The wave of the future: Certification in human resource management

THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE: CERTIFICATION IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Carolyn Wiley The University

of Tennessee-Chattanooga

The time has come to empirically investigate the increasing popularity of HR certification. The number of candidates for certification has increased sharply over the years, from 150 in 1976 to 529 in 1985 and 2,052 in 1990. This study presents the history of personnel/human resources certification and the results of a Human Resource Management Certification Survey. The findings reveal the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of certification. HR professionals seek certification first and foremost for professional accomplishment. To ensure examination success, most of them depend on job experience, study guides, and self-study. While very few of the practitioners indicated that they were encouraged to sit for certification by their employers’ job promotion offers, approximately 32 percent of them had experienced one to three promotions since receiving certification. Moreover, certified professionals are relatively well paid. Their salaries range from $20,000 to well over $100,000; and vary according to the primary focus of the job and other factors.

Since the 1930s the field of personnel/human resources (P/HR) has become increasingly complex. When most business establishments were small, the owners or managers personally planned, directed, and supervised the work of their employees. They did their own hiring and firing, setting of wages, and training of new workers. It was not until well into the 1900s that specialized departments for conducting employee relations activities began to appear in significant numbers. During this period, the vast number of employee-related regulations; the expanding social consciousness of employers; the increasing application of sociology, psychology, and economics to personnel problems; and the growing establishment of labor unions increased the need for trained personnel managers. Today, more than 400,000 P/HR professionals are employed in the United States. In addition, many persons serving as consultants to business and industry specialize in various aspects of human resource management (HRM). Direct all correspondence to: Carolyn Wiley, Department of Management, School of Business Administration, The University of Tennessee, 615 McCaIlie Ave., Chattanooga, TN 37403. Human Resource Management Review, Volume 2, Number 2, 1992, pages 157-170 AI1 rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

Copyright 6 1992 by JAI Press, Inc. ISSN: 1053-4822

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The field of HRM is enjoying unprecedented prestige, growth, and development. A growing number of practitioners and their employers now recognize HR as a profession. Corporate recognition of the importance of human resources will increase the demand for HR personnel and the need for professionalism. Professionalism is most often exemplified by certification. Certification is earned by individuals who demonstrate a mastery of the defined body-ofknowledge required for success in the field (Parry 1985, p. 48). Currently, the HR certification process is facilitated by the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). However, ‘personnel accreditation’ dates back to the mid 1970s.

A BRIEF HISTORY In the earlier days, it was said that one of the thorniest projects that the American Society for Personnel Administration (ASPA) tackled was certifying practitioners in the field. For many years, the suggestion of doing so had been struck down by the question: What will it really accomplish? In 1968, however, a group of ASPA leaders, members and invited guests from throughout the country spent three days at Cornell University to settle this question once for all (Beavers 1975, p. 39). Eventually, ASPA formed a National Task Force on Accreditation. The Task Force established six functional areas (i.e., employment, placement and person-

nel planning; training and development; compensation and benefits; health, safety and security; employee and labor relations; and personnel research) and assigned a committee to each. An additional committee on management practices was established for testing in that area (Beavers 1975, p. 40). By 1975, the National Task Force became the ASPA Accreditation Institute (AAD. ASPA contracted with The Psychological Corporation of New York City to help with exam development, validation and administration. The committees of the Institute agreed on experience and educational requirements, and worked on the test questions which were finalized by the corporation (Beavers 1975, p. 40 & Haigley 1984, p. 104). In 1976 the first accreditation examinations were offered. By 1979 the ASPA board established the Personnel Accreditation Institute (PAD to replace the AAI. In that same year, PAI began an extensive research effort called the Codifiation Project (Haigley 1984, p. 104). The purpose of the Project was to initiate an ongoing process to codify and refine the knowledge requirements for the profession. The two main objectives were to aid PAI’s planning and quality assurance process regarding knowledge standards and to broaden the opportunity for involvement in defining the required body-ofknowledge. The Project involved three phases: a nomination program, and Delphi Rounds one and two. The first phase, the nomination program involved nominating experts from diverse business settings, university faculties, and consulting groups. Delphi Round One, the second phase, consisted of three steps: (1) the compilation of a pool of experts qualified to assess the quality of the body-of-knowledge; (2) the

