Citation
(2009), "Whats on the web", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 17 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2009.04417bag.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Whats on the web
Article Type: What’s on the web From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 17, Issue 2
Good prospects
This site began as an online applications system for prospective postgraduates enabling them to apply electronically to UK higher education institutions (HEIs).
Designed to encourage more postgraduate applications, particularly from overseas candidates, the system helped maintain the UK’s competitive position alongside HEIs in North America and Australasia by making the application process quicker and easier.
It is now a full-blown graduate recruitment site and is well laid-out and easy to find your way around.
There are discussion forums on a wide range of topics and a monthly poll – this month’s asks: “2009 graduates: Are you confident your degree will make you more employable in the current economic climate?”
This is a lively site with a good search facility and is well worth a visit.
Managing people
The European Association for Personnel Management (EAPM) was founded in 1962 by the national associations and professional institutions of personnel management in France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
The Association forms an umbrella body of national organizations that represent personnel professionals. It is purely professional and specialist in nature and claims to be “An experience exchange organization” without profit-related objectives. It is independent of all employers, trade unions, state or political bodies. The Association operates under Swiss Law.
There are a few design issues around their web site – the choice of text colors is often inappropriate for example, but the HR professional will find much useful information here, not least in the publications section. It is also worth a visit.
Open verdict
As the recession bites, more people will go on to (or back to) studying and learning part or full time. This seemed an appropriate time therefore to look at the Open University (OU) site.
The OU, the UK’s distance learning icon, has around 150,000 undergraduate and more than 30,000 postgraduate students.
The OU is a great institution but sadly their web site is underwhelming. The home page is uninspiring and there are a number of other pages, “research” being one example, where errors of design or grammar irritate the eye.
There are some good things of course, the site is lightening fast and most of the information is easy to access. That said, some searches throw up 100s of pages – refinement is the watchword here.
Good source
The Richardson Co. Training Media offers thousands of employee and management business training programs from a wide variety of training producers. They claim to update the web site and customer training product offerings on a daily basis and certainly the information did seem very topical.
They feature some good sessions, including the “Abilene Paradox” – how to solve your organization’s decision-making dilemmas by examining group dynamics.
We also liked the celebrity training section where John Cleese, Lance Armstrong, Richard Branson and the Muppets all feature.
It is easy to find material from a huge range of topics; the site is well worth checking out.
World of information
We have looked at this site before but as it currently features the “Top 25 Careers to Pursue in a Recession” it is worth another visit. If you want to recession-proof your career, the key is to focus on work that continues even when most people do not have disposable income to spend.
We would normally criticize the design of the site (it is not great by any means) but information such as “Although today’s job market may be bleak, there are some bright spots if you know where to look” makes it worth a visit regardless..
And finally
“Give me a one-armed economist!” demanded President Harry S. Truman.
President Truman was the first president to appoint a council of economic advisers. Unlike some later presidents, he actually liked to listen to his policy advisers. However, he preferred a clear recommendation, not a long discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of a particular course of action.
He quickly grew tired of economists who gave a good recommendation and then began, “On the other hand … ”
Best of all
For a particularly interesting and useful site you could always try the Emerald one!
If you have any favorite (or otherwise) sites that you would like us to review on these pages, or wish us to consider your own site, please drop us an e-mail and we will ask our reviewers to check them out.