Official launch of the HKIHRM Professional Standards
On 15 April I attended the Gala Dinner to officially launch the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management (HKIHRM) new Professional Standards. I attended on behalf of HRINZ who were one of the members of the International Advisory Panel that had helped the Hong Kong Institute over the last four years in putting the standards together.
In the last four years Beverley Main, Kris Cooper, Crispin Garden-Webster and I all had direct engagement with the Hong Kong Institute during their standard setting process.
The Gala Dinner served two purposes – to officially launch the Standards and to also acknowledge and thank those that had been involved in the work that resulted in the standards being finalised and accepted.
The dinner was well attended by HR professionals, Business leaders, Academics and Members of the Hong Kong Government. The International HR Community was represented by Ernesto Espionsa, President World Federation of People Management, Peter Wilson, President of Asia Pacific Federation of Human Resources Management,
Brian Glade, Society of Human Resources Management, and myself.
The dinner was a very well run event with some excellent speakers and speeches. A speech on behalf of the Hong Kong government was given by Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Secretary for Labour and Welfare. As well as congratulating the Institute, like most politicians he couldn’t resist the opportunity to try and get some support for New Government Initiatives. One that I found really interesting was introducing a minimum wage for the first time into Hong Kong. This created great debate around the dinner table as there were people both for and against. The other part of his speech that interested me was the challenge for Hong Kong to meet the targets set by China. If the targets are met then Hong Kong is able to continue basically as an independent country. If the targets are not met then the Chinese government could take a much stronger role in the running of the area.
Speeches were also given by Ernie and Peter and by Wilfred Wong Kam-pui, the President of the Hong Kong Institute. The MC for the night was the enigmatic Lai Kam-tong(known to everyone as KT). KT has been the Chairman of Accreditation steering committee and has been the driving force behind the project and steering it to a final resolution. KT is one of those people that won’t accept words or phrases like “no”, “too hard”, “can’t be done,” or any other negative words. His drive and enthusiasm was acknowledged at the dinner.
The new accreditation model that has been adopted has three parts to it; Capability, Knowledge and Experience, which are then translated into three levels of membership, Associate Member, Professional Member and Fellow Member. In looking at the model in detail you can easily identify some parts of the HRINZ model, some from CIPD and some from SHRM. The important matter though, is that HKIHRM has come up with a model that works for them and their members and has the support of their Government, Business and Academic Leaders.
For more information on the event and the Professional Standards and Membership scheme go to www.hkihrm.org
