If you are interested as an observer or as a "Stakeholder" in the development of Standards for Staffing and Workforce Planning, send an email simply stating your interest (individually or representing a group, vendor, association, company) to Lee Webster HRSTDS@SHRM.ORG before the end of MAY

Last week a well-worded but routine press release was issued by SHRM without any accompanying fanfare outside of a member magazine mention- despite the fact that a SHRM Staffing Management Conference attended by more than 700 HR and employment professionals was taking place in Las Vegas at the same time.

The SHRM Press Release details the May 2009 launch of a National Task Force responsible for developing Human Resource Standards for the Staffing and Workforce Planning fuctions. The launch is part of a much larger initiative that first surfaced (after more than a year of preparation) in February, 2009 when SHRM was designated by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a Standards Development Organization (SDO). (ANSI is the US organization that serves under the International Standards Organization-ISO). This task force is one of the first of at least 3 being launched in 2009. As many as a dozen or more task forces might eventually be working collaboratively with stakeholders to pioneer first US and eventually ISO Standards for the HR profession and its functions.

Now if you aren’t already full to the brim with acronyms and detail, the protocols for establishing standards include reaching out to interested parties, managing public debate and eventually developing consensus through voting by potentially hundreds of stakeholders.

I’m hoping you are interested, or that your organization is, or your association, or, someone you know is. I know I am. I'll let others debate the value of this initiative. I'm interested in driving the folks who get the potential of standards development and who realize the value in participating to get in the game. I believe the implications for this initiative have the potential for taking the standards work pioneered by many other organizations to a new level of professional and industry acceptance.

If you are from any of the following 4 stakeholder groups: Staffing and HR Practitioners, Customers (public and private sector organizations and employees), Developers (suppliers and vendors, academics, attorneys, researchers, and consultants) and General Interest representatives (all other interested parties) and want to particpate or simple observe, you should email Lee Webster, Director, HR Standards, at HRSTDS@SHRM.ORG no later than May 30, 2009.

I plan to create an open forum based on one or more existing platforms where all interested participants and observers can see the action on the three initial "calls for standard" and grind slowly forward. A beta of that site is at http:staffingstandards.ning.com. Join me.