The vision of a thinking performer: the CIPD's new professional standard

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's recently relaunched professional standards underpin all routes to its qualifications and are, in turn, underpinned by 10 behavioural competencies. John Warner reports on these developments.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has a membership of more than 116,000 and is the largest professional body for human resource practitioners in Europe. Its predecessor, the Institute of Personnel and Development, was awarded chartered status in July 2000.

The CIPD emphasises the role that specialists in the "management and development of people" should play in ensuring sustainable business success. To help members achieve this, one of the institute's key objectives is to establish, monitor and promote professional standards and ethics in the field of personnel and development.

Success factors

Turning to the fundamentals, the CIPD's executive asked what, in the current business climate, its members needed to do to improve the performance of their organisations and, through them, to help increase the productivity levels of the whole economy. The institute's existing statements of professional standards, produced in 1996, were out of date and a new approach was needed.

Following a two-year review, it was concluded that members should be "thinking performers" and "business partners". For the CIPD, this means individuals who can work effectively with all stakeholders at operational level, but at the same time have a full grasp of their organisation's overall strategy and add value to the business through their activity.

The outcome of the review is the latest version of the institute's standards (effectively, technical competences) that were launched in July 2002. The standards define the key areas of activity in which its members should operate. Areas of performance are defined for a broad range of personnel and development processes, and levels of experience, and can lead to a variety of professional qualifications.

From first entry into the profession to experienced practitioner level, the standards are an attempt to set out what an effective personnel and development professional should be able to do, understand, or explain to others. The standards are informed throughout by a set of 10 generic behavioural competencies (or guiding principles) that the institute anticipates all members will demonstrate.

Moving on

Until their recent launch, standards and competencies were not spelt out by the institute. Instead, the necessary skills and knowledge that members had to develop were listed in copies of the curricula that supported the different qualifications. The new indicator and competency approach" is a substantial development from the previous more academic method of specifying requirements. Not only does the development affect members seeking professional qualifications, but also has consequences for the CIPD's tutors and lecturers in the 400 colleges, universities and other institutions that provide courses leading to the different forms of accreditation.

In the past, the institute's views on competencies have been cautious. However, Angela Baron, adviser for organisation and resourcing, said recently: "Our research shows that the use of competencies applied consistently across organisations are, on the whole, seen as making a positive management contribution. In the case of the CIPD, we've reviewed the syllabuses for professional qualifications and have relaunched them based on standards and competencies."

(In passing, it is worth noting that a competency framework has not yet been introduced for use by the full-time staff who work for the institute. One can only speculate on the influence the standards and competencies defined for members of the institute will have on its own staff in the future.)

The review of the CIPD's standards was carried out among personnel and development professionals and practitioners across the UK during 1999 and 2000. The review was led by the institute's membership and education committee. This meets on a quarterly basis and is made up of a combination of practitioners and academic representatives. Branches nominate up to 30 members to sit on the committee, each of whom serves on a rotating two-year basis. In addition to the nominated members, the committee consists of the director of membership and education, four CIPD managers and 10 other permanent members who are chief examiners, moderators or verifiers.

Smaller task forces were formed from the members of the committee and others in the field to address each of the main areas of personnel and development activity covered by the standards. Typically, a task force was made up of 10 to 12 people drawn from a wide constituency, and each was chaired by a member of the membership and education committee with experience appropriate to the area being considered. Among the members of the groups were specialists in people resourcing, specification of performance indicators, assessment and course content. Road shows were arranged in the regions to broaden the consultative process, and the final thoughts and conclusions were presented, discussed, modified and agreed by the full membership and education committee.

Standards

The standards are being used in a number of different ways:

Education programmes: Mainly through the CIPD's professional development scheme, based on the standards, new members can gain their qualifications and existing members can pursue professional-level programmes.

Professional assessment: By mapping themselves against the standards, experienced professionals can demonstrate that their knowledge and competence qualifies them for membership of the institute. Approved assessment centres help with assembling portfolios of supporting evidence.

Assessment of prior certificated learning: Assessment against the standards can be made where relevant qualifications have not been approved as part of the institute's educational programme. A sufficiently close match can lead to an opportunity to take CIPD examinations without further study.

Comparisons against national standards: Assessment against the standards enables candidates to qualify for membership through National Vocational Qualifications and their Scottish equivalents (NVQs) in personnel, training and development, recruitment consultancy and management.

