Pakistan leads 165 countries in developing quality of HR standard

Islamabad : The global economy is transforming the definition of value from physical to intellectual capital. Business is considered as the most powerful indicator of economy. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) requires its member countries to use international standards. Estimates by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that standards and related conformity assessment have an impact on 80 % of the world’s trade in commodities, says a press release.

ISO is a legal association of members of national standards bodies of 165 countries, supported by a Central Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland. The foremost aim of international standardisation is to facilitate the exchange of goods and services through the elimination of technical barriers to trade. ISO develops international standards for all industry sectors—except for electro technology, covered by IEC (International Electro Technical Commission), and telecommunications, covered by International Technical Union.). ISO has 326 technical committees for standards development and they have developed over 23,012 International Standards for various profession so far. ISO standards make a positive contribution to the world we live in.

In the past, ISO standards were developed only for the manufacturing sector. Currently more than 70% of the global economy is comprised of the service industry. The ISO human resources standards offer broad, coordinating guidance to human resources practitioners and harmonize disparate practices for the benefit of organizations and their employees. They are designed to boost local economies by removing of barriers to trade, enhancing international market access and improving business efficiency, flexibility, and providing a cost-effective means of complying with international and regional rules and conventions and enhancing employee satisfaction. HR standards specify the minimum effective approaches, measurements and metrics to perform essential Human Capital management practices.

The standardization processes extends to all fields of human resources management, including human capital 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, human resources communications, human capital readiness and sustainability, leadership development, human resources shared services, metrics, analytics, professional certification, wellness and work/life balance programmes, human resources aspects of alliances, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, human resources terminology and nomenclatures.

With a view to promote consistency and standardize the Human Capital management practices in terms of responsibilities and performance expectations, ISO initiated standardization of HR and formed a Technical Committee (TC 260) in 2011. Initially the ISO TC 260 was comprised of 11 countries, including the US, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Pakistan and Portugal. Currently TC 260 has 31 countries with Participating ‘P’ and 26 are Observers ‘O.’ ISO TC 260 secretariat is held by American National Standards Institute ANSI. Currently 60 countries are actively participating in HR standards development. ISO has developed 13 standards and 21 are in progress. 10 HR leaders are representing Pakistan in ISO Geneva. Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority is supervising the development of HR standards in Pakistan. Committee is led by Zahid Mubarik CEO HR Metrics. Zahid was also elected as Chairman of ISO HR Metrics Working Group and during his leadership, 2 HR standards were developed including ‘Quality of Hire’ and ‘Impact of Hire.’ Zahid urged the organizations to use global HR standards to leverage workforce productivity and well-being for enhancing industrial output and economy.