The President of the Chartered Institute of Human Resource Management (CIHRM) Ghana, Florence Hutchful, has charged Human Resource (HR) practitioners to strictly promote the profession’s ethics to curb work place injustices and promote dignity. 

The President who was addressing HR Practitioners at this year’s CIHRM conference in Accra today (June 18, 2025) said with growing concerns of work place vices, observing the HR ethics held the key to addressing these issues.

“With growing concerns expressed around nepotism, favouritism and workplace abuse embedding ethics into HR practice is crucial for promoting justice and dignity at work,” she said.

Mrs Hutchful described the disturbing concerns of some senior staff soliciting sexual favours from female employees in return for employment, promotion or other employment related benefits as “unacceptable and must be addressed”. 

Conference

The two-day conference was attended by more than 500 HR practitioners as well as chief executive officers, policymakers, business leaders and organisation development experts from both state-owned enterprises and private enterprises and organisations across the country and some parts of Africa.

Also present at the event were representatives from sister organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, and the Institute of Internal Auditors Ghana.

The conference which was under the theme: “Regulating HRM in Ghana: Standards, Ethics and Sustainability”, aimed to explore the evolving landscape of HRM in Ghana as well as across the globe.

It included series of panel discussions centred on appreciating the regulation of human resource management profession in Ghana, provide actionable insights into developing and sustaining organisational excellence through effective HR strategy development and execution among others.

It also highlighted the need for unified professional integrity, alignment with global HR standards and best practice, and long-term impact on people and society.

Leadership

The President of CIHRM, emphasised the importance of upholding standards in working places; stating that it was part of the journey towards professionalising any discipline. 

She added that “for the HR profession in particular, it is imperative that managers not only set but also lead in upholding high ethical standards within their organisations”.

Mrs Hutchful also stressed that issues of credible concerns on punctuality, productivity, and some instances of unethical behaviour in some organsiations where some employees especially, women and young girls are subjected to all forms of abuse and harassment.

Recruitment

In his addres, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, expressed concern over the bloated nature of the country's public sector, citing inefficiencies and waste. 
According to the Mr Iddrisu, many public institutions are overstaffed, with some organisations having as many as 450 to 600 employees when they could function effectively with just 100.

This disparity, he argued, is a result of politically driven recruitment rather than needs-based hiring.

The Minister called on the HR managers n various state agencies to advocate for a more rational approach to staffing in the public sector, where the size of the workforce is proportionate to productivity.

He also highlighted the importance of preserving taxpayers' money and ensuring that public institutions were run efficiently.

Upholding standards

For his part, the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Prof. Alex Dodoo, urged HR managers to be meticulous in their conduct at their workplaces and ensure that standards, ethical, and regulation breaches were addressed.

He urged HR Managers to be very firm and act decisively devoid of always seeking the inputs of CEOs at their workplaces which could possibly at times meddle with the process.  

Prof. Dodoo, also underscored the need for HR Managers to spearhead positive attitudinal change in their workplaces as it was critical for productivity.

Also, the CEO of the CIHRM, Dr Francis Eduku, also implored HR Managers to obtain the right certification in the practice of their profession, and also ensure that staff recruited also had the right qualification certifications and motivated to deliver in their line of duty.