A couple of months ago, I mentioned that I was thinking about leaving HR. Well, my friends, that day is upon us.

Starting today, I’m a marketing guy.

Officially, I’m a Senior Social Media Engagement Manager for the Training and Development organization at EMC, the company I’ve been working for over the last three years.

What that means in practical terms is that I’ll be integrating new technologies like social media to further our learning initiatives. I’ll also be marketing those initiatives internally and externally in new and fun ways.

So what happens to Renegade HR?

Not much, actually.

I won’t be writing here anymore (at least not any time in the foreseeable future), but I’m really proud of my body of work on this site, so I’ll be keeping it online indefinitely.

For the last few months I’ve been writing at Go Make Things, my new site about all things awesome. I’d encourage you to follow my adventures there. You can subscribe by RSS or email.

Thank you for reading my ramblings for the last three years. And thanks also to the all of the wonderful people who have supported this site and it’s various side projects.

Cheers!
Chris

Someone on Twitter pointed out that I haven’t really written much here in a while. They’re right.

My interests are shifting, and I’ve been writing more or less daily on my other blog, Go Make Things.

There, you’ll find my ramblings on topics like social media, marketing and storytelling. I also share cool videos, insights on design and the creative arts, and random stuff I find amusing.

If you haven’t yet, check out GoMakeThings.com.

EMC Global Services has more than 14,000 employees spread all over the globe. Two career questions come up more frequently than any others: What can I do next and how do I get there?

Over the last two years, my role has been to help answer those questions.

The Challenge of a Global Workforce

The global, remote nature of our workforce creates some unique challenges. How do you find job openings, build a network and advance your career when you’re one of just a handful of people in your area?

There are employees at EMC who have quite successfully navigated those challenges. We realized early on that capturing and sharing their stories was important.

One of our first successes was Career TV, video podcast series with a simple concept: Ask some of EMC’s best and brightest employees to share their best career advice in 60-seconds or less, film it, and post it on YouTube.

After doing a series of these videos, we began to notice some common themes and trends. We started compiling insights around common topics into short ebooks. The Career Guide series was born.

All of these tools reside on an internal social network called EMC-ONE. They’ve helped sparked discussions around topics like leadership and continuous learning. They’ve helped people connect, share and learn from each other.

Storytelling as a Job

While the subject matter I’ve worked with has definitely been human resource related, the type of work I do is not strictly HR.

If anything, I’m a professional storyteller. I capture and share employees’ stories. Big picture, I tell a story about learning and development at EMC.

And I’ve come to realize that this is what I like best about my job. Storytelling.

I’ve been giving some thought to what I might do next. Something in our Learning & Development group would be an obvious match. But I also think Marketing might be an interesting way to use the skills I’ve developed.

After all, marketing is storytelling (ideally nonfiction).

So I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be doing next. I know I want to stay at EMC, and I want to help tell stories. Beyond that… I’m still trying to figure it out.

Image by Sippanont Samchai

So you’ve developed your employer branding strategy, set-up your blog and started having conversations about your culture.

How do you get people to the site?

Today, I’m going to teach you how to market your employer branding blog.

Keep reading…

This is part of a multi-article series on the book Made to Stick.

Photo by Paul L. Nettles

Last week, we talked about how you can use surprise to get people’s attention. But how do you keep their attention once you get it?

Today, we’re going to talk about another emotion: curiosity.

Keep reading…

This is part of a multi-article series on the book Made to Stick.

Photo by caribb

If you’ve ever been on a plane, you’re familiar with the safety announcement that flight attendants are required to make before the plane takes off. And if you’re like most people, you probably tune the flight attendant out. The information is pretty important, but no one cares.

What if you were asked to make the safety announcement? And what if you actually needed people to listen to you? What would you do?

Keep reading…

This is part of a multi-article series on the book Made to Stick.

Herb Kelleher, the longest-serving CEO of Southwest, once told someone, “I can teach you the secret to running this airline in thirty seconds. This is it: We are THE low-fare airline. Once you understand that fact, you can make any decision about this company’s future as well as I can.”¹

Keep reading…