Certify Me: Certification Program Trends
June 02, 2008
Certification has become a preferred method for expressing the knowledge or abilities of some or all of a company's workforce. But how do you make voluntary certification programs a draw?
By Holly Dolezalek
Whether someone is a certified Cisco engineer or a certified lunatic, the implication is the same: Everyone agrees they are certified. Some standards have been established, the person has demonstrated the behaviors those standards require, and some evaluation has been done to make sure they know or can do what they're supposed to know or be able to do. That, in a way, is the definition of certification: a program of training that teaches employees what they need to know or be able to do. But it also requires a certain level of legitimacy or validity; not everything that’s called a certification program is one. "A certification is a time-limited designation that expires and must be renewed," says Judith Hale, a performance consultant based in Chicago and author of several books, including "Performance-Based Certification" (Pfeiffer, 1999). "Many corporations just give what they call a certification to employees once and don't have any kind of recertification qualification."
Certification has become a preferred method for expressing the knowledge or abilities of some or all of a company's workforce. The practice of certification has become a combination marketing tactic, security blanket, and educational opportunity for companies and agencies that want to make sure their employees know what they're doing, so they can say their employees know what they're doing.
In fact, companies don't stop with certifying their employees. Certification programs exist for third-party resellers and even customers, all with the intent of saving money, having more knowledgeable practitioners, and making operations smoother. But not all certification is mandatory. While many industries and professions that face governmental regulations have been using mandatory certification programs to make sure their employees know about and comply with those regulations, others use certification without the bludgeon of regulation. Without that stick, how do you make certification programs desirable enough that employees will want to participate?
Case Study: Alltel
Alltel is a wireless communications company headquartered in Little Rock, AR, with service in 35 states and approximately 12 million customers. The company has 650 retail stores and call centers in 14 cities. Alltel's IT and engineering employees have to take mandatory certification programs in topics such as safety, ergonomics, and other necessary knowledge for their jobs. Many of them also undertake third-party certifications, such as Cisco certification in certain hardware. But for other employee populations, such as the company's finance and accounting professionals, the only mandatory certification is maintaining professional designations such as their CPA status. Other than that, the company's certification programs are voluntary.
"These are training classes offered by our department or by vendors, and they're a step program where you finish various levels and it helps you get promoted or get considered for the next-level job," says Mindy Lane, vice president of corporate training for Alltel. "Completing them shows you've spent time developing yourself, so it helps participants at performance review time, and it helps us in succession planning."
For example, Lane's department offers courses (computer-based and instructor-led) in skills that support the company's core leadership values. Finance and accounting professionals can get certified in topics such as communication skills, presentation skills, and financial acumen. These certifications aren't required, but Lane says participation is high because participants know that holding them can help them move up in the company.
Alltel also has certification programs in project management and the various levels of Six Sigma. Some of these courses are created internally, such as a basic introduction to Six Sigma methodologies ("It's sort of 'Six Sigma for Dummies,'" Lane says). The company contracts with vendors to provide other certification programs, particularly the higher levels of Six Sigma.
Trainers at Alltel have the option to take an in-house certification program in training skills. "We have a basic program for new trainers, who go through a series of classes in what they need to know and be able to do," Lane says. "But trainers also can work toward a senior trainer designation, which helps them when they want to move on to a higher level, such as a call center supervisor or a retail store manager."
The reasoning behind the program was that trainers were developing their skills at Alltel, and then moving on to other companies once there was no higher-level training position available to them. By offering the senior trainer program, Lane says, the company hoped to give these trainers a reason to stay with Alltel.
In this senior trainer program, participants attend training either at the company or through a vendor. Their performance in the program then is evaluated based on the results of the training they conduct. For example, at the end of call center training, participants must take an assessment. The call center trainer is evaluated both by observation of his or her skills by a training manager and by the number of participants who passed the assessment.
"We don't want to just give statistics on who was there; we want to know the results," Lane stresses. "We want to know, are participants really getting better at training?"
That focus on results applies to other certification programs, Lane says, because her department focuses on results in many training initiatives aside from certification. "We're a results-oriented company, and I came from the operations world, where you constantly have to prove the value of what you're doing," she says. "We saw sales in a certain handset increase four- or fivefold after our sales folks took a certification course provided by the manufacturer, which makes it worth investing the time or money or both. But there's no reason to invest if you don't get any results."
Case Study: Equity Residential
Equity Residential is a Chicago-based company that owns, operates, and develops 160,000 condominiums, private apartments, and corporate apartments in 25 states.
The company employs many maintenance employees who maintain pools or make essential repairs in the apartments. These employees are required to earn certifications in EPA requirements, heating/ventilation and air conditioning, or pool chemical use. Other employees must be certified in the requirements of the Fair Housing laws. "They aren't necessarily required by law, but they're critical to our business," says Terresa Porizek, president of education services at Equity Residential. "Our employees have to understand the expectations and business practices they'll be expected to follow."
