M’sia lacks HR professionals

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is sorely lacking in globally certified human resources (HR) professionals, due to low awareness of HR certifications and lack of importance on upskilling by employers, according to Kelly Outsourcing & Consulting Group (KellyOCG).
As of 2014, it said there are only up to a maximum of 10% of the entire 20,000 HR practitioners in Malaysia are certified with HR-specific international standards compared to an average of up to 25% of HR practitioners in US, Britain, Australia and most of Europe.
According to Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF), there were only 112 certified HR practitioners registered with Malaysia Institute of Human Resource Management last year, compared with 30,000 qualified accountants registered with Malaysia Institute of Accountants.
"HR practitioners must upskill their capabilities in order to be able attract, develop and retain the top talent required to ensure Malaysia moves forward in its efforts to achieve high-income and developed nation goal by year 2020," KellyOCG's vice president in Asia Pacific, Anthony Raja Devadoss told reporters yesterday.
"At this point, we need to progressively move fast," he said at the launch of the company's two new HR Professional Certification Programmes in partnership with Talent Corporation Malaysia (TalentCorp) and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
He said the new certifications, namely SHRM-Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) and SHRM-Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) programmes are aim to enhance the HR professionals to develop competencies in line with international standards.
"The new certifications will ensure Malaysia builds a future pipeline of HR practitioners who are both business and solution centric in managing talent," said Devadoss, who noted statistics of the global average shows that certified HR professionals can easily earn between 20% to 30% more than those who are non-certified.
He also added that the certification programmes is part of the group's efforts with TalentCorp and SHRM, to develop the overall HR community to support the nation's growing demands for certified HR professionals and specialists.
Both certifications are claimable under the HRDF.