The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has announced plans to make its HR Profession Map, which sets out global standards for the HR profession, freely available to the entire HR community.

The CIPD first launched the HR Profession Map in 2009 as a member-only resource. Based on detailed research and consultation with the profession, amongst organisations of all shapes and sizes across the world, the Map is a framework of the core skills, knowledge and behaviours that form the basis of great HR. It sets out what the HR professional, whether specialist or generalist, needs to know and do at every stage of their career. Central to the institution’s key role in building the capability of the HR profession, it provided the foundation for the comprehensive review of the CIPD’s qualifications and membership structure that has been successfully implemented in the intervening three years.

Member feedback has proven that the Map is a powerful tool for defining, assessing and building HR capability at individual and organisational level so, as of 1st October 2012, the CIPD is making the standards available to all organisations, businesses and HR professionals. The Map can be used in its current form, in part or in whole, or incorporated it into organisations’ existing competency frameworks. Most importantly, the institute wants organisations to let it know how they’ve used it and share examples of what they are doing in their HR functions to drive success in their organisations.

Peter Cheese, CEO at the CIPD, comments: “The HR Profession Map has always been designed to be a dynamic and “live” document – created by the profession, for the profession. Setting clear standards for the profession, it has been continuously reviewed and informed by research and feedback from the global profession since it was first launched. We see making it available to all as a next step to ensuring the profession can gain maximum benefit from the work we have done. By taking this step, we are committed to making it as easy as possible for professionals, as well as other international bodies representing HR, to engage with us and to ensure that efforts to build HR capability for individuals and organisations remain up-to-date, dynamic and internationally relevant.”
In addition to the HR Profession Map, CIPD members benefit from a free career development tool, My HR Map, which allows HR professionals to easily assess their capabilities and experiences against the HR Profession Map. The tool provides individuals with ratings against each of the core competencies and offers a feedback report outlining areas for development and advice on how to hone skills and develop experience.