Around 12 months ago, our data told us we had higher staff turnover than previous years. At the same time, surveys and exit interviews were identifying extremely high engagement scores in most areas, but low scores in relation to career development and professional development. We dug deeper and found several issues relating to the lack of opportunities around career development.

Having recently implemented a new HR information system (HRIS), we knew there was a module for performance management that we hadn’t yet developed. That went hand in hand with a review of our performance management process. The new process could incorporate a strong connection with professional development and career development, and be enabled by the HRIS.

A democratic approach

After an employee survey, and utilising data from exit interviews, we presented the problem   we’d identified and the solution we’d devised to the executive. It was important that we had their support and they were keen to remain across what was happening.

We also had a working group made up of employees and managers to help design and guide the process.

Our focus was not just to ensure a clear professional development process and framework, but to support it with an HRIS element that reduced the amount of time a process like this might take up. In the not-for-profit space, time is a luxury most people don’t have. We needed to improve efficiencies and add value, rather than add administrative effort.

Another deep focus was ensuring every element of the system was fit for purpose. One excellent piece of advice I received when we spoke with other organisations that used the same HRIS was, “Don’t get caught up in what the system can do. Instead, focus on what you need it to do.” 

“[AHRI Certification] recognises job-based learning and expertise, and offers me greater confidence in my own decision-making.” – Megan Werner CPHR, People and Culture Business Partner, Stroke Foundation

Our previous performance management process involved meetings in November and December, with notes typed into Word files. It simply wasn’t conducive to structured, ongoing development. There was a great opportunity to change things.

We looked at our HRIS, at the key functionalities that were available. Then we created our processes to align with the pieces of functionality that matched our needs.

A new approach to career development

As we planned and executed the additions in functionality to the HRIS, we realised the result of those changes was far greater than the sum of their parts.

For example, there are now more areas that can be developed and customised for each individual in terms of performance management and professional development. There are employee goals, career goals, competencies for each role, performance reviews and more.

Other changes included:

• Check-ins are now happening at least once a month and people are going into the system with their managers and assessing their role competencies. Importantly, that’s not from a performance perspective, but instead from the angle of where they need to develop to do their job well.
• The mindset has changed from assessing how a person is performing in their role to assessing areas for development.
• Goals are set and regularly assessed – it’s a living platform, as opposed to a Word file that’s rarely opened because it’s hidden in a folder somewhere.
• Salary reviews aren’t connected to these performance check-ins or to performance reviews. Instead, it’s up to the manager and employee to work out how the process works best for them.
• Feedback and data from the system has already led to new offerings within the business, such as internal training programs and a mentor and emerging leaders program. 

It also brought a simple but powerful change to the timing of the major annual performance review, from the very busy November/December period to the much more manageable January/February one.

Overcoming challenges

The major challenge of the Team Stroke Performance and Development Project was a personal one – the fact that I am not an IT developer.

There was a lot of back-end work to be done on the system. While the vendor was exceptionally helpful and supportive, I had to develop a strong understanding of what our HRIS can and can’t do.

I did not anticipate the amount of time that was going to take, so I spent a lot of time learning about that space. Having said that, it was a positive experience and I now feel I have a new level of knowledge. It was excellent personal development.

I have been with Stroke Foundation for 19 years. I started out as the executive assistant to the CEO. So, for someone like me who doesn’t have a breadth of experience across organisations and sectors, doing this project to achieve my AHRI Certification shows how I’ve been growing and progressing.

You learn so much as you work in a role. This Certification recognises job-based learning and expertise, and offers me greater confidence in my own decision-making. 

This article first appeared in the April-May 2024 edition of HRM Magazine. Megan Werner CPHR is the People and Culture Business Partner, Stroke Foundation

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With a workforce of more than 20,000 employees in 36 locations, the ATO is one of the largest public service employers in Australia. Combine this with an aging workforce – 29 per cent of employees are 50-64 – and you can see a real risk of valuable knowledge being lost as long-serving staff members leave.

With at least 5,800 employees nearing retirement, the ATO needed a succession plan that was based on standardisation and fostered a proactive approach to identifying candidates for leadership roles. No easy task in such a big organisation, but that’s what makes it all the more important.

Given the size of the workforce, quickly rolling out such a plan to the entire organisation could impact its effectiveness in individual departments. In the end it was a business partner who inspired the idea of doing a pilot project with the Enterprise Solutions and Technology (EST) department.

