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April 22, 2013 • 9:00 AM 0

Member survey: We’re counting on you!

In my last blog I discussed how we use member survey responses to help plan new programs and services— mentoring, internships, or broadcasts from the HRPA Learning Centre–or improve on existing ones—like reducing email by 70%.

We also use survey responses to benchmark chapter and association performance, especially as it relates to what you consider to be most important on a personal level. For instance:

  • Advancing your career;
  • Advancing your skills and capabilities;
  • Giving you the opportunity to make a contribution to the profession.

And we benchmark our performance on those things that relate directly to the mission of the association, among them:

  • Leadership for the profession;
  • Strong, valuable designations;
  • Advancing the interests of members;
  • Protecting the public from unethical or incompetent practitioners;
  • Influencing legislation.

We can always improve, but each year we aim to do better than the year before. But what do you think? If you haven’t yet participated in the annual member survey, you still have time to tell us how we are doing—both the Association and your local Chapter.

We’re counting on it. Literally.

Chris Larsen
VP, Marketing and Membership
clarsen@hrpa.ca

Filed under: Membership,

April 15, 2013 • 10:30 AM 0

Why all the changes to the certification process?

Few members have failed to notice the changes that have been made to HRPA’s certification process over the last few years.  Some appear bewildered by the changes, some are wondering why these changes are being made, and there are those who believe that such changes are just a ‘cash grab’ on the part of HRPA.  The purpose of this article is to explain the reasons driving the changes that have been made to HRPA’s certification process and the changes that are yet to come.

There are three drivers that have shaped the evolution, and will continue to shape the evolution of the the certification process at HRPA:

  1. Compliance with the law
  2. Meeting externally validated standards of excellence for certification processes
  3. Better serving all stakeholders by ensuring that the CHRP certification process is up-to-date

Let’s look at each in turn.

1.      Compliance with the law.

There are three kinds of initiatives here: (1) complying with new statutes that apply to HRPA, (2) complying with statutes that don’t technically apply to HRPA but which adherence to demonstrates social responsibility; and (3) rectifying gaps in our compliance with statutes enacted in the past.

HRPA is a non-governmental body that exercises authority delegated by law.  As such HRPA is listed in Table 1 of the Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009, as a regulatory authority that governs by means of a private act.  HRPA’s policy on mutual recognition, which was approved by the HRPA Board of Directors in December 2009, brought HRPA policy in line with the Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009, and the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario Act, 1990.  Among other requirements, the Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009 requires regulatory authorities to publish on a publicly accessible website maintained by the regulatory authority, every requirement that the regulatory authority imposes, as a condition of certification in a regulated occupation, on applicants who are already certified in the same occupation by an out-of-province regulatory authority.  HRPA’s policy on mutual recognition was posted on the HRPA website a full year ahead of the requirements of the Act.

In 2006, the Ontario Legislature enacted the Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act (now known as the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006).  The purpose of this Act is to help ensure that “regulated professions and individuals applying for registration by regulated professions are governed by registration practices that are transparent, objective, impartial and fair.”  Technically, this Act does not apply to HRPA in that HRPA does not appear on Schedule 1 of this Act.  Nonetheless, on June 26, 2009, the Board of HRPA made the commitment to be in compliance with the Fair Registration Practices Code which comprises Parts II and III of the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006.  Since then, HRPA has implemented many changes, especially in regards to the tracking of internationally educated professionals and the documentation of its appeal policies.

Complying with the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario Act, 1990, would appear self-evident in that it is the Act that created the HRPA and defined its statutory authorities and obligations.  Nonetheless, fully realizing our identity as a professional regulator is not something that happened overnight when the Act was passed in 1990; it has been an on-going process that continues to this day.  Consider our new certificate—until very recently our certificate did not acknowledge that it was issued by HRPA pursuant the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario Act, 1990, this was important and has been changed.

Compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) is another act that has an impact on HRPA’s certification process.  HRPA has published its privacy policy on its website; in addition, the Association has introduced many changes to protect the personal information of its members.  The Board of HRPA has committed itself to full compliance with PIPEDA standards in relation to our certification process.

