Shaping people and culture beyond 40 years: 2023 Year of Professional Development

From the CEO desk ;Communique 1/2023

Dear members

Compliments of the season!. I hope you enjoyed your well deserved break and you spent valuable time with your loved ones. We learnt of a number of tragedies including the Boksburg Christmas Eve tragedy. We sympathise and send our condolences to  all who lost their loved ones during this period.

Perhaps it is opportune time to ask why we were kept alive while others passed on. This goes to the foundation of our existence. What is our purpose and what will the world miss if we are gone?

It’s back to business. Business that helps us establish and cement our purpose. There can be no business without people and people professionals.

Last year was a big year for us as we celebrated our fortieth anniversary. The settings are now different from 1982 but certainly we have remained relevant mainly by being deliberate about it. We are assured that we will continue being relevant beyond 40 years provided we continue applying foresight.

Perhaps our 40th anniversary theme captured it very well. The theme was built from our vision as well as our 2030 strategy; “Contributing to the sustainability of organisations through hindsight, insight, foresight and oversight ensuring HR credibility for forty years and beyond’

We believe 2022 set a very good foundation for us to excel in 2023.

We have branded 2023 the year of your professional development. Indeed you cannot pour from an empty cup and you cannot advise better  on what you have not experienced. We therefore want to support your growth, your survival and your thriving.

  • We therefore expect many of you to participate in our CPD rich programmes not just for compliance but for your professional growth and relevance. A number of workshops either face to face or online are scheduled for your convenience. We have old and new workshops. Please consult our events calendar
  • We expect many of you to mentor young professionals because when we help others we grow ourselves even more.
  • We expect many of you to write thought leadership pieces that will help others but also help on HR credibility and HR relevance.
  • We expect a number of you to join our various committees either national committees or provincial committees. Surely you need to participate actively as a relevant and ever growing professional.
  • We expect many of you to go back to school to do post graduate studies and ultimately we expect many of you to upgrade your membership levels.
  • We expect many of you who can afford to consider joint membership of SABPP and CIPD to ensure that we become global citizens.
  • We expect the majority of you to participate in any one or more of our 5 major conferences of the year either as active delegates or as speakers or part of the panel. These are;

               Quarter 1             Ethics and HR Governance Conference

               Quarter 2             L&D Conference

               Quarter 3             People Factor Summit (formerly HR Standards Conference)Main Conference

               Quarter 4             2 mini conferences a) Labour Market conference

                                                                                   b) Research in Practice conference

In order to support you to thrive we are finalising the HR Standards review this year. This will help you carry the all time standards that are up to date  to today and tomorrow’s needs thereby guaranteeing our credibility.

In declaring 2023 the year of your professional development, we share our top ten priorities

  1. Contribute to the sustainability of organisations through hindsight, insight, foresight and oversight ensuring HR credibility . This includes ensuring that we manage and influence HR trends.
  2. Continue driving the People Factor Strategy and specifically drive the digital strategy to ensure that we lead in the HR space.
  3. Simplify and increase products and services to members based on clear research.
  4. Finalise the HR Standards Review and support organisations to implement.
  5. Review alliances in the interest of our members and in the interest of advancement .
  6. Focus on improved member value including buffet membership models, mentorship, toolkits, member engagement, customisation and  appreciation
  7. Support and visit at least 100 companies, 10 universities and 10 training providers and revive student chapters.
  8. Revive and increase HR Audit and rebuild , refresh and streamline the auditors and the auditing model.
  9. Accredit HR standards- champions based on toolkits
  10. Drive sponsorship to reduce the financial burden on the members and sustainability of products.

The Board, committees, staff and all relevant stakeholders will be glad to support all your efforts to ensure that you grow as a professional, then your immediate community including your organisation will benefit immensely and ultimately the country, the economy and the globe will positively be impacted. Let’s do it.

Happy new year and this is the year we have been waiting for

SABPP regards

Xolani L Mawande

SABPP Chief Foresight Champion