The Value of Obtaining an SHRM Global HR Certification

Executive Summary

The objective of this report is to provide detailed information about the HR certification, its types and usage, the importance of getting HR certifications, importance of Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) certifications and reasons to get certification from SHRM.

Introduction

This report is about the introduction and types of HR certification, the purpose of getting HR certification, and the importance of attaining HR certification for the HR professionals and fresh graduates. This report will allow the readers to know about the significance of the Global HR certification for HR professionals or people with HR specialization, who face a strong competitive environment while making efforts to get a job and building their career path. How may these certifications help the fresh graduates to build their strong profiles and help them get the job in human resource department, also how the professionals get recognized as HR leaders or experts by having HR certifications? Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is recommended as the best place to get HR certification by getting registered in the test of SHRM CP and SHRM SCP, etc.

Discussion

Global HR certification

Most of the times when applying for a human resource management job positions, there is a requirement for Global HR certification for the position. That means some organizations make it essential for a post to have an HR certified employee. HR certified people results better for an organization than the people who are not certified with these certificates. If someone is interested in doing the job in the HR field, he should get certified with any of these HR certificates. Apart from a degree, an HR specialized certificate may increase one’s field knowledge and may help in building specialized skills which will make the employer more attracted towards him. Getting certified can help in boosting the resume and making the CV strong, it can help in attracting the employer and can make him believe that the person is self-motivated. He will allow the person to work with other HR professionals that will be beneficial for the organization and the HR department.

There are seven main types of human resource management certificates program offered by firms like HR certification Institution and Society of Human Resource Management. These institutes previously worked as partners but now offer these certificates on their own. These certificates include:

1. Professional in Human Resources (PHR)

Professional in Human Resources certificates provide HR professionals with an orientation for making strategies, program implementation, and logistical information. It enables them to know about the HR practices in U.S Laws and regulations. This certificate is suitable for the HR professionals who have responsibilities for governing the HR department rather than the whole organization and careers like HR coordinators, benefits administrator, and payroll manager, etc.

For getting registered in Professional in Human Resources certificate, one must have a master’s degree and one year of experience in HR position. If the person has bachelor’s degree, then he must have experience of 2 years. For diploma in high school, four years of experience is required. This certificate is valid for three years.

1. Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR)

This certificate is for senior HR managers who have to deal with the policy-making and strategic decision making. They have to make strategies and policies for the whole human resources and deal with the planning for the department. This certificate is suitable for people getting positions as a consultant of HR, director of human resources department, and manager of labor relations.

For being eligible for this certification program, one must have a master’s degree and an experience of four years. If you have bachelor’s degree, then five years of experience is required. For diploma in high school, the experience of 7 years is required. This certificate is also valid for three years.

1. SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM – CP)

HR professionals who perform HR services and HR operations, implement the HR strategies and policies, and serve the functions of being a reference for stakeholders and employees can get this certification to improve the HR skills. This certificate is suitable for people like HR managers, HR directors, and HR consultants, who want to enhance the perspective of the organization globally and implement the policies and practices in a better way (Society for Human Resource Management, 2018).

The eligibility criteria for this credential is, for a master’s degree holder an experience of one year is required at HR position, for a bachelor’s degree holder an experience of 2 years is required, and for any diploma degree experience of 4 years is required to be eligible for the certification. This certificate is valid for eighteen months (Society for Human Resource Management, 2018).

1. SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM – SCP)

This certificate helps the HR professionals in making strategies and planning related to leadership in human resource department. The skills that can be acquired by this certificate are developing effective organizational goals and aligned strategies, performance metrics, and developing measures to analyze the functions. This certificate is suitable for the senior HR managers, vice president of HR, HR executives, and directors, etc. (Society for Human Resource Management, 2018).

The eligibility criteria for this certificate is four years of experience for a master’s degree holder, five years of experience for a bachelor’s degree holder and seven years of experience for a high school diploma holder. This credential is valid for eighteen months period (Society for Human Resource Management, 2018).

1. Professional in Human Resources – International (PHRi)

This certificate focuses on operational demonstrations and principles, HR and technical practices and principles that this certificate holder required. From this global certificate, an HR professional can acquire effective skills and professional level of HR knowledge. This certificate is designed for the HR supervisors, HR partners in businesses, and talent and performance analysts.

