Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 19 HRPA has also made the shift successfully to running events virtually. "It's been a big experimentation period for us, obviously, just like everybody else, trying to figure out what technology platform will enable the greatest member or user experience," she says. It's unlikely the in-person events will return any time soon, says Taylor Green, "not just because of public health concerns but because we also anticipate that consumer behaviour or learner behaviour has changed — people are much more comfortable now doing mentoring, networking and professional development on virtual or digital platforms. So, we'll continue to provide options of learning solutions that are really targeted at how the user wants to experience them." And, of course, the annual conference in January will be fully virtual. There are roughly 75 speakers and more than 50 hours of learning offered over the four days, "so it's really quite robust," she says. "And the theme is 'HR rebooted,' and it's really looking at HR reinventing itself for a very disrupted world." Finally, HRPA is looking to increase public awareness of the HR profession, culture and resources, says Taylor Green. "In the year ahead, you'll see HRPA be quite bold and ambitious and inspiring about how we are presenting the human resources profession publicly." The Quebec HR association l'Ordre des conseillers en réssources humaines agréés (CRHA) started off 2020 by implementing a full program on harassment investigation for HR professionals and organizations, says CEO Manon Poirier. The program features two parts open to the public and two parts open to the 11,500 CRHA members, with a certification of harassment investigation for those who complete the program. "There were some very visible cases in Quebec of psychological harassment within organizations and people who lost their jobs because of complaints," says Poirier. "We believe that certified human resources professionals would support their organizations if they were the ones designated to do the investigations when there's a complaint." While the harassment program remains a key professional development initiative, the CRHA had to pivot with the COVID-19 pandemic. "As an organization, we were very reactive and quick to turn around," Poirier says, pointing to a guide it developed to answer questions related to the pandemic. The guide was available in March and has been updated every day since. At last count, it has been downloaded more than 400,000 times, according to Poirier. The CRHA also recently conducted an exercise talking to HR professionals, non-HR professionals, business owners and employees to get a sense of the collective experience of the past several months and what has been learned. The most obvious finding is that remote work is changing the landscape of work and many organizations will be reviewing how they function, she says. "HR professionals will be supporting organizations and employees in this new way of working, pandemic or not," says Poirier. "The HR profession is the focus now and will be in 2021 — how do we replicate from a distance everything that happens around the coffee machine and forms the culture of an organization?" The association is also focused on initiatives to help with reskilling workers. "The idea of reskilling was already there due to technology and artificial intelligence, but the pandemic acceler- ated the need to reskill people," she says. "I'm not sure organizations are equipped to evaluate what skills are needed, what their current skill gaps are, and how to achieve training and development. "Whether it was layoffs or furloughs or rehire subsidies, everything was going on so fast and the glue that held it all together is human resources." Nicole Norton Scott, CPHR Saskatchewan QUEBEC FOCUSES ON HARASSMENT TRAINING, RESKILLING

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