The Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM) says lost cases stem from courts deeming the involved practitioners as quacks.
IHRM said several cases are still pending in court, adding that in 2017 they received about 30 queries from lawyers.
HR professionals are required by law to have practising certificates and managers should ensure that they comply with the law.
Companies are losing labour dispute cases for employing non-licensed human resources staff.
The Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM), the regulator of the HR profession, has said the lost cases stem from courts deeming the involved practitioners as quacks.
IHRM on Wednesday said members of the public have taken several practitioners.
“If you are not licensed and a member of IHRM you are relatively a quack and should not have been hired,” the institute said. “They (lawyers) ask if this person is registered when the matter is in court. Others (firms) write to us when employing an HR practitioner as they do a background check.”
IHRM said several cases are still pending in court, adding that in 2017 they received about 30 queries from lawyers.
HR professionals are required by law to have practising certificates and managers should ensure that they comply with the law.
This follows the coming into effect of the Human Resource Management Professionals Act of 2012. “HR practitioners must be registered with the institute. If you are heading a function of HR in an organisation you must have a licence. If you don’t have one then you are contravening the Act,” said IHRM executive director Dorcas Wainaina.
The Act provides for a Sh200,000 fine or a two-year jail term or both for flouting the law.
Last year, an attempt by the institute to blacklist non-compliant HR practitioners failed forcing it to change the approach to what it now calls the “compliance assistance programme”.
Under the programme, its staff visits various organisations to meet HR and management teams to discuss related issues.
This has raised membership numbers from 2,600 in mid-2016 to over 10,000 members presently.
Ms Wainaina said the institute has embarked on a publishing project, in an exercise meant to develop local content for HR practitioners especially those undertaking the Certified Human Resource Professionals’ (CHRP) certification program.
CHRP will be the minimum entry requirement for IHRM membership since the Higher National Diploma examined by the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) will be phased out in 2020.
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