By Huma van Rensburg CEO SABPP who can be contacted at

www.sabpp.co.za 

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# Beyond Legislation: A new law is only a milestone along a more ambitious journey!

By Ivan Lätti who can be contacted at ivan@koptoe.co.za ; Past Chairman of the Board

Professions are born and survive to serve the needs of society and of the economy, not to perpetuate vested interests of traditionally entrenched service providers. The HR profession is particularly involved with the science and technology of the world of work. It deals with issues of problem solving for working people, improving the outcomes of people's work, the conditions under which the work is performed and the sustainability and continual improvement of everything of importance in this field.

Human resources in South Africa is today characterized by a diversified and vibrant set of governance structures aimed consciously at continual improvement through self criticism and serving effectively in changing times and specialized niches. We are facing turbulent times as to the transformation of how work will be delivered, more work coming from people never to be fully employed by companies and more independence and continual innovation by workers who compete as well as cooperate.

The standards body, the SABPP which forms part of this governance, keeps itself in order by adhering only to standards aspects, but also responding to the ever increasing domain of new areas requiring standards and the maintenance of these. It diligently passes on to other governance structures in human resources all those other activities beyond the standards domain, such as member services, education, negotiations on behalf of the profession and so on.

The "long view" regarding governance focus and style must allow for phenomena like centralization and decentralization of management and power to follow each other in a cyclic fashion. Too much of the one gives rise to the opposite and brings about the next phase of the cycle; a process common to self-sustaining biological systems. In this way periods of high pre-occupation with legislation and increased orderliness will be followed by others more characterized by creative innovation and freedom to the members of the profession to work at this.

Both these activity focus phases are necessary but the one should not suffocate the other. We have come through a phase of increased accountability, orderliness and scrutiny on behalf of the public, (if not by the public) of what we do. This serves as an audit and stocktaking.

After every stocktaking and introduction of new structures, an increased level of activity in development of new solutions, taking the profession forward in what it really should be delivering should occur. This lies in the hands of other players than the profession's "auditors and legislators".

If we therefore look beyond the emerging Act that will hopefully do much to regulate key activities without stifling the economically important aspects of creative people management, we should see the process and service innovators "trying out the new clothes" to play a winning game rather than strutting around as if the new rights and privileges for practitioners constitute success and output in itself.

# HR Cross Roads Conference & SABPP AGM

WHERE: Gallagher Estate Johannesburg, CT International Convention Centre Cape Town

WHEN: Johannesburg , 4 November 2004; Cape Town, 16 November 2004

WHAT: >> HR Governance >> The Act >> The HR Charter (as proposed by BMF) >> The Business Point Of View >> Skills Development Facilitation

As a registered professional with the SABPP you are cordially invited to participate in the 2004 one day conference hosted by HRCOSA, the SABPP, IPM and Business. We are also hosting the SABPP AGM/HR Review on the day.