Professional Growth and Support of Other Professionals

Author : Jodie Jeworski 

Kelly has been an HR Practitioner for 20 years and has recently become the Director for HR Client Services and Support.  This is a team of Business Partners and Advisors that support portfolios of clients within ABC Company.  The company has 25,000 employees.  Kelly has a lean team due to budget constraints and workforce reductions.  Coupled with the ‘hot’ market for human resources skills and expertise, it has been challenging to recruit and retain generalists.  Although in a high-level leadership role, Kelly has had to ‘pick up the slack’ and become a ‘working manager’ until they are able to hire a full team.

It is October, and Kelly recently received an email from the CPHR reminding them their Professional Log is due in three (3) months.  When Kelly looks at their online portal, they realize they have not done any personal or professional development this year and will not have the required amount of hours to maintain their CPHR designation.  On one hand, if Kelly is unable to dedicate time to personal and/or professional development, they will not complete the required hours and are at risk of losing their professional designation, which is a requirement for their job.  On the other hand, if Kelly takes time away from work, they will become increasingly behind in their workload, which will impact their team, the clients, and the HR Client Services and Support function as a whole.

As Kelly contemplates the two ‘options’ and balances them with the fact that they are still learning their role, Kelly comes to an epiphany.  Kelly finds their copy of the CPHR Code of Ethics and flips to Division VII - Professional Growth and Support of Other Professionals.  Although Kelly has an obligation to continue with professional growth, there is also an obligation to contribute to the growth and development of others.  Kelly reaches out to their leader, the Associate Vice-President of Human Resources, to seek funding for professional development and receives a commitment of $15,000.

Kelly puts together a plan that includes both individual and team training over the next three months:

Individual 

• CPHR webinars
• Internal leadership training
• Enrols in an online learning program through Bow Valley College

Team

• Drawing on their past experience with mental health and well-being, develops a health promotion program for ABC Company
• Brings in a guest speaker to educate the team on equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility
• Identifies a lack of training for civility and respect.  With the help of an external consultant, they launch a project to develop a comprehensive program that will be implemented for all employees in early 2024

Although a lot of time and effort, Kelly realized the importance of maintaining their professional development hours.  Kelly was able to achieve the hours needed and will maintain their CPHR designation.  They have also developed a personal goal to do one type of individual or team development each month in 2024 and to immediately record it in their Professional Log.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post belong solely to the original author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of CPHR Alberta.