The cavnessHR podcast – A talk with Jazmine Wilkes

The PDF version to the show notes with the links to the YouTube video are below.

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Social Media links for Jazmine below!!
Blog: HRJazzy.Blog
Twitter: @HRJazzy 
Facebook: HRJazzy Page 
Instagram: HRJazzy 
Contributing to: Workology.com and SHRM Blog 

Below is Jazmine’s book recommendation:

“HR on Purpose” by Steve Browne

Click on the link below to purchase the book from Amazon.

https://amzn.to/2EbrY42

Jazmine Wilkes is an HR Assistant in Huntsville, Alabama, she currently
works her full-time position, she has also joined the 2018 Northern
Alabama Society of Human Resources (NASHRM) Board as the VP of
Membership, she is a blog writer for her personal HRJazzy Blog, and a
contributor to Workology and SHRM Blog. Jazmine is a Millennial HR
Professional who brands herself as, "Just Trying to Get It Right". She's
been in HR for two full years and hopes to continue taking the HR career
field by storm and creating new positions and provide help to HR newbies. 

Jason: 0:01 Hello, and welcome to the cavnessHR Podcast. I’m your host, Jason Cavness. Our guest today is Jazmine Wilkes. Jazmine, are you ready to be great today?

Jazmine: 0:10 Yes I am.

Jason: 0:12 Jazmine is an HR Assistant in her job at Huntsville, Alabama. She has also currently joined the 2018 Northern Alabama Society of Human Resources Board as the VP of Membership. She is also a blog writer for her personal HRJazzy Blog, and a contributor to Workology and SHRM Blog. Jazmine is a Millennial HR Professional who brands herself as, "Just Trying to Get It Right". She has been in HR for two full years and hopes to continue taking her HR career field by storm and creating new positions and providing help to HR newbies. Jazmine, thank you very much for being here. What do you have going on right now?

Jazmine: 0:56 Well, thank you for having me. I have a lot going on with working, like you said, on the Board of the NASHRM chapter. I also just announced that I’m going to be one the SHRM A-team bloggers, so I'm really excited about that. Just a lot; trying to juggle everything and still make sure that I keep my full-time job.

Jason: 1:26 So, Jasmine, why did you start a blog? I really like that about you. I don't think enough people do that, putting their personal brand out there. What made you start doing a blog?

Jazmine: 1:37 I actually started a blog because, when I was going to SHRM17, it was a lot of information that I wanted to find out for first-timers because I had never been to a SHRM national conference before. I was looking for some information and I couldn't really find anything, so I decided to start blogging about the people that I wanted to meet, the experiences that I wanted to have while I was at the conference and that's really what started it. I felt like other HR professionals knew or the senior HR professionals that had never been to a conference before needed that information, as well. So this really where I started.

Jason: 2:17 I just think that so many people miss that opportunity that you can get your ideas out, you can brand yourself as a subject matter expert. I really like that. So, Jazmine, how has it been being a member of the SHRM enhanced your career?

Jazmine: 2:31 It has been awesome being a member of SHRM. Sometimes, when you just go to the website, you can find different information that you need. I had a paper to write about maybe three weeks ago and I went to their website, and it was on a sexual harassment policy. I looked up the policy that they had and it’s been helpful for my career, it’s been helpful for me trying to finish up in school. Blogging with them has been an amazing experience and I’m excited to go to SHRM18 as a blogger.

Jason: 3:08 It’s amazing how many resources are on their website.

Jazmine: 3:11 It really is. It’s a lot, because you have the communications where you can just talk to other people and then the policies and everything. So you can find a lot.

Jason: 3:19 Yes. So, how were you selected as a blogger? Was it something you put in for or they reached out to you? How did that work?

Jazmine: 3:25 For that one, I believe when it started it was a blog that I had written and put up on my personal blog post and Mary Kaylor https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-kaylor-0315353/ reached out to me and asked if she could feature it on the SHRM blog. That’s how I got started with that.

