He has a place at SHRM's table

Workforce, June, 2003 by Carroll Lachnit

J. Robert Carr has been human resources director for the Association of Trial Lawyers and AARP. He knows the ins and outs of workforce issues in high-profile associations. Last month, he took the degree of difficulty up a notch. He became the human resources leader for the world's biggest HR organization--the Society for Human Resource Management.

On the first day of his second week, when Carr took time out for an interview, he was doing what all new employees do--meeting people, checking out the organizational landscape, and "doing a lot of listening." SHRM employs 250 people. Its membership stands at 175,000. And so there's a unique pressure on Carr, given that all those people are experts in his field.

"It's exciting and challenging all at once," says Carr. "One of the things that [SHRM president and CEO] Sue Meisinger wanted to make happen was that we walk the talk." In other words, this is no time for the shoemaker's kids to run barefoot in the quaint streets of Alexandria, Virginia, where SHRM is based.

In addition to his career in association work, Carr is an attorney. He served as assistant counsel for the office of the solicitor in the U.S. Department of Labor. He also had his own consulting firm, Carr & Associates LLC, based in Washington, D.C. He's been a member of SHRM since 1988.

Carr, 53, says that what attracted him to SHRM was that "HR has been particularly welcoming to me."

"It's a chance for me to give back to the profession," and bring both his knowledge of human resources and strategic planning for nonprofits to SHRM.

His full title is Vice President of Human Resources and Strategic Planning, and the strategic planning aspect is very important, Carr says. SHRM is in the midst of a multiyear review of what it must do to advance an organization whose members find themselves in a rapidly changing work landscape.

"The old issue was 'HR needs to be at the table.' In progressive organizations, at least, we're at that table, but how does HR interface with the organizational strategy? And sol have that in my title--strategic planning--as well. I've been asked to have direct accountability for strategic planning in our organization." In addition to developing its vision for the future, SHRM has been reviewing and making changes in the structure of its governance, another area in which Carr will be involved. The scandals of the corporate world have made everyone "jaundiced about the verbiage" that any organization puts forth.

"People are asking for greater accountability," he says. "They want to know, one, that they are being told the truth, two, that the leadership is accountable, and three, that we are all acting in an ethical manner."

Carr is certain that he'll hear plenty about the job he and the society are doing. "My experience has been that HR people are not shy and retiring folk. They'll let us know if they're not happy."