Notion all provinces need identical certification processes not constructive
As chair of the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations (CCHRA), questions often come to me about the role and authority of the national council or, alternatively, the provincial associations to implement various designation-related initiatives.
The truth is professional regulation is a provincial matter. Professional regulation includes:
• the establishment of occupational standards or requirements for certification
• the assessment of the qualifications of individuals against established occupational standards or requirements for certification
• official recognition an individual meets established occupational standards or requirements for certification.
As all HR practitioners know, these issues have their roots in the division of powers — federally and provincially — embedded in the Canadian constitution. But that doesn’t present an impediment to the establishment of an HR designation, nor does it require the designation to be national to have value.
Think of it this way. You go to the closest Ontario driver and vehicle licensing office and say, “I don’t want an Ontario driver’s licence, I want a Canadian driver’s licence. I want the process for getting a driver’s licence to be exactly the same across all the provinces and I insist all decisions about drivers’ licences be made by the federal department of transportation.”
Do you think that approach would work, despite the fact the provincial governments have the constitutional authority to issue licences? Not likely. And yet you can use your Ontario driver’s licence to drive from the Pacific to the Atlantic without any problems at all in terms of recognition.
How is that possible if it isn’t issued nationally and there aren’t identical processes for attaining the licence? Obviously, this is because the provinces set standards to allow them to recognize each other’s drivers’ licences.
Equally obvious, the standard is not applied to the process but to the outcome — can you drive?
This is really no different than what happens with the HR designation. The provincial associations grant the designation but have outcome-based standards permitting the mutual recognition of each other’s designations. In other words, what creates a national standard is the recognition by provincial associations of the equivalence of outcome of their certification processes — not that the processes are identical.
And it is a good thing mutual recognition allows for differences across provinces in the certification process itself because this flexibility makes a national standard possible. In fact, the notion all provinces need to have identical certification processes is not constructive or even possible.
Why? Some of the differences across provinces are rooted in their respective enabling legislation, which is beyond the authority of the provincial HR associations to change or circumvent. In Quebec, for example, many practitioners did not write either the National Knowledge Exam (NKE) or the National Professional Practice Assessment (NPPA) to obtain their HR designation, due to the operation of their provincial legislation.
Indeed, since the inception of CCHRA, the provinces have accepted the differences in process among them and focused not on how we are different in process but similar in outcome. Early decisions among the founders of CCHRA formed the basis for successful partnerships across the provinces.
This diversity also reflects a conscious decision to rely upon one of our greatest strengths — each other. We can learn by sharing best practices, resources, information and insights with each other.
By ensuring the provinces have the flexibility they need to respect their enabling legislation, where present, and by focusing on equivalency of outcome rather than an identical process, CCHRA has been successful in ensuring a well-respected, provincially granted CHRP designation continues to be recognized coast to coast.
Debbie Bennett is chair of the board at the Canadian Council for Human Resources Associations (CCHRA). For more information, visit www.cchra.ca.
