Last night I followed a link from @Rec_Gossip that had been retweeted by @LouiseTriance.  It took me to the IOR website.  Apparently they are having some kind of sale on membership fees which, while odd, is not the point of this post.   What made me do a double take was the slogan now adorning the top of their site next to their clipart logo:  Transforming Recruitment and HR Globally.

What the... What??  Transforming HR?

I’m a HR manager by trade.  Before I started specialising in recruitment, I was a HR generalist.  I have a degree in HR, and I’m a chartered member of the CIPD.  And as much as I love recruitment, I am very aware that it is just one of many specialisms that sit within the HR function.

I’d be extremely curious to understand how the IOR is currently transforming Employee Relations, Compensation and Benefits, Learning and Development, Organisational Development, Reward and Recognition, Employee Engagement, Organisational Design, Health and Wellness, Diversity and Inclusion, Talent Management, Internal Communications, HR Systems, HR Strategy, International Mobility…

While the IOR has every right to try and market itself as a champion for raising standards in the recruitment industry, it has absolutely no business claiming that it is transforming HR.  It’s a ridiculous over-reach.

I may be alone in this, but I find it bizarre that a company that represents a slice of the recruitment sales industry thinks it has any kind of mandate to be dictating professional standards to HR professionals.  Yes, some of the IOR's members may be in-house recruitment people.  But I think the IOR should recognise that recruitment is not the centre of the HR universe, and that their company's ability to influence the broader people management agenda is next to non-existent.

Am I an IOR sceptic?  Yes.  But I'm also happy to be proven wrong.  If they manage to transform the recruitment industry, that would be fantastic.  And once recruitment is running like a well-oiled, highly-respected, professional machine, I’m sure the HR community will turn its lonely eyes to the IOR and beg them for help.  Until then, I’d rather the IOR stuck to their knitting, and left HR to the HR professionals.