Plans for continuing professional development: The standards give personnel and development professionals an opportunity to benchmark themselves against new or unfamiliar areas of human resource practice in order to help in personal development planning.

Organisational applications: Where organisations seek to apply to the institute for membership, the standards provide a benchmark for the prevailing organisational culture. The emphasis, the institute believes, should be on employee goals, continuous improvement, assessment of behaviour and attitudes - as well as skills and capabilities.

Purpose and indicators

Each of the revised standards is set out using similar headings:

  • Purpose: describes how the standard fits in with, or compares with NVQs, the CIPD's professional development scheme, or what level of membership might be achieved on successful completion. The justification for achievement of the standard is also set out in professional terms, relating to prevailing organisational conditions or management concerns.

    For example, the "people resourcing" standard includes the statement: "There is no guarantee that today's organisations will exist in the indefinite future, either at all or in the present form. So, this standard seeks to address the competencies resourcing professionals are likely to need 'everywhere and tomorrow' rather than just the 'here and now'."

    Two types of performance indicators set out what the institute expects of its members (each is illustrated here with an example drawn from the "learning and development" standard):

  • Operational indicators: things members must be able to do, such as "Cooperate with learning and development stakeholders in learning and development policy, strategy and plans, in order to integrate learning and development activity with wider personnel and business policy."

  • Knowledge indicators: what a member must understand and be able to explain to others, for example: "The integration of learning and development activity and organisational needs, with special reference to: the goals of the stakeholders in learning and development, and the building and sustaining of partnerships that will produce and communicate effective learning and development processes and initiatives."

    An "indicative content" attached to each standard provides a more detailed explanation of the field of activity and knowledge required, such as: "The evaluation and assessment of learning and development outcomes and investment: models and processes to measure and evaluate the specific outcomes of learning and development processes and activity."

    Competencies

    Supporting the professional standards and providing an overview of their deployment is a set of 10 generic behavioural competencies. The institute anticipates that for members to function successfully and become thinking performers, all must demonstrate a mixture (depending on their role) of the 10 competencies. The document extract provides a full list of these competencies and their descriptors.

    Unlike the standards, the competencies are intended to be used as a guide to the type of behaviours that should form the basis for a successful assessment of those seeking professional qualifications, or when pursuing continuing professional development programmes through the CIPD. They are not intended to be part of a conventional competency framework, but are regarded by the institute as an "aspirational vision" to which all members should strive to realise.

    During the development of the new standards, there was a proposal for the competencies to be described at five levels. The initial thinking behind this was to address issues of parity between more recently accredited members and older "established" members of the institute who historically have few, if any, formal personnel and development qualifications. However, in view of the detailed specifications that have been outlined for the standards, this proposal was rejected by the committee in favour of the simpler structure that has been adopted for the competencies.

    While the competencies have been expressed in a simple form, it is necessary to view performance against them in the light of the person's degree of experience - hence the competencies' intended use as a guide only. Clearly, experience will count for all. At the lowest level, a member pursing certificate-level accreditation will display notably different behaviours from those of an established member who is seeking to upgrade their membership to fellowship level.

    The ninth competency - "strategic thinking" - provides perhaps the best illustration of this flexible approach. The competency is expressed in terms of "creating an achievable vision" and identifying the necessity to "rise above day-to-day detail". This may be an aspiration and vision for those completing foundation-level programmes, but will be a substantially lower priority than learning the processes necessary to operate, for example, as a successful personnel administrator.

    Wider interface

    In the course of developing the new standards and competencies, the CIPD has been influenced by European agreements on learning and development. In June 1999, the UK and 28 other countries agreed that by 2009 all professional qualifications standards and structures would be linked to national and European qualifications frameworks. This is known as the Bologna Declaration. For the UK to fulfil the terms of the declaration, a first stage has to be reached by 2003 when all UK educational programmes are due to conform to the National Qualifications Framework and to comply with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) assessment criteria.

    The CIPD's professional standards seek to meet the requirements of the Bologna Declaration in full. This may be either through mapping onto existing national qualifications or by ensuring qualifications are set at a Masters level (M-level). The latter means that candidates responding to examination questions set by the CIPD must demonstrate the following:

  • systematic understanding of knowledge and a critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights;

  • comprehensive understanding of techniques; and

  • conceptual understanding that enables the student to evaluate critically both current research and methodologies.