Katherine Robinson CPHR jumped on the idea. She saw this is as an opportunity to secure stakeholder buy-in and make a real difference, and took the reins for succession planning in the EST area. 

“Managers had a good idea of who their critical people were likely to be,” says Robinson. “But the idea of the project was to add an HR management lens and support managers to take it a few steps further by giving them a framework to connect the dots between organisational and business-specific strategic objectives and priorities.”

With her roots in the study of science, Robinson had a unique background to bring to the table. She is a strategic forward thinker who is eager to learn on the job every day. After working in a number of different roles for the ATO, Robinson moved into a governance role in the ATO’s HR function and is now HR advisor in the People Support Team. It’s here that she has found her calling. As she was participating in the AHRI Practising Certification program (APC), she made the introduction of the framework her six-month practical workplace capstone project.

Facing challenges

Succession planning did exist within departments in the ATO, but there were no endorsed materials or tools that all managers in the business could call on as a guide. But this was needed for the sake of ongoing consistency and risk identification. On the back of this need, the goal of the project was to develop a framework that would support EST managers and allow them to take ownership of their risks and maintain their plans in the long term.

An advocate of equal opportunity, Robinson also ensured the framework made use of Compass, the ATO’s performance management system, to identify potential successors through a single lens, and thus allow everyone in the organisation the chance to show their readiness for career advancement.

The EST area is a large group. At the time, it had 4,253 workers, 1,847 of whom were internal employees and the rest were external staff. So naturally, challenges and roadblocks appeared along the way. One was the limited hours in the day. Business stakeholders had competing priorities, which meant Robinson’s requests fell down their to-do lists. To overcome this, deadlines were written down in meetings, follow-ups were scheduled and adhered to, and Robinson made sure the project stayed on the radar of higher-ups every week.

Another challenge for Robinson was that she wasn’t the only person to identify the need to build capability and succession planning in the ATO. “I think succession planning is becoming a hot topic for a number of reasons, including changing career expectations,” she says. “And for the ATO at least, we have many areas that rely on specialist technical skills or knowledge.” 

While it was good everyone had similar thoughts, different teams going off and enacting different projects naturally leads to a lack of cohesion and sustainability. Robinson tackled this challenge head-on, using it as a way to enhance her own project through collaboration. She says she combined forces with her colleague Wendy Wan-Colombi to develop a robust succession planning framework that can be applied at a range of levels. 

Their partnership continues to this day. They have been working together to further consult with ATO People and refine the framework.

Today Robinson is working towards long-term goals, such as a general version of the framework being published to My Employment – the ATO corporate HRM information platform. She would also like to present to the EST as a part of the Practical People Management L&D program. It’s clear that for Robinson, this is a passion project. Although she has been awarded the certification she set out to achieve, there is no hint of her slowing down just yet.

Wondering what HR certification could do for your career? Find out today.

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Michelle Hill CPHR, Manager, Organisational Development, State Library of South Australia

When the State Library of South Australia did high-performance workplace benchmarking in 2015, leadership strategy was revealed as an area that needed work, says Michelle Hill, the library’s manager, organisational development. It seemed a good moment for her to investigate leadership strategy requirements as part of her capstone project for AHRI certification.

“The library is going through quite drastic changes in terms of what we collect, how we collect it and what people expect us to deliver,” she says. “And that requires a shift in what our workforce does and how it approaches its work.”

The leadership strategy Hill developed last year is being regarded as a draft while changes are being made to the organisational structure.

“We have been able to use what is coming out of the leadership strategy and matching it up with the structure. The leadership strategy will help to determine what roles we need in the new structure and how we match people with those roles.”

Hill’s surveys with managers have resulted in an agenda for future leaders, composed of four parts: looking after people, processes, partnerships, and products and services.

“We also have seven leadership capabilities that need to be developed to drive the transformation we require.” she says. “They include great communication, being customer-focused and comfort with ambiguity.

“A lot of organisations struggle with that last one. Historically, libraries have adapted to change, but they’ve done it in a risk-averse way, where people know what the end product is going to be and work back from that.

“Now we’re in a situation where we don’t know what the world will be like in even a few years’ time – what the technology we use will be like – so we need leaders who are comfortable moving towards an uncertain destination.”

State libraries are treasures, says Hill. “Many people don’t really understand the sheer depth and quantity of the local history they hold. They explain where we come from and where we are going as communities, and our staff [130 employees and 100 volunteers] are the champions of that.”