Salespeople have to complete a mandatory Certified Sales Professional program, which includes a two-day workshop and a test at the end. They also complete skill drills for six weeks after the course is over.
But other certification programs are voluntary. For example, coaching is an important part of Equity's leadership development program. Employees who go through this program are paired with certified coaches, who work with participants to understand the information from the 360-degree evaluations that are part of the program. Employees who want to become certified coaches have to get approval from their supervisors to participate. They go through a two-and-a-half-day workshop that covers the necessary knowledge and includes feedback and role-playing exercises to practice the coaching skills. Then the chief assessor reviews each participant's videotaped coaching session. "They don't just get certified, they have to show they have the skills to be certified coaches," Porizek says.
Another program called "Flight" trains management-level employees, property managers, and maintenance supervisors to be certified managers. The three-year program includes coursework, discussion, 360-degree evaluations, and a final presentation from participants that summarizes what they learned.
What Makes a Certification Desirable?
These two programs have many of the features Hale believes will make a voluntary certification program both valid and desirable. She says corporations use certification for many reasons: complying with federal or other regulations, demonstrating to customers that employees are qualified to do their jobs, and even standardization. "Global organizations feel pressures from the need to be able to pull teams together in different locations and deploy them," she says. "But certification helps to resolve different understandings of tasks that must be done. It helps employees to know how the company does business and how to do particular jobs."
But good certification programs will be desirable for their participants, as well as effective for meeting the company's needs.
"Whether employees see a certification as a benefit depends on whether it does them any good," Hale says. "For example, a certification from Microsoft or Cisco will travel with the person who earns it, and it does them good both in the present and down the road. But many internal certifications don't travel well because they're too particular to one company's products or processes, and aren't a benefit outside of the company."
Employees also will respond to even voluntary certification programs if they can see why they should; if a promotion, raise, or a chance to earn more responsibility might result, for example. Even a short-term assignment can be sufficient, as long as it helps the employee earn what he or she wants in the long run.
Both Alltel's and Equity Residential's various certification programs include an element of testing, and testing (or assessment or evaluation) is an essential part of certification. "Since certification is about demonstrated knowledge or proficiency, some companies are evaluating performance on the job, or using simulations to evaluate that performance, or using case studies for demonstrating knowledge or proficiency," Hale says.
But even a certification that has no demonstrable rewards can be desirable if an employee can see that the skills he or she learns will make it easier to perform better on the job. "If a program isn't tied to some kind of valuable proficiency, it's harder to sustain, because the employees just won't value something that doesn't do them any good," Hale says. For example, Alltel's certification programs for finance professionals that emphasize communication and presentation skills are valuable to those employees because those are skills the employees use regularly.
Standards Procedures
One way to make a certification program more interesting for any employee is portability. If it does the employee good at his or her current company, that's desirable; but in today's fast-moving and unpredictable job market, it's even more desirable if it can be part of that employee's resume in the long run. Although it could be said to be in its teenage years (at least where corporations are concerned), accreditation of certification programs by standards organizations is one option for making a program more demonstrably valid. The National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA) is a nonprofit organization that sets standards for credentialing organizations. Members of NOCA are primarily associations, certification boards, or societies for various professions. They work with NOCA to make sure their certifications or licensures are valid and reliable.
For example, the Association of Financial Professionals (AFP) is a member of NOCA. The association offers what's called the CTP (Certified Treasury Professional) certification. Any financial professional can take the association's classes and then register to take the CTP exam. Once the person passes the exam, he or she is a Certified Treasury Professional, a designation recognized and sought out by banks and other financial institutions.
The other organization that can accredit a certification program is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Under International Standard ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 (see sidebar on p. 56), ANSI reviews the organization's paper application and also conducts an on-site visit to verify its certification program complies with ANSI standards for personnel certification.
As more corporations and nonprofits have become interested in certification, the meaning of the term has gotten diluted. For example, some programs that only award a certificate for attendance or completion—which should be called certificate programs—instead are called "certification" programs. That's why NOCA and ANSI have created and tried to publicize their standards so a program that's called a certification really is one.
The key thing to understand is that no certification program will be attractive if it only serves the company's goals. Clearly, employees' goals have to factor in, as well. Although employees are motivated by many things, not all of them are motivated by learning for learning's sake. Without other motivations—rewards, promotions, responsibility—many employees won't give your (voluntary) certification program a second look.
Sidebar: ANSI-Accredited Programs
• Content, documents, and data that help document compliance with the standard;
• The terminology, documents, and resources that will help with understanding the standard's requirements;
• Areas of improvement an organization may need to address to meet the requirements;
• The details of the ANSI accreditation process.
ANSI's Website says potential attendees are "personnel from corporations, organizations, government, and others operating certification programs, and who want to learn more about personnel certification accreditation." The cost of the course is $795 for ANSI members, and $895 for non-members.
For more information, visit www.ansi.org and click on "Accreditation Services," and then "2-Day Course" under "Personnel Certification Accreditation."
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