ISO HR standards global meeting starts in Milan on 18 Feb. It will be attended by HR delegates from 50 countries. ISO is an association of 162 countries and Technical Committee 260 deals with HR standards development. In 2011, ISO formed TC 260 comprising of 11 countries including USA, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Pakistan and Portugal. Now there are 28 participating and 26 observer countries in ISO TC 260. In the past, ISO HR standards development work has been done in Washington, Melbourne, Rotterdam, Paris, Dublin, Texas, Berlin, Singapore, London and Bali. Zahid Mubarik CEO HR Metrics from Pakistan is contributing towards ISO TC 260 HR Standards.
Global economy is transforming from physical to intellectual capital. Business is considered as most powerful indicator of economy. In the global market, The World Trade Organization (WTO) requires its member countries to use international standards. Earlier, the ISO standards were developed only for manufacturing sector. Currently more than 70 percent of global economy is service industry. Estimates by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show that standards and related conformity assessment have an impact on 80 percent of the world's trade in commodities. Here are few examples from leading economies.
In Canada, growth in the number of standards accounted for 17 percent of the labour productivity growth rate and about 9 percent of the growth rate in economic output (real GDP) from 1981 to 2004. In the UK, standards made an annual contribution of GBP 2.5 billion to the economy, and 13 percent of the growth in labour productivity was attributed to standards.
The economic benefits of standardization represented about 1 percent of GDP in Germany. Source: https:/ /www. iso.org /news/ 2012/08/Ref1639.html
The standardization will offer broad, coordinating guidance to HR practitioners and harmonize disparate practices for the benefit of organizations and their employees. It will boost local economy by removal of barriers to trade, better international market access, more business efficiency, flexible, cost-effective means of complying with international and regional rules/conventions and improved employee satisfaction. HR standards will specify the minimum effective approaches, measurements and metrics to perform essential workforce management practices. It will also include standardization of the certification of practitioners based upon elements of education, examination, experience and ethical conduct. The standardization processes will extend to all fields of HRM including Workforce Planning, Talent Sourcing, Recruitment, Selection, Retrenchment, Training and Development, Job Analysis, Job Design, Organizational Development, HRIS, Performance Appraisal, Total Rewards, Employee Relations, Legislative and Regulatory compliance, Change Management, Diversity and Inclusion Management, Expatriate Management, HR Communications, Workforce Readiness and Sustainability, Leadership Development, HR Shared Services, Metrics, Analytics, Professional Certification, Wellness and Work/Life Balance Programs, HR Aspects of Alliances, Joint Ventures, Mergers and Acquisitions, HR Terminology and Nomenclatures.-PR