Hill had worked in a variety of roles in the SA public service for 20 years before she moved to the library six years ago seeking a service-delivery role.

“My job morphed over time into predominantly HR-type work. I sort of fell into HR, and that’s why I have been doing AHRI certification over the past two years.

“I wanted to understand the academic as well as the practical side of HR, and the certification program was perfect for me.”

It has helped to make her more confident with facing ambiguity, she says. “In a world with so many grey areas, we have to be comfortable with perceiving, making decisions and moving ahead while not quite knowing how it’s going to turn out, but having the confidence to make a start.”

Darren Sharp CPHR Assistant Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)

Darren Sharp readily admits that his capstone project – undertaking a workforce plan for the department’s finance branch last year – was a daunting task.

There are around 100 finance staff who work in diverse roles within DFAT, including postings all over the world. The department is also in a state of change.

“DFAT will be a provider of shared services to other agencies and the finance area needs to move to a broader service delivery model than has previously been required,” says Sharp.

“That’s not traditionally how our people were recruited or trained, or developed their mindset.”

Having determined that finance services was lacking a workforce plan, the first thing he did was to consult with fellow AHRI member Kim Jerrim, who works in the branch and has done workforce plans for other agencies.

“I’ve had many roles at DFAT during my 20 years here,” says Sharp, who has moved on to run the contract services branch. “But I had not done a workforce plan before and I knew my limitations.

“Kim and I outlined the areas that needed to be covered, where we wanted to end up and how to collect the necessary data, distil it down and work out what it means. Kim’s now working on the second part of the project – a workforce development plan for bridging the gaps we’ve identified.”

Compiling the workforce plan started at the top, at a strategic level, to work out what the department would require of the finance branch going forward.

“Then we sat down with the directors of each of the different finance areas to get a snapshot of their strengths and development needs.”

A criticality matrix was run over each of the positions in finance services, with the eight criteria including whether they had legislative requirements, the need for specific qualifications, length of lead-in time and whether a position would be particularly difficult to fill.

“We also looked at some of the risks, such as facing constant churn. We’re a mobile organisation where people tend to move to different places in the world every two or three years. People in critical positions, such as running our financial systems or IT components, are constantly shifting and we need some stability there.”

In gaining AHRI certification this year, Sharp was granted Recognition of Prior Learning for the first three units, with
the finance workforce planning as his capstone project.

“Through my varied roles in DFAT, I have become an accidental HR specialist,” he says. “Early on I found that people were the cause of, and solution to, almost any problem, so I started focusing on the people element of any workplace issue. Very rarely was there a structural issue. So I sort of grew into the HR role and did some studies of my own to broaden my understanding of how people operate as individuals and in groups.”

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On the third distinction, I am told that the issue of HR certification was repeatedly raised at decision-making meetings of the institute over many years before my time. The discussions turned on the same questions we now ponder.  Other professions set entry standards and appoint gatekeepers to jealously guard against unqualified people practising. Why not HR? But when the dust settled on the discussion, the decisive step was always shelved, and the common stopper was always the same: Fear.

There was never a serious argument about whether certification was necessary. Agreement on that was unanimous because it was accepted that without a standard, a profession is not taken seriously. But that understanding was accompanied by the realisation that the journey to certification would be a hard road. The standard would have to be capable of testing professional knowledge, skills and behaviours, be globally recognised, and would also involve setting up a credible certifying body.  It would then be necessary to communicate to the business world that HR had come of age. Each step could potentially be problematic and would involve a considerable investment of time, money and people.

But in 2014 the decision was made and we are now on that journey. We have crossed the Rubicon, and it has been wonderful to witness the clarity of purpose that now exists. No longer will we tolerate anyone off the street saying they can ‘do HR’, and then casually calling themselves HR practitioners simply because they can.

That step, of course, cannot be taken in a day, so we set a timeframe of three years from December 2014 to December 2017. From that date, all new entrants seeking certified status* to practise HR must satisfy the requirements of the National Certification Council that they have met the standard as signified by the new HR certification post-nominals, CPHR and FCPHR.

The decisive step was put off for so long out of fear, so we knew we needed to free ourselves of our fear to take action.

