CHR
660

Hi Dinesh,

Some great thought provoking points. Yes, the problem of repeated "non payment of wages" etc are an issue. And you are right that with the advent of whatsapp groups there are many HR groups that have formed. They serve well as micro communities, where a set of people collaborate to help each other and kind of satiate the need for HR oriented discussions, but there will be space for a public resource platform. We definitely need more hardcore HR issues to be discussed, but most of the seniors choose the medium of writing articles/books and asking/expecting them to reply to queries is unlikely to work. The only people who can keep the platform lively are consultants, who have the necessary expertise to comment on industrial or specific HR issues. This should also broaden the scope of the platform itself as more consultants will see this as a medium of promotion and exposure. Not through repeated posting of their profile but with proper replies on queries.

Currently we don't have much focus, this is just one step towards it and doesn't really change much in terms of the core of the community.

Regards,

Sid

From India, Gurgaon
I have no idea where to go with this.

A number of things bother me about CiteHR, not the least of which is people shamelessly flogging their business and not contributing anything to the conversation. However, others have broached this subject.

And then there are the people like Topjob who answer every post saying they can provide a solution - at a price - for every problem. This guy must be a genius if he can solve every single HR problem known to man.

I think in the main people come here for "free" advice. At some point they may need to pay for external advice or help, but initially they are seeking some general help.

My other problems concern the fact that some days we move way to far away from HR. There are too many posts about how to start businesses, etc. This has nothing to do with HR. Maybe we can have a CITEStartup or something to divert all those postings to, and to get back to our core business, helping HR professsionals with HR information - or am I wrong in assuming that is what CiteHR is about?

I also wonder about the questions regarding being fired, or missing pf, or joining letters and all the other minutiae of being an employee, not a HR Practitioner. They are HR issues to be sure, but these sorts of questions I don't see as being within the scope of this site.

I have been less active on the site in recent times, not because of time. I am retired, have all the time in the world. But I am tired of the constant repetition of subjects already covered a million times over, or people in trouble, and expecting us to wave a magic wand and fix it for them.

In my view, the time has come for Sid to lay down some clear statements as to what he wants this site to be, what sort of content, what sort of users. Clearly he is seeking to move forward in a new direction. Once we know that, we can decide if it continues to meet our needs and if we want to continue to participate going forward.

From Australia, Melbourne
I appreciate the ongoing discussions.

These are profound issues, and there can't be handy ready-made solutions. In spite of discussions and brain-storming, we have to understand that there can not be a perfect way; and learning by trial-and-error is imperative and un-avoidable.

Several new issues have come-up, rather, been un-earthed. Coming to Dinesh's views; I appreciate his candid opinions which are almost like a SWOT analysis. I agree with many of his observations; and I would like to add a few more to his :

Indeed, Internet has changed a lot in the last 10 years. One of the most striking aspect is the Social Media, which at one time was looked down by serious professionals and nerds, has gained ascendancy and respectability. Now it is the prime-mover on the web-space.

Another such outrageously disruptive invention was the Smart Phone and the Android. What a decade back was available, that too in a very narrow spectrum as compared to today, to only a few creamy layer of Blackberry phone users, is now available to all.

Here I agree in totality with Dinesh.

Presence on Social Media and WhatsApp has changed everything. The first point, is the Appearance, or presentation. For example, pages on FB are so user-friendly, present everything at-a-glance (for which earlier a "dashboard" functionality was required), everything opens or is visible at a click.

The second is, Ease of use. Not just the advantage of being on mobile platform, but as already said, the ease with which one can upload material in any format, makes these very handy.

The third is, more Openness, as opposed to Privacy and Anonymity. It also points to the Trust factor as well as, Friendliness. The people or participants in these new-age forums appear more accessible and real. True, there are valid reason and compulsion to remain Anonymous, at times; but what is meant is, the people on these medias appear more real and accessible.

To understand this last point, let us ask ourselves, "How many members in CiteHR, do we know personally in real life ?"

Yes, one does have hundreds of Followers, and may Follow hundreds; and may have genuine mutual appreciations with many, yet in real terms many are just entities in cyber-space. this was the norm, earlier when people chatted on Bulletin-Boards and chat-sites.

Today, one has to recognise the power of Networking, which these new alternatives are exploiting quite well. We must have a Network of real users and members, who can network with each-other off the site as well.

On this, I would like to add that several attempts were made in the past, of having get-togethers and arranging Meets in malls or public places. However, for some reason or the other, these did not turn out to be what was envisaged. In my opinion, one of the main reason was, the members were unknown among themselves, and thus could not overcome the hesitations or apprehensions that they had about others.

In an FB and WhatsApp like scenario, members would have known each other quite well and would have motivated and built on momentum for such events.

I am sorry, if at this point of time, I am not able to offer any solution or a strategy. What I am able to do is to gather my impressions on what I have experienced and observed; and the changes that have taken place since. I am proud of CiteHR, my association with CiteHR and I am confident that CiteHR will continue to remain a great resource, as it keeps evolving over time.

