leadership matters
The Public Interest and You
As an HR professional, what would you do
if your employer told you to exclude an
identifiable group of employees from being
considered for promotions? Or if you witnessed
a senior manager consistently bullying a direct
report? Or if the employer was coercing staff to start
work an hour before punching in the time clock?
If you’re a member of the Human Resources
Professionals Association (HRPA), your options may
be limited: you are professionally obligated to “do the
right thing,” stand up for employees and refuse to go
along with employer actions that are at odds with a
fair and equitable workplace.
Failure to do so could see you become the subject
of a complaint to the association, a possible disciplinary
hearing and potential sanction – including loss of
your CHRP, CHRL or CHRE designation and revocation
of membership.
For HRPA members, “doing the right thing” means
“practicing one’s profession in the public interest” – and
ensuring that this happens is now HRPA’s primary
role after passage of the Registered Human Resources
Professionals Act, 2013, which gave the association not
only powers to regulate the HR profession, but also a
duty to ensure that professionals regulated by HRPA
practice their profession in the public interest.
This is the “Cole’s Notes” description of the public
interest, but as an emerging profession that’s still
finding its professional identity, it’s worth going a little
deeper into what it means – specifically as it relates
to HR.
Claude Balthazard, HRPA’s VP regulatory affairs
and registrar, wrote about this recently in What’s the
public interest?? You can read the full article by going to
http://bit.ly/2aMOQgV.
According to Balthazard, there are two basic public
interest rationales for regulating a profession. The first
concerns consumer protection: because consumers of
professional services can’t readily judge the quality of
professional services they receive (or have no choice in
the professional they’re dealing with), there is a need
to protect the consumer from incompetent or unethical
practitioners. For example, your average Canadian
does not have the knowledge to judge the capabilities
By Brenda Clark, CHRE
Enculescu Marian Vladut/Shutterstock.com
Continued on next page
IF YOU’RE A MEMBER OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES PROFESSIONALS
ASSOCIATION (HRPA) … YOU ARE PROFESSIONALLY OBLIGATED
TO “DO THE RIGHT THING,” STAND UP FOR EMPLOYEES AND
REFUSE TO GO ALONG WITH EMPLOYER ACTIONS THAT ARE
AT ODDS WITH A FAIR AND EQUITABLE WORKPLACE.
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ SEPTEMBER 2016 ❚ 9