Other examples would include the public register.  The Regulated Health Professions Act, 1990, (RHPA) required professions governed by the Act to publish their registers online by June 2009.  Of course, the RHPA does not apply to HRPA, but it does set the standard and communicates the expectations of the Ontario Legislature in such matters.  HRPA made its statutory register available online on January 30, 2009, and has recently implemented a major upgrade to its public register.

2.      To meet an externally validated standard of excellence for certification processes

HRPA wants to have a world-class certification process. Period.  But saying that the Association wants to have a world-class process and actually living up that an externally validated standard of excellence for certification processes are two different things.  There exists two externally validated standards of excellence for certification programs—specifically, the ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 and the NCCA standards.  NCCA stands for National Commission for Certifying Agencies.  NCCA accredited programs certify individuals in a wide range of professions and occupations.  To date, NCCA has accredited over 200 programs from more than 100 organizations.

At the June 2009 meeting of HRPA’s Board of Directors, the HRPA Board made the commitment that HRPA would attain NCCA accreditation.  Some may wonder why HRPA has chosen to pursue accreditation by an American body.  The answer is simple—being world-class means meeting world-class standards, and the world-class standard for certification programs are the NCCA standards.  For readers who may be interested, the NCCA standards are available online at http://www.credentialingexcellence.org

In March 2011, HRPA achieved NCCA accreditation for its CHRP certification process becoming the first Canadian credentialing body to do so.

3.      To better serve all stakeholders by ensuring that the CHRP certification process is up-to-date

Finally, some of the changes are driven by the imperative to keep the designation current.  There are a number of stakeholders that count of the designation being current: members, those who hire certified HR professionals as employees and as consultants, the public, and the government.  The profession of HR has changed dramatically over the last decade or so and will continue to change.  The field of certification is also evolving with new ways of doing things being developed all the time.  HRPA is committed to keeping the certification process up-to-date with all these developments.

HRPA’s certification process has seen a number of changes and will continue to evolve as we move forward.  Nonetheless, it is also the case that HRPA’s certification process has retained the same basic architecture that was laid out at its inception in 1989.

Claude Balthazard, Ph.D., C.Psych.

Filed under: Professional regulation, , , ,

March 25, 2013 • 9:00 AM 0

2013 HRPA Member Survey: it matters

In a few weeks we’ll be running our annual member survey. Each year we have between two and three thousand members participating in the survey—we’d like to see more members participate. Why? We use your input to improve the quality and relevance of services we provide. For instance:

  • We asked you what “HRPA can do less of”. You told us to reduce the quantity of email we send. We reorganized our emails around daily themes—careers, professional development, membership, thought leadership and extended benefits—and reduced the volume of email we send by 70%;
  • We asked you “what are your three greatest challenges”. Many of you told us “I don’t know how can I get from the position I have to the position I want”, so we implemented Mentor Scout, a set of tools that help facilitate mentor/protégé pairings and have already increased the number of members enrolled in mentoring programs by over 300% and we introduced Career GPS that provides a gap analysis of skills, experience and academic training between your current and desired positions;
  • You told us “I have my degree and I’ve passed the NKE, but it’s difficult getting my first job in HR”, so we partnered with Career Edge Organization, a firm that has fostered more than 11,000 paid internships over the past fifteen years, to create HRPA Edge, paid internships for CHRP candidates. Best of all, our interns are often getting hired full-time when their internships end;
  • We asked you “what can HRPA do more of?” You told us you wanted HRPA to do a better job delivering professional development outside the GTA. So this year we are introducing “Thoughtcasts”—live, interactive professional development programs from the Learning Centre in Toronto broadcast to your PC, tablet or smartphone, wherever you happen to be.

In other words, we are listening. So on April 11th, when the 2013 member survey arrives in your email, please take the time to tell us how we can enrich your HRPA membership experience. We also award ten free memberships from completed surveys as our way of saying thanks (if you provide your email), so you win by telling us what you need more or less of, but you might even win the cost of your membership.

We hope you’ll participate.

