HR Pulse - Summer 2008 - (Page 16)

[HR LEADER] “I like interviewing and compensation and metrics and strategy, but all of it in small doses at a time. I think I’d be bored without the assortment of projects,” she says. Currently, she’s working on: • Reviewing the market competitiveness of salaries • Reducing Workers’ Compensation costs • Establishing career ladders in every department • Expanding the scholarships Divine Savior underwrites for technical nursing classes at the Madison Area Technical College in Portage. When asked what is her most important accomplishment at Divine Savior, Bank cites the growth and recognition of the HR function. She says that HR plays a critical role in the strategic planning process and exercises genuine leverage within the organization. She’s also particularly proud to have provided stability and consistency for the workforce from a human resources perspective; before Bank’s arrival, there had been ﬁve HR directors in three years. Professional and Community Leadership Knowing she’d found the right ﬁt in the health care industry, Bank got involved with the Wisconsin Society of Healthcare Human Resources Administration in 1992, joined the board in 1996, and served as president from 1999 to 2001. Her dedication and leadership qualities gained attention at the national level—she received ASHHRA’s Outstanding Chapter President Award in 2001 and the Outstanding Chapter Contributor Award in 2002 and again in 2004. She also is a charter The First ASHHRA Regional Conference Held in Milwaukee 16 The ASHHRA Region 5 Conference held March 13 and 14 in Milwaukee marked the ﬁrst time members have had the opportunity to gather as a region. Sixty registered attendees and 25 vendors turned out for the event at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center. The idea for the regional conference was born when Carol Bank attended the ﬁrst HR Leader Forum, offered as a pre-conference workshop at the ASHHRA national conference in Orlando, Fla. “I was ‘wowed’ by it {the conference},” she says. “Having those 40 people together was so exciting, and Mark Sasscer was one of the speakers. It was such an amazing experience that I wanted to get him to come to my state and region so more people could be inspired.” As the Region 5 Consultant, Bank is the liaison for Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Canada. She spearheaded the effort to organize the event, working with a nine-member volunteer committee from the region chapter network. The ﬁrst day of the conference featured Bob Riney, ASHHRA past president and current COO for Henry Ford Health System, and Mark Sasscer, president and CEO of Lead Quest, who spoke on the day-to-day leadership required of health care HR practitioners. Conference goers then enjoyed an evening at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The second day included presentations on performance evaluation systems (Jim Frain, VP of HR, South Bend Medical Foundation and ASHHRA board member), employee engagement (Kevin Sheridan, CEO, HR Solutions), and a legislative and labor update (Doug Jontz, ASHHRA advocacy committee member and regional VP of HR for the Northern Indiana Region of the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services). “There just aren’t enough superlatives for me to describe the experience,” Bank says. “We learned a lot about putting on a conference, and there are things I’d do differently next time, but I feel like this was a great success for a ﬁrst-time event. It was very rewarding to see the committee’s hard work come to fruition and receive positive reviews from the attendees. We greatly appreciated all the support we got from the ASHHRA staff, and it was a real boost that six ASHHRA board members made the effort to attend the conference.” “It was wonderful to see chapters from neighboring states come together to network, gather information, and have fun,” says Cathy Sewell, ASHHRA executive director. “Given the success of this event in Region 5, ASHHRA is considering another regional conference later this year. Members should stay tuned.” HR Pulse Summer 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Pulse - Summer 2008

HR Pulse - Summer 2008 Contents Pulse Points Executive Director's Letter President's Message HR Leader Profile: Carol Bank, SPHR Special Report: Building a Thriving Workforce Creating A Best Place to Work Employee Morale Don't Set Up Your Managers to Fail From Tedious Task to Strategic Process Employer-Assisted Housing Changing the Paradigm of Nurse Recruitment Workforce Recognition: Simple Gestures Go a Long way Advertisers' Index

HR Pulse - Summer 2008

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