Jason: 3:42 Good. So you’ve been an HR professional for just a couple years, correct?

Jazmine: 3:46 Yes, just two.

Jason: 3:48 So, for somebody graduating from college this year, and they’re going in the HR profession, what advice would you have for them?

Jazmine: 3:54 You’re going to have to work hard to get in the HR field. I hope you did an internship or know someone in the business, or if you have been able to, make sure you join your local SHRM society in your area. Hopefully, it’s a good one that can help you get information. Never stop learning. That’s not just for newer people, but senior HR professionals – never stop trying to learn because we have so many different fields in HR. So, figuring out which one you want to go might be really easy. You might be great with talent and development or recruiting, or you might want to (like I say) “double-dabble” as I do with the HR assistant. I get to learn so many different areas of HR that I feel like it would help decide and figure out what I want to do. So, just get involved in the community, get on Twitter, get on LinkedIn, start letting people know who you are, what you’re looking for, and have a conversation with people. Don’t just get on there and say, “hey, I’m looking for an HR job.” Have a conversation and connect with the HR tribe, as we call ourselves on Twitter.

Jason: 5:18 You made a good point. I don’t think many people in HR – and not just HR, many people in business – don’t realize the expanse of knowledge in HR. There’s so many things, like you said. So many companies just do parts of HR and, as someone new to HR, how do you wrap your mind around that knowledge?

Jazmine: 5:35 It’s hard because it’s something that you want to make sure you’re, not just that you’re learning. But that you stay current with the laws and the things going on in HR. So, it’s not easy, by any stretch of the imagination. But really just wanting to learn. I really think I have a passion for what I do and I love what I do and so that makes it easier for me to want to learn more about HR.

Jason: 6:02 Yes. Jazmine, talk about your Twitter account real fast. I know you’re real busy on Twitter. How does that help you with your HR brand?

Jazmine: 6:10 When I started Twitter, I started in May of 2017 – and it’s HRJazzy. I started just posting questions that I had on Twitter. I haven’t done any recently but I would just post a question and I would tag it HR. I would have so many people respond and give me the experiences they’ve had or give me some type of feedback that they thought worked best or gave me information of where I should look. I really believe that, without that Twitter account, and without meeting all of these great people. Which I haven't even met all of them in real life yet, so without meeting them. I’m not really sure that my career would be where it is, or knowledge-set would be where it is in HR right now.

Jason: 7:05 Yes. All you’ve got to do is reach out to somebody and they’ll help you. But it’s amazing how many people don't reach out for help and are just stagnant in the current, so to speak. Next, let's talk about mentors and the points of mentors.

Jazmine: 7:21 I think mentorship is very important. For our local chapter, we have a mentor program that we put on here to try and help the HR newbies meet people who have been experienced in HR. Recently, I started helping mentor with this organization locally here by the name of AUM. It just helps young, high school ladies that are getting ready to go to college. It helps them learn about different areas of life, give them career skillsets and that’s exactly what you should be doing in an HR setting. You’re helping people figure out what they need to do in HR, figure out the type of routes they want to take. Who they need to talk to and what sites or what conferences or things that they need attend. I think it's very important as an HR newbie that you try to find a mentor that can help and guide you in that.

Jason: 8:30 Yes. Jazmine, can you talk about a time you were successful, what you learned from this success and what we can learn from this?

Jazmine: 8:36 Well I consider being new in HR, I consider any day that I don’t lose a file or I don’t tell someone the wrong information a successful day for me. So I would really say being a success is all about communicating. If you are going to be an assistant or just have someone above you, a boss above you, understanding their communication patterns. That was one big thing for me when I was new when I first started. I would sometimes, because I have to work with background checks, I would sometimes have to call someone and follow up with them about their background and what was going on with it. What information they would be willing to tell me and my boss would always ask me a certain question or something that I didn't think to ask when I was on that call with that person and so I’d have to go back and call them. So I had to understand my boss and understand the standard she expected from me and I think that's one of the biggest things and that’s my success.

