On February 20–21, ISU-SHRM (Illinois State University-Society for Human Resource Management) competed in the 2015 Illinois HR Games and Case Competition. This year’s competition was hosted by Illinois State University and sponsored by the Illinois State Council Society for Human Resource Management (ILSHRM) and the Bloomington-Normal Human Resource Council (BNHRC).
Approximately 80 undergraduate students, representing their respective universities, and professional human resource managers traveled to Illinois State for the fifth annual event. Each participating university was allowed up to three HR Game Teams and one HR Case Competition team.
The HR Games were a Jeopardy!-style team competition. Teams of three members competed over several rounds. The top four teams advanced into a head-to-head competition. Case competition teams consisted of two to six members. Teams were provided the competition case one week prior to the event. The students had to prepare and submit a written analysis and a 15-minute presentation. The combined written analysis and presentation scores determined the final winners.
ISU Team 1 placed first and ISU Team 3 placed second in the Jeopardy! competition. The ISU Team won the overall case competition component. As a result of the competition, each ISU Case Competition team member received a role on the ILSHRM 2015 State Conference Committee, to be held September 13–15, 2015.
In addition to the games and competition, the central divisional director for the Society for Human Resource Management, Martha Ramirez, SHRM-SCP, CAE, presented the ISU-SHRM chapter with the 2013–2014 Outstanding Student Chapter Award. This is the second time ISU-SHRM has been recognized as an Outstanding Student Chapter, first in 2010.
Many ISU-SHRM members volunteered and made the event a success. We would like to mention a few by name. Samantha Booth, senior, served as the 2015 conference planner. Associate Professor of Management and Quantitative Methods Nathan Hartman coached the ISU-SHRM teams. Assistant Professor of Management and Quantitative Methods Heather Jia assisted in both the HR Games and Case Competition components. Finally, Ashley Torri, ISU-SHRM chapter president, assisted in creating the teams representing Illinois State.
