By Claude Balthazard, Ph.D., C.Psych., CHRP
The most important thing to keep in mind about the value proposition for the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation is that it is a ‘reflexive’ value proposition.
This is the case for all voluntary designations.
The ultimate value for the professional of having any voluntary designation derives from the value it has for the public (or users of the professional services). Thus, if we want to increase the value the CHRP holds for those who have it, we need to increase the value it has for consumers of HR professional services.
Let’s look at what creates value for the users of a voluntary professional designation.
First and foremost, consumers of HR professional services are looking for competent and ethical professionals – individuals who they can trust to know what they are doing and who will conduct themselves in a professional and ethical manner.
With voluntary designations, it will be a fact that a good number of non-designated professionals will also be competent and ethical. The difference is in the quality assurance – the probability that a given designated professional would be incompetent or unethical should be very low, whereas with undesignated professionals, it might be more of a ‘crap shoot.’ This consistency is very important because it is what gives users of a professional service peace of mind.
There are two key aspects to quality assurance for professional services. First, it is important for the standards to be high enough (ensuring safe and effective delivery of services) to be of value to the users of professional services. Secondly, it is important that the standards be enforced effectively. Without this effective enforcement of standards, the quality assurance will be hollow – all promises, no delivery.
For the CHRP designation, it is important that the quality of professional service provided by individuals with the designation be noticeably better than the ‘average’ non-designated professional. If the consumers of HR professional services cannot see a difference, the designation will be of little value. The standards have to be high enough to make a difference.
If we want to increase the value the CHRP holds for those who have it, we need to increase the value it has for consumers of HR professional services.
The other aspect of quality assurance is enforcement – the processes and procedures in place to ensure that the quality is there. The rigourousness and thoroughness of the processes and procedures in place to ensure quality is what gives credibility to the designation. Not only that, the higher the standard of quality, the more rigourous and thorough the quality assurance processes and procedures need to be.
The challenge, of course, is that those aspects that create value for the public are those same aspects that make the designation more of an investment for the professional to obtain and maintain. This is especially true with a self-regulation model of professional regulation because the standards of quality and the processes and procedures to enforce those standards are set by members of the profession. In other words, the standards and the processes and procedures that back these up are largely self-imposed.
The ‘reflexive’ value proposition model suggests that we should look to the users of the professional service to set the standards – standards of qualification, of practice, of professional conduct and of knowledge, skill and proficiency.
The main point is there is nothing wrong in concerning ourselves with the value proposition of the designation for those who have it or might choose to pursue it, but what we should really be concerned about is the value proposition the designation creates for users of the professional service.