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development of the first diagnostic questionnaire, DiQ; and (3) the development of revised PAI Study Guides. During this phase, PAI board members gained the assistance of the Personnel Decisions Research Institute (PDRI) of Minneapolis, MN in evaluating the body of knowledge and tests. More than 1,000 experts participated in the evaluations (Tornow 1984, pp. 85-86). This Project concluded with the validation of the PAI outlines and exams in 1982. Delphi Round Two, the third phase of the Project, was to serve as a test to determine if the revised PAI Study Guides were an improvement over the originals. It started in March 1982. The results showed that overall satisfaction was increased with the new materials (Tornow 1984, p. 84). The respondents in all six functional areas reported that the revised outlines and reference lists were a substantial improvement over the originals. PAI published the revised Study Guides and updated the accreditation tests based on the results of this Codifiiation Project. During 1988, PA1 undertook another project to evaluate the body of HR knowledge. A second objective was to explore the structure of the generalists’ jobs and of each specialist job area in relation to their knowledge requirements. The project helped to define the standards, to add currency to the body-ofknowledge, to update the exams, and to ensure relevance in training and development materials (Tornow, Houston & Borman 1989, p. 136). Training materials and updated exams resulting from this and earlier projects have been made available to the more than 5,000 practitioners, educators, researchers and consultants seeking certification. As a result of the 1988 project, the separate specialists and generalists exams were eliminated and the four certification designations were combined into two key designations. At the basic level, the Accredited Personnel Manager (APM) and the Accredited Personnel Specialist CAPS) were combined into the Professional Human Resources (PHR) designation. At the senior level, the Accredited Personnel Diplomat @I’D) and the Accredited Executive in Personnel (AEP) were combined into the Senior Professional Human Resources (SPHR) designation. In 1990, the name of the Institute (PA11 was changed to the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). Also, during this year, the Society for Human Resource Management (formerly ASPA) published a study, The Competency Initiative: Standards of Excellence for Senior HR Professionals, to address the question: What values and skills are necessary for HR professionals in the 1990s (Thornburg 1990, p. 37). By 1991, updated material, such as the Certification Study Guide, was developed for both the PHR and the SPHR examinations.

THE ROLE OF CERTIFICATION

Certification can serve two major functions or roles in real-world labor markets. One role is restricting the labor supply. Economists and others see this role as an artificial barrier which interferes with the supply of labor. If used in

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HR, it would interfere with the supply of personnel managers and specialists. Society would argue, then, that this role is inefficient and it should be discouraged. Before ‘accreditation’ is made a necessary condition of employment, caution should be taken to ensure that society would be harmed by the acceptance of an unaccredited individual in a particular profession (Palomba 1981, p. 38). The second role that certification plays in the real world is quite useful and has nothing to do with the “inefficient restriction of supply.” This role is preventing marginal workers from identifying with a particular occupation. Professions, such as HR or personnel administration may want to prevent the use of the name of the profession by marginal workers through the implementation of a certification process. The thought here is to ensure that marginal workers do not get the “good” and “superior” jobs in the field. With this role in mind, good accreditation procedures can achieve three goals. First, the certification process can facilitate the development of the body-of-knowledge to assist colleges and universities in curriculum design. Second, a good certification process can provide guidance to junior practitioners as they develop into senior professionals. Third, senior practitioners will be encouraged to update their knowledge (Palomba 1981, pp. 39-40). Certification with all that it stands for will, in the long run, produce practicing professionals (Beavers 1975, p. 41). According to the 1984 ASPA President, many major companies require persons in HR functions to be certified. Certification is the wave of the future (Haigley 1984, p. 104). The number of candidates for accreditation has increased sharply over the years, from 150 in 1976 to 529 in 1985 and 2,052 in 1990. More than 6,000 people have been accredited since the inception of the Institute (AAI) in 1975; and more than 80 schools and universities have made unsolicited requests for codification information. THE PROBLEM

Clearly, the number of persons seeking certification is on the rise. But, there are still a number of unanswered questions. We need to know why people are seeking certification, how employers support their employees’ certification efforts and what sources are most useful for certification examination success. In particular, human resource practitioners, students, and educators are usually interested in knowing what accounts for success on the PHR and SPHR examinations. Yet, nothing has been published concerning this very important matter. Nevertheless, it is possible to glean insights through such investigations (e.g., survey research) that will be important to the HR community. For these reasons, the current research was conducted in 1990 and 1991 on certification in HRM. METHODS Sample and Data Collection

The author developed a Human Resource Certification Survey, which was sent to a random, representative sample of 500 certified HR professionals

