These are the designations human resource professionals can put after their names. Just like doctors, lawyers, and finance pros.
Professional HR certifications represent your status and preparedness for the industry. And that’s not the only reason for the rising popularity of professional certifications!
As the competition in the HR industry increases, more employers have begun to list HR certification under the “preferred” category, and some heavy hitters are even going beyond to list them as “required” for the job postings. Certifications are emerging as a fundamental requirement for human resource management professionals, second only to graduate degrees.
Right from dealing with talent management to managing employee benefits, payroll, labor relations, and risk management, certifications offer a multi-pronged learning strategy to these requisites.
Integrating HR Certification in Career Plans
Degrees were and still are the prime indicator of one’s suitability. This is true for the HR industry as well. However,
Professional certifications are driving freshers’ employability upward and giving them an edge in interviews. Not only that, MOST IMPORTANTLY, after once employed, HR certifications become the single most important and effective qualification for developing one’s professional career. (PayScale)
HR certification programs provide the pathway to gaining job-relevant knowledge and skills that can be adapted across industries, geographies, responsibilities and career levels.
Irrespective of where you currently are in your career, integrating certification in your career development plans will help you:
- Save time at work. Because you will become more efficient!
- Give you an edge over others. Because you will have more industry-specific knowledge!
- Lower your professional development costs. Well, it’s because recertification is a part of getting certified. And that will keep you relevant year on year.
- Keep your job and grow. Evidence suggests the prospects to rise career ladder increase with certification! (PayScale Survey and others)
- Make contacts in the HR world. You become a part of the larger community!
An HR certification is…
Certification is much different than a certificate and degree. How?
Professional certifications are impinged to work experience and education, along with a separate preparation for the exam. Further, in the end, one gets a certification status (sort of a designation) and it requires recertification after a certain period.
Certificate programs can be called as the mini versions of degrees, wherein the major goal is to gain foundational knowledge of the field. Mostly, they do not require any prior education or work experience.
The concept of degrees is well-known.
In human resource management, all three training and development mediums are available. Degrees for obvious reasons form the starting point followed by professional certification. Certificates are not as popular as neither they are fully educational (like degrees) nor as much industry-inclined (like certification).
Among popular professional certification in human resources are aPHR and SPHR by HRCI. Within talent management specialization, the up and coming domain of human resource, TMP and STMP offered by Talent Management Institute (TMI) are the most-comprehensive professional certifications.
HR Certifications – Why are they worth it?
- Professional certifications are considered as the best performing qualification, only second to degrees.
- The Return on Investment (RoI) on professional certification is higher from both salary hike and career development perspective than other professional development alternatives. (PayScale)
- In a world where the worth of your skills is constantly changing, recertification, which is a core part of the certification, comes as a remedy. It keeps your knowledge current and your skills sharpened.
- It takes less time investment, as most HR certification programs are of a few months duration and can be done from home. That said, obtaining professional certification can be as challenging as it requires serious study for the certification exam.
- Certifications help you demonstrate your commitment to the profession. It shows to the employers your seriousness for the job and adds to your credibility.
- Within human resource management departments, certified professionals are better expected to bring consistency of the process. This also leads them to gain more respect from organization and colleagues.
Professional certification is a quick pathway to career growth and infuses credibility in one’s candidature. It proves to the employers your aptitude for constant learning and keeping with the change!
