This area is for you to make some initial posts and start to understand how the forums work and introduce yourself to others. So here goes...

Hello I'm Rob and I'm sort of in charge but sort of not. I'm online editor of PersonnelToday.com and it's my job to manage this community.

I'm sort of not in charge because as much as possible HR Space is yours, the users'.

But then I sort of am really because it will be me that deals with bad behaviour should it arise. 

One of the things I'll try to do is make sure every post gets a response and that you don't post something on HR Space just so it can sit on the web indefinitely.

If someone raises a really interesting point, it may be that I can contact experts and encourage them to respond.

We've tried to make HR Space as intuitive as possible but no one's perfect. We need feedback. Let me know if there's something you don't understand and I'll try my best to help.

Your turn now... Who are you? Are you a forum novice? Anything you're not sure about?

Hello, I'm David Shepherd, group editor of XpertHR. We're delighted to be supporting HR Space, along with Personel Today. I've subscribed to the main feed and I will be looking through all the new posts to all forums at least once a day - and I'm planning to encourage our experts and editors to respond to interesting points too.

Hello, I'm Permd.

Please to meet you!

Hello I'm Mags. Have been have a look round HR Space and it seems quite good.

Can anyone help me with my question: http://www.personneltoday.com/hrspace/forums/wrongfully-dismissed-507.aspx

Hi Rob Well what can I say, this is great. Having been part of the group invited by Personnel Today to a lunch in London, a couple of years back, to discuss the very same thing, its great to see it all coming to fruition. I am Gill Sullivan, HR Manager of The Newmarket Group. I still network with the people I initially made contact with from the old Personnel Today set-up, which still works really well, a small group of HR professionals with similar issues to discuss, it also helps as you get quick responses without the need to trawl through lots of threads, is you understand what I mean. One of the main discussion points at the Personnel Today lunch, was to make the system quicker, easier to use, having looked at HR space it certainly seems more concise and so far easy to manoeuvre. Blogs, I would like more help with this as I have never used blogs before, any help appreciated. Regards Gill Sullivan

Hi Squirrel - I (Andrew Rogers) was one of the people involved in that sumptuous lunch at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese all those years ago. I don't work directly on PersonnelToday.com any more (but I'm helping them develop the new forums) but I just thought I'd let you know that I still refer to that lunch when talking about networks.It was really useful.

I'm glad we got here in the end and thanks for all your support and enthusiasm back then.

Who knows, maybe it's time for a reunion :-)

(that's a hint to the current incumbents)

Andrew

PS: Here's the basics on Blogs.

 

 

Hi Squirrel,

Many thanks for your positive comments. Andrew confirms my suspicions that said lunch was before my time, but I'm glad that meeting was as fruitful as it sounds.

On the blog front, there's a new post in our FAQ section called What is the "blogs" section for? 

To start blogging you need to go to your "Control Panel". You will then see in your "Dashboard" that the first section is about your blog. You can add a new post to your blog, manage your blog, etc.

Try writing a new post and previewing it. Publish it even - you can always delete later.

You can play with how it looks and so on in a surprising amount of detail.

At any point, if you need a hand feel free to call me on 020 8652 3918.

all the best

Rob

 

Thanks for the welcome Rob.

With many 'community' spaces now available to HR is it refreshing to see such a clean and forward looking environment. I for one hope that it grows and will do what i can to support this community.

Mike Morrison FCIPD FBILD MIBC

 Hi Rob,

 Well I am now hooked!!!  I think that this is a great forum for people involved in HR to be able to assist and help one another with our daily issues and problems, in addition to putting up general questions with answers from a lot knowledgeable people.

I think that the points system is also a great thing to do (especially for those competitive memebers!) - it could be called "Reality HR" with (Apprentice) Guru of the week (I am sure he will not mind!)

Julian 

 

Hi Everyone,

Nice to join in. I am  looking forward to exploring this site and contributring. I am from a group of HR professionals that seems sometimes to be overlooked by the CIPD and that is SME's. There must be many more of us out there who have extremely diverse, challenging and enjoyable roles in SME's but feel overlooked in favour of the public sector and large corporates. Anyone agree??

