CIPM REBRANDS, WORRIES OVER QUACKERY IN PUBLIC SECTOR

The Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria has expressed concern over the growing rate of quackery in human resources management practice in the Nigerian public service.

Speaking with our correspondent on Friday, the President and Chairman of Council, CIPM, Mr. Abiola Popoola, said that this had encouraged lack of professionalism in the sector.

He said, 'We are concerned because in many public sector organisations and agencies, those who head administration in the organisations do not have the knowledge and the skills and you can call them quacks as well. And when you have a quack as the head of the HR unit, of course quackery will spread across the organisation.'

According to him, it is quite challenging for CIPM members, who work in HR units manned by non-professionals.

'Our major challenge has been that we have cases of our members, who have to work under heads of administration that are not professionally qualified. This is a challenge because if you have somebody, who does not understand the HR management, the organisation, with professionals under him, it will affect the quality of the HR services,' he added.

He, however, noted that the institute was ready to change the situation by first offering those affected the opportunity to upscale their skills through training. Besides, he said the institute would, henceforth strongly challenge organisations about the qualifications of their HR professionals.

Popoola explained that the importance of effective people's management could not be over-emphasised, especially as regards its impact on organisational growth.

He explained, 'Organisations are organic and are meant to grow, which means they must expand their scope of activities. Your performance must improve yearly and we are in the world of competition; all organisations are in competition against each other.

'Now, if you do not have people that are good, you can not compete, the people are the most important source of competitive advantage. It is like in a football team; your players are you most important resources.'

He added that it was in recognition of this that the CIPM, the foremost management institute in Nigeria, recently decided not only to upscale its services but also embark on corporate rebranding.

The new brand, which was unveiled in Abuja during the institute's annual conference, the institute said, represented everything it stood from going forward.

According to Popoola, the rebranding project did not happen overnight.

He said that it took consultations with image professionals over a period of time to arrive at the new brand, which included a new logo, approved by the council to reflect the new institute.

He said, 'Our vision is to be the foremost human resource management institute in Africa, respected across the world. In a pursuit of that vision, we have been upgrading our services to our members. We fill that to more or less re-enforce that new standing position of the new institute, we also need to change our logo to reflect the new CIPM.

'This project of re-branding have been on for a while involving consultation with professionals in the area of advertising and marketing and at the last conference that we held. We unveiled the new logo of the institute which was approved by council, and so, our new logo is to let the public see us in the new light that we present ourselves.

He noted that the institute's members were already feeling the impact of the new brand, as evidenced in the quality of services currently rendered to them.

'Already our members are filling the CIPM in the new ways the quality of our services to them, our quality of response, the support we grant to our members has improved over time serenely and these re-branding is more or less to re-enforce that new filling so how it will impact on them is just that it brings to the fall is that the CIPM is really evolving we are on the move and we are marching very boldly towards our vision of been the foremost marketer,' he stated.

Popoola added, 'By the collective wisdom of the council, we just felt that the brand and logo which we had before was not refreshing and dynamic as we would like it to be. It was not necessarily reflecting the new CIPM.'

As part of the rebranding agenda, the institute has recently employed a new registrar and chief executive officer, finance manager, head of the audit department.