After the establishment in 1982, the Board immediately began working towards statutory recognition. A draft Personnel Practice Bill was published 4 October 1985. The then Minister of Manpower declined to table the Bill in Parliament. We remain convinced that HR would have been years further in its development had this initiative been accepted by Government.

To consolidate the position of HR in the new NQF environment, the Board took various steps to ensure standards and quality.

A Standards Generating Body for Human Resource Management and Practice (SGB) for HRMP were initiated. The Board convened and funded the first plenaries in 1998/99 and the HR SGB was formally accredited by SAQA and published in Government Gazette of 11 February 2000.

This SGB registered a framework of qualifications on the NQF and there are over 50 unit standards for the HR field.

Based on the work of the SGB, the Board did an extended exercise of consultation and deliberation and announced five new professional registration levels aligned to the NQF in 2002. The Board applied for ETQA status and was accredited by SAQA in November 2002. We are currently one of the few ETQA's that receive no part of the levy funds to fund its ETQA service to the country. SAQA approves the fees charged for this service in order to keep the ETQA viable.

In 1998 the Board started a series of meetings with the different organisations in the HR field with a view of attaining statutory recognition for human resources. A series of conferences "HR Crossroads" were held in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban which addressed questions critical to the future of HR practice in South Africa. These conferences were addressed by Government, Business, Academia, IPM, HRCOSA and SABPP. A Bill was drafted and widely circulated. The HR fraternity was clearly in favour of this step and support was expressed by bodies such as BUSA and NEDLAC. The Board has however, not made progress with Government. This issue will be tackled anew after the 2009 elections have been completed.