Just a fortnight back, someone shared on WhatsApp, a list of most important and popular HR sites. As usual CiteHR was listed in it, but what caught my attention was another website, which in the past had been spamming the pages of CiteHR in an attempt to grab eyeballs and popularity; and it has been repeatedly banned. It hardly has any content worth reading and even these are plagiarized from other websites. However, due to its presence on a social site, it has accumulated a large following. The fact that someone in social media likes a page or a site, has a lot of influence on others, as the members in social media who use their real profile, are known to others. Its a matter of Identity and Trust.

So, I whole-heartedly agree with the basic idea of promoting Consultants, as it will give "face" and Identity to those whose comments the members have read. How to go about it, is what needs to be worked upon.

On that note, I had put forth the case of Freelancers as well.

Beyond that, I would also like to promote a 'normal' HR professional, why he should not get a chance to promote himself or herself ???

These days Recruiters rely a lot on Social Media for Talent Acquisition. CiteHR is just the perfect platform for all HR Professionals.

I understand that I have covered just a limited aspect of what is being sought. I think, while thinking of "who needs CiteHR most ?" we must also appreciate and think of the needs of the "average" HR professional. A profile in CiteHR, built painstakingly over years, listing the actual contributions of that member, his influence on others and the community at large; these are all very valuable assets for HR professional.

Coming to Aussiejohn's views, I agree with them. Being my senior, he has seen more happening at CiteHR. The following are especially noteworthy :

- there are no dearth of unscrupulous element bent on exploiting the needy. I have deleted and Banned many who keep on coming with new IDs, who ask for some remittance to their bank accounts to provide solutions to every problem posted by the members.

- even if the problems posted by members is repetitive, members would not hesitate to give responses, if they know the person. As we have seen in Social Media, people do not hesitate in commenting again and again, on issues they have a clear opinion about.

I shall be back with more, as I await views and responses.

Warm regards.

From India, Delhi
Respected CHR,

I have gone through this thread this Sunday and confused myself.

Person like me use this platform as a tool to share and enhance the knowledge and I feel, those who are constantly contributing to various threads may be having same object in their mind. They may not be having an intention to create business out of it.

I personally feel that proper evaluations or assessment needs to be done of the posts by contributing members.

On this forum everyone is contributing member. Even he writes / posts anything in handful of discussions / threads, he is called as a contributing member and a member with more than 2000 qualitative posts with good number of appreciations is also called as a contributing member.

I have also seen a member with odd 50 posts promoted as senior member within a span of few months and then he disappeared from the forum.

The evaluations made recently for "Most Appreciated Member" there is no logic seems to me.

If you give recognition to contributing members with proper evaluation, it will be good enough for them. Moderators should play good role in this and certain issues need to be referring to experts.

Regards,

Adv. Keshav Korgaonkar

From India, Mumbai
CHR
660

Hello Keshavji,

You are absolutely correct in your assessment that promotion to "most appreciated member" is not regularized - we need to automate it so that senior mentors are marked automatically when they reach a certain threshold of appreciations. While CiteHR has seen steady growth - the biggest jump in usage was during a period where we had the Cbox feature (consultant box). While most current active members see this as a platform for knowledge sharing (which is the core) - I need to look at it from a "platform" point of view. To be able to create a bigger impact in the business world it needs to be equipped with many kinds of knowledge, among them would be a list of trustworthy consulting brands. I envision this to become a platform where businesses (startups/established), consultants, senior mentors are able to find structured data instead of just conversations. The conversations would be a way (for employers) to judge validity, expertise, conduct and trustworthiness. This development does not really change anything about the community at its core.

Regards,

Sid

From India, Gurgaon
Dear Sid,

Introduction of platform for consultants or otherwise, the primary challenge of citehr is to improve the quality of the discussion, quality of the replies or even quality of the language of the posters. Sometimes members just upload the trash on the site. This very trash keeps seniors or high-class HR professionals at bay. Without defining the quality standards and further sticking to it, no product on earth has developed. Therefore, if citehr were to be developed, the first requirement is to define the quality and sticking to these standards diligently.

After 12 years of existence, citehr does not have even 0.1 per cent of the HR content. Other 99.9% belongs to plain non-HR or personnel management. Therefore, pertinent questions that arise are:

a) Will c-box (platform for consultants) improve the quality of discussion?

b) Will consultants attract seniors in HR like GM (HR), VP (HR) etc to citehr and if attracted, will they share actual case studies of their organisation?

c) Will introduction of consultants be able to compete with numerous HR forums that are breeding on the social media? While couple of HR forums on social media may not have significant impact on citehr, thousands of them will have surely.

d) Five years ago, social media in general, and WhatsApp in particular was absent. However, the rage is growing day by day. Will entry of consultants predict what will be the rage five years from now i.e. in 2021? Possibly at that time WhatApp may be replaced with still something advanced. How citehr will cope with that?

e) What if consultants grow at the expense of citehr? After attaining a higher destination nobody remembers a ladder that took them there. Will consultants do something similar to citehr?