 

Pooch

Hi Pooch 

I agree. SME Owners need as much help as possible in regards to HR and Employment Law.  Managing staff can be tricky sometimes especially when dealing with sensitive employee matters and Employment Law can be very complex. It would be great if SME owners gathered togther on HR Space to help each other out. Many will be juggling many balls in the air so advice and knowledge sharing on HR related matters will help SME Owners focus on the business!   

Leon

Unfortunately many SME owners have one of two approaches - they trust a single adviser too much or worse they ignore HR aspects all together... With 6 years as a business link HR specialist I feel qualified to say this - sure HR people in medium sized organisations need places to talk - but if you look at holistic business advice sites like UKbusiness forums, it tells an interesting story about the needs or perceived needs of SME owners... there are forums on business, finance, IT, sales, marketing.... but nothing of HR, recruitment or staff training... interesting huh... if they valued it they would ask questions and the site would have its own dedicated area.. instead many managers rely on advice from their accountants, the IOD or sites like HRzone and of course here...

Hi Mike , 

Thanks for your reply. I joined an SME and was fortunate to have a Director who was keen to put best practice HR in place and once he saw the positive results on the business he became even more enthusiastic. Perhaps as Leon states we can have a forum for promoting HR in SME's and get the message out there. We have to start somewhere and as HR professionals I believe it is our job to have a positive attitude, be supported by our Institute and promote the advantages of good people management. There are small business websites with HR forums  and Q&A  and having  recently attended many local SME gatherings one of the events that brought in the most delegates was in fact HR and employment law!

 Pooch

Hi Leon,

 I totally agree! My lot includes  HR business partnering, health and safety, facilities management etc etc, so it would be good to share experiences and a bit of action learning with other SME folk. The needs of HR in SME's can be different to that in large corporates, though very diverse and interesting, and a supportive and sharing place to get togther would be good.

 Pooch

 

Pooch, I was coming at it from the position that 90% of SME's do not have a 'named' HR professional on the team, most if they do HR rely on third party advice... badly.

Certainly there is a place for supporting 'lone HR' professionals, indeed members of the CIPD have the members forum - I would estimate that 30% of the posts on there are for HR practitioners in SME's (or at least solo practitioners). HRzone also contributes to this market and for sure HRSpace can be a unique place in which to build a supportive community.

Hello - I'm new here, and wanted to introduce myself.

I can see this forum being fun and useful!

I'm an HR Manager who has mainly been working in public sector organisations. I've worked with a whole range of different job-types from lolly-pop ladies to firefighters, social workers, dinner ladies, archaeologists, hairdressers.... you name it really!

I've experienced all sorts of strange HR problems - but I've learned that people will never stop surprising me......

Nice to meet you all, although I'm worried very few people are brave enough to have a proper picture of themselves on their profiles......

KEW

Well there's me and you with our real portaits KEW! You'll be interested to know we already have more "real" avatars than most forums, although not as many as the CIPD's.

Welcome to HR Space - I hope you find it useful.

Feel free to share some of your strange situations. Did you do the right thing? Put it to the test and ask everyone what they would have done! Too often people only share things that are current but all can learn from situations from the past.

Any HR Space queries, contact me.

thanks

Rob

 

 

Thanks Rob - that's a great idea (sharing strange situations and asking what other people would do). Where would be best to post them, though?

It doesn't seem like a Welcome topic.....

It could work well. Forums often focus on current problem/issues but there's no reason why people can't gauge the opinions of their peers to find out whether they did the "right" thing. The married couple nightmare thread is a good example of how it can work.

No, it's best just to post it in the category in the main "Forums for all" area that suits it best. If you're unsure put it in "General HR"...

Thanks for your reply Mike. I am an avid reader of both HR Zone and Training Zone (training management being also part of my remit) also ACAS and Business Link. If you have the link to the appropriate part of the CIPD site I would be most grateful. I have'nt found much in the way of acknowlegement of SME's or our contribution  in "People Management" but I do live in hope!

I agree that HR Space would be a great place to offer support to all practitioners and managers and especially us lone ones ( ahh!).

 

Pooch

 

SME content rarely impacts people mgt - which is a shame - but a good percentage of the threads on the communities forum www.cipd.co.uk/communities/ is about sme issues - it is just that most organisations outside academia and gov do not use the term SME in this context - a business is a business...  The only challenges are the ones of few people to do the work!

