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: bhrda.bs@gmail.com

Website : bhrda.shrm.org

bhrda..bs@gmail.com

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 bhrda.bs@gmail.com

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