Correction: - In your post No 22, you have written that "The only people who can keep the platform lively are consultants, who have the necessary expertise to comment on industrial or specific HR issues.". However, this is a grossly mistaken view. Serving GM (HR) or VP (HR) are also perfectly capable to address the queries of the junior members. However, there presence is few and far between hence you feel that consultants are only capable to address the issues.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

From India, Bangalore
Dear Sid,

Just above this post, you will find a post written by a labour law consultant. Without bothering what is the nature of discussion, the gentleman has uploaded his post to promote his business. However, this is not isolated case, this has been happening all along. In this very thread, this has happened for the second time. You have deleted earlier thread that was uploaded for some other consultant.

The third paragraph of your first post says that "From the beginning, we always knew that the core of this knowledge-base is going to be the knowledge that our consulting members will share". I am yet to understand the premises from which you have developed this inference. There is no iota of evidence to support your statement.

Consultants use this forum out and out for business promotion and nothing else. Beyond promoting their business, hardly they have connect with this Citehr. Notwithstanding this, you wish to rehabilitate the very section of HR community whose contributions are least in development of Citehr. It would be worth waiting for few more years to see how citehr has grown because of the consultants like the one above.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

From India, Bangalore
Dear Dinesh ji, I failed to understand your first para of above post # 28. Can you please elaborate which post by a Labour Consultant is of business promotion?
From India, Mumbai
CHR
660

Hi Dinesh,

Those are the kind of consultants we don't want - unfortunately spam is an issue that requires constant vigilance and is a problem on all platforms. This is not new. And there is evidence that some of the best posts have also been posted by consultants (Rajat, Leolingham, yourself, Nashbramhal, Madhu, Learningnovo, Korgaokar, Raj, Saikumar, Umakanthan and many more) or people who were trying to get into consulting. Many have probably failed and I think the primary reason is that we haven't been able to portray them properly. Like it would be so much better if a user could just click a link and get a summary of a user's achievements and expertise. In any case this is a feature - and its not becoming the core reason for this platform. If it doesn't work - its fairly simple to roll it back.

Lets move ahead and help me understand what I could do to get you more business and if at all that is possible on this platform. There is a possibility that it just may not work - but just strutting along this path of repeated discussions is probably not what we should be aiming for. And this is just an idea - which I understand, you think, won't work out well. Your advice that trying to attract consultants would only give rise to more of spam posts - may be true, but it will also attract some good people and possibly a lot of local opportunities. And without new blood being constructively engaged on this platform - this platform won't last another 10 years.

Regards,

Sid

I've removed the spam post Dinesh mentioned in his post.

From India, Gurgaon
Dear Dinesh

While having a somewhat different opinion on certain points, I agree with several issues you have pointed out. What I feel perplexed, dismayed yet at times very optimistic, is the changing nature of internet and social media; and in turn how they affect the society and social mores.

How the changing nature of social media has affected all of us in some way or the other, and how this affects CiteHR; I shall try to find a connection from what you have written; viz :

" ..... Serving GM (HR) or VP (HR) are also perfectly capable ...... . However, there presence is few and far between..."

In the last decade, this is what has changed !!!

If you recall, recall earlier such professionals, esp. seniors would shy away from revealing their real identities, or even disclose the names of companies they have been associated with.

This has changed.

In WhatsApp, which is basically a messaging service visible only to the group members, there is no such inhibitions, obviously.

What is amazing is, Facebook has made people more open, to the extent of sharing even their personal and private moments (thanks to selfie-culture); and this applies even to head-honchos.

Another astounding reality is, LinkedIn, which happens to be the premier networking site for professionals, has changed a lot in recent times; and is enabling more social-media-like features of posting articles, pics, comments, reactions etc.

Even Gmail+ features such functionalities.

In fact, almost in any websites, when one posts a comment, one's mail or social sites identity is displayed.

All sites are now relying heavily into NETWORKING Among Users.

This is one feature, that needs to be promoted and supplemented with such functionalities. This will benefit Consultants and others who need to showcase their contributions, build up associations with other users and wish to network.

Those who wish to stay anonymous or private, can continue to remain so.

Therefore, whatever the nature of CHANGE, which will only be visible after it is implemented, and I am all for Change, Learning by trial and error, is a great way of going ahead. Let us support Sid in bringing about whatever changes possible. In these times, one has to run, just to stay at one's place.

While analyzing the Threats and Weaknesses; I also find a lot Strength that has gone into the making of CiteHR. It offers not just quick and authentic solutions to day-to-day problems, but is also a ready-reference and a repository of latest knowledge, information, guidelines, practices, rules and regulations; and changing times also present a number of Opportunities.

Looking forward to more ideas and suggestions.

Warm regards.

From India, Delhi
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