This certificate is valid for three years, and the eligibility requirements for this certificate is one year of experience for master’s degree, two years of experience for bachelor’s degree, and experience of at least four years for a high school diploma.

1. Senior Professional in Human Resources – International (SPHRi)

Just like PHRi certificate, this certificate is also a competency-based global credential that focuses on HR strategic decision making, service delivery, and policy making for the HR department by gaining core HR knowledge and skills. From this global certificate, an HR professional can acquire effective skills and professional level of HR knowledge. This certificate is designed for the HR global managers, generalists, and HR specialists.

This certificate is valid for three years, and the eligibility requirements for this certificate is four years of experience for master’s degree, five years of experience for bachelor’s degree, and experience of at least seven years for a high school diploma.

1. Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR)

If the HR professional is working or is interested in working human resources internationally, this certificate serves them well. For attaining a grip on strategic decisions like the global growth of the organization, HR policies development, and globalization strategies, etc. This certificate is suitable for the positions like global director HR, global director advisor, and global talent acquisition director.

Eligibility criteria for the certificate are the experience of two years global position job for master’s degree. For bachelor’s degree three years of experience is required from which there should be two years of international experience, and for a high school diploma, four years of experience is required from which three years experience must be global.

Importance and benefits of having SHRM Certification

It is very important for the individuals who want to pursue the jobs in HR field and get a successful career in HR department, they should certify themselves in any of an SHRM certification program to get selected and promoted for the professional HR positions. There are many reasons and advantages for the HR professionals to get themselves certified in SHRM certification program. Once the professional development goals have been selected, there is the time to talk to the manager and convince him about the professional learning, the benefits of the skills that could be acquired by such certifications, and how this certification is worth investing for (Anon, 2018). These benefits of having certified in SHRM certifications are discussed in details below.

1. Current and relevant knowledge

In this competitive era, every HR team requires building professional leadership skills, strategic decision-making skills, and greater growth and development skills. These skills can be acquired by certifying for SHRM certification. HR certifications are designed to enable the HR professionals to know more about the current and relevant field knowledge and the skills that can be required to boost the career and development of them. After getting the certification, the HR professional will be able to perform new roles and responsibilities for the organization.

1. Practical skills and its impact on job

Human Resource certifications (HR certifications) serve as a new measure for the HR professionals and their growth. By getting SHRM certified, it enables them to learn and implement the practical skills. By learning new and improved HR expert skills and implementing them in their practical job environment, there will be a great influence of these new skills over their job. They get more successful in achieving their tasks and make more effective strategies for the department and the organization as a whole.

1. Certifications prepared to attract employers

The SHRM certifications also enable the HR professionals or the students of the HR field, to attract the employers through their volunteer skill building certifications. It will have a positive impact on the employers that the person is an independent professional individual who seeks to learn about his professional growth and can prove a valuable asset for the organization. These certifications can attract the employers that the individual is career oriented and works on his skills and professional development which will be beneficial not just for himself but the organization too.

1. Global application and universal recognition of skills

The HR certifications are globally recognized and accepted. Most of the organizations around the globe recommend their employees get certified and they train their employees and managers for these tests. They know the importance of these tests and certifications to survive and compete in this competitive atmosphere. These skills are universally recognized and accepted; every organization prefers to hire people who have HR certifications. Also, leading organizations that were used to arrange training and development activities for their managers and senior executives. They encourage them to get these certifications which can be beneficial for the employees as well as the organization and replaced that session which is the cost-effective strategy for the organization.

1. Leading advocates for training and certification

For training and certification, there are skilled and reliable institutes like Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) that provide exceptional professional growth and development opportunity to the HR professional through passing these HR certifications. They are reliable and updated institutes providing all the necessary learning opportunities that can surely help an individual to make his profile strong and build a strong resume. They know the changing trends of HR practices, happening around the world and adopting by leading organization, they make these certifications accordingly and provide an opportunity to get mastered in HR strategies and to be a successful leader by implementing them effectively.

Reasons to get SHRM certification

By getting SHRM certification, HR professional will be able to get recognition as leader and experts in HR field. They have options to either get certified as SHRM – CP or SHRM – SCP which cater both managers and senior management leaders. These certifications will keep the organization and the HR professionals more competitive in this economy (SHRM, 2018).

1. Competency-based

In this competitive environment, the bookish knowledge of facts and figures is not sufficient to make the HR professionals effective and successful; rather they need to practically implement the behavioral knowledge in day to day business processes. Through SHRM certificate, HR professionals can prove themselves by implementing the what they know.

