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Last fall, HRPA made a key move
toward establishing an internationally
recognized competency framework
for the human resources profession.
HRPA presented its comprehensive core
competency framework to a technical
committee (TC260) of the International
Standards Organisation (ISO) with a
recommendation that ISO should mandate
a multinational working group to
develop global standards in HR, integrating
competency frameworks from various
countries into a single global framework.
The committee approved HRPA’s proposal
unanimously, and created a new
working group to develop that harmonized
framework. HRPA CEO Bill
Greenhalgh was named chair.
Having a global competency framework
will help enhance the human
resources profession worldwide; create a
common basis for education, training and
talent selection; and facilitate the mutual
recognition of designations between
countries, says Greenhalgh.
“Once it becomes a standard, any
country that wants to be considered to
have a professional HR function will at
least have to factor this new standard
into their thinking,” he said. “Ultimately,
competency frameworks support designations
and those are very important
because they are an objective validation
of someone’s capability. They tell an employer
that if you have that designation,
you have the ability, the skill, the background
and the experience to be able to
function well in a specific job.”
The goal of the working group is to
establish a single framework that all
countries could accept in order to accelerate
HR as a true global profession.
The next steps in the process will be
for each national standards association
to issue a call within their countries for
subject matter experts to provide input.
The timeline on establishing the framework
to completion is estimated to be
three years.
STRATEGIC STEP FORWARD
Working to establish a global competency
framework supports HRPA’s
strategic direction by seeking to initiate
programs and support global agreements
for the mutual international recognition
of designations, standards and HR
professionalization.
“This is not only a huge recognition of
HRPA’s credibility as a global thought
leader but it is also difficult to overestimate
its importance as a major advance in
our intent to develop common standards
for HR professionals around the world
and build a foundation to advance HR as
a true profession,” said Greenhalgh.
“It’s a very useful tool to have
agreements or memorandums of understanding
with other countries in terms
of a particular profession… we’re talking
about human resources professionals, but
it would apply to a lot of other occupations,
as well,” said Kwan.
“Where it’s important and helps (ease)
some of the difficulties around recognition
of credentials is when you have an
agreement in place with another country…
then it’s sort of a tool to help
facilitate that process a lot more, and people
can assess the competencies of this,
let’s say, temporary worker coming into
the country. They can right off the bat assess,
‘Oh, okay, this person has this set of
skills’ or is particularly competent or experienced
with x, y and z.
“It’s a very useful tool to help with the
process, because when you have someone
go to another country to gain more experience
or for whatever reasons… there are
many steps to it, and… when you have a
common way of understanding what
those skill sets are, it’s very helpful.” ■
Liz Bernier is a communications specialist
with the Human Resources Professionals
Association.
HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ SPECIAL CONFERENCE EDITION 2017 ❚ 23