HR certification set to change professional standards in Australia The Australian Human Resources Institute is aiming to set the standard for HR practice in Australia through the introduction of the AHRI Practising Certification Program. 
Human resources is perceived by some as a 'soft skills' job that anyone can do, with recognition of its status failing when compared to accountancy or IT.
To change this perception and establish robust standards, the Australian Human Resources Institute has joined a global push for HR certification by committing to set the bar for HR practice in Australia.
The business environment now demands significantly greater professional capabilities and behaviours from HR practitioners than ever before. HR is too vital a part of business to get wrong. Generally, the consensus is that there is insufficient knowledge, skills and behaviours vested in the people who practise HR to assure businesses that HR is the partner they want.
Australian Public Service Commission chief human capital officer Ian Fitzgerald recently told AHRI's HRMonthly magazine that "we won't make progress if HR continues to be viewed as something anyone can do. We should be every bit as concerned that we have highly capable people in operational and strategic HR roles".
The institute understands the urgency of setting the bar for the HR profession and, as a result, has introduced the AHRI Practising Certification Program.
The program will differentiate HR professionals who are practising effective and business- savvy HR, and are capable of bringing their HR competence and expertise to the role of true partner to the business.
The program will provide greater certainty of what good HR talent looks like and how it can benefit Australian organisations.
Being able to formally distinguish good HR knowledge and skills - and more critically, reliably identify the individuals who possess those skills - will make a positive contribution to Australia's workplaces, individual HR practitioners and the organisations they serve.
The Australian Public Service Commission is working in partnership with AHRI by facilitating a pilot cohort from a number of APS agencies and formally enrolling them into the certification program. The first graduates of this certification program will be a cohort from the ATO at the end of 2015.
Find out more by following Samantha Robertson, from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet - one of the first HR practitioners to undertake AHRI's certification program - in her monthly vlog series on HRM TV, athrmonline.com.au ?For more information, visit ahri.com.au/ certification