Thanks Mike.

We wouldn't use anyone's comments without permission Mark. Although I was loving yours Debbie: 'This forum is EXTREMELY useful. I use it every day...' !!  

I don't want this conversation to move attention away from Steve's original intention with this thread which is to chat through your thoughts on what works, what doesn't, what's good, what's not etc, all for research into how we can constantly enhance our service to you.

Sorry for the digression off topic!

Johanna

Mark,

The phrase "straw man" comes to mind.

We would never seek to re-publish a whole thread, just a single sentence as a testimonial. Hence the request for permission. But this is a diversion.

On a general point, a number of us connected with the community have *a lot* of experience with online communities, not just this one, and we look at a whole range of stuff that indicate a community's 'health'. Hey, I would even call myself an 'expert'. There; said it. This community is by far the best I have ever been associated with - and that's down to the thousands of members who have contributed in many different ways.

If you look back at the questions I 'asked' (just to kick us off), they are not by any means all skewed to invite only positive comments. 

I am however, always keen to hear of examples of individuals gaining real value from a particular thread (which they can tell me about by direct email if they like), because it's often difficult to get that kind of information back (without asking).

Anyway, I *really* don't want this thread to be deflected by these last few posts.

I am more than happy for any comments that I have made to be used.  The Communities are invaluable to me and the primary reason I renew my CIPD membership each year.

Kind Regards

Leanne

When looking at change and progress I find the following questions valuable:

• what should the community stop doing (and why)?

• what could the community start doing (and why)?

• what should the community change (and why)?

• What should the community continue to do (and why)?

wow, Thanks, Leanne. 

Mike - those are great questions. Thanks, again.

Steve 

Hi All

Very useful starter questions from Mike. Those of us adopting emergent themes from positive psychology would be more likely to ask:

What is currently working well?
When does it work well/what conditions support it working well?
How can we replicate these conditions to make it work well more often/extend the areas where it works well?

Which sort of brings us back to Steve's original question about what's good about the community and how can it be improved :)

Kind regards

Anna

Gosh Mark

You really are full of ideas this afternoon!. I would like to defend the moderator, however, as I personally think Steve does a great job and always takes a very fair line.

I think part of the difficulties you raise stem from something I've been raising in these commuities for some time. That is the fact CIPD seems unable to separate out the commercial arm from the professional institute; and much of the activitiy is driven by the former rather than the latter. While this may make commercial sense it does, for me, sometimes call into question the integrity of the professional institute bit.

Kind regards

Anna

Thanks, Mark.

Near the end, you said: "Continue with its clear uncluttered layout. - Its easy on the eye."

Did you mean for that to sound like a compliment?

Seriously, you make some perfectly sound suggestions. I must say that many of them, we have discussed in other threads, such as "crediting photographers for their photographs in every posting", by which you mean the profile photos people upload themselves. I consulted widely - really widely - on this one at the time. We added a line of text, as many other websites do, re permission, and even added a field where people can enter the name of the photographer. Show me a community like this where they publish the photographer's name (usually a family member or friend).

You think I step in too much? Someone else today (on a thread about Facebook) seemed to take precisely the opposite opinion. 

As I think I've said previously on this thread, I solicited suggestions of how we can improve these Communities, as many have done. Your opinion is totally valid... as are everyone else's. 

It's Friday afternoon, and so I will let this one rest for the weekend. Perhaps, when I re-read it, your tone will 'sound' a little different. 

I would *prefer* that this thread stuck to the subject of the Communities, please - not the wider issues. 

Steve 

Understand what you say Anna, however there is more than one moderator> My experience is different to yours, if you look at this posting and the comments of Mr. Mark Law below you will see that he says I wasn't dealt with adequately, I agree.

Good afternoon all,

Well, there has been a lot to take in from others' previous comments, so I shall keep mine short...

On the plus side, I have really enjoyed and valued reading others contributions.  I find it refreshing to be able to read others' views, particularly if it engenders a healthy debate.  As a stand-alone HR professional, it is very useful to be able to "sense check" against other colleagues' views.

However, on the negative side, I sometimes find that the comments from some of our more seasoned colleagues to be on the side of curtness, which I think could be off-putting for those who do feel wary or nervous about asking for help in a public forum.

As someone who generally answers rather than posting questions, I think I enjoy the feeling of helping another colleague, especially if the area is something I have pondered over myself in the past.  For me, the queries I have are often very specific so I find the search function invaluable, though a little clumsy to use.  In fact, the one time I tried to post a query, it was so specific I don't think it received any replies!

I think the CIPD communities could do more in terms of creating groups for networking, for example, as has been suggested before, the creation of sub-boards for different sectors.

That's it for now!

Gemma

PS Happy for my comments to be used, if they are of use.

Thanks, Gemma. 

Mark... have a good weekend (no, thought better of it)

Steve,

Would it be possible to add a line under Start a New Thread saying 'Before asking a question, you may wish to consider doing a search in case this has been asked and answered before.  You do this by .....'  please?  Because the quantity of previously asked questions being re-asked is driving me mad.  Especially redundancy ones.  There are loads on that (I've also asked about that, but I did a search first!!)

Just a thought.

Cheers

Rachael

I agree with Rachel on this.

 I think this is my point about CIPD using these message boards proactively to understand the HR agenda both in a strategic sense in terms of what education is needed, playing a proactive role in considering implementation of new legislation and impact for HR teams and using the boards as a consultative forum for important HR issues.  Ie now, in this gloomy economic climate, we have an ideal opportunity to understand if HR/OD has progressed as a profession over the last ten/15 years - if it has progressed then organisations with recognise the that importance of having people strategies aligned closely with delivery is absolutely vital  and  T&D/Coaching/investing staff/employee engagement activities won't tail off or be seen as a nice to have.  I hope we have entered a more enlightened age.........

In a more practical sense, there is a lot of opportunity to respond to questions/discussions generated on these forums as per Rachel's suggestion and eg before people even enter the message boards, you could provide fact sheets/faq's on the top five topics, ie some common guidelines/references regarding redundancy, study, absence management, diversity issues etc etc.

Also, Anna, your last point (being relatively new to the CIPD, although v enthusiastic) seems to be spot on.