A movement has quietly been growing across the United States and internationally, and it involves a series of e-mail discussion group communities hosted by WorldWIT, standing for "Worldwide Women, Insights, Technology." The website address is www.worldwit.org.

WorldWIT communities are localized for some correspondence and used on an international basis when the umbrella organization sends out general e-mail. The organization describes itself as "a global resource for women in business, offering online and offline services and discussion communities for professional women to share ideas, network, mentor and learn on a local and global level." It is free to join (and there are many men who are part of the community as well).

Advantages for HR

For HR professionals, this online discussion network and community can be a goldmine for finding employees for hard-to-fill positions. When an HR professional wants to list a job opening, she can do so through the local chapter that she has joined. This service is also free.

Professionals who enjoy the idea of networking with other professionals on the listserv receive the regularly e-mailed communication. They in turn often forward the e-mails to their friends and colleagues. This makes WorldWIT an even more valuable resource for you as an HR professional, since the membership continues to build with its exposure to new people. The e-mail digests are moderated, keeping them free from spam and commercial messages.

WorldWIT is also a great way to announce any public events you might be planning, such as job fairs or community lectures, and can be a resource when you're seeking information regarding local services for employees. For example, if you were planning to put together a list of local day care centers, you could send a query out to the community asking members to rate their experiences with local providers and e-mail them to you.

WorldWIT can also be a way for you to spot trends regarding professional women's opinions on a host of topics and employment-related issues. If you monitor the discussion, you will have a sense of what is important to your local community and, in some cases, to the more than 30,000 members of this global organization.

The organization suggests that HR professionals also use WorldWIT as a relocation tool, outsourcing tool, and informal salary survey tool by joining and using local chapters' e-mail discussions.