Every American can and should be a part of the solution to the historic housing and economic crisis our country and people are currently grappling with. This is my strong personal view as well as a key founding principle behind my real estate company HausAngeles, and is a view that is shared by most everyone around me both at work and at home. The truth is that until America is back on its feet and stronger economically, there will be millions of Americans (possibly up to 5 or 10% of our population) who need different types of help….but this number will be far smaller than the number of Americans (likely 90 to 95% of our population) who are in a position to help…in some way, big or small, monetary or non-monetary. So if we can help connect those with the ability and willingness to help with those that need this help….we can accelerate the path to economic recovery in a manner that isn’t dependent on the government “bailing everyone out”.
It is with this spirit that I have founded “Human Resources (HR) Helping Hands”: an all volunteer, free network of professionals with HR experience who want to donate their time and talents to help fellow Americans (e.g., those that have lost a job recently) in need of advice and support with respect to their job and career transitions.
As a former Chief People Officer for a 10,000+ employee organization, I have worked with many Human Resources professionals and know that “HR people” are helpers and empathizers by nature. Many HR professionals really want to help those impacted by this crisis, particularly given the large number of people experiencing job loss right now, but don’t have an easy way to get connected with these individuals in need. Enabling this “connection” is what HR Helping Hands is all about.
In the few days since I made the decision to create this network, I am already inspired by the enthusiasm and response from my HR colleagues and friends. Susan Cline, my former (fabulous) assistant at Indymac Bank, has agreed to be the “administrator” of this network…purely in her “free time” (i.e., during the evenings after she comes home from work). Key current and former Indymac HR leaders – Annissa Deshpande, Jennifer Pikoos and Marie Therese Wynne – have also joined the network, as well as agreed to be part of the core team that helps to build and manage this network (again, all in their personal time).
The network is “live” so if you are an HR professional (or know one) who would like to join and help, please email Susan at susanmc50@gmail.com. Alternatively, if you have a friend or acquaintance who could use an HR mentor…connect them with Susan to help them get an HR professional mentor assigned.
In order to keep the process simple (since this is an all-volunteer initiative), we are asking the HR professionals for the following minimum support for each mentee: an email or phone resume consultation/feedback session, and a 30m or more job and career advice session. Mentors can decide to do more and mentee’s can ask for more help…but we will leave this up to them to discuss and resolve.
I will keep you blog updated as this initiative progresses….and hope you will share this with anyone you think might be either a potential mentor or mentee. ray
