Jackie Orme, the chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), has pledged to work with the government to improve the standing of HR professionals in the boardroom.
She told senior practitioners at an HR Directors Club networking dinner last week: “We’re looking to see if we can work with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) to better identify why it is you should have senior HR people as non-executive directors. I think that would change the perception of HR.”
She added: “The case needs to get made and I’m certainly happy to be making it.”
At the CIPD’s annual conference in Harrogate last month, Orme announced she would be leading changes to the Institute’s qualifications and standards.
She said last week: “I’ve always said, if you want to join HR, don’t do it just because you like dealing with people. You have to have fantastic people skills, but you also have to be driven for your organisation to succeed.
“There are some big challenges ahead of us, and the first is cementing our discipline as an excellent business discipline, not just a people discipline.”
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She added that there was some way for HR to go to be seen in this light.
A CIPD spokesman later insisted that negotiations with BERR were still in the early stages, and nothing official had been confirmed.
