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Guest Article

Contributions by experts working the real world of online screening and assessment.

The Joy Of Blogging: How to Stay Current In the Evolving Field of HRM (www.employmentblawg.blogspot.com)

Michael M. Harris, Ph.D.
University of Missouri-St. Louis and EASI Consult LLC

I am a regular contributor to a blog on HR and HR law issues. A blog, in case you don’t know, is a shortened term for “web log.” A blog is not much more than a regularly updated series of entries about a topic of interest. For a reader, a blog is a way to keep up to date. For a blogger, the blog serves as a way to force you to stay up to date and to give you a forum for your thoughts or opinions about a topic of interest. There are other potential benefits, however, from blogging. In the remainder of this article, I will describe how I became a blogger, tell you a little about how the blog operates, and conclude with some of the advantages as well as disadvantages of both contributing to a blog and regularly reading a blog.

How I Became A Blogger

It all began one day, when I was using Google to find a blog that covered employment law issues. I came upon a blog referred to as “George’s Employment Blawg,” and perused the many interesting listings. Over the next few days, as I regularly visited “George’s Employment Blawg,” I became curious as to who George was and where he worked, so I visited his profile page. To my great surprise, I immediately noticed two noteworthy facts. First, George lived in the same town as me. Second, George worked as an attorney for a law firm named Harris Dowell Fisher & Harris (www.hdfh.com). Although I am definitely not related to any of the Harris’ connected with the firm, it seemed like a funny coincidence that he worked for a law firm that contained my last name. With these facts in mind, I emailed George and told him I would enjoy meeting him over a cup of coffee. We became friends after that meeting and George invited me to become a regular contributor to his blog. We also discovered that we nearly became classmates, and possibly friends, some 30 years earlier, when my father almost accepted a teaching position at Indiana University, where George’s father taught for many years. I am now a regular contributor to this blog. I don’t have a specific writing schedule, though I try to contribute something just about every business day.

How “George’s Employment Blawg” Operates

I’m an HR expert, and I serve as a professor, consultant, trainer, and expert witness. The type of items that I post range from commentary on employment law, such as disparate impact issues, to interesting web sites that I have found on employee recruitment. In terms of employment law, for example, I have written a number of postings describing the use of statistics in employment law. Regarding employee recruitment, I posted some material on the EEOC and OFCCP proposed definition of an Internet applicant. What I find to be particularly intriguing is that George writes on some of these same topics, but from a lawyer’s perspective. For example, while I have written on the use of statistics in disparate impact cases, George has written on the legal basis for disparate impact approaches to discrimination. George also covers other legal topics, such as summary judgment issues and types of proof in harassment cases.

In addition to writing longer, integrative pieces, George and I enjoy being among the first to inform our readers about important news. I like to post recent interesting court decisions, such as Dukes v. Wal-Mart, as soon as they are announced.

In brief, then, our blog covers new trends in HRM, provides useful HR websites, and provides detailed thought pieces about HR and HR law.

Advantages of Blogging

Whether you are a reader or a contributor, there are several advantages to blogging. Blogging forces you or helps you to stay current and be familiar with the latest trends and issues in HRM and HR law. If you want to stay on top of your field, this is an excellent source of information. Second, blogging enables you to network with people in your field. I met George this way and I hope to meet other readers as they e-mail questions or post comments on our blog. Third, it forces you to think about issues you may not have considered before. George, for example, has challenged me on some points concerning disparate impact that I had never thought about before.

Disadvantages of Blogging

One disadvantage is that if you are posting things, you may spend a lot of time working on them. You may end up spending more time than you expected! Another disadvantage is that some readers may challenge your opinions. One anonymous comment writer questioned my use of some disparate impact concepts; George later admitted that it was he who had written the comment. Of course, that can be an advantage to you, too! Finally, if you are just a blog reader, you may get “hooked,” and you may start every day with a stop at the blog.

Conclusions

Please visit my blog: www.employmentblawg.blogspot.com There are no advertisements and you may find a great deal of valuable information. Stop by on a regular basis and either leave a comment or send me an email ( ) as to what you found of value (or what you would like to know more about). Enjoy blogging!