ConnectingHR: The Best Kept Secret in HR Networking
Posted on: May 8, 2011
- In: Community | ConnectingHR | HR | Networking | Social Media | Twitter
- 12 Comments
I’m not keen on networking. I’m often ambivalent at best about a lot of other HR people. So developing an HR network was never going to be easy or enjoyable, right?
Well, here’s the thing that still seems to be broadly unknown in HR circles: there is a fantastically social and sociable network of HR professionals known as ConnectingHR. And anyone in HR or a related field can be part of it.
We connect via Twitter using the #connectinghr hashtag and we interact on the connectinghr.org website. We hold regular drinks (known as tweet-ups), there are informal, interactive conferences (known as Unconferences) and there are a huge number of informal get-togethers in-between times: lunches, drinks after works, coffee, breakfast meetings…
Without exception, the people I have met through ConnectingHR are engaged, passionate, approachable, knowledgable, generous, helpful, influential, encouraging, committed and likeable. Many have become true friends in a relatively short space of time and they are a superb professional network, who share knowledge, support each other, debate ideas and inspire with their energy to make HR better.
ConnectingHR is only just beginning and is destined to grow much further. Be a part of it, wherever in the world you are based…check out http://www.connectinghr.org or #connectinghr on Twitter and say hello…I guarantee you’ll get plenty of hellos back and much more besides :).
12 Responses to "ConnectingHR: The Best Kept Secret in HR Networking"
May 8, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Nice one Alison. I’m not surprised you are not keen on networking. A lot of networking sucks. Generally when people go networking they feel a desire to come across as interesting. It’s easy to be interesting – to yourself. I enjoy networking because I spend my time being interested in other people. I find that a far more fun and useful activity than trying to be interesting. And unusually the connectinghr crowd seems to have a lot of people in it who also are interested in others.
May 8, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Networking terrifies me, it is like someone puts invisible tape on my mouth and I cant speak! which is odd because I am known to rabbit on and on and on.
Speaking of which are you free on Thursday post work? I am meeting a couple from twitland in town…..
May 8, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Good post – but what is networking? I think for years we have been waiting for a forum to help with connecting people and social tools make that happen. It has been around a long time but only on the personal side. Chat rooms were just as good at connecting people as twitter etc is today, but in those days you rarely made it to face to face and it was not work connected.
I used to cringe when people would say do more networking and im pretty outgoing. Its because it had all the pretence associated with it that you just dont get in the social environment now. Neil Usher sums it up nicely in his latest post:
“We are so often asked – name, job title, employer. For decades this helped define us. When we mentioned our job title it allowed the questioner to fill in all the blanks they needed from a library of prejudice and assumption. They immediately felt they knew something about us. We then often spent some considerable time challenging and dismantling their interpretation, and dispelling the negative energy created.”
His post is good and worth a read – http://theatreacle.posterous.com/who-the-hell-am-i
Nice post Alison!
May 9, 2011 at 12:40 am
Thanks for sharing! I will add the hashtag to my saved searches. I was wondering what it was about as I still figure out this whole twitter thing.
Networking has always been hard for me. Twitter has made it easier. As someone else said, it really is all about being yourself and learning fascinating things about other people.
May 9, 2011 at 10:38 am
“And more besides”, I quite agree.
This community has turned into my own rather impressive HR guru in recent days (I am not in HR). Just today I have come across two posts that immediately enabled me to progress my thinking wrt exciting but daunting challenges that I face. These came from this community. In fact “came across” is unfair, one was pinged straight at me, I didnt even have to ask.
I have ended up creating a new Twitter Id to start to file it all away.
May 9, 2011 at 11:18 am
Great post Alison, what else to say. Connecting with #connectinghr folks gave the purpose of networking entirely new meaning. Make friends, not business partners. Being part of this community gives my professional development and life of HR flavour as no other network ever did.
May 9, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Well said Alison. With the many other posts being written daily at the moment, this is a good reminder of who we are and where we can be found!
May 9, 2011 at 1:40 pm
The girl speaks more wisdom. Well done, Alison. You get it right so often. x
May 16, 2011 at 7:51 am
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The HR Juggler 
1 | A round-up of coverage from the second connectingHR unconference | itsdevelopmental.com
May 8, 2011 at 7:14 pm
[…] Posts XpertHR (Noel O’Reilly): Every picture tells a story Karen Wise: My thoughts on theconnecting HRunconference Theatreacle: Who the hell am I? Me: Drawing the narrative of a conference James Mayes: The HR blog feed for #chru Rob Jones: The one with the unconference part 1 Callum Saunders: Community. Value. People Christine Livingston: What’s so human about human resources? Doug Shaw: Community Claire Walsh: Seven powerful reasons to join the ConnectingHR community Anthony Allinson: A non HR perspective on the connectingHR unconference Gareth Jones: Unconference: Less is more Alison Chisnell: ConnectingHR: the best kept secret in HR networking […]