There is a constant talk about Relevant Professional Certifications in HR that can improve the chances of Recruiters being selected and on – boarded at an I.T. organisation. It is one of the popular topics due to the changes the Talent Acquisition Industry is experiencing. It’s becoming more and more evident that a Recruiters role is changing requiring them to step out of their comfort zone and become innovative when it comes to Talent Sourcing.

With the changing times it is essential that Recruiters adapt to the rapid changes to perform exceptionally well at Talent Acquisition hence enrolling for Relevant Professional Certifications in HR for a Career in I.T. Organisations is a start.  If you’d like to know more about them then you’ve come to the right place thanks to our Pune group member Niveditha as our WhatsApp discussion was on, “Relevant Professional Certifications in HR for a Career in I.T. Organisations” so we’ll be disclosing it shortly and right after we’ll even highlight the key take away pointers so be sure to review them and add to your learning. Therefore here we go…

If you’ve come here then you’re looking to upgrade your skills and improve your chances of getting selected to join an organisation with the culture that suites you. If you’ve searched and are struggling to get details about top professional certifications then your hunt is over as we’ve got quite a few that give you that edge you’re looking for to stand out and get selected. So here’s your answer put in to highlights of the key take away pointers hence let’s begin…

HR Certifications

1. Udemy is one, but it has mainly one month packages or tutorials etc.
2. LinkedIn Recruiter Certification is a good one and is usually sponsored by organisations and has a validity of 2 years.
3. SAP HCM Certification
4. Virtusa Polaris also has a Certification for Compensation and Benefits if interested
5. SHRM Certification holds an edge since its syllabus is designed from time to time based on the latest market trends which keeps you updated.
6. Psychometric Testing Certification really helps in understanding the strengths of a team
7. NLP which again is on a different tangent
8. Net-net, is not about the certification but the factors that influence or have an impact on business and of course being specific to HR is “people”.
9. If your interest is into technology then learning ERP SAP, Oracle – PeopleSoft, Taleo Certification etc. are great
10. If interested in a specific area for example Performance Management, Policies, other countries culture then doing an MBA or any university given certificate is recommended.
11. Any ERP with global payroll are always wanted
12. Brain Bench, Belbin Team Roles and HRCI are also good Certifications
13. SourcePRO Training conducted by Yusuf and Mitch is another good Certification
14. Even Middle Earth and Aon Hewitt both have advanced course content their coverage is the best however not sure of their market recognition but these HR Certifications are good ones
15. Some other Certifications are six – sigma and train the trainer.
16. Even in the case of a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing it isn’t a cakewalk to pass the tests though more than 70% of the course content is a refresher.

Recruitment bites about the relevance of Certifications

Positive Aspects

• Doing certifications may not be need as HR professionals are also engagement managers and require high influence factor to drive them in their role.
• Any program that can help you improve the influence factor is beneficial
• From the HR front, experience and knowledge counts
• Most people in HR Specialisation are obtained from Top Management Schools
• The concentration is more on Pedigree and hands on experience in the domain, technological expertise and the companies they’ve worked for.
• Content of most of the certifications is no doubt good
• It helps to get through the door while looking for new opportunities it’s always been more as a part of qualifying than selection.
• Although we still look for certified candidates it doesn’t mean they are Masters in it but in actuality they already possess the knowledge about the process and they usually follow it

Negative Aspects

• For most Recruitment professionals HR certifications are least focused on in a HR profile
• Just doing a certification isn’t the objective but how can it benefit you is the focus
• A Certification doesn’t matter in the recruitment field and are not mandatory; it only adds value to the profile making it a strong one.
• Having any certification doesn’t make anyone Masters but brings value to the work.
• While certified candidates are sourced but our main objective is to look for a candidate who worked in it which can fulfil the requirement.
• Certification is a lazy way of validating someone’s knowledge and work experience
• The only question you should be asking is do you get lucrative returns
• The returns may not be in monitory terms but will it at least open doors for better profiles is the question and the answer is usually no.

Market Reality

• While HR Specialisations are obtained from Top Management Schools the top Management is usually not from Top B Schools rather they may not even have MBA degree either, yet they learn.
• If there are doubts then you can do your own research by collecting a list of Top 50 HR managers through random sampling and find out for yourself.
• As far as possible skills and competencies with hands on experience is important, not a certificate
• The irony is Certifications helps in getting an edge on other profiles when you look for opportunities in the market which is a sad reality of the market.
• Besides the fact that each organization has a different process to follow hence each team is trained in a different way to get the best from them.
• Any certification helps people learn about the field and get a chance to implement what they’ve learnt.
• How many of us get a chance to look into certifications but we have challenges every day at every point yet we still come out of all these challenges by learning from it.
• A Certification is good to have but “hands-on experience” is what is preferred
• Certifications always add value but earlier there was hardly any trace of an inbound concept – marketing or sales.
• Today’s consumers are more informed and have more choices.
• If a business implements the traditional way of dealing with its audience, they are sure to lose out on a great market share deal.
• In general, there is a huge demand for `hands on’ professionals in the market
• The learning is very limited and is based on the exposure an individual gets
• Certifications give method to madness of your own learning.

If you’ve been following the discussion closely then some of our members have summarised it perfectly, so let’s find out more, so here goes…

Qualifications & Certifications will help us in landing the first job but once on board we learn and grow in our career; purely based on the relevant competencies and the skills we build in our respective functional & sub-functional areas on a continuous basis (including technical, functional, behavioural, etc.) besides there is a huge demand for `hands on’ professionals in the market; hence, let us focus on keeping ourselves continuously employable by being extremely `hands on’ in a few areas based on your focus and passion. Besides you grow and learn the tricks of the trade like most do in their own fields. Some tricks you pick by following your seniors, peers, subordinates while others you learn from the processes laid out at your workplace and relying on your own research and a/b testing which is what we call “Hands on Experience” and this learning is very limited as it’s based on the exposure an individual gets. Although Certifications give method to madness of your own learning they help especially when you are dealing with numbers / data, which most of us now have to deal with as we grow while climbing the career ladder and become decision makers, no matter which field you are in. And if you are a certified professional then you know that “hands on experience” in the best way.

So let’s end with a perfect example i.e., “Ones Perception makes all the difference as stated in the dialog mentioned below by one of our members…

“Interviewer: How long will you have to work to buy BMW?

Doctor: I think I can buy one in 6-8 months of my practice.

MBA: I need about 11-12 months of hard work.

Engineer: At least 2-3 years of very hard work.

Mr Ratan Tata: I think… about 5 years.

Interviewer: Why so long, Mr Tata?

Mr Ratan Tata: Well, it’s a big company!”

Well how insightful is that, need I say more? To convince you of the importance of being more of an Active learner rather than a Passive one, if you’re not yet a part of these WhatsApp groups where we discuss about Should Recruiters show eagerness to Candidates till the Offer Release Period to negotiate the CTC? Then you know what you’re missing out on. So if you don’t wish to miss out on anything further here after then simply follow these 2 simple steps and you’re there…

1. Follow us @SourcingAdda to get updates to our upcoming activities like #TASCON17 #SourcingChat and events i.e. #TASCON17
2. a) Leave us your views or requests to join these WhatApp groups in the comments section below

OR

3. b) DM us @SourcingAdda with your name and contact details and our representative will get back to you.