Help us create HR standards and metrics

By Marius Meyer, CEO: SABPP

Building on the development of the National HR Competency Model in 2012, the HR Professional and
Quality Assurance body for South Africa, the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP) launched a project to
generate human resource (HR) management system standards and metrics for South Africa. A group of
HR directors recently met at the SABPP office in Parktown, Johannesburg to steer this project in the
right direction. The purpose of the project is to lead and assist HR managers in generating integrated
standards and metrics for the HR function aligned to business strategy. HR management system
standards are needed to set a national benchmark of good practice and a consistent way of managing
HR functions and people in organisations. HR metrics refer to tangible measures that show the impact
of HR on the bottom-line of the business.
It is time for HR to rise to the level of other professions as far as standards are concerned. There are
clear standards for accounting, engineering and other professions, but the same cannot be said of HR.
Accountants present their companies and clients with a consistent approach to the financial aspects of a
company. For example, balance sheets and income statements are done in the same way, no matter
the type of company or industry, and this consistent approach is prevalent throughout South Africa.
However, there are many inconsistencies in the standard of HR work within organisations, between
organisations, within and across sectors and nationally. These inconsistencies are based on a variance in
standards at best, and the absence of standards at worst. This results in poor people management
practices at most organisations costing them dearly, despite some pockets of excellence at leading
companies. Leon Steyn, an HR Director at the Bidvest Group supports the project: For too long HR
professionals have been plagued by an array of guidelines and standards which were either borrowed
out of desperation, imposed or not suitable. This HR standards initiative is an exciting step in the right
direction and a breath of fresh air for all HR professionals. I support this idea whole heartedly and it is
great to be part of this project.
SABPP will generate HR functional standards (for example for induction, training, performance
management), tangible HR metrics, as well as standards for integrated reporting. The latter project is an
exciting development flowing from the King III Code on Governance for South Africa according to which
companies should not only report on their financial bottom-line, but also on their environmental and
social performance. SABPP will drive this process and stay in close contact with the HR community in
ensuring that they are involved in the generation of HR standards, as well as supporting them with the
necessary capacity-building when applying these standards in practice. The HR Standards Project will
kick-off in 2013 with 13 national standards being creates for each one of the building blocks of the
SABPP HR System Standards Model (see figure).



The SABPP HR Standards and Metrics project will focus on the following five phases:
1. Creation of a Management System Standard to ensure that a sound framework is put in place to
govern and manage the HR standards generation project;
2. Generation of HR functional standards covering all HR functions (from recruitment to training to
employment relations);
3. Development of HR metrics to measure key performance areas of HR affecting the achievement
of business goals;
4. Infusion of HR in integrated reporting frameworks to ensure that HR is sufficiently covered in
integrated reporting standards;
5. Design of a new CPD system and support system in building the capacity of HR professionals to
apply HR standards and metrics based on a national HR competency model.
We are pretty sure that the successful completion of the first five phases as key building blocks for HR
excellence will put us in a good position of lobbying that HR is integrated into the King IV Governance
Code. Already there is sufficient evidence that people practices and sound human capital management
drive business performance and good governance. Moreover, at most a companys labour cost is the
biggest budget element in business, and it therefore makes business sense to optimise people
performance in order to achieve a return on the people investment and achieve business sustainability.
Dr Michael Robbins from the UK, an international expert on management system standard-setting and
risk management has agreed to be the lead facilitator of this project. Michael, who was also involved in
the Investors in People Standard in the UK, shared his excitement about this project: I am honored to
be part of this process and I want to congratulate SABPP for driving this project in South Africa. If SABPP
is successful with this project, they will become one of the top professional HR standards generating
pioneers world-wide. I want to thank HR executives who already committed to this project. In
particular, I acknowledge the HR leaders from Nedbank, First Rand Bank, Anglogold Ashanti and Fraser
Alexander for their enthusiastic support during the conceptualisation phase of the project. HR Future
will partner with SABPP in making this project a reality in order to set and drive HR standards for South
Africa. HR Managers and Directors interested in the project can contact me on twitter @MariusSABPP
or @SABPP1. More information about SABPP is available on www.sabpp.co.za.

This article was published in HR Future (www.hrfuture.net). We thank Alan Hosking of HR Future for his
enthusiastic support of this project.