The Institute of Human Resource and Management Practitioners (IHRMP) says it’s hopeful to attain a charter status by the end of this year.
The institute has been highly expectant of the passage of the HR Bill, which would enable it to attain a charter status, to enhance the image and regulation of the HR profession in the country.
ADR Daily caught up with Dr. Edward Kwapong, President of the IHRMP, who, in an interview on the sidelines of the graduation of mentees of the Tullow HR Mentoring Programme in Accra, expressed optimism of the passage of the Bill by Parliament this year.
ADR Daily (AD): What is the stage of the Bill currently?
Edward Kwapong(EK): The Bill has gone through the Attorney General’s Department, has gone to Cabinet and its now before Parliament. And so any moment from now it go through Parliament and when we get the nod then it will become a law, a law for regulating HR in the country. We will then become a chartered institute just like the chartered institute of Bankers or Chartered Institute of Accounts or the legal profession the Ghana Bar Association. These institutes have a legal backing so they can do a lot of things we cannot do because we are not chartered yet.
AD: How has the absence of this Bill affected the HR Industry?
EK: Our ruling on certain matters and our control of the practice has not been very effective because we don’t have the law backing us so our decisions are only persuasive. We cannot go to any law court to enforce a decision of the association and so that’s where we are. But when we attain a charter status then we can have the legal backing to do the needful.
AD: How is the use of technology impacting the HR practice in Ghana?
Well these days technology drives business and HR management is part of business, so yes seriously it is impacting HR practice, to the extent that technology has helped us to create what we call a common platform. The shade services platform where all the other departments can key in to come into the platform and access certain HR service that use to be manual. Now if you want to take your leave, you come to that platform, you are processed and you go on leave without physically moving from your location or department to the HR department. And so yes its imparting the HR profession positively.
And we are in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and so a lot of the processes are been taking over by artificial intelligence. For instance when we advertise for jobs for people to apply we can do it online, collate, process in terms of the minimum requirement and on the basis of that do the short listing and perhaps the initial conversation online before we invite you for a physical assessment of your suitability for the position. So yes technology has come in a big way to facilitate and speed HR processes for effective HR management.
AD: How does IHRMP take investing in people?
EK: Investing in employees is very important and we only play an advocacy role. We don’t have the resources to provide institutions or companies to invest in people. But it’s an advocacy role that HR is not static, the boundaries of HR is always expanding and therefore in order not to stay stale you need to invest in people, make them thought leaders and let them move along the latest development in HR management, technology and everything else.
By: Benjamin Nana Appiah/ adrdaily.com
