Corporate blogging in Australia

I noticed an interesting article on Australian IT about Telstra and their new propaganda activities, nowwheretalking.

offers a raft of Telstra information, including statistics, speeches by executives, blogs from Telstra staff and feature articles supporting the company’s position on regulation of the telecommunications industry.

(Emphasis mine)

They have gone and created 11 employee written blogs. While they allow for comments, there is now RSS feed or track backs, so are they really blogs, but that is another story. An interesting move that on the surface should be applauded. I wonder if they had to prepare a blogging policy or if they have only “allowed” media certified employees to blog? And who was involved in getting this up and running, I suspect Phil Burgess their PR guy. And the next question is will they moderate comments?

I was reading Rob Bruem’s first post where he admits his mum uses Skype! I wonder what she will say if Telstra follows the lead of some teleco’s to look into blocking Skype packets from their network.

Another good first post comes from Georgia Lee where she goes through her top 10 tips on managing work and home as a mother, wife and being senior sales & marketing role. In summary her top 10 are:-

  • Choose the right partner
  • Recognise that you can not do it all
  • Communication is key
  • Every day is different – every kid is different – every job is different
  • Managing time at work
  • Use the technology
  • Pick the times that you want to be at home and work around that
  • Get the kids involved
  • Get a cleaner
  • Don’t be afraid to question whether the “working mother” balance is working for you

A good list of tips for managing your work life balance.

Bridge Girl triumphs in blog competition

Bugger I guess I am not $10,000 richer, Bridge Girl triumphs. The results of Australia’s best blog, run by ISP SmartyHost, were released yesterday. The “blogs were judged on content, creativity, uniqueness, and frequency and currency of postings. Based on these criteria, Bridge girl traveling diary received the highest combined score from the panel”, hmm maybe I am not creative enough 😉

The top 10 where:-
1. http://www.singingbridges.net/diary
2. http://www.loobylu.com
3. http://www.ausculture.com/blog
4. http://www.karencheng.com.au/
5. http://www.problogger.net
6. http://www.trollhattansaab.net
7. http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/tpn
8. http://www.hearye.org
9. http://www.browncardigan.com
10. http://antonyloewenstein.blogspot.com/
11. http://www.camwheeler.com/wine/

TopJobSites revised listings

(Via On Rec)

TopJobSites have released their November update to the job board rankings. The month of November saw a deduction in traffic going to job boards. The OnRec article states that :-

59.7% percent of job sites are showing a ranking decrease and 40.3% of job sites had a ranking increase. The TopJobSites.com Ranking Index was down 4.47% overall.

This will be a statistic to watch over the next two years. Will traffic to job boards go up or down with the introduction of dot jobs and free classifieds, well CraigsList has recently started to charge for job postings, like Google Base?

One more interesting point www.naukri.com is now listed as the top International Job site. But the top listing of International sites has an error with JobsDB listed and their URL along but a picture of naukri, however this error is rectified in the Top 10 listing. Now I never received a response from TopJobSites when I emailed tham about missing naukri from their listing. Did naukri contact them to get included?

Blackhat SEO really sucks!

Well I guess I am about the be hit with a whole heap of splogs! Blackhat SEO has just listed hrblogs.org as a place to get a free subdomain they recommend on the site “Pick a subdomain with a keyword and start posting your links, simple as that and free.”

Geez these types of people annoy the crap out of me. If you want to see what types of things they are up to have a look at the site, but don’t click the advertising they do not need any more encouragement.

James Farmer should also watch out as his sites are listed as well.

Honeywell is blogging

It seems that the Honeywell Career’s page now has employee blogs, currently they have 3 peadership development program participants blogging on the site. A great step forward, just one thing no RSS feed or at least not one I could find.

(Thanks to Work-related Blogs and News and Viral Voices.)

Update:- I found the feeds, as I went to comment on Tamara N’s HR blog Pluck’s automatic RSS retection feature found the feed for me.

Bad, oh sorry Bank grooming

Boy there is a bit of a stir down here over one of our largest banks (Commonwealth Bank) issuing a grooming guide to employees.

News reports here, here, and here.

In summary it recommends:-
For women
FLESH-coloured, smooth finish t-shirt bras will give you the best, most discreet look.
CONSIDER having unruly brows regularly waxed or plucked.
WASH your hair at least every three days and use a conditioner.
YOUR hands do get noticed, moisturise your hands regularly.

For men
AFTERSHAVE lotions contain alcohol and can produce broken capillaries on your face (small red veins). Use eau de colognes on your body instead.
IF your hair is thinning, try cutting it closer to the head.
IF your hair is light in colour, grey or curly, a shine product can add lustre and help it to look healthy.
TRIM your nose and ear hairs.
DON’T skimp when purchasing shoes. You spend most of your life in them.

The unions as expected are in a spin with the FSU fearing

those who do not comply could be overlooked for rises or promotions. “We understand staff must look professional, but this handbook is completely over the top,” assistant secretary Sharron Caddie said.

While I think they are starting to step onto a very very slippery slope here, sometimes you just have to wonder if some people even look at themselves before leaving the house but to issue a corporate grooming guide…. However these pieces of advice are worth paying attention to as image does impact people’s perceptions of you, just see the Canadian Headhunter’s previous posts on the subject.