It’s been a while. Probably a reflection of how busy we have all been. Anyhow, this week is focused on developments around things I have mentioned in previous Friday mails. Only it’s now Monday.

Enjoy

BBC Olympics
OK. We’d all love to have budgets are large as the BBC. But the true test of any company is how it deals with large scale events. And the BBC doesn’t let us down. My favourite piece of functionality is the BBC Sport’s Olympics Map (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/olympics_map/default.stm) a nice mashup, combining Google Maps, Twittering, Blogging, and Pinponts. What struck me, as I was on the site, is that there is no focus on getting people to register for any form of press jobs for London 2012 (there is a specific link to the BBC London2012 site, but still no jobs content). OK, so we would expect people’s careers to have moved on inn four years, but this (IMHO) is an opportunity wasted by both the BBC and the wider sporting bodies. A simple link to http://www.london2012.com/get-involved/index.php would have been a nice start…

An approach to diversity: CareerMums
Although it shouldn’t be, it’s a constant issue; the impact of parenthood on the career prospect of any parent. A big soapbox of mine is the existence of a hugely talented and qualified workforce, who are unable to fund jobs, simply because it is often too much of a hassle for a company to accommodate the needs of people who want (or need) part-time or flexible working hours. We have already started to see disparate responses to this and Career Mums is one such response.

Though it’s named for working mothers, CareerMums actually includes in its target audience all skilled parents seeking work. With a national online jobs board and candidate board, the site aims to connect skilled parents with flexible employers offering full-time, part-time, job share and contract style roles. Using CareerMums is free for job seekers, who can set up job alerts, post their profiles for prospective employers, register and search for jobs. The site offers a range of resources to assist job-seekers in transitioning back into the workplace after parental leave, including survey data, a flexible work proposal toolkit, and tips on dealing with recruiters. CareerMums also works with employers to adopt flexible work practices and retain working parents, offering several plug-in HR toolkits toward that end. So, it’s only available in Australia but in my opinion, it’s a good start.

DHL Logbook (http://www.dhl-discoverlogistics.com/cms/flash/#/en/)
In a number of pitches, client shave been asking about how to reach logistics specialists and conveying logistics in an interesting and engaging way. This site is DHLs answer – the logbook is a “comprehensive interactive repository of facts, features, case studies and testimonials videos from the logistics industry”. Must have costs a pretty penny to develop too…