HR professionals to seek accreditation to practice

Human resource practitioners have until January to acquire practicing certificates and be duly registered or risk being forced to quit their jobs.

This comes as the Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM) take a tough stance after it emerged that only a fraction of human resource professionals had obtained the mandatory practicing license, four years after the passing of the Human Resource Management Professionals Act.

IHRM Council Chairman Elijah Sitimah said on Tuesday that those who breach the rules, including employers who engage uncertified human resources officers, will be prosecuted.

“We are going to notify all employers informing them that if the HR person in their business is not registered then he or she is there illegally,” Mr Sitimah said.

Of the 25,000 human resources professionals practicing in the country, only 5,000 practitioners have been registered with the institute.

IHRM has already created a website to register and certify all human resource professionals by end of this year.

Those who are not accredited with IHRM certification will face sanctions that include being barred from practicing, jailed for not less than a year and or pay a fine of Sh250,000.

“Rest assured that if you don’t find the name of this registered person on our website then that is not our member and we would term them as a bogus or masquerading HR person,” he stressed.

Members are expected to pay mandatory fee of Sh4,500 for the registration and Sh7,000 for the renewal of the certificate annually.