Message from CEO & Chair and 2024-2025 Annual Report

Click here to view the 2024-2025 Annual Report.

This past fiscal year, we continued strengthening connections among our members, businesses, and the public. We focused on building strong relationships with the government, and through these efforts, we moved significantly closer to receiving proclamation. We made key strides in aligning our bylaws and internal governance processes with The Chartered Professionals in Human Resources Act, ensuring we are fully prepared to implement the Act effectively upon proclamation, with a set date of June 1, 2025.

We continued to make a significant investment to foster and demonstrate the credibility for the CPHR brand with the public. The CPHR Manitoba ‘I Am a CPHR’ Member Spotlight video series was nominated for the prestigious Signature Awards, with the video featuring CPHR Manitoba member Kimberley Levasseur Puhach winning an Award. The Kimberley Levasseur Puhach spotlight video was shortened to 30 seconds and used in the CPHR Canada marketing campaign.

Along with this national campaign, we aired this 30 second commercial on TSN 3. While we paid for a set number of airings, the spot was selected by the network for additional plays, resulting in significantly more exposure than anticipated. This unexpected bonus amplified the impact of our campaign and stretched our advertising dollars further. This was reflected in the increased awareness of the CPHR designation in the 2025 Manitoba Business Leaders Survey, which ran after the ad. This reinforces the value of strategic media placements and the benefits of investing in advertising efforts.

This year, we delivered a robust learn and connect program, where we met and engaged with members.

We are excited to share that the Fall 2024 VOE Intake received the largest number of submissions to date for an intake with 39 applications being received.

We continued to move forward on our strategic plan:

Promoting the CPHR brand

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

This year, along with our 30 second commercial promotion, we continued our partnership with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and work with numerous strategic partners, the Chambers of Commerce throughout the province, and other groups.

Through the 2024 Manitoba Business Outlook Survey, we learned that awareness has remained steady at 70%, and business in Winnipeg, or members of the Chambers of Commerce show even higher awareness of CPHR.

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

o   Membership has grown and has officially passed 2,000 members.

o   The number of CPHRs and CPHR Candidates is at an all-time high with 601 CPHR Candidates and 716 CPHRs. New CPHRs increased by 10%, exceeding our 4% goal.

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

In our ongoing efforts to support our membership, we continued to offer member programming across a wide variety of topics and targeted members at various stages of their professional development including the Walk & Talk Program, Community Building Groups, the Campus Ambassador Program, and the Mentorship Program.

This year, almost 250 people attended the HR Excellence Awards and over 400 people attended our HR Conference. Our events, including the Diversity Forum, Psychological Health & Safety in the Workplace Conference, and HR Legislative Review exceeded expectations as delegates and sponsors continue to grow.

We launched a new event, CPHR Recognition Night, to celebrate newly designated CPHRs and those marking milestone anniversaries. The inaugural event was a success, and we plan to make it an annual event.

We partnered with CPHR BC & Yukon again to offer 20 quality and relevant webinars, and with many organizations to deliver high quality workshops to our members.

Fostering public confidence in CPHRs

At the HR Excellence Awards 2025, Minister Adrien Sala delivered groundbreaking news: Bill 233, The Chartered Professionals in Human Resources Act, will officially come into force on June 1, 2025.

Over the past year, we made meaningful progress toward getting ready for the Act to come into force. Staff have continued working closely with legal counsel and government partners to advance the Act toward proclamation and ensure all necessary steps are in place for a smooth implementation.

As a part of this, we completed the organizational structure to better serve our members and fulfill the requirements of the Act. This structure includes key roles such as Vice President of Operations and Regulatory Affairs, Marketing and Communications Specialist, Events Specialist, and Standards and Membership Manager.

Budget and revenue

The Association’s goal is to have half of our revenue from member dues and half of our revenue from non-member dues to be more consistent with what is seen in the association industry and mitigate risk. Historically member dues have made up 40%-45% of our revenue. We are working towards creating a better balance between non-member and member dues revenue by focusing on growing the membership and ensuring member dues keep up with inflation.

With an operating surplus of $14,405, the board has put another $15,000 into our internally restricted reserve, bringing it to $765,000. 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   92% of members are satisfied with their customer service experience and CPHR Manitoba overall.

o   88% of those who are pursuing or hold the CPHR designation agree that the designation is worth attaining.

o   90% agree that the CPHR designation is a high-quality professional designation.

o   71% agree that being a CPHR has improved their career.

Looking ahead

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

We will maintain our efforts in working with a wide variety of strategic partners to connect with business leaders to continue to increase awareness of CPHR. We will utilize a combination of event sponsorships, advertising, cross promotions, and memberships, depending on the partner. We will keep connecting with professionals outside of the HR profession to raise awareness.

We will continue to work with our post-secondary partners to build awareness of the CPHR designation and reach 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 continue to participate in various working groups including a marketing group.

Fostering public confidence in CPHRs involves being seen as a credible partner to government and demonstrating credibility for the CPHR brand to the public. Ensuring we are seen to be regulating the profession is important to this strategic goal. As is ensuring we are upholding our end of the Act by introducing a public register of CPHRs and CPHR Candidates, and updating our bylaws as required by the Act.

We remain committed to educating our members about what it means to be self-regulated and why some changes, such as a public registry, will be necessary. As well, revamping the public section of our website to make the complaints process clearer will be a priority.

While the HR profession has made major strides over the last ten years, there's still work to be done in how its strategic impact is recognized at the highest levels of business. We remain committed to supporting our members as they position themselves as key drivers of success and strategic development within their organizations.

Thank you

As we wrap up the 2024-2025 fiscal year, we want to thank the Board of directors for their continued support and governance of the 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 the HR community in Manitoba.

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 2025-2026.

Sincerely,

Alison Crozier Chair, CPHR Manitoba Board of Directors	Ron Gauthier CEO, CPHR Manitoba