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based on the Human Resource Certification Institute’s (HRCI) records as of December 1990. The ove~helming majority of respondents (99.3 percent) replied by March 1991. Exactly 280 usable surveys were returned for a response rate of 56 percent. Approximately 135 (48.6 percent) were females and 143 (51.4 percent) were males. Only 14.8 percent or 41 of the respondents were nonwhite which included American Indian-Alaskan native (2.9 percent), Asian-Pacific Islander (1.8 percent), African-American or black (5.8 percent) and Hispanic (4.3 percent). Eighty-five percent (85.3 percent or 237) of the respondents were white Americans. Thirty-two percent (32.1 percent) of the respondents were from companies that had 5,000 or more employees. One fourth of them (26 percent) were from companies with 500 to 2,499 employees, and 71 or 25.6 percent were from smaller companies with 100 to 499 employees. With respect to industry type, the largest numbers were from services (79 or 28.4 percent); manufacturing (77 or 27.7 percent); transportation, communication, electric, gas and sanitary services (35 or 12.6 percent); finance (27 or 9.7 percent); andpublic administration (23 or 8.3 percent). All of the respondents had received the PHR or SPHR designations by 1990. There were 161 (57.7 percent) PHRs and 118 (42.3 percent) SPHRs. Of these numbers, a larger percentage of the females were PHR, 51.9 percent versus 48.1 percent males. Conversely, a larger percentage of the males were SPHR, 56.4 percent versus 43.6 percent females. The most prevalent age groups for PHRs were 30-39 and 40-49 (61 respondents or 38.4 percent each). The most prevalent age group for SPHRs was 40-49 (50 respondents or 42.7 percent), followed by 30-39 (41 respondents or 35 percent). Four times more PHRs fell within the 20-29 age group (16 PHRs versus 4 SPHRs). Measures Variables. Demographic data including age range, gender, education, and current salary range were used to compare with certification. Other variables included the primary focus of the current position and race. The first part of the 4-page questionnaire asked a series of questions concerning the type of certification held, the year certified, expertise prior to taking the certification examination, why certification was sought, years of experience before being certified, ways the employers encouraged desiccation, and useful tools for certification preparation. Career and job related measures included questions on the number of promotions and job changes since passing the certification examination as well as on the strategies which were instrumental in locating the respondents’ current positions. The second part of the 4-page questionnaire asked a series of questions to gather the demographic and company related data.

/~~~vi~u~

Organizational Variables. The organizational measures included company size

based upon the number of employees, industry category, levels in the hierarchy (supervisor to president), and unit levels within the organization (plant to corporate).

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Analysis

Measures of central tendency and cross tabulations were used to compare the demographic variables to the other data gathered. Such comparisons reveal answers to nine key questions: 1. Why do practitioners seek certification? 2. In what area did the professionals possess the greatest amount of expertise prior to the exam? 3. What was the average exempt level experience for PHRs and SPHRs prior to the certification exam? 4. What educational backgrounds did most certified HR professionals have prior to the exam? 5. In what ways do employers encourage employees to sit for the certification exam? 6. What are the important tools in preparation for the examinations? 7. What were the benefits of certification in terms of job promotions? 8. What strategies were most instrumental in locating HR positions? 9. What are the salary comparisons for certified HR professionals as a group in 1990? In questions requiring the respondents to rank the items, weighted averages were used to determine the relative rank of each item. In the questions requiring them to circle all that apply, the frequency with which the respondents circled the items indicated its popularity in practice. All descriptive statistics presented in the “Results” and other sections are valid percentages, which exclude missing data.

RESULTS Why do Practitioners

Seek Certification?

When asked to rank the reasons why they sought certification from 1 (the most important reason> to 5 (the least important reason), the professionals indicated that the most important was to exhibitprofessional accomplishment. The second most important reason was personal satisfaction. The third and fourth most important reasons were to test their understanding (3rd) of the field and to assist in career advancement (4th). The item ranked number five was recognition from peers (See Figure 1). In answering this question, several professionals also reported “other” reasons for seeking certification. A number of them indicated that they were

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career adv test knowledge e % I?

prof acccmpl prof reccgn pers satisf other

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Figure 1. Why Do Practitioners Seek Certification?

encouraged to seek certification by their employer. Their candid comments were: “My boss required it.” “Required by my employer.” “My company sponsored tests for the entire department. ” “At the urging of our department head.” “. . . job requirement.” “Mandated by the company.” “Corporate pressure.” “Required by my employer.” “Encouragement from supervisor.” and “Boss wanted me to.” In what Area Did The Certified Professionals of Expertise Prior to the Exam?

