Professional Code of Conduct
Preamble to the Code
We value what we can offer as a profession and recognise the stewardship role of the profession and its members. This role is embodied in the norms and principles we stand for. The purpose of this code is to entrench the obligation we have as professional HR practitioners to uphold the profession’s norms and principles and to conduct our activities in a professional and ethical manner. To ensure the trust of all our stakeholders, we strive to build the reputation of the profession and its members through the values of responsibility, integrity, respect and competence.
As members of the profession of Human Resource Management in South Africa, we actively pursue the ideals of professionalism and are therefore ethically obliged to:
Responsibility
Our first responsibility is to meaningfully transform the lives of those men and women that are employed by the organisations we serve. We have a further responsibility to contribute to the success and sustainability of the organisations that employ us or that we render a service to. It is our responsibility to comply with the expectations of our profession and fellow practitioners. We accept responsibility for the outcomes of our actions and interventions. In this we contribute to the greater goodness of society.
Integrity
As HR practitioners we are committed to exemplary ethical conduct that is characterised by honesty, objectivity, fairness of judgment, consistency of action and loyalty to our profession and the organisations and communities we engage with. We aim to grow the profession in a controlled and responsible manner. In that we strive to attract to the profession members with sound moral character and integrity.
Respect
We are unwaveringly committed to tolerance, respect for human dignity and upholding the human rights as prescribed by the constitution of the country. We treat all our stakeholders with respect and protect them from harm. We stand in service of our profession and its membership, those organisations that remunerate us for our professional contributions, and the communities we affect. We have an obligation to prevent breaches of principles of respect and to assertively object to such violations when they occur. We respect the confidentiality of information that is entrusted to us.
Competence
Professional registration of HR practitioners is a privilege afforded to individuals that have met the criteria for registration. We are committed to ensure professional credibility by actively evaluating and protecting the quality of professional education and training of those aspiring to enter the profession. We aspire to uphold the highest standards of continued professional development and improvement of competence of members of the profession. We enact this aspiration through role modeling and mentorship. It is our professional duty to integrate and apply sound human resource management principles, policies and practices in all aspects of people management and to assess the value that we add. We strive to formulate generally accepted HR practices that adhere to criteria of scientific and feasibility proportions. It is our quest to build the field of human resource management by promoting and supporting rigorous research.
Our ethical identity
As members of the profession of Human Resource Management in South Africa, we actively pursue the ideals of professionalism and are therefore ethically obliged to:
- Bring meaning and quality of work life to the people we serve in our professional capacities
- Ensure the sustainability of the organisations that we serve
- Make a difference to the communities we touch.
Our ethical values
Responsibility
Our first responsibility is to meaningfully transform the lives of those men and women that are employed by the organisations we serve. We have a further responsibility to contribute to the success and sustainability of the organisations that employ us or that we render a service to. It is our responsibility to comply with the expectations of our profession and fellow practitioners. We accept responsibility for the outcomes of our actions and interventions. In this we contribute to the greater goodness of society.
Integrity
As HR practitioners we are committed to exemplary ethical conduct that is characterised by honesty, objectivity, fairness of judgment, consistency of action and loyalty to our profession and the organisations and communities we engage with. We aim to grow the profession in a controlled and responsible manner. In that we strive to attract to the profession members with sound moral character and integrity.
Respect
We are unwaveringly committed to tolerance, respect for human dignity and upholding the human rights as prescribed by the constitution of the country. We treat all our stakeholders with respect and protect them from harm. We stand in service of our profession and its membership, those organisations that remunerate us for our professional contributions, and the communities we affect. We have an obligation to prevent breaches of principles of respect and to assertively object to such violations when they occur. We respect the confidentiality of information that is entrusted to us.
Competence
Professional registration of HR practitioners is a privilege afforded to individuals that have met the criteria for registration. We are committed to ensure professional credibility by actively evaluating and protecting the quality of professional education and training of those aspiring to enter the profession. We aspire to uphold the highest standards of continued professional development and improvement of competence of members of the profession. We enact this aspiration through role modeling and mentorship. It is our professional duty to integrate and apply sound human resource management principles, policies and practices in all aspects of people management and to assess the value that we add. We strive to formulate generally accepted HR practices that adhere to criteria of scientific and feasibility proportions. It is our quest to build the field of human resource management by promoting and supporting rigorous research.