Mike

I agree Mike. Having worked in large public sector organisations and now an SME there are differences in such things as the grants, training and advice we can access, appropriateness and availability of the resources we can use to reward staff, applying legislation and the need to deal with a problem affecting the business immediately. Everyday is an interesting challenge and a learning curve.

 

Pooch

 

 Hi All!

 

My Name is Dorota. I'm a Psychology student and I'm keen to het into HR after I graduate. Apart form studying I'm working for Mencap as a job trainer. I'm interested in decision-making processes and this is roughly a topic of my research project for this year. I would appreciate your help in filling in the questionnaires. I promise first-hand results from the study. The post will show up soon and I'll provide you with a link.

 And as promised this is the link to the post: http://www.personneltoday.com/hrspace/blogs/dorote-a/archive/2008/09/23/confidence-in-and-commitment-to-decision-maiking-considering-relational-and-financial-risks.aspx

Hi all,

 Just to say hello. I'm Kym, HR Advisor in a large American telco. I spend my days firefighting ER issues and justifying why we have to obtain a licence to employ non-EEA citizens...

 Kym

Hi Kym - how do you justify the non-EEA citizens, then?

I've given it up as a bad job!!

Hi I have been thrown in at the deep end in my co I am now HR Manager and only just starting my CIPD!!!

I am getting stressed about my first assignment on the BPP CIPD course, I wonder if I can find on line an example of an assignment so I can check I am writing the right things

 Hope all is well with everyone here, just wanted to say hi!

 HI

Hi

while I am sure that HRspace will be a great resource in time - at the moment there are not enough 'students' here - as a CIPD student you have access to the CIPD communities, I would recommend you look there are there are 100 of threads about this very topic.. including many people willing to share their responses

Good luck

mike

Hi Karen,

 Should have written US-owned, UK operation HR Advisor! (One of 6, co-incidently). Hence the need to obtain the licence.

Kym

 

Hi Rob (and everyone else)

I'm Lis and Director of HR Connexions.  We are a small Online Recruitment Company, where I have a duel role; responsibility for the HR and the Sales and Marketing of the Business.  Hence, I am hoping that this site could benefit me from a HR perspective when dealing with internal HR issues (bit like the old forums) but also, as my area of speciality is in Online Recruitment, I hope that I can help throw some objective light & expertise into the Online / Recruitment topics.  It looks like a great site Rob and its great to see you leading the industry and embracing web 2.0!  I hope that if you need an expert in Online Recruitment, you can let me know.

Hi all

 

I'v already introduced in this forum under dorote-a. This is my current account though.

 

 

Hi everyone, what a great site this is. I am new here and would like to introduce myself. My name is Frank Maguire, and I am a HR Trainer / Coach. I focus on Line Management Training & training / coaching for existing and newly recruited / promoted HR professionals. I am finding my way around here at the moment, but I must say I am very impressed with this site.

 Frank.

Thanks for the +ve feedback Frank.

Let me know if you have any queries and I'll help you out.

all the best

Rob

 Hello all,

 I've been a keen reader of the forum for some time now, and feel ready to get stuck in and say hi!

 My experience is in hospitality management and HR, dealing with all the fun of pubs and restaurant and the adventures that entails.

I have started to write a blog concerning HR issues which can be found here

 That's it really, just a hello!

 

Hi Foolsgold,

Welcome to HR Space - do you want me to aggregate  - or "mirror" - your blog in HR Space so any posts you do appear here too (only the first 150 characters or so - to read the full thing users have to click through to your site)

Thanks for joining!

Rob

Thanks for the welcome and nice to see the forums working so well. I used to post comments before this format was launched and having been offline for a few months (leaving old job, taking a holiday, moving to London, starting new job), am excited to come back to such constructive changes. I've used forums before so am familiar with the layout and process, but think it's really great to have a user friendly HR space where the professional community can discuss relevant issues and news.

Hi,

I am Neeti and I have been working in Learning and Development for the last 4 years. I am interested in knowing cross border HR practices and the best way to make Learning and Development a successful division wthin an organisation.

I can already see that veterans here & I hope to gain knowledge through their wisdom. 

thanks!