Bond Teamspirit opinion synopsis

Bond Teamspirit opinion synopsis

Should the HR industry be regulated?

HR departments throughout various industries play an important role in keeping businesses on track in meeting regulatory bodies’ needs. Through ensuring compliance to industry-specific guidelines, keeping the paper trail updated and even guaranteeing adherence to necessary legislation, HR helps businesses avoid the penalties and fines that can easily damage or even destroy organisations.

But what about the HR department itself? There are various organisations that the HR team can go to for advice and guidance – most notably the CIPD or ACAS – but who can businesses turn to who can actively regulate the HR department?

Other than government legislation, to whom or what is the HR department accountable on a day to day basis?

The short answer is no one. There is currently no regulatory body responsible for ensuring the HR industry meets changes in legislation and who can actively audit a department to certify their adherence.

With no one to monitor them, it appears that HR departments are regulating themselves and only realising that there is an issue with compliance when it is too late – such as when faced with a court summons which requires the appropriate paperwork.

But whose responsibility is it to take on such a role? If the CIPD or ACAS eventually establish themselves, would it be their responsibility to regulate the HR industry? Although the CIPD is the largest HR and development professional body, it is not government funded. And while ACAS is government funded, its role is one of conflict management between employers and employees.

Surely with this in mind, the task of regulating the HR department in the interim falls upon the HR Director. But in order to regulate oneself, workflows, processes and internal rules need to be put in place, and managed with no chance of avoidance or misunderstanding, wilful or otherwise. In short, HR departments need to consider the tools and processes required in order to regulate themselves.

Roger Moore, General Manager at Bond Teamspirit, therefore argues that in order for the HR industry to avoid the risk of disorder in the case of employment disputes and even legal action, the industry needs two things – a solid regulatory body with real powers to ensure compliance and, in the meantime, also a greater internal emphasis on adopting and promoting robust HR processes.