Two years down the track it has culminated in a brand overhaul that is driven by the idea of pride in achieving HR certification and being a certified HR professional. Failing to establish HR as a profession on a proper footing is now unthinkable. It would amount to a colossal setback for the profession. Thus with failure ruled out as an option, being bold and being proud are the only options.

Over the last two years I have found myself referring back to our pioneers of 1992. In an  HRMonthly magazine column around that time, the then national president, Graeme Andrewartha was calling on practitioners to recognise the “larger responsibility in the next 10 years, not just to our members but to the employers in our members’ firms and the wider community”. He was saying that the profession must be accountable. His words remain a reminder to present-day HR practitioners that the issue is bigger than just themselves. HR has a larger responsibility to leaders of organisations, to assure them that if they employ men and women who present themselves wearing the cloak of HR, that they can be satisfied that they are getting people who know what they are doing and are able to perform accordingly.

This year we will be talking to business leaders and talking to the wider community. And when we do, we will be talking about you – boldly and proudly – and your obligation will be to live up to what we are saying about you. 

Consolidate your HR career by becoming a certified HR practitioner. Find the certification pathway that best suits your professional level by using the HR Certification Pathfinder.

*Correction: The original copy in the print HRM magazine (February 2017) indicated that after December 2017, new entrants seeking to practise HR will be required to have met the standards signified by the new post-nominals. The position is that new entrants seeking certified status must satisfy those standards.

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For Kerrie Wilby CPHR, director, learning and development at the ATO, completing the AHRI Practising Certification Program brought a sense of personal achievement and validation from her profession. For her colleagues, Donna Ross CPHR, director of People Support and her colleague, Lauren Sloan CPHR, HR manager in the People Support Team, completing a joint capstone unit as part of the AHRI Practising Certification Program raised their standing and demonstrated their experience .

“The AHRI Practising Certification Program (APC) provided the structure required for an educational initiative of this scale, and the milestones and assessments kept me on track for its successful delivery,” Kerrie Wilby says. “Future surveys will provide the evidence, but anecdotally the response has been overwhelmingly positive from staff at all levels, including senior leaders.”

Wilby, who’s based in Albury, NSW, started working for the ATO in an audit role 24 years ago and has been in HR for the past 10 years. Recognition of prior learning was granted for the other three certification units. Her capstone project, completed in August 2016, followed on from the ATO’s learning express pilot conducted in Canberra and Sydney.

Learning express – also called microlearning or bite-sized, granular, snackable or stackable learning – has been added to the ATO’s longer classroom sessions as research shows learners prefer the benefits and flexibility of short, targeted bursts of learning.

“Smartphones and social media are changing the way our brains operate,” says Wilby. “If we want to engage learners today, we need to rethink our learning models.”

ATO staff receive weekly emails encouraging them to consider learning express topics. “The balance of topics is important so there’s something for everyone. We have some technical sessions, as well as practical sessions. It might be how to use the myATO staff app or Excel sessions, or core skills around communication, resilience, negotiating and the like. We try to provide a balance of core, business and professional skills.”

Delivery methods include face-to-face, live or recorded webinars, Microsoft Office Communicator sharing sessions, and technology demonstrations, with an ever-expanding library of videoed sessions people can access at any time on their desktop or smart device via a learning hub.

Wilby says that, even though she has a degree in HR, she greatly values the recognition of her professionalism through AHRI certification. “With my peers and outside the ATO, the capstone project was an ideal vehicle for demonstrating my experience in the HR profession and personally the program provided me with a sense of accomplishment
and validation.”

Lauren and Donna discuss the benefits of their certification journey

Lauren: The ATO has undergone a corporate review process where a variety of functions have been redesigned to ensure they are as efficient as they can be, but also, as effective as they can be in supporting the business. One of those reviews resulted in HR and the way HR integrates with the business being changed to become a ‘hub and spoke’ model. We now have a local HR presence at more than 20 sites nationally providing on site face-to-face support to staff and managers. We used to have people sitting in our corporate functions throughout the country but situated in different business areas. The HR review separated them into the frontline spoke – which is Donna and I and the People Support Team – and the specialists who sit in the hub.

Donna: The driver behind the model was that the ATO has been undergoing a significant reinvention program that is changing the whole corporate service offer into something that’s modern, contemporary and progressive and that focuses on improving the staff and client experience.

We recognise the value in supporting the client and a good staff experience. By being able to deliver it in a generalist HR function which is face-to-face, but has escalation points to specialised areas we are delivering greater corporate alignment.

