Archive for the ‘Human Resources’ Category

HR Certification Offers a 253% Return On Investment

Research by market research specialists B2B International on the value of HR certification around the world reveals an average ROI of gaining the credentials of over 250%

The message seems to be ‘get certified’! An online survey for the HR Certification Institute, of more than 1,500 HR professionals in 37 countries worldwide, has shown that human resources employees and employers value HR certification at more than two-and-a-half times the initial certification outlay.

From an employer’s perspective, having employees gain professional HR certification brings numerous advantages to the organisation, including an increase in employee engagement, satisfaction and productivity, as well as a reduction in staff turnover, all leading to an increase in customer satisfaction. Employers also comment that certification increases employees’ HR knowledge and ensures that they keep up-to-date; it demonstrates employees’ commitment to HR and to learning, as well as increasing confidence in their ability to do their job; and having employees with certification is good for the organisation’s reputation and demonstrates that it takes HR seriously.

For individuals, the biggest incentives toward pursuing HR certification stem from the belief that the credentials will increase their HR knowledge and thus strengthen their CV. 94% of HR employee respondents and 97% of HR employers believe that certification is important for those working in human resources, more than 60% of whom stated it is ‘very important’. An even greater number of employers expect certification to be of importance in five years’ time.

Ninety-six percent feel that an HR certified candidate applying for a job would have an advantage over a non-HR certified candidate, with more than 50% believing this to be a ‘very significant’ advantage. This is borne out by employers: more than two-thirds state that an HR certified person being considered as an independent consultant for an HR department would have a ‘very significant’ advantage over a non-certified individual. HR certification was highlighted as particularly advantageous for HR professionals going for a promotion or facing redundancy.

HR Certification Institute’s global business development director Alexandre Bouché, who commissioned B2B International to conduct the study, remarked on how highly valued the survey showed certification to be. “Of the four types of credential that an HR professional might hold, that is to say an undergraduate degree, a graduate degree, a certificate or a certification, the certification was felt to be by far the most beneficial. Its advantages include it offering the most value for money and return on investment; being highly flexible and customisable; being the most practically and professionally oriented of the choices; being the most experience based; and that choosing to work toward a certification provides the best networking opportunities.”

B2B International’s Matthew Harrison, in charge of the study, noted differences between continents. He said: “Finding the time to study for certification was not a key issue for Europeans or Asians and yet was a key unmet need for Americans. Indeed, the survey conveyed a general sense that US employers were less actively involved in professional certification than their foreign counterparts, with only 8% deciding which certification their staff obtained, against 22% in other countries.”

 
About HR Certification Institute – www.hrci.org
HR Certification Institute is an internationally recognized leader in HR certification, having been certifying HR professionals for more than 33 years. The HR Certification Institute has awarded more than 108,000 credentials in over 70 countries to HR professionals who have passed rigorous exams to demonstrate their mastery and real-world application of forward-thinking HR practices, policies and procedures. HR Certification Institute is an affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Posted in B2B News, Business, Business Decisions, Employment, Human Resources, ROI |
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The Importance of Employees

Your employees are one of your company’s greatest assets. What they say about your company, how they act in the workplace, and how happy they are in their roles all impact on your brand, your image, your levels of service and ultimately your customers’ satisfaction. B2B Marketing recently published an article entitled BRANDING: Motivating employees to be your ‘brand carriers’. The article, which is shown below, makes interesting reading.

Many B2B companies have gone through mergers and takeovers, with the associated churn in staff, sense of insecurity, loss of implicit knowledge and know-how… So, more than ever, B2B companies need to re-address the way they interact with their employees. Positive interaction, fostering brand engagement, can have a massively beneficial impact on your company – and your bottom line.

1. Boost the role of employees in brand communications
   B2B companies’ employees are one of their most powerful assets and need to be recognised as such in any brand communications programme. Including an ‘employee engagement programme’ as a part of your brand plan is a good start. The role of the employee in branding the company is critical – whether it be sales, customer services, or technical support, all have direct customer interface. In effect, they are the brand.
2. Understand the networks that employees use
   Customers and suppliers form relatively small, interlinked professional worlds. Many of them know each other, often from previous employment positions. Markets talk, so it’s time to start listening to what your employees are saying about the company – document both the good and the not so good.
3. Get top management buy-in
   Bottom-up employee engagement initiatives only work if they are joined up with company strategy and senior management. Before spending masses on large-scale employee engagement surveys, give management a ‘weather check’ on the mood of the company, and pinpoint areas that need addressing.
4. Avoid stale jargon – be honest
   Whatever communication tools are used to engage employees – surveys, newsletters, web-casts, intranets, away-days with specialist consultants – it’s crucial that senior management avoid soundbites that sound like lipservice.
5. Address disconnects between company behaviour and communication
   Successfully communicating in today’s Web 2.0 world means addressing inherent distrust and cynicism. Honesty and transparency are important: how a company behaves rather than what it says sends out the strongest signal. If your company really is driven first and foremost by shareholder value, then admit that.
6. Reward honesty in feedback
   Many corporations tend not to interpret negative feedback in the right way, taking it as a way to sideline people who dare speak their minds. This needs to be addressed, otherwise potentially timid employees will be too frightened to voice their opinions.
7. Use social media for employee engagement
   Companies need to go beyond traditional one-way communication vehicles and embrace the world of modern, democratic and conversational-driven media. The industry networks that exist offline – industry events, forums, trade-fairs – are being complemented by these increasingly popular social media channels.
8. Consider hiring employee engagement professionals
   Corporations can get involved with their employees by hiring community engagement professionals, whose job it is to listen and engage within industry forums, read blogs, pick up where the company image is, and re-engage with individuals directly or with influential members of the group in question, to identify problem areas, address them and ensure that change wishes are followed up.
9. Define the experience you wish the customer to have
   In a world where product differentiation is increasingly difficult to achieve and maintain, aspects of service and experience branding – employee branding in this instance – are becoming ever more critical in making a difference. When the technical director or buyer of a client company is asked on a forum, or at an industry trade fair, by a previous colleague or acquaintance, “What are those people at Corporate X like to do business with?” you want them to give a positive picture.
10. Boost word-of-mouth
    What employees say about their company to friends is likely to carry huge weight – more weight indeed than an ad in a traditional B2B industry magazine or a new corporate brochure. If employee views are valued, companies can genuinely create enthusiasm that will spread through the organisation, impacting positively on a range of areas leading to enhanced customer satisfaction.

