people coming at me.” – David, Inside Sales Representative

Didn’t make it to SHRM? Baudville will be exhibiting at the International Association of Administrative Professionals Office Expo and the Michigan SHRM Annual Conference. We hope to see you there!

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (officially, she's a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

Welcome back from the holiday weekend! I hope you had a fun and safe holiday and enjoyed some relaxation over the long weekend. I know I did. I used my extra day to recuperate from the Society for Human Resource (SHRM) Annual Conference in San Diego. I spent four days in San Diego working the Baudville booth, mingling with the crowd at the SHRM-Monster Tweetup and talking to thousands of human resource professionals – literally!

If you’ve ever attended the SHRM Annual Conference, you know that it can be an overwhelming, exhausting and fabulous few days. You can see all the pictures from our trip to San Diego on our Facebook page.

Our focus at SHRM is the expo hall. We spend months planning our booth layout, graphics, giveaways even staff outfits, and it’s all designed to support our newest products. Last week, we launched over 250 new products that are designed to make you a Day Maker, a positive force in the office who makes someone’s day, and we were excited to show all the new products to the SHRM attendees. You can learn a few day making techniques in our Day Maker episode of Recognition TV.

We started the show with a bang by inviting attendees to enjoy red velvet cupcakes in our booth. While attendees mingled under our Tokens of Appreciation chandelier, we showed them our latest and greatest products. And when they moved on to the next booth, they took with them an exclusive “I put the HR in hero” tote bag, product samples, and a hot-off-the-press catalog.  Many attendees looked through the catalog at the end of the day, and came to the booth a second time to get another look at the products! (You won’t get your catalog for another week, but you can see all the products on our website.)

I talked to a lot of HR professionals in the expo hall, and I was excited to hear that many of them plan to implement a recognition program soon. Even the attendees who don’t have a formal budget for recognition plan on personally purchasing our products because they feel recognition is too important to ignore. Talk about dedication! If you’re one of those human resource pros still trying to convince the CEO to invest in recognition, check out our free white papers loaded with stats about the benefits of regular recognition.

One of my main takeaways from the conference was recognition is easy. It was awesome to watch attendees’ eyes light up when they saw how simple our products make recognition. There’s no complicated software, points formula or logins required. It’s all about personal, tangible pieces of recognition that convey the message, “you are appreciated.” It’s as simple as a handwritten note, a small keepsake or a token of appreciation.

Everyone can and should do recognition, but HR has the unique opportunity to be the recognition strategist and champion. By making simple solutions available to managers and providing simple training, HR professionals can encourage a culture of appreciation and engagement with little investment and big return. 

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (officially, she's a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.