L: We know that HR works best when we have face-to-face conversations because you are often dealing with complexity and people’s behaviours. The site model offers that opportunity and also enables us to partner with business in a more meaningful way. Not only do senior executives at each site have a direct line of communication with us, but we can more easily add value into their business.

D: Also this model aligns HR more to the requirements of business and makes it easier for us to demonstrate the value of HR services and how that applies to business outcomes.

L: At the beginning there were some obvious synergies between ourselves and some other site-based functions. Our capstone project was an opportunity to look at the provision of these services from a more strategic, sustainable basis.

D: These changes aren’t going to affect the way taxpayers submit their tax or anything like that, but we’re hoping it will further refine and improve the alignment of how we provide corporate site-based services. The capstone project has also helped to raise our standing in the organisation and been an invaluable networking opportunity.

L: Our chief operating officer, Jacqui Curtis, is a FAHRI and has been integral in pushing to professionalise our HR capability. We’re hugely grateful for that because it brings us in line with our colleagues who are certified in tax specialist roles. It has been a huge benefit to have senior management pushing for that within the organisation. The capstone project was an ideal vehicle for demonstrating my experience in the HR profession. 

Consolidate your HR career by becoming a certified HR practitioner. Find the certification pathway that best suits your professional level by using the HR Certification Pathfinder.

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Catherine McLachlan MAHRI, Director, Workforce Analysis and Recruitment Programs, Department of Social Services, Canberra

When Catherine McLachlan heard about AHRI’s introduction of HR certification, she was fired-up with enthusiasm.

“My initial response was excitement,” she says, “because HR certification is something I’m passionate about. In both the public and private sectors, it’s important that HR professionals feel pride in their occupation and certification of HR is recognised as just as valid as certification of accountants and other skilled, qualified employees.”

But that isn’t the half of it. Completing the first three of the four units in the AHRI Practising Certification Program (APC) has had a direct impact on how McLachlan has gone about her daily work, and she’s looking forward to extending that impact with the applied project that constitutes the capstone fourth unit.

McLachlan, who has been working in HR for 10 years, says it’s the first tertiary study she has done that she can apply on the job and see immediate results.

“For example, my APC assignment addresses issues in our department about how we can link recruitment activity to a strategic agenda. I proposed four recommendations for changing the process, and we’ve already introduced three of those.”

As for unit four, McLachlan says she has pitched a proposal to her manager, which “involves one of the many issues on the back burner at work – but now we’re in a position to extend our resources to fix it. My applied project isn’t just a report, it’s something practical that will be enacted and implemented.”

McLachlan has a Bachelor of Psychology and a Graduate Diploma in Management, and is an accredited workplace coach.

She says APC facilitator Dr Kim Schofield, an AHRI Fellow and certified HR practitioner, was very effective in drawing out the less confident participants in the face-to-face APC workshops.

“I go home invigorated, thinking about what I’m going to do at work and what I’m bringing back to my team,” says McLachlan.

Margaret Cowan Affiliate AHRI Member, Assistant Director, HR, Department of Human Services, Canberra

“I feel privileged to have undertaken the Australian Public Service pilot of the AHRI Practising Certification Program (APC). In particular, the facilitator-led workshops, run by Kim Schofield. Kim drew on his wealth of academic and real work experience. Also, being able to spend time with other HR professionals from across the Australian government, has allowed me to access new ideas and approaches and to share my own experiences.”

Cowan says the course assessment tasks, comprised of best practice research and its application to the workplace, have required her to critically analyse HR strategies within her own department for their efficiency and effectiveness.

“I have become much more aware of HR challenges organisation-wide, rather than just in my specific role, challenging current processes and procedures. I have become a more well-rounded HR professional as a result.”

Cowan, who has a Bachelor of Management with an HR major, has been working in HR for six years. Her previous general manager nominated her to undertake the HR certification program.

Due to her commencing maternity leave in May, she was unable to participate in unit three. However, she was able to fulfil the unit’s requirements through Recognised Prior Learning.

“AHRI has been very supportive and provided me with options to ensure that I can still complete the APC,” she says. She has deferred the work-based applied project required for unit four so she can undertake it on her return to work.

Maureen Gerlach CAHRI, HR Manager, Shire of Mundaring, Perth

Even though Maureen Gerlach is well qualified for the Senior Leaders Pathway to HR certification, she has chosen to undertake the APC’s assessment tasks and workshops.