So maybe it’s time to switch the focus from the voice of the shareholder or the customer to the voice of the employee – the employee as brand ambassador.

• Find out how easy and cost effective it can be to monitor your staff satisfaction levels – click here.
• Read our white paper on employee satisfaction, Understanding and Developing your (People) Assets

Posted in Branding, Corporate Identity, Employee Satisfaction, Employment, Human Resources, Management |
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Market research is easy! Not!!!

Paul Hague this week lets off steam about people who assume that working in the market research profession is a piece of cake.

We have been enjoying some balmy summer days recently and one pleasant evening I shocked my wife by coming home early and cutting the lawn.  As I was trimming the edges at the front, my neighbour from across the road called by.  “Hello Paul” he said, “I haven’t seen you for a while but I thought I would just catch up. Have you got a minute?”  Now I don’t know this person particularly well and I was pleased to make his acquaintance.  However, the purpose of his approach soon became apparent.  It turns out that my new friendly neighbour was a supply teacher who has found himself out of work.  He was dropping by to enquire if he could help me in my work.  For one wonderful minute I thought that I was to be given a lift with the backbreaking task of lawn trimming, but it turned out that my NFN was aware that I ran a market research company and was eager to offer his services.

I am pleased to say that over the last 12 months we have been holding our own as a market research company, though I would be kidding if I was to tell you that these were the best years since our inception.  Indeed, we have a recruitment freeze until the green shoots thicken.  So it was relatively easy for me to explain that I was extremely grateful for the offer of help but, sadly, I could not take it up.

Later that evening, as I sipped my beer and reflected on my neighbour’s request, I became more and more astounded and even annoyed.  It occurs to me that the task of the market researcher is little known outside of the industry.  In a way, this is not surprising.  I know very little about neurosurgery or car mechanics.  However, almost everybody thinks they are an expert on market research – after all, it is surely only a matter of asking a few silly questions, isn’t it?  And, hasn’t everybody done market research in some form or another?  You must have done an assignment at school to check out shopping habits in your local township, or if you are the secretary of the tennis club, you will inevitably have run a quick survey to check if people are happy with the puce coloured carpet you fancy.  Market research is simply about asking a few questions, getting some answers, and making some sense of it.  Would my new friendly neighbour have offered his help if I was a lawyer or an architect?  To him, market research is dead easy – anyone can do it, and he was free and available should his help be needed.

Some years ago I attended a Market Research Society conference where one of the luminaries on the stage made a statement which astounded me then and has lived with me ever since – he said he thought that market research was easy and he was amazed that he was paid so much for doing the job!  Am I the only person around here that believes that market research is a proper job, a tough job, and not one that anyone can walk straight into off the street?

At one level market research is simple.  It can help you understand how many people do what and how often.  However, the real art of market research is finding out something that no one else knows and using this to your advantage – and that is a bit more difficult.
A friend of mine who holds a senior position in human resources visited me recently.  She had with her a pack of playing cards on which were written different value statements – honesty, hard work, pleasant environment, good relationships, etc.  My task was to look through the deck of cards and choose five value statements that are really important to me.  I then had to say which single card was the deal-breaker – the most important value statement in my life.  I went through the assignment and chose my five cards including my deal-breaker.  My friend was astonished and told me that it must be wrong; she had me down as some sort of control freak (in a nice kind of way) and this hadn’t been exposed by any of my choices.

I won’t embarrass myself by telling you which cards I chose; I would rather ask you to think whether such a technique can explore and identify the real me, indeed the real anybody, in just a couple of minutes.  The point is that the things that you value are often things that you haven’t got.  And when you have got something, you move on and change your values.  This means that exploring people’s motivations and their needs and values is a moving feast.  We can do it, but it isn’t easy and it isn’t obvious.  It can’t necessarily be answered in two minutes with a pack of cards.

There are two important things in the world that we don’t fully understand – the universe and the workings of the brain.  It is the latter that we researchers are particularly interested in.  Why did you choose a certain supplier?  What would cause you to switch?  How satisfied are you?  What do you need that you’re not currently getting?  We know answers to some of these questions.  We know some answers in considerable detail.  But finding out answers to all of the questions in lots of detail is extremely difficult.  Finding out something that no one else knows about your business or market is not easy.  Anyone who says it is must surely be kidding themselves or be a supply teacher looking for work.

Posted in Human Resources, Market Research, Paul Hague, Recession, Thursday Night Insight |
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