Possess the Greatest Amount

The professionals were asked to rank the key areas of the certification examination with a rank of 1 through 6, according to the amount of expertise they had in that area prior to taking the examination. The area in which they had the greatest expertise was ranked number 1 and the area in which they had the least expertise was ranked number 6. The areas listed on the questionnaire corresponded to the six areas of the exam. Accordingly, the respondents reported the greatest amount of expertise in the selection and placement area and the least amount of expertise in the health, safety, and security. The other areas of expertise include management practices (2nd), employee and labor relations (3rd), compensation and benefits (4th), and training and development (5th) (See Figure 2). What Was the Average Exempt Level Experience to the Certification Exam?

for PHRs and SPHRs Prior

The professionals’ responses revealed that 24.1 percent or 66 of them had 1 year to 4 years of experience, 22.3 percent or 61 of them had 5-7 years of

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1

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lrn(12s6)

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ATM, of the CerUfiution Exama Figure 2. Areas of Expertise

Prior to the Certification

Exam

experience, and 53.6 percent or 147 of them had 8 years of experience prior to taking the certification examination. What Educational Background Did Most Certified HR Professionals Prior to Sitting for the Examination?

Have

Certified professionals come from a variety of educational backgrounds. Quite a number of them (204 or 73.2 percent) indicated their majors. The more popular ones are Business Administration (47 of the respondents or 22.9 percent), Personnel/Human Resources (35 or 17.1 percent), Management (26 or 12.7 percent), Psychology (24 or 11.7 percent), and Labor/Industrial Relations (20 or 9.8 percent). Other noted fields were economics/finance/accounting (3.9 percent), education (3.4 percent), and organizational behavior or development (2.4 percent). The remaining respondents (33) identified a wide variety of “other” majors, ranging from law to liberal arts. On the average, most of them had a bachelor’s degree before taking the examination. A total of 136 or 49.7 percent of them had a bachelors degree and some post baccalaureate study. Seventy-five of them or 27 percent had a bachelor’s degree and 63 or 22.7 percent had some post baccalaureate study prior to taking the examination. A third of them (94 or 33.8 percent) had a masters’ degree (masters’, 18.3 percent and MBA, 15.5 percent), and 12 or 4.3 percent had a doctorate.

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In What Ways Do Employers Certification Exam?

Encourage Employees to Sit for the

The professional practitioners were asked to indicate how their employers encouraged them to sit for the certification examination by checking the applicable items on the questionnaire. Over half of the ones responding to this question (153 persons or 54.6 percent) indicated that their employers reimbursed their certification application expenses if they passed the exam. Moreover, 40.4 percent or 113 of them indicated that their employer funded or supported continuing education, seminars, and workshops for certification preparation and 32.5 percent or 91 of them indicated that the employer reimbursed them for purchased study materials to assist them in the certification process. Other ways in which the employers encouraged certification were by paying registration fees and travel expenses to annual SHRM conferences (19.3 percent or 54 of them); making the certification designation prestigious (16.8 percent or 47 of them), and allowing them to use company facilities for study groups (14.3 percent or 40 of them). Other things that were done on a much smaller scale included time off with pay (5 percent), company bonuses or awards in the certifxation year (2.1 percent), pay increases tied to certification (1.1 percent), job promotion offers C.7 percent), and time off without pay (.4 percent).

What are the Important Tools in Preparation for Examination Success? The respondents were asked to identify the top five P/HR items with a rank of 1 through 5, according to their usefulness in preparing for the certification examination. The item that was the most useful was ranked number 1 and the item that was the fifth most useful was asked number 5. All other items were to be left blank. Their responses revealed that the most helpful resource for certification examination preparation and success is on-thejob experience. The second most helpful item is study guides, workbooks, andlor other materials. Additional useful items were ‘informal, individual or independent self-study (3rd), local study groups (4th), and textbooks and readings books (5th). Other noteworthy resources were college credit HR courses (6th), the SHRM Modular Learning System (7th), conference attendance (Bth), HR teaching experience (9th), and noncredit HR courses (10th).

What Were the Benefits of Certification

in Terms of Job Promotions?

