HRPA Strategic Plan

HRPA is a member-driven association and, ultimately, a key measure of our value will be how effectively we are able to support and advance our members’ careers.

To accomplish this, successfully, we need to pursue three major strategic objectives:

1. Support our members in building and managing their careers, by

• Providing the essential education and tools that help them acquire and upgrade their expertise through evaluation of their needs and the creation of valued, credible designations that authenticate their skills;
• Expanding our programs to incorporate international perspectives that will ensure that our members gain a global outlook which Canadian organizations increasingly need in a borderless world;
• Helping increase demand at all levels for those HR professionals with the skills that positively impact the future of organizations; and
• Increasing the awareness in the media and at the very senior levels in organizations, of the need for HR professionals and promoting to the key decision makers the value that they bring throughout organizations.

2. Build a highly influential and respected association that is pre-eminent in the HR Profession in Ontario and which attracts members at all organizational levels; one that is confirmed as the Regulator of the Profession; is relevant to HR professionals at all levels in organizations; engages senior leaders; and provides parallel professional, career and certification paths that support and mirror each other.

3. Enhance our ability to influence policy makers in areas that are important to our members and be viewed by the public as a professional association that protects their interests through the quality of services provided by our members.

To be successful, we need to maximize our resources and leverage our relationships with other associations, internationally in HR and with other professions; with educational institutions; and through our affiliations with other Canadian HR associations through CCHRA.

To provide a template for our programs, designations and career management tools, we need to have a clear vision of what Human Resources will look like in the future.

We need the capability to initiate and disseminate original research that has practical HR applications and which will help establish HRPA as a thought leader in the profession.

And to avoid regulation by other entities, we need to change our existing Private Act to a Public Act, one focused on openness and protection of the public. 

Our ultimate objective is to support our members in their professional lives and we can do this in three key areas:

• In their careers by helping expand the number and awareness of job opportunities in human resources, clearly communicating the value that HR professionals can bring to organizations, offering education programs to enhance their competence and by providing valued designation and certifications that validate their capability;
• Advance HRPA as the pre-eminent HR association in Ontario where we attract and retain members with HR responsibility in all sectors and at all levels in organizations. Membership of the association will give individuals prominence in their field while the depth of our membership will add status to the association. Being respected worldwide as a thought leader and expert in key areas of human resources will make the case for membership compelling for all;
• Influencing government and other policy makers to ensure that our members’ interests are considered in to any new legislation and guidelines.  As a trusted advisor, we can expand the policy leadership role of the association and enhance the roles and influence that our members have within their organizations.

We have two major stakeholder groups – Internal (members, volunteers—including board and chapters—and staff) and External (the public). They are largely separate groups and the goals for each are different. For our internal audience, the goals are geared to improving the credibility, capability and opportunities for our members; for the external group, it is largely about HRPA regulating the profession on their behalf.

Our strategic initiatives have to take both into account as well as the fact that some of them will advance both major goals.

There are five strategic initiatives that will lead to the successful attainment of those goals:

• Membership programs, credible designations and the promotion of HR Professionals’ capability and value to organizations;
• Creating a vision of how HR will function in the future—what role will it fill, what skills are needed, what career paths will work best—to be used as a base for educational programs, designations and individual career planning
• Expanding our role in Thought leadership through research with practice applications and enhancing the associations reputation and presence in a borderless world;
• Solidifying the position of HRPA as a Protector of Public in professional areas of interest to us; and
• Changing our existing act to a public one to ensure that we remain fully responsible for the profession in Ontario and our designations stay unmatched.

These strategic initiatives will greatly advance the Association in many areas but our ability to execute them will depend on how we establish three basic platforms on which to build our plans.

1. Committed Staff – we are very resource-limited and the majority of what staff do is driven by activities (our annual conference, other programs, exams, membership processing, etc.). This means that there is very little “discretionary” time available to advance our agenda, so we need to make sure that we have the best people in each role and they are dedicated and committed to what they do, in order to maximize their effectiveness and efficiency;
2. Engaged members – with the Chapter executives, Board, Committees and other volunteers, we rely very heavily on our members to help run the association. We need to ensure that all members are highly engaged in what they do because without them HRPA would not exist. Our volunteers are the key differentiator between us as a Professional Association and any “for profit” organization and it is vital that they become and remain “invested” in the success of the association;
3. Financial Soundness – this is vital for many reasons. If our finances were to weaken, it would become a major distraction for many people and we would need to spend our limited resources fixing rather than advancing our agenda; it allows us to engage in a multiplicity of projects and programs without the constant worry of fiscal problems; and we are managing members’ money, so it is important that we run the association, not as a business, but in a business-like way.