Chris Larsen, VP Marketing and Membership
clarsen@hrpa.ca

Filed under: Membership, , , ,

March 18, 2013 • 10:30 AM 0

Update on the Regulatory Agenda at HRPA

Three and a half years ago, I wrote a guest commentary in Canadian HR Reporter entitled The Regulatory Agenda at HRPA.  I thought it might be useful at this time to go back to this commentary and provide a progress report on the regulatory agenda at HRPA and give some ideas as to where HRPA’s regulatory agenda may be headed over the next three years.

The 2008 commentary began by explaining how it was that HRPA was the regulatory body for Human Resources Management in Ontario and noted two objectives for HRPA as a professional regulator:  (1) to protect the public by ensuring that Human Resources Management professionals are competent and act in an ethical manner, and (2) to move the profession forward along the path of professionalization.  To accomplish these two objectives, the 2008 commentary identified three thrusts:

  1. Developing an awareness and clarity around the whole concept of professional regulation in Human Resources Management both within the profession and within the public.
  2. Fostering a sense of ownership, responsibility, and accountability in regards to regulatory matters on behalf of all members of the profession
  3. Moving forward with the continued professionalization of Human Resources Management in Ontario

Much has happened since November 2008.  As it said it would in the 2008 commentary, HRPA did introduce its Rules of Professional Conduct, HRPA did put its public register online, and HRPA did make great strides in making the profession more accessible to internationally educated professionals.  And HRPA did produce a series of webinars on the regulation of the Human Resources profession in Ontario.  In addition, HRPA reintroduced the experience requirement to its certification process in May of 2009.  December 2009 saw the passage of the Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009; and HRPA was compliant with that legislation from day one.  In 2010, there was the huge number of exam-writers who wrote the exam in anticipation of the implementation of the degree requirement in January 2011.  Through it all HRPA also managed to achieve NCCA accreditation for its CHRP certification program in March 2011, and in doing so, become the first Canadian certifying body to achieve this.  In a less visible way, HRPA made many changes to its regulatory processes and procedures to bring them up to the standards of other Tier 1 professional regulatory bodies.  It has indeed been a busy time since the commentary was published.

And yes, there was Bill 138.  The 2008 commentary did foresee a time in the future, when HRPA might go back to the provincial government to ask a new act—but at the time it was never thought that it would happen as fast as it did.  Bill 138 did more to raise the awareness of members and others of the fact that HRPA was a professional regulator than any communication or education initiative could ever have done.  In the discussions surrounding Bill 138, many came to the realization that HRPA became a professional regulatory body over twenty years ago.  A side benefit of the introduction of Bill 138 into the Legislature, however, was that it increased the level of awareness of HRPA and the Human Resources profession among politicians and senior government officials many times-fold.

HRPA is very much committed to staying the course in regards to its regulatory agenda because it is in the ultimate interest of its members to do so.  The idea of protecting the public interest was something that just wasn’t on the radar screen a few years ago, now it is one of the three main thrusts of HRPA’s strategy.  Having started the ball rolling with awareness, the focus has now turned to execution.  Simply put, HRPA has committed itself to doing things well as a professional regulator.  In the same way that HRPA set out to bring it certification program up to the highest standards, as demonstrated by NCCA accreditation; the objective is now for HRPA to bring all other of its regulatory processes to the same high standard.  It is HRPA’s objective that all its regulatory processes would be on par with those of Tier 1 professions in Ontario.

There are many facets to performance as a professional regulatory body: ensuring that processes run smoothly, maintaining policies and procedures up to date, providing guidance to members, taking appropriate action when issues arise, ensuring compliance with all applicable legislation and building strong stakeholder relations.  HRPA needs to do well in all of these facets.

Not only is it important for HRPA to do things well, it is important for HRPA to be seen to do things well.  A big part of regulation is earning and maintaining the trust of members and the public.  Professional regulators must often make decisions that are not liked by those who are impacted by the decision—that is just the way it is.  This only makes it more important, however, that professional regulators be seen as competent, independent and unbiased, and committed to openness and transparency.  Professional regulators are under increased scrutiny by government, the public, the media, and consumer groups.  It just isn’t possible to ‘fly below the radar’ anymore.  HRPA has recently conducted a ground-up review of its by-laws as they pertain to professional regulation.

