ISLAMABAD: Pakistan led 165 countries in developing quality of hiring standard in a latest development. With a view to promoting consistency and standardizing the human capital management practices in terms of responsibilities and performance expectations, ISO initiated standardisation of HR and formed a Technical Committee (TC 260) in 2011.
Initially, the ISO TC 260 comprised 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".
The ISO TC 260 secretariat is held by American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Currently, 60 countries are actively participating in HR standards development. The ISO has developed 13 standards and 21 are in progress. At least 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, two HR standards were developed including "Quality of Hire" and "Impact of Hire".
Zahid urged the organisations to use global HR standards to leverage workforce productivity, and well-being for enhancing industrial output and economy. The 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 standardization is to facilitate the exchange of goods and services through the elimination of technical barriers to trade. The 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).
The ISO has 326 technical committees for standards development, and they have developed over 23,012 international standards for various professions, so far. The ISO standards make a positive contribution to the world we live in. In the past, the ISO standards were developed only for the manufacturing sector.
Currently, more than 70 percent of the global economy comprises the service industry. The ISO human resources standards offer broad, coordinating guidance to human resources practitioners, and harmonise disparate practices for the benefit of organisations 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. The HR standards specify the minimum effective approaches, measurements, and metrics to perform essential human capital management practices.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020