We Provide Professional Development & Networking Opportunities

Founded in 1949, Philly SHRM has provided professional development and networking opportunities for the area’s human resource practitioners for over half a century. This organization is considered Super-Mega within the SHRM community and has been recognized as a Superior Merit chapter.

Today, we are comprised of over 1,300 members consistently each year from over 500 of the Philadelphia region’s finest companies. Ranging from students just entering the profession to the most senior human resource executives, the Chapter is committed to developing our people and our profession.

Our vision is to be the leading HR organization for connecting and developing professionals in the greater Philadelphia business community. Here’s how we plan to do that for you:

• Provide knowledge, services, and leadership to you and the professional community by promoting current trends, best practices and new models that will stimulate individual and organizational success.
• Offer a variety of programs to give you professional development on cutting edge human resource issues and networking opportunities to forward your thinking and career.
• Afford opportunities for professional development through our volunteer committee chair positions, which allow you and SHRM to play an important role in the Philadelphia human resource community and the business community at large.
• Host a website and distribute a quarterly newsletter that is a robust resource of information and interaction for HR professionals.
• Create value for our members by introducing mentoring programs, certification study sessions and other resources that set you up for success in your job.
• Draw on the resources of SHRM to provide discounted fees for national and local membership, scholarships, and access to a variety of information resources.

To our current members, we say thank you. To our future members, we say join us! Browse our website or give us a call. Let us support you and your success as a strategic business partner in the Human Resource profession!

Check out the Philly SHRM Resource Guide to get your questions answered with just one click and a little scrolling.

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Dear Philadelphia HR and Business Community,

The past 12 months have been historic in so many ways.  Even though the impact on each of us has been different, we all feel it.  Philly SHRM is feeling it too.  For our chapter, we have had to shift on a dime, redefine our goals and rethink our approach to remain relevant during this time of unbelievable change.  Let me share some of the ways we were able to remain relevant for you.

In the spring, we had planned to host our 2020 Symposium in-person as we do every year.  Because of the COVID related changes, we needed to shift to a virtual event in a new timeframe.  Many thanks to our speakers and sponsors who made the pivot with us and especially to our community who attended the event because they trusted us to maintain the quality they had come to expect.  It was very interactive, and the content was amazing. A huge success in so many ways! The feedback we received was very positive, and it reinforced the high quality of our work efforts.

Another example of the continuing strength and resilience of our chapter is that our membership continues to grow, even in these difficult times.  This showcases the value that our chapter continues to provide for our members, even when we cannot be together in-person.

This year, Philly SHRM was the proud recipient of the SHRM Bronze Excel Award for 2019.  SHRM recognized our chapter for the outstanding results we achieved in our Certification Study Groups.   If you are considering taking the certification exam, join us in our award-winning certification study group to help you prepare.   The next one will be in Spring 2020 via our virtual platform.

Our overall goal is to produce value that is relevant for you – our HR community.  We recognized that our platform which included a large focus on hiring returning citizens did not represent the breadth of issues that organizations were facing.  Because of local COVID related changes, a broader group of potential employees became available and companies were also trying to navigate work from home requirements, employee safety issues, and the impact of the social justice issues that were affecting our workplaces.  We embraced this change by expanding our efforts to address these issues.  Our Thought Leadership Committee produced relevant content, we shared programming produced by partner organizations in COVID related emails, and we built learning cohorts that provide a platform for organizations to both learn from experts and learn from each other.  We extended our reach for the Partnerships Committee to include support for small organizations who may not have an HR resource.

The underlying focus for our efforts is to continue to enhance the quality of all of our events.  We recognize that because of the virtual platform, we need to do more than provide excellent content.  We have risen to that challenge.  Our goal is to deliver engaging, high impact programming and resources that meet the needs of our community.  I am very proud of the pivot we have been able to make to deliver on this goal.

We are looking forward to a great 2021.  We anticipate even stronger programming and more innovative events, even if some of them are still virtual.  Stay tuned for information regarding our 2021 Symposium which should be coming out shortly.

Thank you for your commitment to support Philly SHRM through this changing environment.  Our goal has been to provide high quality value for you.  Rest assured that this remains our commitment, and we are looking forward to an exciting year in 2021.  In the meantime, have a safe and restful holiday, and we will see you next year.

Jackie Linton, MBS, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
President, Philly SHRM