HR practitioners to be tested on their skills

SINGAPORE — A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Public Service Division (PSD) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) to strengthen the capabilities of human resource (HR) professionals in the public-service sector.

PSD chief HR officer Low Peck Kem, noting that HR practitioners need to be equipped with the right skill-sets, said that the tie-up would allow the CIPD to lend its “experience in offering international professional standards and best practices that are valuable in strengthening and benchmarking the professionalism of our HR community”.

For a start, a pilot group comprising 20 HR directors from the public service will undergo an assessment conducted by the CIPD, a UK-based professional body for HR and people development with over 135,000 members around the world.

The assessment will seek to test their knowledge in HR, competency and capabilities. It covers 10 areas, including organisation design, resource and talent planning, and employee relations and engagement.

The results will be assessed against the CIPD’s established benchmarks for professional accreditation.

Following the assessment, the directors will be accredited either of the following: Associate member (equivalent to a HR professional at entry level), or chartered member; or chartered fellow, which represents a professional who is at a very senior and strategic level.

Ms Cynthia Lee, who is among the 20 who signed up for the assessment, said it was one way of discovering more about herself. “If there is a gap (after taking the assessment), I know what I need to do,” said Ms Lee, who is Sentosa Development Corporation’s Divisional Director (Human Resources and Administration). She also felt an accreditation scheme was way overdue here, given that the HR field is a vast sector and requires its practitioners to play multiple roles.

Another director, Ms Lim Puay Sze from the PSD, Human Capital Department, said the assessment would help individuals understand his or her capabilities better. She hopes it would highlight areas in which she can improve to help her become a better HR practitioner. MATTHIAS TAY