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HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines

Updated as of January 10, 2024

Disclaimer 
The views and opinions expressed in this online community are those of the individual participants and/or organizations and do not reflect the opinions, official policy or position of the HRCI professional community, its moderators, or its affiliated organizations. The information provided by its participants is intended for general informational purposes only and should not be taken as professional advice. HRCI is not responsible for the opinions, accuracy, completeness, or validity of any information posted by the community participants. Participants are encouraged to exercise professionalism, discretion and critical thinking when posting, reading and/or responding to posts. HRCI does not endorse or approve of information posted on the professional community.

 

Overview and Introduction

HRCI ENGAGE is a cloud-based platform hosted by HRCI’s trusted service provider Circle, which users may access on a computer or through a downloaded app on a mobile device, to participate in and/or facilitate professional development discussions, professional education and networking in a welcoming and inclusive environment for HRCI-certified HR professionals and HR profession community stakeholders ( “HRCI ENGAGE” or the “Community”). The HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines (“HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines”) establish the expectations for how users of HRCI ENGAGE will communicate with each other and share content within HRCI ENGAGE. We require all authorized users of HRCI ENGAGE (“Users”) to adhere to the HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines and maintain professional, responsible, and courteous etiquette at all times. Please read the following information carefully. 

 

Access to the HRCI Professional Community

HRCI ENGAGE is made available by HRCI as a benefit for HRCI-certified professionals and other HR profession community stakeholders authorized by HRCI. Users of HRCI ENGAGE who are not already authorized by HRCI must be approved by HRCI community administrators.  No authorized User is allowed to share their User credentials for HRCI ENGAGE with any other person.  All Users of HRCI ENGAGE are bound by and must abide by the HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines, Circle’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, as well as all applicable HRCI policies and terms, including but not limited to the HRCI Certification Policies and Procedures Handbook, the HRCI Code of Ethical and Professional Responsibility, the HRCI Complaints and Disciplinary Policy, the HRCI Website Terms of Use and the HRCI Privacy Policy (collectively, “Additional Terms”).

 

Posting Content

For all content that you post on HRCI ENGAGE, including but not limited to text, articles, essays, commentary, publications, slide shows, graphic images, photographs, video recordings, audio recordings, multi-media content, electronic files and all other content and materials incorporated into, made part of or used, broadcast, played or displayed in connection with the content you post (collectively or individually, “Content”), you are making the following representations about the Content:

  1. The Content does not violate the intellectual property rights of a third party, including copyright, trademark and trade secret rights;
  2. The Content does not include or incorporate the material, literary work, creation, photograph, graphic image, illustration, video, audio, recording, media, choreography or artwork of a third party without the explicit written permission and license of any such third party, and User has sought and obtained all required clearances, permissions and licenses before including any such licensed content in the Content and paid any required fees for any such licenses;
  3. The Content does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of a third party;
  4. The Content does not include any confidential, inaccurate, false, misleading, defamatory, libelous, unlawful, scandalous, offensive or actionable statements, images or allegations; and
  5. The Content complies in all respects with all applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and regulations.

In addition, please consider the following requirements when posting Content:

  • Post Content in the most appropriate subcommunity.
  • Use clear headings for the topics. Consider using words that others might search for to find the post.
  • In public communities, only post Content that you would be comfortable having reproduced or shared outside of the Community.
  • Never post HRCI certification examination content, in whole or part, or discuss or disclose topics contained in HRCI certification examinations that are more specific than the information publicly disclosed by HRCI about its examination content.
  • Never post confidential information of your own or any other person, company or organization.
  • Never post inaccurate, false or misleading information.
  • Never post photographs of any person without their explicit permission in writing.
  • No information from these groups should be shared publicly by any User of HRCI ENGAGE without prior written permission from the User that posted the information in HRCI ENGAGE.
  • Do not share or disclose any person’s personal information (name, date of birth, cell phone number, address, or any other personal identifying information) without their express advance consent.
  • Do not engage in “trolling,” or posting deliberately disruptive statements meant to hijack comment threads or throw discussion off-track.
  • Do not post links or comments containing sexually explicit or otherwise potentially offensive material.
  • Do not bully your peers; do not post language that is threatening or meant to attack another person.
  • Do not post spam, duplicative posts, link baiting files, phishing links or files containing viruses that could damage the operation of other people’s computers or mobile devices.
  • HRCI ENGAGE may not be used for the furtherance of commercial activity (e.g., the buying and selling of goods and services).
  • Exercise discretion when discussing products. Users are strictly prohibited from selling, advertising, or otherwise promoting for their own profit any products through HRCI ENGAGE.

