JULY 2016
Volume 1, Issue 2
Bahamas Human Resources Association
Inside this issue:
Calendar of events 2
April Meeting 3
May Meeting 3
July Meeting 4
SHRM (PICS) 4
HR Article: “Using Social Media to Build Professional Skills
5
The BHRA News
2016 Executive Board
President
Villiemae Black
VP Programs
Esaura Roker
VP Finance/Treasurer
Alice Rolle
VP Membership
Doranda Knowles
VP PR/Communications
Kenris Longley
Secretary
Katharine Hilton
President-elect
Chrislyn Benjamin
Tel: 552-2003 Email: [email protected]
Website : bhrda.shrm.org
Find us on...
We would like to extend a warm wel-
come to our new members:
Yvette Denise Ingraham Indira Culmer Silena Evans Chanti Brown
Virinia Hepburn Lezette Miller
Nikola Charlton
Ernestine Lloyd
Deanza Brennen
website: http://unbridledtalent.com
Page 2
Calendar of Events
September 15 - “What Every HR Leader Should Know About
Strategic Planning”
October 27 (no meeting)- Annual Conference, Atlantis Resorts
November17 - Annual General Meeting / Election of Officers
December - Christmas Social
Website : bhrda.shrm.org [email protected]
Page 3
The monthly meeting was held on
Thursday, April 21, 2016.
The featured speaker was Mr.
Richard Adderley, MA, LLB. He
spoke on the topic “Relationship
Management”.
“THANK YOU” to our members and
guests for taking time out to attend our
April Monthly meeting.
The monthly meeting was held on Thurs-
day, May 19, 2016. The featured speaker
was Keshelle Davis who spoke on the topic
“Building teams that create a compelling
culture”
“THANK YOU” to our members and
guests for taking time out to attend our
May Monthly meeting.
Page 4
The monthly meeting was held on Thursday, July 21, 2016.
The featured speaker was Mrs. Annette Cash, MS. She spoke
on the topic “How to grow yourself and your people”
“THANK YOU” to our members and
guests for taking time out to attend our
July Monthly meeting.
Page 5
If you think of social media as the sole
province of vacation selfies and muffin
recipes, the idea of using it for genuine
professional development may seem ab-
surd. But there are plenty of ways you
can use social media to build professional
skills, knowledge, and relationships,
without getting overwhelmed.
To get real learning value out of social
media, ask yourself these three questions:
What do I want to learn?
Want to learn more about your industry?
Follow smart industry leaders on
LinkedIn and Twitter to see what they’re
reading and what they’re thinking about.
From that you can learn key industry
hashtags on Twitter to discover great new
resources. Seek out the best blogs and
podcasts in your field by reading or lis-
tening further when you find an interest-
ing story that a colleague has shared
online. Think about the specific subfield
or topic you want to learn about next, and
focus your reading in that specific area so
that you develop expertise instead of just
learning a tiny bit about a lot of subjects.
Think about your skill gaps, too. If you
do a lot of presentations and are getting
tired of those boring old Excel pie charts,
start looking at infographics on Pinterest
to get inspiration for how you can do a
better job of presenting data. If time man-
agement is an ongoing issue for you, fol-
low a list of productivity experts on
Twitter to get their latest tips.
Using social media to work on areas like
these will not only strengthen your pro-
fessional skill set; it will also help you
broaden your network. By re-sharing the
useful resources you find on LinkedIn
and Twitter, you can
find others who are
interested in the same
topics as you and build
a community of learn-
ing (more on this later).
When do I have time
for learning?
Social media can be an
effective way of pursu-
ing professional devel-
opment because it fits easily into your
daily life. Yes, you can get a lot out
of attending a few conferences a
year—but there’s nothing like an
ongoing learning process to get you
fired up and thinking in newly crea-
tive ways. Put some thought in-
to when you have time and mental
energy for learning, and what formats
would work best for your schedule.
Then use your social networks to find
the information you want in the for-
mat you need.
For instance, if you want to work on
self-development while working out,
doing household chores, or commut-
ing, that’s a great time to listen to
the podcasts you’ve discovered. If
you commute by public transit and
can read while you ride, set up an
RSS reader like Feedly, which you
can use to subscribe to blogs in your
field.
You’ll be able to get a lot more learn-
ing in if you spend your time actually
reading or listening to the sources
you’ve unearthed instead of skim-
ming the latest headlines.
Whom do I want to learn from or
with?
Many of us learn best when we’re
part of a learning community. This is
where social media really shines:
because social media is all about be-
ing able to share ideas with other
people, it’s a great way to engage in
active learning, with a community of
people who want to hear your ideas
and insights in addition to sharing
their own.
There are a lot of ways to find or form
a learning community online. If you’re
looking for a community of practice —
a group of fellow professionals in your
field, sharing the inside scoop or best
practices with one another — you can
find those communities on Facebook,
LinkedIn or even Slack.
To find a group that works for you, ask
friends or colleagues whether they’re
part of any learning or professional
communities that could help you in a
specific field or area of your working
life. The clearer you are about what
you want to learn, and the types of
people you want to learn from, the
more likely you are to find the right
community for you.
In my experience the most valuable
groups are smaller, invitation-only
communities in which every member
knows at least one other person in the
group. That creates the level of trust
necessary for people to share difficult
experiences and inside tips, as well as
to ask questions they might not feel
comfortable asking in a more public
setting.
Setting your learning intentions for
what, when and who you want to learn
from can turn social media into a pow-
erful and timely resource for your on-
going professional development. Yes,
there’s still room for snapping photos
of your breakfast foods — but when
you’re ready to settle down to work,
remember that social media can help
you with your next career goal, too.
Taken from: https://hbr.org/2016/08/
using-social-media-to-build-
professional-skills#
Using Social Media to Build Professional Skills by Alexandra Samuel AUGUST 04, 2016