SOF Spotlight
Quo Vadis Society of Fellows ?
ENRIQUE V . ABADESCO , JR . DPM SoF President , 2012-2013
Ric is currently the Managing Director of OrgEffectiveness , a management consulting firm . He is also an independent director of the Human Resource Innovations & Solutions , Inc , senior consultant with Mansmith & Fielders and an adjunct faculty at a number of educational institutions in the Philippines . He is the 2012-2013 President of the Philippine Society of Fellows in People Management and a past president of PMAP . He was formerly senior vice president of San Miguel Corporation and for many years , an expatriate manager with Exxon Chemical Company , based in HongKong , Singapore , Belgium and the United States . He has an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management .
The Philippine Society of Fellows in Personnel Management or SoF , is the association of accredited HRM practitioners within PMAP .
You may have seen a set of letters ( such as AFPM , FPM or DPM ) attached to the names of some PMAP members . These letters represent titles of peer recognition conferred by the Accreditation Council of SoF . These titles are given to individuals whose credentials and accomplishments meet the Competency Standards of the Society .
The honorific titles include the following : Associate Fellow in Personnel Management ( AFPM ); Fellow in Personnel Management ( FPM ) and the highest rank : Diplomate in Personnel Management ( DPM ).
What is the purpose of the SoF ?
The SoF defines its purpose as leading advances in the practice of HRM .
As its 2012-2013 President , my translation of this mission statement is to secure professional status for the HRM practice through government recognition .
This means getting enabling laws passed in both houses of Congress providing for the licensing and professionalization of human resource management practice . While this would place the practice under the supervision of the Professional Regulation Commission , the law provides for a professional regulatory board consisting of recognized experts from the profession and the designation of an accredited professional body such as the SoF . This law will also accelerate the accreditation of academic programs leading to higher standards of practice .
While gains have been made by PMAP over the years in advancing the HRM practice , we think that with dramatic changes in the world and the advances in the knowledge and practice of people management , we need a catalyst to accelerate the public recognition of the HRM practice as a true profession . As the ASEAN region moves towards closer cross border political , economic and trade relations , standardization in practices of the professions may soon become a reality . Getting recognition of HRM practice as a profession by the Philippine government would accelerate the growth of the profession , embed the academic programs of HRM in certified universities and colleges , standardize practices and facilitate cross migration of professionals in the region .
Groundwork for HRM Professionalization
The SoF under the immediate incumbencies of past Presidents Mon Medina and Sylvia Duque have laid the groundwork for getting the body of knowledge required for a true profession promulgated and agreed to .
As HRM practitioners , we all know that a competency framework provides a sound foundation for HRM systems . Aside from being used as its selection template , the SoF Competency Standards has also been accepted as the conceptual base for a reformed program curriculum of the Center of Human Resource Management . Headed by PP Sonny Coloma as chair and PP Lucy Tarriela as its President , a comprehensive training needs analysis is being prepared and will become the basis for the reformulation of a comprehensive CHRM academic curriculum . CHRM programs will henceforth by enhanced by the logic of the competency framework . The streamlining of the CHRM curriculum is an important preparatory step towards the adoption of an academic template for schools offering programs preparatory to the licensure examination .
January I PEOPLE MANAGER 23