Jason: 9:47 Yes. Sometimes people don’t realize how important it is to understand your boss. That’s the key to success. So, Jasmine, talk about a time you failed in the past, what you learned from this, and what we can learn from this.

Jazmine: 9:58 That was a hard question for me. But there was an incident where I put something in the computer system the wrong way. I had been taught the correct way to do it. But it was the new year so we went from 2017 to 2018 and I didn’t upgrade my computer system in this certain area. I went in there and I put all of our new hires’ information in there incorrectly because it was in 2017 and we had started 2018. That was the biggest failure that I’ve had so far. My biggest thing that I think that I learned from it and that others can learn from is to own up to it. We're not perfect. No matter if you're a new person in HR or if you’re a senior person in HR. You're not perfect and the only thing that someone is expecting from you is your very best that you have to offer. They’re not expecting perfection because no one's perfect. So that's what I think everyone can learn from failure is to own up to it and don't sit there in that failure; learn from it and then move on.

Jason: 11:22 That's great advice. Now, can you talk about someone's who’s helped you in the past and how they helped you?
Jazmine: 11:28 For this one, I say my HR Tribe on Twitter because, like I said, I don't really feel like I’d knowledge wise of HR in my career where I am had I not known and met those group of people online. It’s so many people that come through and help me daily and I’ve connected with them off of Twitter as well, so that's also been a great. I can just text them or reach out on a phone call. So that’s why I’m saying you need to get on Twitter and find the HR Tribe.

Jason: 12:04 Yes, exactly. Next, tell us something about yourself most people don't know. Your close family, close friends know this but most people that know you're in the day to day life don’t know this about you.

Jazmine: 12:15 I don’t think most people know that I cook a lot and I really like to bake cakes, pies, cookies, those types of things. So I don't think a lot of people know that about me.

Jason: 12:31 So, Jasmine, I understand you have a book to recommend to our listeners.

Jazmine: 12:35 Yes. I think everyone needs to read Steve Browne’s book, HR on Purpose. I think it's really a basic HR book but it’s not where it’s just for HR newbies trying in. I think HR needs to go back to the basics of where we started. Because a lot of people are so caught up on the laws which, don't get me wrong, we have our laws and we have guidelines that we have to abide by. But that's also another reason why some employees are very scared to walk through that HR dollar to have a conversation. I feel like Steve really helped us understand what HR is, how to make HR fun again and how to acknowledge HR in a positive light.

Jason: 13:30 Jasmine, you talk about your social media. So can you provide those platforms for our listener so they can reach out to you?

Jazmine: 13:36 Sure. So you can reach me on Twitter @HRJazzy; I have an HRJazzy Facebook page. I have a LinkedIn account and you can just reach out by searching my name – Jazmine Wilkes. And of course I have my HRJazzy.blog where I blog all about HR and different challenges; I’m doing the Black Blogs Matter Challenge right now and, in a few weeks, I’ll be blogging a lot of about SHRM18 coming up. Then you can also look out at Workology.com and the SHRM blog to see some of my works.

Jason: 14:19 You have a full-time job just doing your social media, don’t you?

Jazmine: 14:22 I know, right? I’m thinking through like, “did I think of all of them? I think I did.”

Jason: 14:30 Jazmine, we’ve come to the end of our talk. Can you provide any last words of advice or wisdom to our listeners?

Jazmine: 14:35 Last words of advice I would say is to enjoy HR and enjoy the field that you’re in. HR has gotten a lot of slack over the years. But we do know that there're great HR professionals out there. That they’re trying to make a change and make a difference and I hope you're one of those HR professionals that are trying to do so. So, do your very best and that’s everything they want from you is for you to be the best that you can for your employees, for your company and for yourself.

Jason: 15:13 Good advice, Jazmine. Jazmine, thank you for being our guest on our podcast today, I really appreciate it; you gave us some great advice.

Jazmine: 15:21 Thank you for having me, Jason. It was fun.

Jason: 15:24 To our listeners, thank you for your time as well, and remember to be great everyday.