The Managing Director of New Times Corporation, Ms. Carol Annang has said that without any serious Human Resources (HR) department in any organization, it cannot do anything meaningful to the development of that entity.

Ms. Annang said this when she delivered a keynote address at the 7th Graduation ceremony of the Professional Certification Programme (PCP) of the Institute of Human Resources Management Practitioners (IHRMP), Ghana, at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre.

Speaking Thursday, December 3, 2015 on the theme “Transition from Qualification-based to Competency-based Society”, Ms. Carol Annang challenged HR Practitioners, especially the new Graduands to change the confrontational approach and adopt innovative ways to deal with culture of unions in our society”.

“Design policies that impact your people and link them to the society. It is not enough for people to see HR to deal only with personnel issues, but rather HR should deal with employees holistically. To get people to deliver well, you must not only give them salaries but rather relate to them well so that their effect on society become meaningful”, Ms. Annang said.

(New Graduands pose with Special GuestS (middle) and National Governing Council members of IHRMP after the Graduation ceremony)

Addressing the new Graduands, the President of IHRMP, Ghana, Mr. John Wilson outlined top 10 Problems that are grappling the Human Resources Department of organizations in the world.

John Wilson

“I wish to share the findings of a survey by Amit Bhagria, an Indian HR Practitioner, who created a blog called the Young HR Manager that covered Top 10 Problems confronting modern HR departments: First, How can HR get the elusive ‘seat’ at the table; Secondly, How do we get our employees to be part of solution in addressing them; Thirdly, How can HR increase capability of the employees; Fourthly, How to use Technology in sharing of knowledge; Five, How to enhance the domain knowledge in HR; Six, How can we attract new hires; Seven, What would it take to create a more human workplace; Eight, How to retain talents, especially, in the IT sector; Nine, How can HR skill itself to manage change in the organization and finally, Aligning Reward to Productivity”, Mr. Wilson explained.

The Chairman of the Professional Certification Board, Mr. John Eluerkeh explained that “The PCP is a 4-level professional HR programme with seasoned professionals as resource persons. The programme is currently run in the evenings and weekends at our Tuition Centres in Accra, Kumasi and lately, Tema.

The minimum entry requirement for level 1 is a Higher National Diploma. Individuals who hold university degrees and/or post graduate qualifications in human resource management enter the programme at level 3. Twice a year in January and July, examinations are conducted for all levels. Upon successful completion of level 3 examinations, students are graduated as Associate members of the Institute. They finally become Certified Human Resource Practitioners after they complete the Level 4 which requires a project work and three years working experience in the HR field.

The Executive Director of the Institute, Mr. Ebenezer Ofori Agbettor told the gathering that last year, 38 Associate Members and 1 Certified Member were graduated. This year, 63 Associate Members and 2 Certified members graduated, a remarkable 67% increase, showing a very significant strides by the Institute since the inception of the PCP in 2002.

The Graduation ceremony was attended by members of National Governing Council of IHRMP, members of the Professional Certification Board, Resource Persons, Chapter Heads, staff of the Institute, Family and Friends of Graduands and the Media.