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HR teams place 4th and 2nd

By Katie Hicks
The Collegian

Six students from the Craig School of Business are going to Hawaii to represent Fresno State in the regional level of the Human Resource Games.

Fresno State sent two three-person teams that placed second and fourth at the California HR Games hosted by California State University, Pomona on Feb. 24 and 25.

Eleven teams from CSUs across the state competed against the teams from The Craig School of Business and the top four advanced to the regional games on April 7 and 8 at the University of Hawaii-Manoa on the island of Oahu.

The second place team members are Liwpho Saechao, Carey Watt and Amy Williams. The fourth place team members are Yinmun Chi, Trisha Pfister and Lisa Martinez. University advisors for the teams are Professor Decker, Rudy J. Sanchez and Julie Olson-Buchanan.

“Being a top four school in California has been an eye opener,” said Trisha Pfister, one of the fourth place finishers. “I truly believe that we have the potential to win another national championship.”

Fresno State is the defending national champion of the 2005 HR games earning the top prize in front of nearly 20,000 HR professionals in San Diego, something the girls would like to do again this year.

“What better way to do networking?” said Diane Decker, HR Games advisor and lecturer in the management department of The Craig School of Business. “This year the national competition will be in Washington D.C. and we expect 20 to 40 thousand professionals to attend.”

Decker, a 1994 participant in the HR Games, said she is proud of the hard work both of the teams have put in and she thinks they are both prepared to go all the way but said only one team can go on to nationals from the regional competition.

The HR games were designed as a fun and competitive way to prepare for the Professional Human Resource certification that each HR student takes to become a professional. By studying for several hours each week for the competition, students are ultimately preparing for their careers.

“There is so much knowledge you have to gain to compete,” Decker said. “It’s just volumes of information.”

Decker said after the competition is over, a lot of the students waste no time in taking their certification so the information is still fresh in their mind.

“But not all of the students are going into HR,” Decker said. “Some are in management. But even in management you have to deal with people, as far as managing them, performance appraisals, and salaries. It’s all info that will be relevant to their career.”

The competition is laid out in Jeopardy format where students choose first a category and then a question.

The categories consist of sample questions used in the PHR certification exam such as management practices, selection and recruitment, compensation and benefits, employee/labor relations and more.