 

Objectionable Content

HRCI has a zero-tolerance policy for the posting or further distribution of Content that violates any aspect of the HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines.

Do not post Content that violates the rights of third parties or could be viewed as offensive, insensitive or discriminatory.

Examples of objectionable, offensive, and insensitive Content include (but are not limited to): harassment, dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, calls for exclusion or segregation, and targeting people or making any comment or statement related in any way to a person’s personal or physical characteristics or race, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, disability, political views or affiliations.

Examples of graphic Content include (but are not limited to): explicit language or imagery, vulgar or lewd speech, and graphic or violent images.

Examples of Content that violates the rights of third parties include (but are not limited to): false or misleading statements about a person or company that tend to paint the person or company in a negative light and/or photographs of a person posted without their permission.

 

Copyrighted Content and Intellectual Property

HRCI ENGAGE moderators are able to exercise discretion in reporting Content that they reasonably believe infringes the copyrights of others to HRCI staff, who may request that it be taken down. Please note that HRCI and other community participants have the right to reproduce postings made to the public community groups.

Do not post any copyright protected Content without first obtaining permission to do so from the copyright owner, and please credit the Content owner and creator of the Content if you are posting another person’s Content with permission.

HRCI ENGAGE participants are encouraged to post links to free information and journal articles that are in the public domain. Users may post Content they have authored themselves, so long as the User retained the right to republish their own work.

Do not post the trademarks of any person or company without obtaining a license from the trademark owner.

Do not represent Content that you post as yours if you did not create it.

 

Warning Against Statements and Conduct that Could Violate Antitrust Laws

HRCI ENGAGE shall not be utilized in any manner that violates federal or state antitrust laws or other laws prohibiting anticompetitive practices. The antitrust laws generally prohibit any agreement or understanding inconsistent with the right and obligation of competitors to exercise independent business judgment in pricing their products or services, dealing with their customers and suppliers, and selecting the markets in which to compete, among other business practices.  No express agreement or understanding is required; one can be inferred from statements or conduct. Users are prohibited from using HRCI ENGAGE to encourage or facilitate Users or other individuals to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, anti-competitive conduct, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that could reasonably be interpreted to encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are strictly prohibited: prices; employee compensation; cost data; market shares, territories, or markets; allocation of customers, employees or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of identifiable employees or pricing of contracts with customers or suppliers.

While it is appropriate to discuss HR practices and policies as general topics, it is important that the discussions could not be perceived as an attempt to enter into agreements to create anti-competitive hiring practices.

 

HRCI ENGAGE Management

HRCI ENGAGE Reporting of Objectionable Content

Users and moderators have the ability to report potentially objectionable Content, including advertisers, and/or comments for HRCI staff to review and take action on. Please email us at HRCICommunity@hrci.org if you see a post that you think is not in adherence with the HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines and HRCI will review the post and exercise its discretion as it deems appropriate.

 

Violation of HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines

The consequences for violating the HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines will vary depending on the severity of the violation and a person’s history on the platform and is left to HRCI’s sole discretion. For instance, HRCI may warn someone for a first violation if it is not severe, but if they continue to violate the HRCI ENGAGE Guidelines, we may restrict their ability to post or terminate their ability to use HRCI ENGAGE.  If a violation is severe, in HRCI’s sole discretion, HRCI may immediately terminate the User’s ability to use HRCI ENGAGE.  Users have no recourse for or right to appeal HRCI’s decisions regarding violations.

In addition to the actions described in the above paragraph, HRCI may take additional actions consistent with HRCI policies or the HRCI Bylaws.

 

HRCI Staff Engagement

Staff may contribute to a conversation in the instance that HRCI can provide support to our Users or stakeholder community in some way. Staff may also engage in discussions based around their areas of expertise or to provide clarifying information if the opportunity provides itself.

 

Community Creation Guidelines

New subcommunities can be requested and will be created and approved at the discretion of HRCI staff. Niche topics of discussion or community ideas that do not clearly fit under a broader group are more likely to be approved. To request a new subcommunity, submit a request via email at HRCICommunity@hrci.org and a HRCI staff member will contact you with next steps.