    They must also show that they can:

  • deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively;

  • make sound judgments in the absence of complete data;

  • be original in tackling and solving problems;

  • plan and advise on how to implement tasks at a professional-equivalent level;

  • propose/make convincing decisions in complex and unpredictable situations; and

  • communicate their conclusions clearly to non-specialist audiences.

    Mapping CIPD standards (particularly at practitioner level) to NVQs has been a time-consuming and complicated exercise for the institute. In essence, the complication has arisen because the standards conform to M-level, but the criteria for this are such that it does not enable a straightforward mapping process with all level 4 and 5 NVQs. There is a view held by some people in the field that NVQs currently contain insufficient amounts of the "M-level factor".

    Support-level standards

    With its foundation learning and development programmes, CIPD "support-level" standards provide an interface with Employment National Training Organisation criteria through the application of NVQs. Its standards do this by means of three certificate qualifications, which relate to level 3 NVQs thus:

  • CIPD Certificate of Personnel Practice: NVQ Level 3, Personnel;

  • CIPD Certificate in Training Practice: NVQ Level 3, Learning and Development; and

  • CIPD Certificate in Recruitment and Selection: NVQ Level 3, Recruitment Consultancy.

    Achievement of any one of these qualifications (CIPD certificate or NVQ level 3) entitles the holder to associate membership of the institute. However, it does not automatically ensure progression to the CIPD's more advanced professional development scheme.

    Practitioner-level standards

    Forming the spine of the CIPD's new standards and a major part of the professional development scheme are four sets of standards that cover the knowledge, understanding and competence considered vital for personnel practitioners at operational level. The standards cover:

    1.People Management and Development - a compulsory core;

    2.Specialist and Generalist Personnel and Development;

    3.Core Management; and

    4.Applied Personnel and Development.

    The "Specialist and Generalist Personnel and Development" standards form the major part of the CIPD's full set of revised standards and will affect many members who take part in the CIPD's professional development scheme.

    In all, there are 11 specialist standards grouped around four generalist standards, as follows:

  • People Resourcing: Managing Diversity and Equal Opportunities; Selection and Assessment; and Career Management and Development;

  • Learning and Development: Management Development; Managing Organisational Learning and Knowledge; Managing the Training and Development Function; and Designing and Delivering Training;

  • Employee Reward: Pensions; and Performance Management; and

  • Employee Relations: Employment Law; and Health and Safety.

    The "Core Management" standards are set out with less detail than the Specialist and Generalist Personnel and Development standards. They draw on policy previously developed by the institute before it achieved chartered status and from national standards in management originally developed by the Management Charter Initiative that can be mapped to NVQs. By following educational programmes based on these standards, candidates are able to undertake NVQ management level 4. The standards cover managing activities, managing people, managing in a business context and managing information.

    The Applied Personnel and Development standards are also set out in less detail. Graduate membership of the CIPD depends on achievement of these standards, along with the three other sets included in the Practitioner standards. They cover standards concerned with "the management report" and continuing professional development.

    Advanced Practitioner Standards

    Standards at this level are intended for members who have already met the practitioner standards and would typically be a graduate or full member of the CIPD. Achievement of the standards is seen as contributing to more experienced members' continuing professional development. The standards cover four areas: Personnel and Development Consultancy; Strategic Personnel and Development; International Personnel and Development; and Organisational Change and Transition.

    Following the institute's achievement of chartered status, the next inevitable target must also be that members gain individual chartered status through the CIPD's qualifications. If this is the case, it is anticipated that the Advanced Practitioner Standards could play a significant part in achieving this recognition.

    Route ahead

    The CIPD sees its new standards as a comprehensive "road map" that personnel and development practitioners may take in their quest for personal and professional development. Through achievement of the qualifications, or by following continuing professional development programmes, the institute anticipates that its members will receive greater recognition by their organisations for the roles they play in adding value to the enterprise.

    According to Rod Hastie, CIPD Vice President, Membership and Education: "The framework is designed to move the profession away from a reactive and defensive approach, towards one that is taken seriously in the boardroom and that has tangible influence on corporate strategy." In order to achieve understanding and credibility, he believes that it is up to all personnel and development practitioners to continue with learning and development in order to "devise and implement strategies appropriate to today's knowledge economy."