“I’m getting close to the end of my HR career. If you haven’t formally studied HR for a long time, you’re not necessarily fully appraised of current practice.”

Gerlach, who has been an HR manager for 15 years, says everybody can learn more, no matter how experienced. “There’s the opportunity to look at things in different ways, and continue to improve the way you go about your work.”

Having just completed unit one, she says its focus on strategic skills has been particularly valuable to her.

“It’s an area that most people could do with developing; you tend to fall into patterns and selectively read what you think is most salient to you. I’m already starting to think more broadly.”

Gerlach’s introduction to HR came in the late 1970s when she was working in the disability sector in a role that evolved into “training the trainers” and staff development.

Other benefits of taking the APC route include confirming the good work her team has already done at the shire, as well as identifying areas where improvements can be made.

Start your HR certification journey with the AHRI Practising Certification Program or use the HR Certification Pathfinder.

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This month, it is my great pleasure to announce that the Australian HR Institute is about to launch a fresh brand and also embark on a new ground-breaking chapter.

It’s a chapter in which HR certification becomes a fact of professional life for HR practitioners, a fact that AHRI is trumpeting to the world, and especially to the business world in which employers of HR practitioners operate.

As part of the new chapter, we are informing the market about what good HR looks like, and letting the market know where they can find HR practitioners who are able to be true HR partners to the business. Most notably, we will be informing them about those HR practitioners whose candidacy for certification has successfully come before the National Certification Council, and who are therefore entitled to carry one of two post-nominal letters after their name: CPHR and FCPHR.

The methodology that sits behind our strategy enables AHRI to attest to business that HR practitioners who carry the Australian HR Institute certification post-nominals are professionals who have completed the postgraduate AHRI Practising Certification Program (APC), or one of the other two pathways to certification for our senior leaders and our CIPD reciprocity members.

A colleague who has worked as an HR executive at a major listed company in recent times confided to me that, up to now, it has been much easier to set up an HR business or claim to be an HR practitioner than it is to claim to be a barista or a naturopath. A naturopath, otherwise known as a natural therapy practitioner, is required to have met entry requirements through the Institute of Holistic Medicine that include 450 hours of clinical training. A barista does not have to meet those exacting hours of training, but is required at a minimum to have completed a one-day training course.

By striking contrast, there has been no entry bar that prevents anyone from claiming that he or she belongs to the HR profession. There has been no set standard. There has been, in reality, no legitimate profession. That is now changing.

In announcing a new HR brand linked to professional certification, I am announcing that HR is now demanding that it be taken seriously. We are now stating with a sense of pride that HR has matured and can finally and legitimately call itself a profession. A tangible way of signifying that will be apparent from the beginning of 2017 when everything that comes to you from AHRI will look different and the voice in which we speak will sound different.

AHRI’s new logo looks markedly dissimilar to the past one. While some blue colouring in the new logo acknowledges AHRI’s history, the emergence of a strong green heralds a bold new spirit – the blue letter ‘H’ merging with the bright green ‘R’, with the distinctive green cornerstone pointing to the profession’s future direction.

My grandmother used to say that blue and green should never be seen without a colour in between. My grandmother, a very smart lady, was also free with the word ‘bold’, applying it to those, like her granddaughter, who tried to push boundaries. If she were still alive, I like to think she might be startled at the boldness of AHRI’s new logo.

Do you like the new look for the Australian HR Institute? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The post The Australian HR Institute enters a new phase, says CEO Lyn Goodear appeared first on HRM online.

Joining a professional community has led to networking opportunities, as well as raising their profile, say two recent graduates of AHRI’s senior leaders certification pathway. They share the reasons behind their pursuit of HR certification/

Georgia Siabanis FCPHR

HR Director, The Turning Lane

Georgia Siabanis sees HR certification as a win, win, win, win situation. She says the initiative has major benefits for individual HR professionals, the HR profession as a whole, employers and their organisations, and AHRI itself. Siabanis has the added benefit of hindsight.

“I’m Canadian, and I gained certification under the Canadian model – which is similar to the Australian model – when I started working for the Royal Bank of Canada 20 years ago,” she says. “I’ve seen certification mature and seen the value of it. It professionalises HR by providing a solid foundation and developmental path to follow. Organisations start to look for it.

