Hiring a governance professional

As the home of good governance, The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland qualifies, supports, inspires and champions people working in governance by providing recognition, standards and guidance to individuals and employers.

Why governance matters to employers

Governance is an intrinsic part of what all organisations do. It provides the framework of standards for accountability and decision-making and maintains the focus of the board and the management team in delivering them.

Qualified professionals are key to ensuring good governance in organisations of all sizes. Their work helps to achieve your aims, whether these are to meet commercial targets, have social impact, improve sustainability or deliver charitable benefits.

An effective governance professional will:

Enable your board to deliver its best strategic leadership and oversight by ensuring that it is effectively supported, informed, developed and composed.
Develop your resilience as an organisation by adapting governance frameworks and evolving practice to accommodate new circumstances and initiatives.
Scan the horizon for upcoming changes and support the effective management of risk.
Protect your reputation by building trust with stakeholders through effective engagement and disclosure.
Ensure that your subsidiaries are governed as effectively as the main board and in alignment with it.

We help employers to improve governance by providing services that:

Set professional standards
Recruit qualified people
Develop and retain talent
Share governance knowledge
Provide evaluation services

Set professional standards

As the qualifying and membership body for governance, we set the standards of the profession. This involves; defining the knowledge, skills, and values that governance professionals need at each stage of their career; providing the qualifications and professional designations that recognise individual achievement and experience; and providing opportunities for ongoing professional development and support.

The core competencies of a governance professional are set out in The Competency Framework for Governance.

Employers can use the Competency Framework to check the content of job descriptions, provide a framework for annual development reviews, to inform succession planning or to benchmark the governance capacity within the organisation.

The benefits of choosing Chartered

Members of the Institute demonstrate that they have the skills, knowledge and experience to support governance at the highest levels. Associate members are fully qualified with a minimum of three year’s relevant experience and use the post nominals ACG. Fellows are fully qualified with a minimum of five year’s senior level experience and use the post nominals FCG.

Choosing a Chartered professional, or sponsoring an employee to achieve Chartered status, ensures that you have the best people in post, with robust training and the support of a dedicated international professional body, to deliver good governance in your organisation.

Learn more about the Chartered Governance Qualifying Programme.

The value of Affiliated members

Affiliated members are those who are either part qualified through achieving Part One of the Chartered Governance Qualifying Programme, or successful alumni of one of the Institute’s sector-based short courses in governance and use the post nominals CG (Affiliated). Affiliated members have specialist knowledge and understanding to bring to their governance practice and the support of their professional body to underpin their ongoing development.

View the list of short courses.

Professional ethics and conduct

All members of the Institute are committed to upholding high standards of professional practice through adopting the Institute’s Code of Professional Ethics and Conduct. Part of this commitment is to maintain their currency by undertaking and evidencing continuous professional development on an annual basis.

See the Code.

Furthermore, Institute members are part of an international community of professionals, benefiting from branch membership, and the ability to connect with like-minded peers and access the support of a professional network.

Recruiting qualified people

If you are seeking to employ a governance professional, the Institute’s Jobs in Governance service can give you access to the best talent.

If you wish to find an institute member in public practice to provide professional governance services to your organisation, use the Members in Public Practice Directory.

If you are seeking to verify that an individual is suitably qualified for a role, check the Directory of Members.

Developing and retaining talent

We offer a range of professional development options from training courses for those new to governance to an advanced leadership programme for those preparing to work at the highest level in the field.

Explore training courses
View all qualifications

If you would like to speak with one of our consultants about how we could help to develop your organisation’s governance capability, please get in touch to arrange a conversation.