2022 our year of visibility and impact

If you are reading this then you have survived the first 11 months of the year and you are about to relax and close off the year.

SABPP turned forty years this year and no we can’t stop talking about it. From the humble beginnings in 1982 to a powerful professional body of today.  The SABPP of the eighties is still as relevant as it was then. The SABPP of the great men and women like Gary Whytte, Wilhelm Crous, Dr Ray Eberlein, Ivan Latti, Mam’ Elizabeth Dhlamini-Kumalo, Linda Chipunza,  Getty Simelane, Huma van Rensburg, Marius Meyer and Dr Penny Abbott to name just a few, is still producing great men and women today.

Today we speak of Dr James Ramakau, Siphiwe Moyo, Pauls Gibbons,Prof Karel Stanz, Thandi Thankge, Dayalan Govender, Dr Rica Viljoen, Michael Glensor and still counting. The mere fact that SABPP is attracting  interest of younger professionals makes me believe that the future is bright and SABPP will still be relevant in the next forty years.

2022 had many challenges but today I choose to focus only on the good memories of the year. Elsewhere in this edition , SABPP staff articulated their own highlights for the year. Here I therefore summarise SABPP highlights for 2022. Revisiting these several times helps to overcome discouragements and challenges . We therefore count all our blessings and hereafter name them one by one.

1. SABPP turned 40. High level celebrations were held to commemorate this great milestone
2. HR Standards Review. The process of review started in earnest even though the focus was only four of the thirteen standards. This is set to conclude in 2023.
3. Buffet Membership Model was launched.
4. 14^th Board was trained and adopted the People Factor Strategy for the next three years.
5. Successful 14 Provincial AGMs and provincial strategies were conducted and finalised.
6. National and provincial committees leadership elections conducted successfully.
7. Public vacancy portal launched to encourage members and the public to look to us for all HR professional jobs.
8. The alliance agreement with COMENSA was extended for another three years.
9. CIPD agreement paved the way for globalisation
10. HR Audits started increasing particularly towards the end of the year
11. We honoured our late Chairperson by renaming our student awards to Marius Meyer SABPP Excellence Awards
12. We resumed our face to face events starting with our People Factor Summit.
13. New membership and LQA systems were launched fully.
14. 23 CPD programmes accredited
15. Internally we launched the weekly CEO leadership and culture conversations.

2023 promises to even be better. We look forward to continuing on the successes of 2022. Among other things we will drive the following in 2023:

1. Continue driving the People Factor Strategy
2. Drive the digital strategy to ensure that we lead in the HR space.
3. Simplify and increase products and services to members
4. Finalise the HR Standards Review and support organisations to implement.
5. Review alliances in the interest of our members.
6. Increase new membership and retention of existing members by improving and publicising the improved member value.
7. Promote buffet membership to make life easy for members.
8. Move into the HR Academy strategy without competing with our members.
9. Support and visit at least 100 companies, 10 universities and 10 training providers .
10. Revive and increase HR Audit and rebuild , refresh and streamline the auditors and the auditing model.
11. Rethink the Quality assurance function into the future.
12. Drive member appreciation and publicity.
13. Introduce mentorship for professional members.
14. Drive sponsorship to reduce the financial burden on the members.
15. Revive student chapters and HR Youth council culminating in a seat in the Board
16. Accredit HR standards- champions based on toolkits
17. Improve member engagement and professional participation including constant surveys management.
18. Drive CPD to keep members relevant  than just for compliance.

May 2023 be the year of value . Merry Christmas and may you have a safe festive season . Do look after yourself and your loved ones. Come back fully recharged to put HR and people at the centre of the success of organisations. Remember the last part of our mission ‘to contribute to the sustainability of organisations’. May we be driven by that mission in 2023.

Thank you to all of you for making and keeping SABPP and the HR profession great. May the Lord bless you and keep you.