“It’s common to hear people say they are getting into HR because they ‘like people’ and are good at administrative tasks. Those are important, but there are so many others when you are dealing with leaders and trying to influence business strategy. It’s a career path to aspire to, and certification is at the heart of that.”

Siabanis went on sabbatical from the Royal Bank of Canada after working for it in Australia for seven years. But it’s misleading to describe her break from work as ‘time off’. She has been completing an MBA and is engaged in career coaching for the women’s employment charity Dressed For Success. She has also become a nationally accredited mediator and sits on the board of the Australian Dispute Resolution Association.

For her AHRI certification, her Canadian equivalent didn’t directly apply in the way UK certification would have, so she was required to present a case study, answer prescribed questions from her assessors and do a one-hour phone interview.

Knowing that she needed a case study that aligned to the competencies required by AHRI, she chose a multi-million-dollar project to re-organise her employer’s local business operations. Following certification, she applied to become an AHRI Fellow.

“I’ve been doing a lot of networking in recent months, and I’ve asked people if they are doing their certification. They’ve said ‘Not sure’ or ‘I’ve heard about it, but haven’t given it much attention.’ I think there’s work to be done to promote it, and I’d like to help in any way I can, because I firmly believe in making the professionalising of HR more formal.”

Baseline for the future

Siabanis says employers should start requesting certification because it provides a baseline to make sure their HR people know certain things and have the behaviours that come with them.

“Employers are getting away from the traditional stereotypes of what HR was and looking at the new and more contemporary practices they are going to need.

“As an HR person, the biggest issue is having business acumen and knowledge of the market you operate in. [It’s about] predicting the future and making sure employees are ready to deliver on the goals.”

Through AHRI’s certification program, “You start to get a more professional community of people,” she says. “In two to three years, AHRI will have an even bigger connectivity and networking role with HR practitioners.”

Connie Kuhlman CPHR

Field HR Lead, ANZ, Accenture Australia

Connie Kuhlman says she thinks of her career as a marathon, not a sprint, and she likes to “refresh at the water stations to get the energy and motivation for the next few kilometres.”

Submitting her case study as part of the senior leaders pathway to HR certification was a refreshment that Kuhlman took without breaking stride.

“The case study made me think through my HR experience and the qualitative and quantitative contributions I’ve been able to make to our business,” says Kuhlman, Melbourne-based field HR lead for Australia-New Zealand professional services company, Accenture.

Kuhlman worked for Accenture in the US for 20 years before moving to Australia three years ago. In the US she is a certified management accountant, and she worked in change management before making the switch to HR.

She values certification for two reasons. “One is that it’s an indication to my team members of the professionalism and high standards, experience and education that’s expected of somebody working in HR.”

She notes that a young member of her team, who came to the profession via another path, recently recommenced university study, specifically to build towards AHRI certification.

“The other reason is that it demonstrates to business stakeholders my HR experience, knowledge and skills, so that they can identify that someone meets certain standards.”

Her case study looked at a 15-month period when she was brought in as the first HR lead for a business unit that had grown rapidly in terms of financial and headcount measures.

“It had all sorts of HR needs. For a talent plan, an overall talent strategy, a sourcing strategy, a leadership skills program … In a still fast-growing environment, I was able to set up processes and programs, and create the HR team that went on to keep the business unit going.”

In the business of business

Certification has also prompted Kuhlman to consider where she’s at in her career and how AHRI can help her, and the profession, to progress. Inevitably, AHRI’s list of certified practitioners will continue to grow as a knowledge and networking base, she says.

“My personal ambitions at this point are to be as impactful as I can for the team I lead, the employees I serve and the broader company, to help achieve our business goals. I view myself as much as a business professional as an HR professional.

Are you a senior HR professional and interested in learning more about HR certification? Click here. 

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What that means is members who have achieved HR certification under the new model, or are working towards certification by one of the new pathways, will now be able to use the relevant AHRI designation after their name.

AHRI members who have satisfied the requirements of the National Certification Council (NCC) will be entitled to use CPHR letters after their name. AHRI fellows who have become certified through the NCC will be able to use FCPHR after their name.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the delay in finalising the post-nominal matter. The delay was caused by issues arising out of the due diligence process we put in place to ensure our designations did not overlap with those of other certifying bodies. Attentive members will know that the approved post-nominal letters are not the same as those we initially proposed in 2015. The need to make the change was accentuated when our international counterparts also began moving into the HR certification space with their own post-nominal designations.