While very few of the practitioners indicated that they were encouraged to sit for certification by their employers' job promotion offers, 91 or 31.6 percent of them had experienced one to three promotions since receiving HR certification. Of that number (91), 61 or 67 percent of them experienced one promotion after passing the exam, and 26.4 percent or 24 of them had received two

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promotions after certification. Six of them (6.6 percent) experienced three promotions some time after certification. Quite a number of them 005 or 37.5 percent) also experienced job changes since passing the certification exam. Over a fourth of the 280 respondents (72 or 25.7 percent) changed jobs once after passing the examination and 25 or 8.9 percent of them experienced two job changes since passing the exam. The overwhelming majority of those reporting promotions or job changes were eertified between 1981 and 1990. At the time of the survey, their jobs ranged from vice president, human resources (7.2 percent) to personnel administrator (12.2 percent). Slightly more than 5 percent (5.7 percent) were consultants and fewer (3.2 percent) were professors. The most popular positions of the respondents were human resource director (70 of them or 25.1 percent) and human resource manager 036 or 30.8 percent). Forty-five percent (45.1 percent or I23 of them) were at the corporate level in their o~~i~at~on. What Strategies Were Mast Instrumental in Locating HR Positions? When asked what strategies were most instrumental in locating their present positions, with 1 being the most instrumental, they indicated that neturor&ng was most instrumental, followed by ~~s~u~e~ ~oe~~~~~~ (2nd), and friends (3rd). Additional helpful sources included other personal contacts

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Rank(weighted!&ores) Figure3. Important Job Location Sources

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(4th), mentors (5th), coworkers

(6th), and placement

services (7th) (See Fig-

ure 3). What are the Salary Comparisons as a Group in 1990?

for Certified HR Professionals

Over half (90 or 56.9 percent) of the PHRs had salaries in the $30,000-$39,999 (50 or 31.6%) and $40,000-$49,999 (40 or 25.3%) ranges. Approximately one fifth (19 percent or 30 of them) had salaries in the $50,000$59,999 range. Seventeen (16.9) percent of the SPHRs (20 respondents) had salaries in the $60,000-$69,999 range, where as 60 or 50.9 percent of them had salaries in the $40,000-$59,999 range (Table 1). By Certification.

By Gender. When salary was compared by gender, over half (73 or 54.1 percent) of the females’ salaries fell within the ranges of $30,000-$39,999 and $40,000-$49,999; while over half (73 or 52.2 percent) of the males’ salaries were in the $40,000-$49,999 and $50,000-$59,999 ranges. Twice as many females made $20,000-$29,999 (11 females versus 5 males); while twice as many males made $60,000-$69,999 (21 males versus 10 females). Moreover, males were four times more likely to make salaries in the $80,000~$89,999 range (9 males versus 2 females). f3y Position Title. The most frequent salary range for vice presidents of HR was $50,000-$59,999. Sixty percent or 12 of them had salaries between $50,000 and $79,999. Twenty percent of them had salaries ranging from $80,000 to over $100,000. Seventy-five percent of the assistant vice presidents had salaries between $50,000 and $69,999. The most popular salaries for directors of HR was $50,000-$59,999 (36.8 percent); while the popular salary ranges for HR managers were $30,000$39,999 (27.9 percent) and $40,000-$49,999 (29.1 percent). Assistant personnel directors and supervisors were more frequently paid in the $30,000$39,999 range, 33.3 percent and 50 percent respectively. However, a sizable number of assistant directors received pay in the range of $40,000-$49,999 (22.2 percent) and $60,000-$69,999 (22.2 percent). Personnel administrators’ pay often fell between $30,000 to $49,999 (64.7 percent of the respondents). TABLE 1 The Most Frequent Salary Ranges by Certification Level

%PHR 8.9

31.6 25.3 19.0 7.0 5.1

Sa1ar.y $20-29,999

$30-39,999 $40-49,999 $50-59,999 $60-69,999 $70-79,999

%SPHR 1.7 10.2 21.2 29.7 16.9 10.2

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TABLE 2 The Most Frequent Salary Ranges by Gender %Female

Salary

%Male

8.1

$20-29,999

3.6

31.1

$30-39,999

14.3

23.0

$40-49,999

23.6

19.3

$50-59,999

28.6

7.4

$60-69,999

15.0

By Position Focus. When the salary data are reviewed according to the primary focus of the certified professionals' jobs, additional insights surface. Salaries for those jobs with a benefits focus fell most frequently between $30,00039,000 and $50,000-59,999. This is supported by the 1991 Human Resource Management Compensation Survey results (Beatty 1991, p. 56), indicating an average salary of $41,000 in 1991 and $38,400 in 1990 for benefits planning specialists. Exactly, 71 percent or 140 of the 197 HR generalists’ salaries were between $40,000~$59,999 as well. Similarly, the 1991 Compensation Survey indicates an average salary of $41,000 in 1991 and $39,500 in 1990 for this group. The labor relations generalists were the most highly paid in the certification survey and in the 1991 Compensation Survey. Eighty percent of them had salaries between $40,000 and $69,999. This, too, is supported by the 1991 Survey which indicates an average salary of $47,100 in 1991 and $43,600 in 1990 for those jobs with labor relations as the primary focus.

