Institute Partners Head of Service on Capacity building

By Henry Uche

The Chartered Institute Of Personnel Management (CIPM) says it is Partnering with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to revitalize the nation’s Public Service through several strategic Human Capital Management interventions. 

The outgoing president /Chairman of Governing Council of the Institute, Wale Adediran, while delivering a speech made this known yesterday at the 52nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) which took place virtually.

Acccording to him, the partnership introduces a refreshed Performance Management System (PMS) – an improved system designed to re-engineer and re-invigorate service performance, noting that a series of Performance Management Workshops would be embedded into the practices and learnings across multiple MDAs in collaboration with the OHCSF.

Recounting his achievements, Wale maintained that CIPM has established a very good access and collaboration with the Labour & Employment Ministry;  Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation; the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as the leadership of the National Economic Council – led by the Vice President of Nigeria, adding that the membership base would be replicated in other Corporate organizations.

“We are delighted to partner with OHCSF to build capacity for maximum Productivity and service delivery. CIPM has launched the Job Loss and Group Life insurance for Members in partnership with Leadway Assurance and AXA Mansard; through which we are able to make available these risk mitigation insurance products to interested Members.

“The key objective is to provide succor to those who might lose their jobs as a result of taking a stand on the Institute’s Code of Conduct and doing the right thing as upstanding HR Professionals with integrity. I encourage everyone to sign up for these products and to enjoy the many benefits. We have received requests for the establishment of CIPM chapters outside Nigeria (including UK, We are reviewing these possibility of Canada and US).

The outgoing president added that despite the disruption of lockdowns, health and safety issues -sadly accompanied by loss of lives and livelihood as well as socio-political crisis, the institute yet found opportunities to thirve financially by leveraging technology, adopted remote working models for highly disciplined financial management including focus on strict cash conservation.

He stressed that CIPM took focus on capacity development of its Members and the entire HR community to a whole new level with the Launch of the  CIPM HR Educators Network (HREN) with the aim of advancing the body of HR knowledge through platforms that allow continuous engagement on theories, principles, and practice of Human Resource Management, particularly in ensuring the bridge the gap between theoretical principles and the realities of HR in practice, thus forging a closer connection between ‘the town and the gown’.

This community of academics, business and HR professionals, he said would continue to make a positive contribution to the Institute’s people development activities going forward, hence covid-19 couldn’t stop it from soaring.

“In the year under review, CIPM’s long standing and very rewarding partnership with Sightsavers birthed the Nigeria Business Disability Network (NBDN), which is the national edition of the Global Business and Disability Network (GBDN) championed by ILO. The vision of the NBDN is to be an employer-led network championing the inclusion and benefit of people with disability in the workplace.

“With the Institute as the Nigerian representative and Coordination Hub of these efforts, we are helping drive the Inclusion Works strategic D&I objectives which focuses on building Disability Confidence in organizations and amongst professionals with regards to their focus on and support for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

“A critical focus area of the efforts of the NBDN would be to support the conduct of Disability Audits across Member Organizations, as well as efforts to ensure compliance with the Nigerian Disability Act through the design and execution of various continuous improvement interventions.

He added that CIPM would continue to embraced technology and digital solutions, not just as an enabler, but also as a key differentiator that will propel it forward in its quest to be the foremost people management and organization development Institute in Africa, respected across the world.

The Institute is implementing a major technology and digital transformation project which commenced last year, and soon everyone would begin to experience a more modern and future-forward look and feel of our our great institute with significantly enhanced products and services aided by the use of data analytics and other digital tools to craft personalised offerings.

“We developed the ‘CIPM Body of Knowledge’ (BoK) which defines at various proficiency levels the competencies (that is Knowledge, Skills and behavioral attributes) required of HR Professionals to enable them gain more clarity around the various delivery expectations in their jobs and requirements to succeed at what they do.

“We are happy to announce that the ‘Ready to Market’ Scheme is gaining traction with organizations. Despite the Pandemic, the program ran last year and showcased thought Leaders beyond the shores of Nigeria as Coaches and Mentors, we continue to contribute to addressing employability challenge in our Nation and we look forward to scaling up the program.

“The drive for the Accreditation of the Institute’s professional certificate in the Federal Scheme of Service is still on the top burner. Our efforts, which started with significant investment in training and registering Heads of Service across many states as members of our Institute, has so far led to the decision of the National Council on Establishment (NCE) at their last meeting in Lagos that, accredited professional certificate will now be recognized for promotion to “managerial” grades going forward.

“Our certificate is being pushed for the HR/Admin cadre. The NCE will no longer take professional but academic certificates for appointments going forward. We are forming an alliance with strategic officials both at the Federal and State levels to have States take initiatives in establishing HR/Admin cadre and adopt CIPM certificate for Managerial grades promotion.

“Even with the significant successes we have recorded, we are very mindful of areas for improvement and we remain committed to the firm path of continuous improvement on our journey to being foremost across Africa,” he affirmed.