IPM successfully completes 4th Certified HR Auditor program

Front row from left: Lakshini Shalika Hewawickrama, K.S Audrey Fernando Gunaratne, P. Sinthuja Piratheepan, Davina Kern, P.A Muhandiramge, P.G. Tennakoon  - IPM Sri Lanka CEO, Nandini Chawla – CEO TVRLS India, Prof. T.V. Roa – Lead Facilitator, Sanjani Kumarihami, Kalani Ariyadasa Collure, Dilahara Ranatunga, Mariyam Fiyaza and Venusha Dissanayake

Back row from left: Varuna Fernando, Tharanga Sandeepalni Samarakkodi, S.B.A.M.G.S Arampath, Dananja Lakmal Gamalath, P.A. Jude Thilan Perera, J.A.D.C. Jayasinghe, Major Prasanna D. Liyanage, W.A. Solaman Sumanasooriya, Manjula Wijesinghe, A.K.P.J. Abeywardena, M.L Somarathne, K. Prasanna Chandith, Feloshia Anthony, J.A.B. Swetha Karunaratna and Mohan Perera 

IPM Sri Lanka – the nation’s leader in human resource management – conducted its popular IPM Certified HR Auditor program in collaboration with TV Rao Learning Systems (TVRLS), India recently at the OZO Hotel in Colombo. 

The program was held for five full days from Tuesday 27 February to Saturday 3 March and 26 Certified HR Auditors including international participants who passed out at the conclusion of the program received their Certified HR Auditor qualification. The program was well received by the participants who represented a wide cross section of private and public sector organisations. 

“HR auditors have a significant role to play in auditing the HR policies and procedures in an organisation for the purpose of assessing and determining how and how much these contribute in attaining overall organisational goals,” said IPM Sri Lanka President Prof. Ajantha Dharmasiri.

“In order to position the nation as a powerful contender for regional investment, IPM Sri Lanka considers developing the skills of HR professionals to a globally competitive level as one of its prime responsibilities. The IPM Certified HR Auditor program is one such initiative catering to this national endeavor and will be conducted in the future as well,” he added.

The IPM Certified HR Auditor program is designed to critically assess and analyse the efficiency and effectiveness of current HR practices and policies in achieving the long-term strategic goals of an organisation. The final result of the HR audit will be a gap analysis between current HR practices and policies as against best HR practices and policies required to achieve the strategic goals of the organisation. 

An HR audit conducted by a certified HR auditor – which is synonymous with the familiar financial auditor – provides numerous benefits to an organisation including but not limited to obtaining feedback on the contribution of the HR function in achieving strategic business objectives, assessment of the current quality of HR practices, policies, delivery and preparedness for the future, determining appropriate ways and methods of aligning the HR function with business goals, development of the organisation’s HR Scorecard, setting guidelines for re-establishing HR performance standards and identifying areas for change and improvement with specific recommendations.

“The IPM HR audit training has enabled me to gain extensive research insight into HR as the facilitators of the program are well versed and qualified in the subject matter. Undoubtedly, this will build upon my professional understanding of human resource development and has provided me with tools and techniques to effectively carry out HR audits. I would like to commend the organising team of IPM for their professional work and kind hospitality which contributed to the success while maximising the learning during the five days of the workshop,” said Mariyam Fiyaza, Executive Director, Investors in HR, Maldives – an international participant at the 4th IPM Certified HR Auditor program.  

Commenting further Mariyam said that she evaluated various HR Auditor programs available in other countries and discovered that most such programs were only of two days duration and did not include a final examination for knowledge certification purposes. In contrast, the IPM Certified HR Auditor program offered a lot of credibility with the comprehensive five-day program and the all-important certification with the final exam. 

The key resource persons for the program were Prof. T.V. Rao – Chairman and Co-Founder and Nandini Chawla – CEO and Co-Founder of TVRLS. Prof. Rao commented that it was wonderful to experience the enthusiasm and interactivity shown by the Sri Lankan as well as overseas participants during the program. He added that the Certified HR Auditor program would help to create a global HR platform while aiding to rediscover the value of people and whether they are well attended to and looked after by their organisations.