Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER March 7, 2016 10 NEWS Compensation Surveys Incentive Programs Job Descriptions Job Evaluation Pay Equity Performance Appraisal Salary Administration Sales Compensation (416) 498-7800 ext. 1 www.resourcecorporation.com COMPENSATION CONSULTING institutions and respective pro- grams that it meets the knowl- edge base within the competency framework of the CHRP." Melanie Peacock, associate professor at the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal Univer- sity in Calgary, said she is thrilled by the development. "What this means, basically, is that we are recognizing as a pro- fessional body, a profession, that while we maintain and will con- tinue to maintain high academic rigour, high qualifi cations within this designation, we're appreciat- ing that for those students that have shown accountability via another approved and accredited route, that they don't have to then write the National Knowledge Exam. at's a big change," she said. While accountants can take accounting courses through uni- versity or college programs to be- come professionals, CHRP can- didates only had the NKE to test academic knowledge, said Ron Gauthier, CEO and CHRP regis- trar at the Human Resource Man- agement Association of Manitoba (HRMAM) in Winnipeg. "Now, with the accreditation of the program of getting and align- ing with our competencies, that means that we're encouraging young students to be trained in HR at a post-secondary level and then come and pursue their pro- fessional designation." It adds credibility to the desig- nation because, on a going-for- ward basis, all the new people will be post-secondary-trained in HR through a diploma or degree pro- gram, he said, adding institutions are very excited about it. "They are in the process of working on a submission to us to develop how close their courses and learning outcomes are to the competencies to see if they would meet the benchmark of being accredited by HRMAM in Manitoba." Accreditation process e accreditation process is being reviewed by academic HR profes- sionals and there's a high degree of integrity in reviewing the cur- riculum, said McNelly. "For those institutions that, for example, have an HR program that maybe doesn't involve com- pensation, they have to adjust their curriculum to align with the competency framework. And this is a really positive approach for the HR profession because we want to ensure that post-secondary in- stitutions are aligning their cur- riculum to meet the needs of the market and actual profession itself in the workplace." Accountants, engineers and lawyers are closely aligned with post-secondary institutional pro- grams to ensure they align with best practices in those profes- sions, he said. " is is just a natural evolution and growth of the HR profession, and it adds a higher level of integ- rity and credibility to the HR pro- fession, particularly for those stu- dents who are graduating in those programs that are accredited… it'll give much greater comfort to employers to know that those students that are coming out have that basic level of knowledge that is aligned with the competency framework." CCHRA and the member asso- ciations are taking a practical yet rigorous approach in assessing the programs, said Peacock. "And now we have those nine knowledge domains as well as the fi ve competencies, so it's awesome that they're really looking at that. And given that it will take some time, I'm also very appreciative that they're saying, 'As long as the program has not substantially changed, people that have fin- ished even within last fi ve years will qualify,'" she said. "What I love about this is it's open to all sort of academic insti- tutions that can apply for accredi- tation, so it's allowing organiza- tions to not only look at their own programs and review and mak- ing sure they're aligning within requirements within the CHRP, which is great in and of itself… but it's also holding that degree of rigour because there will be ac- creditation committees to look at this and make sure it's happening." Waiving the NKE But Ian Turnbull, managing direc- tor at Laird & Greer in Toronto and co-author of the Study Guide for the HR Knowledge Exams, has reservations about the changes. "I believe in certifi cation, I be- lieve in standards and I believe that employers and professionals both should reasonably expect that the people who claim to have such a designation have a certain level of competence and knowl- edge and skills," he said. "How good are the courses in HR? It's a fairly unregulated and undisciplined area of academia. I think there's a lot of variability in the quality of education sessions." ere's a lot of people talking about fundamental orientation changes in HR, talking about em- powerment, employee buy-in and so on, he said. "Is that being taught in schools or are people being taught skills? You go to a compensation class and you learn how to calculate a compa ratio, and you go to a class on staffi ng and you learn how to conduct an interview, but is there anybody talking about the overall practice of HR and how it should function and how it should be tied into the operation of business?" ere has to be a standard and there has to be an examination for the standard, said Turnbull. "I don't care whether you call it the NKE or the CPA or some com- pletely new description. ere are RPCs (required professional capa- bilities)… and I don't know of any effort by academic institutions of any description to tie RPCs to learning materials." People who go through law boards to become a lawyer or a medical board to become a doc- tor may complain about how hard it was but they're proud to have passed, he said. "I don't think we should be making it easy to become an HR practitioner." But anyone who's done a post- secondary program knows there are more exams, questions and coursework than the NKE can test on, said McNelly. "I consider a post-secondary program as a higher threshold than the NKE. e NKE is one exam that tests a broad base of HR, whereas if you do a degree in HR, that's four years, 40 courses and… 10 to 20 of those are going to be in business and going to be focused on HR and it's going to ac- tually test to a much greater depth of knowledge than the NKE can even test." Quebec has taken this ap- proach for years, with fi ve uni- versities in that province now accredited, so nothing is lost in bypassing the NKE, said Tony Ariganello, CEO of CCHRA and president and CEO of the Human Resources Management Associa- tion (HRMA) in Vancouver. "Quebec is exceptionally strong and they're very, very positively recognized in Quebec with re- spect to the HR profession. I think 70 per cent of jobs that are posted at the HR level, senior level, re- quire the CHRP, so in no way has it minimized that. And not every- one is coming through that stream — you've got to remember, you re- ally need to focus on HR and with a specialization in HR." Better connections The post-secondary accredita- tion program will also improve relations with the schools and the NKE, said McNelly. "You can begin to bridge that gap because now you've got a much greater accessibility into providing guidance and advice and development of the curricu- lum — that then leads into better information to adjust the NKE as well because there's still going to be many members, many HR pro- fessionals that want to get into the HR profession but… don't have an academic background from an ac- credited institution or program," he said. "By connecting much more closely with post-secondary in- stitutions, we ensure that the aca- demic theory is translated into the NKE and also for those accredited programs, they relate to what's happening in the current HR in- dustry. So it's really about aligning best practices in the industry and aligning that with post-secondary curriculum and ensuring that the NKE is aligned with those best practices as well and provides that bridge." Allowing transferability also makes sense, said McNelly. "It just provides consistency within the academic curriculum and consistency of expectations of knowledge that's aligned with the competency framework. And that's what you see in the other major professions," he said. Another big part of the change is it allows for a pipeline of student growth in membership. "The expectation is they'll maintain their membership throughout the duration of their HR career," said McNelly. 'Natural evolution' for HR ACCREDITATION < pg. 1 3 pathways There are now three routes candidates for the Certifi ed Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation can pursue in provinces that are members of the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations (CCHRA): 1. •Attain a bachelor's degree in any fi eld or discipline. •Pass the National Knowledge Exam (NKE). •Attain three years of professional-level experience within the past 10 years. 2. •Attain a bachelor's degree in any fi eld or discipline plus a credit-level HR certifi cate or diploma program accredited by a CCHRA member association. •Attain three years of professional-level experience within the past 10 years. 3. •Attain a bachelor's, MBA or master's degree in an HR program accredited by a CCHRA member association. •Attain three years of professional-level experience within the past 10 years. Source: Human Resources Institute of Alberta

• Cover