    There is also acknowledgement that all personnel and development processes - such as recruitment and selection, induction, learning and development, performance management, employee relations and reward mechanisms - should be reviewed to ensure that they all exemplify the model of the "thinking performer".

    (Information about the criteria for M-level was provided by Rosemary Harrison, CIPD Chief Examiner for Learning and Development, and is based on materials published in further and higher education documentation that addresses issues of parity with various European levels of qualifications. She is also the author of Learning and development, a CIPD publication that is intended to support the new standards.)

  • Further information: Shelagh Murdoch, Manager, Professional Education, CIPD, tel: 020 8263 3323, email: s.murdoch@cipd.co.uk.

  • John Warner is a freelance writer and management adviser to business.

     

    1. Standards: What the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development did

    Issues

  •  
    • Previous professional standards statements were out of date; they took an academic approach by being detailed within curricula supporting the institute's qualifications.

  • An intention to express new standards through operational and knowledge indicators - what people should do, what they should know and their anticipated behaviours.

  • A desire to identify what actions the institute's members should take to improve their own organisations' performance and, in turn, help increase productivity levels.

  • For reasons of comparison and to comply with European agreements, standards needed to map to criteria for national and EU professional qualifications.

    Actions

  • A two-year review process led by the membership and education committee that included broad consultation throughout the UK.

  • Task forces formed to address the main areas of personnel and development activity to be included in a comprehensive set of professional standards.

  • Standards defined at three levels - "support, practitioner and advanced practitioner" - to recognise the development needs of all levels of membership.

  • Each standard devised to include operational and knowledge indicators for all key personnel and development activities.

  • A set of 10 generic competencies developed as a guide to the behaviours that should support the standards.

    Outcomes

  • Standards intended to assist members to become "thinking performers" and "business partners" who add value and earn the respect of colleagues elsewhere in their organisations.

  • A comprehensive set of professional standards that provide a "road map" for all members seeking to achieve different levels of membership of the institute and/or undertake continuing professional development programmes.

  • The changes affect all members and the 400 universities, colleges and other institutions that provide courses leading to CIPD accreditation.

    •  

    2. Behavioural competencies for personnel and development professionals

    The vision for the Professional Standards is to ensure that all CIPD members are effective and possess a mixture of the following 10 competencies:

    1. Personal drive and effectiveness: the existence of a positive, "can-do" mentality, anxious to find ways round obstacles and willing to exploit all of the available resources in order to accomplish objectives.

    2. People management and leadership: the motivation of others (whether subordinates, colleagues, seniors or project team members) towards the achievement of shared goals, not only through the application of formal authority but also by personal role-modelling a collaborative approach, the establishment of professional credibility and the creation of reciprocal trust.

    3. Business understanding: adoption of a corporate (not merely functional) perspective, including awareness of financial issues and accountabilities of business processes and operations, of "customer" priorities and of the necessity for cost-benefit calculations when contemplating continuous improvement or transformational change.

    4. Professional and ethical behaviour: possession of the professional skills and technical capabilities, specialist subject (especially legal) knowledge, and the integrity in decision-making and operational activity that are required for effective achievement in the personnel and development arena.

    5. Added-value result achievement: a desire not to concentrate solely on tasks, but rather to select meaningful accountabilities - to achieve goals that deliver added-value outcomes for the organisation, but simultaneously to comply with relevant legal and ethical obligations.

    6. Continuing learning: commitment to continuing improvement and change by the application of self-managed learning techniques, supplemented where appropriate by deliberate, planned exposure to external learning sources (mentoring, coaching, etc).

    7. Analytical and intuitive/creative thinking: application of a systematic approach to situational analysis, development of convincing, business-focused action plans, and (where appropriate) the deployment of intuitive/creative thinking in order to generate innovative solutions and proactively seize opportunities.

    8. "Customer" focus: concern for the perceptions of personnel and development's customers, including (principally) the central directorate of the organisation: a willingness to solicit and act upon "customer" feedback as one of the foundations for performance improvement.

    9. Strategic thinking: the capacity to create an achievable vision for the future, to foresee longer-term developments, to envisage options (and their probable consequences), to select sound courses of action, to rise above the day-to-day detail, to challenge the status quo.

    10. Communication, persuasion and interpersonal skills: the ability to transmit information to others, especially in written (report) form, both persuasively and cogently, display listening, comprehension and understanding skills, plus sensitivity to the emotional, attitudinal and political aspects of corporate life.

    Source: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.