HRPA will also become more pro-active in its approach to regulation.  The traditional model of professional regulation was a fairly passive one.  This traditional model could be called the ‘gatekeeper and enforcer’ paradigm.  Once individuals were allowed into the profession, the regulator would only intervene when things went wrong.  Increasingly, progressive regulators have shifted the balance to more proactive regulation.  The idea of proactive regulation is to prevent problems from happening in the first place.  Quality assurance, requirements for continuing professional development, providing guidance to members, educational initiatives, and public outreach initiatives are all examples of the more proactive approach taken by many professional regulators.

There will be more education efforts aimed at professionals entering the profession to make sure that there is a better understanding of professional affairs.  There needs to be more dialogue and discussion as to what professionalism means for Human Resources.

All in all, much progress has been made in regards to HRPA’s regulatory agenda, but much remains to be done.  However, if the last three years are any indication, there is nothing stopping HRPA from achieving its objective of creating value for its members and the public by striving to achieve excellence as a professional regulator.

Claude Balthazard, Ph.D., C.Psych.

Filed under: Professional regulation, , , ,

February 25, 2013 • 11:00 AM 0

HR Hotline, coming to HRPA in March

Until about 10 years ago, HRPA ran a telephone help desk that was centrally coordinated and serviced by volunteer HR practitioners. The popularity of the service caused it to become unwieldy and the decision was made to abandon it. 

More recently, the association has operated a Resource Centre staffed by librarians who maintain a well-stocked reference library, curate a self-serve knowledgebase, edit a daily news digest and respond to member enquiries by researching HRPA and publicly available resources for labour statistics, salary survey data, etc. But as well-received as these services are, they can’t replace the expertise and experience of HR practitioners. 

In August 2012, we asked members in a survey, “Should HRPA create a phone-in HR enquiry service staffed by CHRP volunteers?” Ninety-five percent of respondents said, “Yes.”

We also asked, “As a CHRP, would you be willing to volunteer some of your time and expertise to help other members with their HR questions (in exchange for CHRP recertification points)?” Again, of those answering this question, 95% said, “Yes.”

HRPA has more than 9,000 CHRP members. At any given time several hundred of these CHRPs are either on leave or in between jobs. They are often eligible for reduced membership dues and would have the time to be available to respond to member enquiries.

HRPA’s phone system has the capability to transfer incoming calls to a call group of any number of phones, whether inside HRPA’s office or outside. So we configured the system to allow callers to the Resource Centre to be transferred to a call group we nicknamed “HR Hotline”. The system also randomizes the ringing order so every call group member gets an equal number of call opportunities. We then put out a call for CHRP volunteers and selected two dozen very experienced HR practitioners from the members responding to this call to be the inaugural HR Hotline team members.

At the same time, Carswell, a well-known publisher of Canadian HR and legal news and reference materials, was looking to add a human resources help desk for subscribers to its Consult Carswell Human Resources reference service. In return for equipping each of HRPA’s CHRP Hotline volunteers with individual access to Consult Carswell to for their reference, HRPA agreed to give Carswell’s subscribers access to the HR Hotline. Carswell will market this service to its subscribers as the “Consult Carswell Human Resources Helpline, a service provided by HRPA.”

I am happy to report that the system has been tested, volunteers have been trained. They now have their Consult Carswell logins and the HR Hotline service will be available to HRPA members, starting March 4th, 2013; subscribers to Consult Carswell will be able to call into the Helpline service as of March 18th, 2013.

Both HRPA members and Consult Carswell subscribers will be required to accept a service disclaimer that the service is intended for fast answers to general questions and cannot be substituted for appropriate legal and/or consulting services. Callers requiring legal advice and/or consulting services will be referred to the HR Vendors Guide on the HRPA website.

HR Hotline volunteers will earn Continuing Professional Development credits for recertification.

Mobile App

By launch date, we also expect to have a mobile app available to make HR Hotline access even more convenient. Called My HRPA, the app will be available for download from the Apple Store, Google Play, and BlackBerry World and will also allow for mobile access to HRPA thought leadership, professional development programs, regulatory updates and members benefits.

Filed under: Membership, , ,

HRPA

The Human Resources Professionals Association regulates the HR profession in Ontario. It is committed to protecting the public and advancing its members careers and professional capabilities.
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