Daijob HR Club – Part Two: Benefits and Joining

Daijob HR Club – Part Two: Benefits and Joining

The Daijob HR Club is provided as a public service by Daijob, Inc., which hosts the website; provides editorial direction for its content and that of a related newsletter; and provides the venue and secretariat for meetings, seminars, events. Informing the HR Club we were keenly aware that HR managers are unlikely to participate if they could not directly impact the content of the website and select and design events and activities best attuned to their professional needs. For this reason, Daijob takes a relatively hands-off approach to what content and activities that comprise the on and off-line “HR Club”. Rather, we rely on the suggestions of a small board composed of independent HR managers who support the club, as well as member feedback received through the website.

Right now there are about 300 HR professionals who are members of the HR Club – representing nearly the same number of companies. This makes the HR Club the largest professional organization of its type within the foreign business community, and the sheer volume of members ensures strong turn-out at events and broad demographics.

I asked the managing editor of the HR Club, Leslie Taylor, what the main attraction of the HR Club is to HR Managers. She told me that at the end of the day, it comes down to a pragmatic business decision. She explained, “Western business culture requires HR to be an active contributor and driver of business strategy. Organizations in Japan with robust strategic HR functions have a significant competitive advantage over those in which HR does not actively partner with line managers and other strategic players in making and implementing talent acquisition and development decisions. HR managers locked in non-strategic methodology are often frustrated by the limitation of their roles and their inability to deliver maximum value to their organizations; at the same time they lack sufficient information to go and educate their senior management as to how it should be done.”

I think that pretty much spells out the problem and disconnect for HR managers operating in foreign firms, and a good reason why the HR Club has become as large as it has.

The HR Club is undergoing some exciting changes for 2006, and Daijob is making more resources available to the membership. As a result, there will be a new website (the current one is http://hrclub.daijob.com/hrclub), and a lot more best practice information in the areas of Strategic HR Management, Talent Management systems, Cutting-Edge Recruitment Techniques and Tools, and Employee Self-Development, Motivational Training, Productivity Improvement, Training Resources and Techniques. This information will be provided by both international and local thought leaders (in bi-lingual format.)

There will also be a new blogging function that will allow members to dialogue more easily with contributors and each other; and a quicker and more discrete means of obtaining helpful practice information.

HR Club members have used the site to obtain information on such topics as: employees taking out a law suit against the company for real or imagined grievances; pay scales for newly developing job sectors such as technology and in-house corporate services (compliance, legal, etc.), best recruitment strategies for for specific types of candidates, and retirement benefits changes necessitated by recent agreements signed between the USA and other countries and Japan.
If you are an HR professional:

* seeking networking opportunities and access to a unique bi-lingual practice community;

* looking for information regarding a specific HR concerns

* want to stay abreast of industry best practices,

HR Club membership would be extremely valuable.

The Daijob HR Club is free to practicing HR professionals. Fees may be charged for events and for ancillary services. You can join by either contacting the secretariat at leslie.taylor@daijob.com or visiting the website.