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What Kind Of Fish Stories…
2/18/2003
By Dave Smith, President
The Employers' Association, Grand Rapids, MI
The Internet can be a great tool for both business and individuals. With the
availability of data "online," however, organizations should always be concerned
that the information taken from questionable sources, portrayed as being
reliable, may begin to effect how business is conducted. Specifically, surveys
and other sources of "factual information" are readily available on the "net,"
but many of these surveys are compilations of old data, some taken from obscure
surveys, or such broad averages that one pay rate/range can be applied to
multiple jobs within a job family. The net can also provide convincing
information that is totally false.
Elementary school students nationwide were recently provided a feature story
within their science magazines about how "fresh water whales and dolphins
migrate to the lower part of Lake Michigan for the summer." Several facts
provided by the website (which has now been labeled as "for entertainment
purposes" but was not so designated when the magazine used it as fact) included:
"The clean, fresh waters of the lake provide dolphins with benefits over
their siblings swimming in salt water. Without the salt layer on their skin,
they can swim 40% faster…"
"Freed from the threat of whalers, the sperm whales take benefit from the
clean waters and abundant food of Coho salmon, lake trout, and zebra mussels…"
"The Lake Michigan Sperm Whale has been protected since the early 1920's
by a little known provision of the Volstead Act..."
When confronted, the national science publication talked to their staff about
using Internet information that had not been proven credible. A retraction was
printed, providing teachers with an object lesson on the dangers of the web.
How does an organization know what to believe? Developing a business
partnership with survey specialists is a start. WageSalary.com provides pay and
benefits information compiled by professional researchers, then analyzed and
presented in a format that Human Resources Practitioners will find both useful
and reliable. Remember the whales next time you go to a seemingly credible web
site seeking business information. Truth can be elusive!
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