SUMMARY The increasing demand for human resource managers is concomitant with an increasing demand for professionalism, which is most often exhibited through certification. The integrity of the certification process is embedded in its ability TABLE 3 The Most Frequent Salary Ranges According to Primary Job Focus Primary

Job Focus

%Benefits

%Generalist.s

%LR

$30-39,999 $40-49,999

37.5 12.5

21.8 22.8

20

$50-59,999

37.5

26.4

Salary

$60-69,999

20 40

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to establish standards for acceptable HR practices, to require currency among matu~ng p~fessionals, and to facilitate appropria~ly designed curricula at the college and university levels. Professionals seek certification first and foremost for professional accomplishment. Yet an increasing number of employers are mandating that their personnel staff be certified in the field. These employers encourage their employees to obtain HR certification by committing their dollars and other support to this effort. Often they reimburse app~~atio~ expenses and expenses for study materials as well as fund continuing education for certifzation preparation. Such education, including seminars, professional development programs, workshops, and intensive study classes range from $75 to $800. Since the exams investigated in this survey were for HR in general, rather than for compensation or benefit planning certification, most of these certified professionals reported greater expertise in SeLe~t~n~p~uce~nt and management practices. The least expertise prior to taking the exam was in the health, safety and security area. However the overwhelming majority of the certified professionals had experience in the field before sitting for the exam. Therefore, a majority indicated that on-the-job experiences were most instrumental to their exam success. In addition to professional ac~omplis~ent, a large percentage of the respondents indicated that they sought certification for career advancement. However, the extent to which certification increases pay or job opportunities has not been settled. Very few of the practitioners indicated that they were encouraged to sit for certification because of their employers’ job promotion offers. Yet, at the time of this survey, nearly one third of them had experienced one to three promotions after they were certified. Furthermore, salaries for the certified professionals in this survey are compatible with a 1991 compensation survey results for HR practitioners. Certified professionals are relatively well paid. Their salaries range from $20,000 to over $100,000. However, there is still a sizable gap between males’ and females’ salaries. This may be due to a number of factors, including lower seniority among female practitioners and the types of HR positions females hold to name a few. As indicated by their certification designation, a larger percentage of females are certified at the PHR level, indicating that their positions-to some extent-lack policy-formulation responsibilities. Regardless, an increasing number of women are entering and staying in the field. Their experience and longevity will have a positive impact on their salary and other benefits in the future.

CONCLUSIONS

Certi~cation is intrinsically and extrinsically rewarding. It benefits the individual in generating personal satisfaction and confidence as well as professional recognition and competitive pay. In addition, it benefits the profession and the organization to the extent that it codifies the body-of-knowledge in the field

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and encourages quality HR practices. When an organization hires a certified professional, it hires a knowledgeable professional who is capable of carrying out HR functions and designing HR programs to fulfill organizational goals. Clearly, HR certification is the wave of the future. As the role of these managers expands and broadens, so will the need for professionalism, which is most clearly and objectively exhibited through certification. The continued recognition and support of certification by employers, practitioners, and others will become more important as employee-related issues increase. To this end, good certification procedures can ensure that we have the HR competencies (shills and knowledge) needed for efficient and effective organizational operations.

REFERENCES

Beatty,L. K. 1991. “Pay Goes Up as HR Jobs Broaden.” HRMuguzine 36 (September): 55-58. Beavers, W. 1975. “Accreditation: What Do We Need That For?” The Personnel Administrator (November): 39-41. Haigley, C. 1984. “Professionalism in Personnel.” Personnel Administrator (June): 103106. Palomba, N. A. 1981. “Accreditation of Personnel Administrators: Theory and Reality.” Personnel Administrator (January): 37-40. Parry, J. F. 1985. “Accredited Professionais are Better Prepared.” Personnel Administrator (December): 48-52. Tornow, W. W. 1984. “The Codification Project and its Importance to Professionalism.” Personnel Administrator (June): 84-100. Tornow, W. W., J. S. Houston, and W. C. Borman. 1989. “An Evaluation of the Body-OfKnowledge.” Personnel Administrator (June): 136-143. Thornburg, L. 1990. “The Push to Improve.” HRMaguzine (December): 36-39.