Merits of Joining a Human Resources Professional Association - Essay Example

Merits of Joining a Human Resources Professional Association Executive Summary The study is focussed on the significance of Human Resources Professional Associations and the advantages that a Human Resource (HR) professional enjoys as a result of joining such Professional Associations. It was assessed that being a member of a Human Resources Professional Association provides with ample exposure to an HR executive in terms of networking with HR professionals all around the world. It also assists in identifying educational as well as informative resources and getting access to various renowned speakers during conferences and workshops. Keeping in mind that one is in the establishment stage of his/her career with the expectation of acquiring the position of a manager, the membership of Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) had been found to be suitable. This is because, in addition to providing professional membership, SHRM provides opportunities to enhance owns knowledge, gain information from fellow members through networking and access to valuable resources pertaining to latest HR issues. Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 2 Overview 3 Relative Merits of Joining a Human Resources Professional Association 3 Comparative Analysis of some of the Human Resources Professional Associations 5 Society for Human Resource Management 5 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 6 Dubai Human Resources Forum 7  Arabian Society for HR Management 8 Australian Human Resource Institute 9 Decision of the Selection of a Human Resources Professional Association and its Justification 10 Conclusion 12 References 14 Overview This report discusses the relative merits of joining a Human Resources Professional Association. The report conducts a comparative analysis of some of the renowned Human Resources Professional Associations and then selects a particular association that suits the professional requirements considering the candidate’s career stage. The selection of the Professional Association is also justified keeping in view the expected benefits and professional development through HR resources and networking opportunities presented in the program. Relative Merits of Joining a Human Resources Professional Association There are various advantages of joining a Human Resource Professional Association. As an individual with around 14 years of experience in the Human Resource Department (HRD), the rationale for willingness to join a Professional Association is to develop and enhance the HR skills by means of journals as well as magazines which are comprised with the membership of any Professional Association. Involvement with a Professional Association provides with the opportunity to attend conferences as well as conventions with proficient and professional speakers. Thus, being a member of a Human Resource Professional Association would provide a HR professional with an opportunity to access his/her career proceedings and specific human resource job listings. In addition to this, Professional Associations offer career networking opportunities with other members of the association. Human Resource Professional Association gives an individual admittance to the most beneficial and existing HR networks as a professional (Gatewood & Et. Al., 2010) Furthermore, Human Resource Professional Association would augment an individual’s professional development in addition to presenting information about issues pertaining to HRD. Every local or the international Human Resource Professional Association publishes informative newsletters and journals related to issues of Human Resource Management (HRM). Such Professional Associations also update their websites with significant HR issues along with fresh developments in the HR field. Moreover, these Professional Associations regularly coordinate and conduct professional development programs and conferences consisting of industry associated exposures and knowledge for their members. Therefore, in addition to growing or enhancing the professional network, a HR professional gets to confer about contemporary industry topics and gain knowledge of the industry trends from the leaders actively participating in the conferences. Some of the Professional Associations also offer certifications to their members, which are recommended for their career growth (Gatewood & Et. Al., 2010) Comparative Analysis of some of the Human Resources Professional Associations Society for Human Resource Management Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the one of the biggest associations in the world committed to HRM. It consists of above 250,000 HR professionals as members. SHRM was established in the year 1948. At present, SHRM has over 550 associated chapters and the members of the society are spread across over 100 nations from all around the world (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). The undertaking of SHRM is to cater to the necessities and requirements of the HR professionals across the world by making available the most vital and wide-ranging resources associated to contemporary HRM practices of the 21st century. An imperative objective of the SHRM is to endorse and progress the HR vocation in order to make sure that the Human Resource Manager is acknowledged as a significant associate in the process of building up and implementing the organizational strategies (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). The exhibitions arranged by the SHRM presents its members an exceptional and valuable occasion to meet numerous HR professionals across the industries in an atmosphere committed to networking, modernization, improvement and growth. The conferences and expositions organized by the Society for HRM endow an individual member with an opportunity to reach out to an assembly of over 13,000 HR professionals in addition to decision makers from all across the globe (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). The flagship magazine of SHRM known as the HR Magazine is one of the utmost trusted, respected and widely read HR periodicals in the globe. The popularity of HR Magazine can be assessed by its more than 231,000 paid subscribers. The other informative publications of the SHRM are the SHRM Conference Daily and the HR Week. The total cost of membership of SHRM is around US$180 per year. This charge is inclusive of the cost of the publications and the newsletters provided by the Society on a periodical basis (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the world’s principal Chartered HR development professional organization with more than 135,000 individual members. The objective of CIPD is to impel