Ministry to champion HR practitioners’ Bill
The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs says it will continue to champion the process of enacting the Institute of Human Resources Management Bill 2019 into law to regulate HR profession.
The enactment of the Bill into law will ensure that the Institute of People Management Malawi (IPMM), a body of human resource professionals, is regulated by a specific Act of Parliament just like their counterparts at Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (Icam), Institute of Internal Auditors Malawi (IIA-M), Malawi Law Society (MLS), Malawi Institute of Procurement and Supply (Mips) and Malawi Institution of Engineers (MIE).
Speaking during this year’s IPMM Annual Lakeshore Conference in Mangochi on Friday, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Bright Msaka said it is only fit and proper that HR practitioners should also have their own piece of legislation to regulate them.
“The aim of this intended piece of legislation is to establish a professional body that will regulate and spearhead the human resource profession in Malawi,” he said at the conference themed Energising Business Leadership: A Focus on Human Capital Management that attracted about 300 HR professionals from both public and private sector.
Msaka said Malawi will hugely benefit from a professional body to regulate the HR management profession, since this is the most critical resource in any organisation.
“This is the case because human resource management practitioners are the ones who motivate other employees to work hard and achieve results in organisations,” he said.
IPMM president Michael Ndaferankhande commended the support the institute has received from the Ministry of Justice and Department of Human Resource Management and Development (DHRMD) in the drafting of the Bill.
“In August this year, we held stakeholder consultations on the Bill in all the four regions of the country with government officials from Ministry of Justice and DRHMD. We are aware that the cleaning up has been finalised, the Bill will scrutinised further at Cabinet level,” he said.
Ndaferankhande said IPMM was established to promote best HR practices in Malawi, and it is recognised on the continent and globally and is affiliated to the African Human Resources Confederation and the World Federation of People Management.
Keynote speaker at the conference was Professor Michael Munkumba, a director of Eastern and South Africa Management Institute (Esami) Business School in Tanzinia, who made a presentation was titled The Future of Work.
Other presenters included Barbara Strydom, senior associate at JEYAX Development and Training in South Africa, College of Medicine associate professor Chiwoza Bandawe and Reserve Bank of Malawi chief examiner on life insurance and pension fund Kaluso Chihana.