Examples of those include our US counterpart, the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), which employs the letters SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP to signify its certification designations. Our reciprocity partner, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), uses the designations ‘Chartered MCIPD’ and ‘Chartered FCIPD’.

Let me also remind members who have achieved the CAHRI post-nominal in the past that they will be free to use that designation indefinitely if they maintain their membership. The CPHR and FCPHR post-nominal signifies the achievement of a level of rigor in certification under the new model which is based on a much more robust standard than the one previously in operation.The new certification model allows AHRI to attest to the capacity of members we certify with respect to their professional knowledge, as well as their ability to do in practice what they say they can do as HR partners to the business.

From 2017, members will only be able to achieve HR certification under the new model, and therefore be entitled to use the new post-nominal letters of CPHR or FCPHR. CAHRI members can transition to the new model via any of the three pathways set out on the AHRI website, and many have already done that or are presently doing it. Members who are entitled to use the new post-nominal designations will be listed as such by AHRI from 2017. The listing will enable us to confidently inform employers that HR professionals who are AHRI certified bring a high level of credibility and professionalism with them that enables them to act as constructive partners to the business.

Since our 2014 watershed strategy meeting at which the AHRI Board of Directors and the Council of State Presidents gave the go-ahead to embark on the HR certification journey, my team and the AHRI staff have been working tirelessly to make each step on the road to certification count. We have initiated nationwide roadshows to inform members and explain why certification is a professional imperative, and how they can achieve it. We have consulted with members on the best ways to roll out certification, and we have made adjustments, the most notable being the creation of three pathways to certification.

We now have a critical mass of certified members, some of whom are proudly introduced to you in the certification feature, (see page 24). They come from the private and public sectors and are exemplars of good HR practice. They are also the building blocks that will enable HR to realise the professional standing in the business community that it deserves.

The rollout is not over, but the approval of the post-nominal letters is a critical step along the way.

The post HR Certification: the new post-nominals appeared first on HRM online.

Q: What is the structure and scope of this course?

The AHRI Practising Certification Program (APC) is equivalent to an AQF level 8 postgraduate qualification and a real leg-up when it comes to career development in HR. The AHRI Model of Excellence underpins all the teachings of the course, which is part-time and takes two years to complete in either workshop or distance mode.

The program consists of four core units: the strategic human resources professional; the human resources organisational environment; workforce design, development and performance; and the capstone unit.

The APC is an industry-driven program, and the approach in class is to leave the textbook on the table and focus instead on the practical application of HR best practice.

Participants spend time discussing how they are going to apply in the workplace what they are learning in the course. Ultimately, we are working towards the final capstone project. For this, participants have to describe a real business issue within their organisation that needs a strategic intervention, and come up with a solution that demonstrates they can deliver great human resources practice and add value to organisational capability.

Q: What will participants take away from the APC program?

Participants will gain a really strong idea of what ‘good HR’ looks like and how it can be applied in an organisational setting. The course offers a renewed sense of how HR can impact on productivity and efficiency in the workplace.

Q: What has been the feedback from participants?

Many participants say that the course is challenging, but they develop a better sense of human resources and its role within their organisation. I also receive positive feedback about how the course strengthens foundational HR skills and impacts career development.

However, for many, the highlight is the people. Participants walk away with an invaluable network of peers. Hearing about other people’s challenges, failures and triumphs is so beneficial to learning and stepping outside your comfort zone.

Q: What are the most challenging aspects of the APC program?

One challenge is researching and writing at an academic level, especially for those who have not been exposed to this before. We provide support, though, and help teach people how to write at that level and utilise research databases. After the first assignment, those butterflies go away and many tell me they are using the resources we show them in their normal day-to-day work, which is fantastic.

Another challenging aspect is that participants have to think from a strategic point of view in terms of HR value and how they can deliver it in the workplace. For some, this creates exciting opportunities for career development and strategic thinking. For others, it can be difficult to secure commitment from their organisation to operate in a different way.

Q: How do the lessons learned assist practitioners in their work?

Their work-based organisational capability project is submitted to the National Certification Council so that participants can apply to become a certified HR practitioner.

Employers supporting their HR people through career development via certification will see an immediate return through the practical applications they complete during their study. By setting standards through the program, the end results for the business will be a more productive and profitable workforce, with respect and understanding of what human resources can do as a business partner in the organisation.

If you are curious about HR certification and keen to learn more, click here. 

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