continued organisational performances through HRM practices, decisive thinking, and foremost practices. The CIPD aims to set the worldwide standard for HR fineness and superiority within the vocation. CIPD is a globally acknowledged brand with above 135,000 members spread over 120 countries. CIPD endorses and develops its members, who are actually in charge for the supervision as well as development of people within businesses (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2011). The members of CIPD are provided with resources comprising of thought provoking materials from across the field of HRM and business. CIPD offers professional development programs and qualifications to its members. The members of CIPD get the benefit to access professional resources such as books, toolkits, online journals, publications, magazines, research reports training tools, and library information services among others. These resources and the newsletters provided by CIPD keep the members up-to-date with almost all the issues concerning today’s HRM. CIPD also provides with exceptional networking opportunities to its members through conferences, exhibitions, forums, podcasts, trainings, and communities among others (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2011). An individual looking forward to become a member of CIPD has to pay a onetime admission fee worth £130 or/and an annual subscription fee of £130. This is equivalent to around US$202 of admission fee and a similar value of subscription fee. The membership of CIPD is valid from July 1 to June 30 of the next year. The members have to further renew their membership every year by paying a reinstatement fee of £130 (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2011). Dubai Human Resources Forum The Dubai Human Resources Forum was established in the mid 1970s by a group of passionate Human Resources Managers who were eager to network as well as share their understanding and knowledge globally. These HR Managers were looking forward to incessant professional development. The Dubai Human Resources Forum is available to any individual who is associated with HRM field and desires to follow the objectives of the founder members (Dubai Human Resources Forum, 2011) At present the Dubai Human Resources Forum has more than 300 members representing in excess of 150 business organizations. The existing members encompass almost all the business segments across the Emirates. The Forum is administered by a designated board which meets every month to arrange around 20 seminars, site visits, workshops, and other proceedings every year to accomplish the goals of Dubai Human Resources Forum. During such events, renowned international as well as local spokespersons are invited to speak to the members of the Forum, on subjects comprising the conventional Human Resource practices, Business Excellence Initiatives, Personal Development, and contemporary and relevant HR subjects of widespread concern (Dubai Human Resources Forum, 2011) The Dubai Human Resources Forum also manages an online group for its members, making available the dialogue boards as well as blogs so as to allow the members to pose questions and obtain pertinent feedbacks from other members of the Forum. Such online platforms can be utilized to share ideas and talk about key topics associated with HRM in the province. The online Forum also permits the members to place notifications for vacancies and resumes with the purpose of facilitating inter-forum collaboration in view of employment opportunities. An individual has to pay a membership fee of 300 United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) per annum in addition to a joining fee of 150 AED to become a member of the Forum. This is equivalent to US$80 as annual membership fee, valid from January to December of a year and US$40 as one time joining fee (Dubai Human Resources Forum, 2011)  Arabian Society for HR Management The undertaking of Arabian Society for HR Management (ASHRM) is to support and advance the HR vocation in the Arabian region by means of educational qualifications along with Master’s degree course over and above other proceedings. For instance, the ASHRM International Conference monthly plans a range of publications as well as studies with the intention to assist the professionals with developed knowledge base. This is to endow members with learning practices, ideas, expertise, and measures that will facilitate them in augmenting and leveraging proficiency for enhancing the performance of the HR in the workplace at various levels, such as individual, group, business, national, and global (Arabian Society for HR Management, 2011). A professional interested in involving with the society needs to pay a membership fee of SR 200 annually, which is equal to US$54. The membership of the society is legitimate for a fiscal year starting from January 1 to December 31 (Arabian Society for HR Management, 2011). Australian Human Resource Institute The Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) is the sole Australian not-for-profit association for HR professionals. AHRI has around 15,000 members and over 60 years of experience in offering high-quality assistance for professional development in addition to membership services. AHRI guides the members and promotes the development of the HR vocation through dynamically set benchmarks focused on developing the competence of the professionals. AHRI makes certain that its members are provided admission to a soundly-based professional acknowledged structure, by means of its worldwide memberships and close relationship with industry as well as academic world. AHRI recognizes the long-term prospect for the HR vocation to dynamically contribute professional knowledge for the execution of solutions pertaining to HRM to business. AHRI provides its members practical, pertinent as well as cost-effective practices to achieve a Professional Human Resources Certification via its two courses, viz. the Professional Diploma of HR and the Foundations of HR. The administration fee per course is US$500 (Australian Human Resources Institute, 2011). Decision of the Selection of a Human Resources Professional Association and its Justification As an administrator in the Development and Planning Department of a government owned organization named Ras Al Khaimah Health Zone, the professional needs to consider his past 20 years of experience in various divisions of HRD with due consideration to his personal as well as professional skills gained over the years before deciding on a particular Human Resource Professional Association. The choice of Human Resource Professional Association has to meet one’s personal as well as professional requirements. Analysis of the career development model with due consideration to the work experience as well as tasks and responsibilities reveals that the professional falls under the foundation stage of his career. In this stage the HR professional enthusiastically makes his independent contribution towards the organization with the expectation to obtain better career growth opportunities. But in this case the professional has not yet reached the level of policy making (Noe, 2010). Therefore, with the consideration of the career stage and the upcoming plans as an HR professional, the selection of Society for Human Resource Management would be a better both in terms of costs and benefits. