The newly-elected President of the Institute of Human Resources Practitioners, Ghana (IHRMP), Dr. Edward Kwapong has said that to be relevant to industry, HR practitioners must welcome professional certification and say goodbye to raw academic qualifications.
Dr. Kwapong said this when he delivered his speech at the 9th Graduation Ceremony of the IHRMP held in Accra on Friday, December 8, 2017 at the premises of the Ghana Academy of Arts & Sciences.
“Academic giants are exchanging their academic crowns for professional trowels, and that is the reality of the situation. Goodbye raw academic qualifications, welcome professional certification. The days of academic fleece are over, the time has come for a professional fleece,”, the President of IHRMP added.
In his welcome address, the Executive Director of IHRMP, Mr. Ebenezer Agbetor said: “This morning’s event marks a high-point in the Institute’s calendar of activities because it shows we have grown as an institute since inception of the Professional Certification Programme (PCP) in 2002. The numbers graduating today are 136 Associate and 9 Certified members, as against last year’s figures of 98 and 12 respectively – a remarkable increase of 32% in the number of students graduating”.
Mr. Agbetor charged the newly graduated HR practitioners to step out there and be good ambassadors of the profession that they have chosen, and to stand tall with their equipped tools/competencies to distinguish themselves from the cowboys/girls in the HR industry.
Mrs. Irene Asare, Director of HR, Facilities & Administration of Tullow Ghana Limited – who doubles as the reigning HR Practitioner of the Year – said: “There is fear that applying artificial intelligence and robotics will gradually spell the death of jobs, but HR practitioners need to come to terms with the fact that artificial intelligence, robotics and human being combine to deliver better levels of productivity and outcomes in an organization”.
Speaking on the theme ‘Artificial Intelligence and Robotics – The continued Relevance of HR Management’, Mrs. Asare explained: “It is not the future of the workplace; it is here with us and happening today in our workplaces. A radical change is already evident in the customer service sector. Chatbots (a software developed to enhance communication) are now the most popular to provide around-the-clock service for customers. Unlike a conventional call centre, a Chabot never sleeps; it never needs to go on a lunch break and it never gets impatient with its customers. I have to say we really need to improve our customer service culture in Ghana”.
