New ways of participating have greatly increased the number of visitors to the new website of RES Forum, the independent community of international HR and mobility professionals. The site has been ‘live’ since early February 2015.
Change is good
The main reasons for overhauling the website were its design response and inability to deploy the best of web-based technologies that are currently available. For example, the site could not be accessed with mobile devices. All this has changed for the good, says Gerry O’Neill, one of RES Forum’s directors. “By using the capabilities of WordPress, with various plugins and widgets, we can offer our members a far greater range of services.”
Increased participation
A discussion forum, a new ‘learning library’ and a jobs board are among the features that have been added to the site. O’Neill: “We have also added e-survey capabilities, allowing our members to create their own surveys and post them on-line. We have added blogs, and our members can now manage and update their own profile. The whole idea behind it is to increase the participation levels of our members.”
Member appreciation
The new site has been well-received by the members of RES Forum, O’Neill says. “The feedback indicates that they really like it. You can also judge the interest in the new site by the number of visitors – up by a factor of 10. It really is a major step forward for us.”
Further functions
Further participation is encouraged by a weekly newsletter. Are there any more changes coming to the site? O’Neill: “Certainly. The first thing we want to add is a long-term, policy benchmarking module. We are also working on a policy documentation template. By year end, we will have added half a dozen more functions.”
