Training Magazine - June 2008 - (Page 59)

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. 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. t 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 w w w. t r a i n i n g m a g . c o m t r a i n i n g JUNE 2008 | 59 http://www.learningware.com/quizpoint http://www.learningware.com/quizpoint http://www.learningware.com/quizpoint http://www.trainingmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Training Magazine - June 2008

Training Magazine - June 2008 Contents Online TOC Editor’s Note Live & Online Training Today Soapbox How-To World View Changes With Penguins Keeping Forced Ranking Out of Court Across the Board Certify Me Meetings CPR How Secure Is Your Data? Training Leadership Summit Wrap-Up Tools of the Trade Inprint Questions for Covey

Training Magazine - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.