Race against time for unlicensed HR practitioners

Dorcas Wainaina, Executive Director of Institute of Human Resource Management

Uncertified human resource practitioners are in a race against time as the deadline for obtaining practising certificates nears.

The Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM), the regulatory agency mandated by law to police the profession, said it had seen an increase in the number of candidates enrolling for certification ahead of the 2020 deadline.

MADE MANDATORY

The regulator said it had tightened processes to ensure that only qualified professionals practised either as employees or consultants.

“Human resource professionals are currently undergoing retraining and vetting to be certified. This has forced many practitioners back to class to get the coveted certificate,” said IHRM Executive Director Dorcas Wainaina.

Ms Wainaina was speaking in Nairobi on Friday when the Human Resource Management Professionals Examinations Board released examination results for the November-December 2017 class.

The Human Resource Management Professionals Act, which made practising certificates mandatory, took effect in January 2013. As at June last year, only 10,000 of the estimated 25,000 professionals in the industry had been licensed, according to data from the institute.