First Comment

I’m writing today to let you know about a new web community that we're launching – myhrwebsite.com.

How many times have you asked a handful of people that you know:

•Who’s a good vendor for a specific HR service?
•How to do something in Microsoft Office?
•Referrals for a job opening?
•HR trends in others’ organizations?

The network that you reach out to is probably small, relatively speaking. As you know, the more people you reach out to with a question, the more valuable information you’ll receive.

Myhrwebsite.com gives you the power to reach out to thousands of individuals with the click of a button, without the hassle of having to remember to visit message boards or access listservs with targeted members.

How myhrwebsite.com works is when you have a question, you visit the website and complete a quick form to submit your question. Up to once a day, everyone in the community receives an e-mail with all the questions submitted by myhrwebsite.com members. You can answer the questions you have expertise in, and ignore those on topics that you’re not familiar with. My team and I will pre-screen the questions before the e-mail goes out to prevent spam from getting to you. If there's no questions on a day, we won't send an e-mail.

Today I’m asking you for a minute of your time to please do two things:

•Sign up to join myhrwebsite.com’s community – we can’t do it for you because we're not spammers – and

•Forward this invitation to individuals in your network whom you think would enjoy and benefit from this free service.

We look forward to having you and your network join us, so that the next time you have a question, you can say “let me visit myhrwebsite for the answer!”

This morning I was a guest at a Manhattan BNI (http://www.manhattanbni.com) chapter meeting. For those of you not familiar with BNI, it is a structured networking group with chapters around the world. The purpose? To learn about other members' businesses and share referrals.

I found the meeting exciting, well run, and interesting. One item that particularly caught my attention was a networking approach shared by several members. These members seek out events, meetings, and seminars geared towards industries different from their own to broaden their networks even more. For instance, if you're a real estate specialist, how exciting would it be to attend a seminar on the newest COBRA regulations? While the content itself might be "boring," the networking opportunities are invaluable.

How many times do we push ourselves outside our comfort zones? Do we tend to lock ourselves into our niche of "Human Resources" or "Insurance" or whatever our profession might be? Within our organizations, how often do we truly seek out cross-discipline projects to work on? Thinking outside the box and taking a chance can be instrumental in succeeding in both the short and long runs.