The Society for Human Resource Management offers an excellent site on workplace diversity, including a bi-monthly diversity publication, a comprehensive list of diversity-related resources, and practical tools and in-depth information to help HR professionals manage diversity in the workplace. Highly recommended.
Fast Company: This site augments the hard copy Fast Company magazine articles and features with interactive tools, forums and networks for managers wanting to keep up with the global revolution in human resource management. It contains an archive of every article from every issue of the magazine as well as weekly features that highlight workplace themes, supported by interactive polls and discussions. High quality and cutting edge.
Mercer Human Resource Consulting: Once named the leading HR consultancy in Australia and New Zealand. The site mixes information and news of interest to non-clients with details of products and services. Beyond the commercial information, there are pages of news, articles by their consultants and others, an email news update service, Internet discussion groups and links to more than 100 related sites. Includes cost-of-living reports and a special calculator to design accurate expatriate compensation packages (searchable by region).
The Coaching & Mentoring Network: At the crest of the online-mentoring wave, this site provides a community portal and resource center of information and resources for both those offering these skills and those seeking them. At the core of the network is a coach and mentor matching service, while full-text articles are accessible under subject areas that include executive coaching, mentoring and research findings. Offers a range of case studies, which give a slice of real experience in applying coaching and mentoring in the workplace and the spotlight on what makes a professional mentor tick. Links to allied sites extend the usefulness of this site.
The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations: This site offers some popular measures of emotional intelligence, detailed research papers, and useful statistics that could be included in a business case for initiating an emotional intelligence framework for staff development. Guidelines for the implementation of best practices and those for securing organizational support for programs will be welcomed by the enlightened manager wishing to incorporate alternative and additional measures of performance and success for staff.
Catalyst: Catalyst works with business to advance women. This leading non-profit, international organization offers advisory services, a speakers bureau, a corporate board placement service, an information center, and conducts groundbreaking research. Of particular interest here is its report on spousal employment issues: Two Careers, One Marriage; Making it Work in the Workplace.
Partnerjob.com: Backed by major corporations and entirely non-profit, this site aims to create career opportunities for dual career partners on the move. Partnerjob.com offers a world-wide database where member companies can place their job openings. Employee spouses and partners looking to maintain or develop their careers in a new location can consult the database at any time, post their CV or résumé online, and even apply for a job. Also open to partners who do not belong to member organizations.
Report on the Dual Career-Couple Survey: This excellent article is based on the results of a Web survey (1998) of physicists and other scientists on the issue of spousal employment. Findings confirm that lack of suitable employment for the spouse can lead a candidate to reject a job offer, or to leave a job after a few years if the spouse can find a better situation elsewhere. As these employment problems are more acute for women, lack of attention to dual-career issues can hamper efforts to increase the representation of qualified women in the sciences. From the responses, the authors are able to describe the various ways in which the two-body problem manifests itself, as well as offer solutions for institutions and individuals to try. Highly recommended.
The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy, and Performance: Maintaining competitive advantage in the new economy will require incorporating HR function into corporate strategy, say Brian Becker, Mark Huselid, and Dave Ulrich in their new book. In this excerpt from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (April 2001), the authors explain how to understand and optimize the ways people create value.
What it Takes. Minorities in the Executive Suite: To uncover the processes that promote the development and advancement of minority executives, Thomas and Gabarro embarked on a six-year study, analyzing promotion data and comparing the career experiences of 54 minority and white executives from three companies. In their book, Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America, it is noted that changes in the racial makeup of executives will require the efforts of both individuals and organizations. Summarized in this excerpt from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (October 1999):
