Methodology – The Talent Management Blog Power Rankings [sponsored by FOT and the HR Capitalist]

–See the FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings HERE…

–Poll is based on 103 more than 160 Talent Management-related blogs, including properties focused on talent  management, HR, recruiting, compensation, rewards/recognition, benefits, vendor products, leadership, workplace culture, employment law and related legal issues.  Oddly enough, the search continues for the world's first payroll blog.  [Updated in May 2010:] We've decided to no longer include sites like RecruitingBlogs, ERE, etc as they have multiple contributors and are more social/community oriented in nature. At this point, we've also opted to include social networks like RecruitingBlogs and The Fordyce Network in the poll.  Since ERE has a single RSS feed from multiple sources, we've included them too, for now….

–Blogs seeking inclusion in the Talent Management Blog Power Poll may submit their site to Fistful of Talent and The HR Capitalist for voting moving forward.  Blogs seeking inclusion must support RSS via Google Reader.

–Poll Sponsors (team at Fistful of Talent and HR Capitalist) attempt to read/review every eligible blog.   But hey, we're human.  It's got to be good or we might not come back… Just like you….

–Upon reading blogs, pollsters determine if blog contains news/thoughts/entertainment which is exceptional enough to recommend to colleagues for consideration.  In short, the entry must have data/news/opinion/reflections with substance to improve the life of an average Talent Management Manager/Director/VP as judged by pollsters.

–If the blog meets that standard, pollsters consider voting for blog in power rankings moving forward.

–All Fistful of Talent pollsters submit votes with each poll, ranking their top 20 blogs, giving 20 points for the blog ranked first, 19 points for their second ranked blog, etc.

–Votes are collected from each pollster and tabulated overall, netting the top 25.

–Blogs in Top 25 will receive overall ranking, a power index noting the total number of votes, first place votes and an indicator noting last position in poll. 

–Blogs not in Top 25 but receiving votes will receive a "shout out" in the "Also Receiving Votes" section of the poll, meaning they are players in the eyes of the FOT pollsters.

–Ties among blogs with the same number of votes are broken according to even more subjective criteria than those listed above.  Kind of like the College BCS poll in this area…

–Quality posts are measured via the poll, but blogs are not penalized for posting more frequently than their peers.  If it takes 10 posts a day to crank out the masterpiece, cool.  If you can become #1 with two posts a week, more power to you.  Lots of different ways to influence.

–The rankings will be a work in progress according to the definition of Talent Management, etc.  Blogs with lots of political humor, language, etc. may be removed from consideration.  We'll use our best judgment, but the goal is being able to recommend the blogs to the broad audience of people practicing Talent Management – not just bloggers, who tend to have thick skin.  So, the core mission of the blog has to be providing quality information, with Talent issues at the core of what the blog is about.