1. Relevant

SHRM certificates are relevant to the HR practices and are associated with the on job realistic and situational scenarios which help the HR professionals get to practice and learning of implementing their knowledge in each such scenarios faced by them during the job.

1. Universally applicable

SHRM certificates are universally applicable in every country, any industry, any organization, any demographic, any career level, and any job responsibility.

1. Focused on advancement

SHRM certification is designed to boost the HR career of professionals as well as for those who are seeking HR jobs by making them differentiated and superior from others. Many people are attracted towards these certifications to increase the competencies required for a better career path and promotions which is required in today’s emerging business society.

1. Strategic

SHRM certification is designed in a way to allow the HR practitioners to be the effective professional leaders in their organizations. SHRM CP and SHRM SCP both are designed by research results that what skills employers want to have in these HR leaders.

1. Accredited

The tests of SHRM CP and SHRM SCP are conducted under Buros testing center which shows that these certifications are tested under world known best standards.

1. Backed by SHRM

SHRM is a well known best organization in the world that provides best HR professional development to the HR practitioners. HR professionals should get them certified with these certification if they want to get success in their HR career as having such certification from a well known and credible institution can make them a good HR leader and an HR expert. This will be beneficial for them, and the success of the organization lies with their improved leadership.

Conclusion

It is essential for the HR professionals to maintain their professional profile by achieving new tasks and implementing new strategies in this emerging business world with increased competition. The HR professionals need to have some differentiated skills and knowledge of HR practices that may help them in strategic decision making during the job. For learning about the behavioral situations and decision and getting unique skills, they need to get themselves certified with the Human Resource certification from an institution known worldwide. Society for Human Resource Management SHRM is the best institution for the HR professionals, and the students or fresh graduated to boost their HR career and get skilled in HR field practices. For this they need to pass the test SHRM conducts according to their terms and conditions. These certificates are the best source for them to boost their resume and get the HR knowledge and skills enhanced. Through SHRM, they get the opportunity to have a successful HR career, and they proved to be the best HR experts and HR leaders for the organization. It is beneficial for the organizations to provide their HR professionals like HR managers and HR advisor an opportunity to get these certification as training them can result in less developed employees and a costly method for the organization. They should arrange and get their HR teams certified in both SHRM certification programs, i.e., SHRM CP and SHRM SCP.

Recommendations

If an individual wants to improve his resume and make a strong impact on the employer, it is recommended to him, to get HR certification from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) to improve his HR-related skills. They should go for the SHRM CP (SHRM certified Professional) certification which will allow them to learn skills that can be implemented in their jobs in different situations. Similarly, if an organization wants to improve the performance and knowledge of its HR professionals, it should get the HR professionals including HR managers, HR advisors, HR consultants, and Director human resources registered in certifications offered by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). For senior managers, SHRM SCP (Senior Certified Professional) certification is best opportunity to enhance their strategic decision-making processes and the effective leadership strategies for the improvement of HR department.

It is required for the organizations to provide certification opportunities to the HR managers rather than the training sessions they conduct for skills and growth development. SHRM is the top institute where these certifications are offered to the HR professionals to increase their professional skills and abilities which will be a cost-effective alternative for the organizations.

References

SHRM Online – Society for Human Resource Management. (2017). SHRM. Retrieved 7 April 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/

Eligibility Criteria . (2018). Shrm.org. Retrieved 7 April 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/certification/apply/eligibilitycriteria/pages/default.aspx

SHRM-SCP . (2018). Shrm.org. Retrieved 7 April 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/certification/about/AboutSHRMCertification/Pages/SHRM-SCP.aspx

SHRM-CP . (2018). Shrm.org. Retrieved 7 April 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/certification/about/AboutSHRMCertification/Pages/SHRM-CP.aspx

(2018). Shrm.org. Retrieved 7 April 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/certification/Documents/SHRM_Certification_Benefits_to_Your%20Organization.pdf

Why Seek SHRM Certification? . (2018). Shrm.org. Retrieved 7 April 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/certification/about/AboutSHRMCertification/Pages/keybenefits.aspx

Why Earn Your SHRM Certification . (2018). Shrm.org. Retrieved 7 April 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/certification/learning/pages/why-earn-your-shrm-certification.aspx