Message from CEO & Chair and 2022-2023 Annual Report

Click here to view the full 2022-2023 Annual Report.

“Change is the New Status Quo.” This was the name of the commercial we created and the general theme of the year as we navigated through uncertain times and continued to guide businesses and HR forward.

Our programming was a mix of in-person and online. We held the first in-person HR conference since 2019 and marked the 20th year for the HR Excellence Awards. After years of virtual events, these were great opportunities to connect, in one room, with our membership.

CPHR Manitoba’s biggest milestone was when Bill 233, The Chartered Professionals and Human Resources Act, received royal assent, making human resources a self-regulated profession in Manitoba.

Through these changes, we continued moving forward on our strategic plan:

Promoting the CPHR brand

Investing in the promotion of CPHR is investing in the future of the profession.

This year, we created a 30-second commercial in partnership with Bell Media and continued to work with numerous strategic partnerships, the Chambers of Commerce throughout the province, and other groups.

We’re seeing results from our efforts reflected in the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce’s Business Outlook Survey:

o   Awareness of CPHR in Manitoba decreased slightly from 68% in 2021 to 61% this year. However, members of Manitoba Chambers of Commerce are more likely to have heard of the CPHR designation or CPHR (76%) than non-members (44%).

o   Awareness is higher in larger organizations (85%) vs. smaller ones (45%).

o   Awareness is the highest in the Professional Services / Technology / Communications sectors (73%).

The number of CPHR Manitoba members, designates and candidates are growing too:

o   CPHR Manitoba membership grew to 1,820 members.

o   The number of CPHRs and CPHR Candidates are at an all-time high with 572 CPHR Candidates and 610 CPHRs.

We also continued to invest time and resources into reaching potential CPHRs through ongoing student relations efforts at our partner post-secondary programs.

Supporting CPHR development

This year, 256 people attended the HR Excellence Awards and 258 people attended our HR Conference.

In our ongoing efforts to support our membership, we continued to offer member programming including the Walk & Talk Program, Community Building Groups, the Campus Ambassador Program, and the Mentorship Program.

We also partnered with CPHR BC & Yukon again to offer 16 quality and relevant webinars to our members.

We held the Fall 2022 National Knowledge Exams (NKE) under the updated Competency Framework and we completed the Spring 2023 Validation of Experience (VOE) intake under the updated VOE requirements. Feedback from applicants and the committee expressed positive thoughts towards the new requirements.

Fostering public confidence in CPHRs

On Wednesday, May 10, Bill 233, the HR self-regulation act, received its first reading in Manitoba Legislature, and on Tuesday, May 30, the bill received royal assent. We celebrated this milestone on Wednesday, May 31 with various members, staff, board, business partners and MLAs.

Budget and revenue

As you may be aware, more than half our revenue used to come from non-member dues primarily made up of event revenues and event sponsorship sales. Years ago, our board and staff identified this as a risk and a bit of an anomaly in the association industry. (After all, learning budgets tend to be among the first things cut during a recession.) Today, the association is working towards a better balance between non-dues revenue and dues-based revenue by focusing on growing the membership and ensuring member dues keep up with inflation. Over the last couple years, we have achieved this balance and intend to maintain it going forward.

With an operating surplus of $96,165, the board has put another $150,000 into our internally restricted reserve, bringing it to $650,000. Our target remains 100% of our annual operating budget.

Membership survey findings

Finally, we are pleased to share the results of our Membership Survey:

o   95.21% of CPHRs and 93.57% of all members are somewhat likely, likely or extremely likely to recommend membership in CPHR Manitoba to a colleague or acquaintance who is involved in the HR profession.

o   95% of members who required customer service were satisfied or extremely satisfied with their experience. This is an increase of 4% from 2021-2022.

Looking ahead

Next year, we will continue to build on our efforts to move the strategic plan forward.

Becoming self-regulated was a priority last year. This year, our focus will be on interpreting the bill and implementing the changes that come with it. That includes changes with bylaws, member agreements, reviewing the complaints and disciplinary appeals process, and requirements with communicating to the public.  

We are working with a wide variety of strategic partners to connect with business leaders to increase awareness of CPHR and ensure they understand the value of hiring CPHRs. Connecting with professionals outside of the HR profession to raise awareness is an initiative we hope to work on this year; we are hiring a Member Services Coordinator who will be using LinkedIn Recruiter to help with this.

To enhance our marketing initiatives, we are creating member spotlight videos to highlight members and showcase the value of becoming a CPHR. To grow the membership, we are working with our post-secondary partners to build awareness of the CPHR designation and reaching out to current HR professionals who are not yet members. We will continue to hold our signature events in-person and will hold other events and workshops in-person and online.

At a national level, our involvement with CPHR Canada remains very active. We will participate in various working groups including a marketing group.

Thank you

As we wrap up the 2022-2023 fiscal year, we want to thank the board of directors for their continued support and governance of this association; the volunteer committees for helping to keep programs and services moving forward; and our partners, sponsors, and advertisers for their enthusiastic and unwavering support of our profession.

We want to thank our members for continuing to be great stewards of the profession.

Finally, CPHR Manitoba would not be where it is today without the hard work of our staff. Thank you for your resourcefulness, creativity and dedication.

We look forward to continuing to advance the human resources profession in 2023-2024.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lana Adeleye-Olusae Chair, CPHR Manitoba Board of Directors	Ron Gauthier CEO, CPHR Manitoba