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development also could have been a good choice but it is more expensive than SHRM. The membership of SHRM would enable one to identify what should be the focus area of every stage of his HR career and thus assist in preparing a systematic object-oriented career plan. Being an HR professional the time-saving devices of SHRM, the ideas for implementing competitive advantages, apt legislative alerts and their broad assortment of economical professional development alternatives would be highly advantageous in the career growth expectations of the professional in becoming a manager (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). The Society for Human Resource Management is a massive association reaching out to a wide number of significant and prominent HR professionals. It unites a member with thousands of reputed HR professionals during their annual conference and exhibition, which is considered to be the biggest congregation of Human Resource Professionals in the globe. Thus, it would provide the utmost opportunity to networking and gain knowledge from various specialized HR professionals across the world (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). Furthermore, the profiles of the attendees of the SHRM conferences as well as expositions are diverse. The job titles of the attendees range from Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers to Directors, Managers and Administrators of several of large companies belonging to various industry segments. The HR professionals taking part in the annual conference organized by SHRM belong to miscellaneous businesses as well as industry sectors, ranging from manufacturing, health, education, finance, and government among others. It is in this context that getting involved in the society will benefit the professional to develop his knowledge on the global platform and in a broad perspective (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). Various aspects of the HR vocation are discussed in the conferences and the workshops held by SHRM. Some of the aspects are Executive Search & Recruitment, Awards & Incentives, Employee Compensation & Benefits, Human Resource Information Systems, Training & Development, and Management Consulting among others (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). Thus, it can be expected that joining SHRM would provide ample opportunities and exposure to advance the professional career of the candidate in HR field. Conclusion Conclusively, it would be highly beneficial for the professional to join a Human Resource Professional Association. It is because as a member, the HR professional gets to know regarding the various vacancies that are generally never posted. This is because the HR managers and executives seeking to fill positions would initially approach their networks to find appropriate applicants. Thus, being a member of a local or international Human Resource Professional Association, the professional will get a chance to be a part of such networks in addition to the opportunity to develop his knowledge and skills based on the published HR resources and the workshops as well as conferences held. The assessments of the various professional associations, keeping in mind the professional’s career stage and professional growth expectations, exhibit SHRM as an ideal choice. The choice of SHRM has been based on the information that the society supports its members by enabling them keep abreast with the most recent thinking and the best HR practices in different organizations operating in different business environments. The SHRM endows its members with the products as well as services for assisting the members’ professional enhancement. With the professional membership at SHRM, the candidate can attain the opportunity to enhance and expand his knowledge via qualifications and guidance from other senior and experienced HR professionals. The candidate in this context can gain perspective and knowledge from his fellow members by means of networking and gatherings during conferences and exhibitions. It is due to the fact that an individual member of SHRM gets admittance to vast valuable resources, research and analysis along with insights to the issues faced by HR managers in the current scenario, which is highly beneficial for the professional growth (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). Hence, for an HR professional having over 20 years of experience in different segments of HRM till date and presently working in a health sector organization, membership at SHRM would be highly beneficial providing him ample support and career growth opportunities. References Australian Human Resources Institute, 2011. Tertiary Course Accreditation Handbook. Australian Human Resources Institute. [Online] Available at: http://www.ahri.com.au/MMSDocuments/profdevelopment/accreditation/resources_accreditation/vet_accreditation_handbook_2011.pdf [Accessed on October 11, 2011]. Arabian Society for HR Management, 2011. Membership. Arabian Society for HR Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.ashrm.com/membership.php [Accessed on October 11, 2011]. Dubai Human Resources Forum, 2011. Our Profile. Dubai Human Resources Forum. [Online] Available at: http://www.dhrf.ae/dhrf/profile.php?id=36 [Accessed on October 11, 2011]. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2011. Membership Terms and Conditions. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. [Online] Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/Membership/Member_terms.htm [Accessed on October 11, 2011]. Gatewood & Et. Al., 2010. Human Resource Selection. Cengage Learning. Noe, R. A., 2010. Employee Training & Development. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Society for Human Resource Management, 2011. SHRM Membership: A Smart Investment. Society for Human Resource Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.shrm.org/about/membership/Documents/Flyer_to_Sell_Your_Boss_on_SHRM_Membership_NewDues.pdf [Accessed on October 11, 2011]. Read More