National HR Standards Briefing Brochure Cape Town - SABPP

9. Employment Relations Management;10. Organisation Development;11. HR Service Delivery;12. HR Technology; and13. HR Measurement.On 21 May 2013, just over a hundred HR Directors and Subject Matter Experts, as wellas eight HR professional bodies and Associations, gathered at the HR StandardsDevelopment Summit in Johannesburg to define and write these first formal 13 HRstandards for South Africa.The Summit was part of a national initiative driven by the HR quality assurance andprofessional body, the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP) and HR Future, SouthAfrica’s premier HR magazine. The project was born from the acknowledgement thatother business activities such as production, accounting and engineering have clearlydefined standards while, in the field of HR, there is a total absence of Standards. TheSummit was facilitated by Dr Michael Robbins, Managing Director of IMOR(UK), whoasserted after the event: “South African HR Directors are leading the world after today.There are six groups doing this work globally, but South Africa is now at the forefront ofsetting HR Standards.”Siphiwe Moyo, Chairman of SABPP opened the summit, announcing: “This project is themost profound national HR project in South Africa ever. Setting proper HR Standards forSouth Africa will not only raise the level of professionalism in HR, but will also improvethe quality of people practices in organisations.” One delegate remarked: “This was thebest day in my HR career. After today I am proud to be in HR.” David Bischof, chairmanof the Assessment Centre Study Group summarised the day as follows: “An exciting,invigorating and intellectually stimulating day with fantastic colleagues. Stan Horwitz, aboard member of the South African Organisation Development Network, described theevent as an “outstanding, groundbreaking summit.”Going forwardDuring Phase one of the project, a total of 13 groups generated the draft Standardsbased on three dimensions: (1) a clear definition of what the standard element means,(2) the objectives of the standard, as well as (3) the implementation of the standard inpractice. During June and July 2013, the broader market will be consulted for their inputsabout the Standards (Phase two), and the final standards were launched at the firstNational HR Standards Roll Out on 20 and 21 August (Phase three).All HR professionals, academics, consultants and service providers were invited toparticipate in this historic event.