The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) celebrates its tenth year as a club at Taylor University.
SHRM was founded at Taylor during the 2015-16 school year, said Julie Little, professor of management at Taylor University. SHRM is a professional organization for HR professionals. It allows members to gain experience in professional development.
The SHRM at Taylor’s motto is, “serving others while building career development opportunities for our members," Little said.
Taylor’s SHRM club hosts events to help students navigate professional environments. They’ve held networking events, mocktail hours and various seminars, Little said. Members of SHRM at Taylor plan and volunteer at the events.
SHRM celebrated its ten-year anniversary at the networking event it held last semester.
SHRM is an international organization that establishes professional and student chapters around the U.S, according to their website. Membership with a local chapter doesn’t require membership in the national organization.
HR students are encouraged to join the national organization, however, as it providesthey provide resources and isare recognized by HR employers, Little said. Membership in the Taylor chapter costs $5, which goes toward funding the events SHRM hosts.
Despite its national affiliation, SHRM will be allowed to stay at Taylor as the school moves forward with its new club policy.
“We have went in front of the provost, and it’s a professional organization, and since we do our own thing here and lead our own events and all of that … We've been granted permission to do that,” Little said.
HR is about seeing and meeting people’s needs, Abbie Cormier, president of SHRM and senior management and marketing major, said.
SHRM allows them to practice this.
“This year especially, we've kind of maybe rework-shopped some of the events to be a little bit more engaging for students,” Cormier said. “And I think that's exactly what HR does, is it's about what do students need, or what do people need in serving and meeting those needs, like seeing the needs and meeting the needs.”
Recently the club canceled their professional panel based on student need, Cormier said. Attendance was low and people sat in the back. They weren’t engaged or relating to the speaker.
SHRM cut the event and replaced it with a jeopardy-style game show. This allowed for student interaction with a subject that felt closer to home for many of them.
Little is very enthusiastic about SHRM, Kelsie Weber, a freshman business major and Taylor SHRM member, said.
Weber joined SHRM because she is interested in HR and knew the club would allow her experience in a professional setting.
SHRM is typically a harder club to get people involved in, Weber said. Taylor does a good job getting people interested. It’s great that Taylor gets to continue with the club.
“It's cool that Taylor's able to have the SHRM program because Taylor is smaller. So I feel like it shows that, like, especially Dr. Little is, like, very enthusiastic, and she wants people to have these opportunities, which is really great,” Weber said.
