The six thrusts of ‘the PEOPLE factor’ strategy is: 

P – Positioning HR in the digital era. 

HR practitioners must assist their organizations to harness the digital technologies to find new markets, new products and services and new operational processes. They must be able to foresee what new skills their organizations will need to enable man and machine to achieve the best balance. They must be able to find innovative ways to reskill and reassign people so that social injustice through displacement does not endanger society. 

This gives the HR profession an exciting opportunity to take the lead and to be imaginative and bold.

The SABPP will support its members through researching and developing products and services to assist members to build their knowledge and skills in this area. 

E – Excellence and evidence based. 

Excellence must be achieved by all HR practitioners in both their transactional work and their transformative work, which will be increasingly technology-based. Skills in making evidence-based decisions in HR functions must be developed, which requires that a good basis of data management be set up and maintained. The SABPP will also research and develop products and services to assist members to achieve excellence. 

The SABPP must be also excellent in providing services to its members. 

O – Online and in touch. 

HR must embrace ‘design thinking’, which means that all processes and practices must be designed with the user experience in mind. This means that HR practitioners must be constantly ‘tuned in’ to employees’ and line managers’ needs and must learn how to balance the ‘on-line’ technologies with human connection. 

The SABPP must reflect this also in how it interacts with its members and other stakeholders. On-line CPD and skills development products will also be developed. 

Agility and responsiveness are vital in finding the right balance between moving forward to the future and taking people along with us. 

P – Partnering and promoting the HR profession. 

HR cannot fulfil this challenging role on its own. Partnering with other disciplines both locally and globally is important. The SABPP will continue to identify and maintain appropriate alliance partners to take the profession forward into the 4^th Industrial Revolution. Whilst the SABPP is based in South Africa, it will collaborate across Africa and further afield to ensure that it is in touch with developments and can spread its good work as appropriate. 

L – Leading on people practices. 

The SABPP will continue with its pioneering work on setting HRM standards and developing people practices which will support the transition to the new world of work. Collaboration with universities and other research institutions will be strengthened to lead the HR research agenda. 

The work on the Leadership Standard will be followed up to spread the circle of influence on leadership as a critical people practice. 

The SABPP will continue to expand its advocacy role in fair people practices. 

E – Ethically-centered Governance. 

HR practitioners should be champions of ethically centered governance in their organizations, thereby contributing to the ethical culture determined by the King IV Commission as one of the critical outcomes of governance. SABPP will continue to make its voice known with other important promoters of good governance and will continue to produce products and services to assist HR practitioners take on this role and make an impact. 

Ethically-centered governance must also by definition be environmentally sensitive so that organizations are sustainable in all senses of the word. SABPP will continue to research the role of HR in supporting good environmental practices and will pursue such good practices in its own organisation. 

The SABPP will continue to practice sound financial management in order to best balance affordability for members with the demands to extend products and services to members.