The Benefits of Human Resource Certification: A Critical Analysis and Multi-Level Framework for Research

Despite the huge success of marketing certification to human resources (HR) professionals, does it benefit individuals, employers, and the field of HR? We know very little about whether certification has an impact on any important individual- and organizational-level outcomes. This article provides a brief history of HR certification and its purported benefits. Then we review the literature on perceptions of HR certification, including a survey we conducted with about 190 HR professionals. Finally, we present a multi-level model of hypothesized HR certification effects. In this conceptual framework, which unifies both micro and macro levels of analyses (i.e., individual, unit, organization, and profession), we derive 13 testable propositions to guide future research on the benefits of HR certification.HR certification, Multi-Level Framework for Research

Efficacy of Incident Response Certification in the Workforce

Numerous cybersecurity certifications are available both commercially and via institutes of higher learning. Hiring managers, recruiters, and personnel accountable for new hires need to make informed decisions when selecting personnel to fill positions. An incident responder or security analyst\u27s role requires near real-time decision-making, pervasive knowledge of the environments they are protecting, and functional situational awareness. This concurrent mixed methods paper studies whether current commercial certifications offered in the cybersecurity realm, particularly incident response, provide useful indicators for a viable hiring candidate. Managers and non-managers alike do prefer hiring candidates with an incident response certification. Both groups affirmatively believe commercial cybersecurity certified job candidates with that same certification can update, modify, and improve the incident response process. The reasoning for this belief is focused more on tie-breaking and common parlance within the information security analyst domain and less on the ability to perform the job. A practical component within the certification process is valuable, and networking expertise is the primary interest of those seeking qualified incident responders. The qualitative component highlighted soft-skills, such as communication, enthusiasm, critical thinking, and awareness, as sought-after abilities lacking in certification offerings covered within this study

When Learning Counts: Rethinking Licenses for School Leaders

Recommends restructuring state licensing systems to focus on the skills and knowledge leaders need to improve learning, and better aligning licenses with the current job demands on principals

A cross-sectional investigation of the relationships education, certification, and experience have with knowledge, skills, and abilities among aviation professionals

The aviation industry is a complex system with many different segments and as such, makes hiring the right person a complicated endeavor. Previous research suggested that knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are composed of elements that include education, certification, and experience (ECE). The relative importance of ECE is dependent on the type of job within the aviation sector. The objective of this mixed-methods concurrent triangulation study was to examine aviation industry professionals’ perceived relationship between their ECE and the development of their KSAs. The convenience sample consisted of 404 professionals in the aviation industry who completed the KSA Composite Measure (KCM). The study clarified relationships between ECEs and KSAs that managers in the aviation industry can apply when developing job openings, conducting interviews, reviewing applicant credentials, and building high-performance teams

Successful Strategies of Small Business Owners to Recruit Veterans

Approximately 300,000 highly skilled veterans leave military service every year, yet some small business owners lack strategies to recruit these skilled workers. The specific business problem addressed in this multiple case study was that some small information technology business leaders lack strategies to recruit military veterans. The research sample included 3 owners of small businesses serving the information technology industry in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States who developed and implemented successful strategies for recruiting veterans. Data were collected from interviews and review of documents. Data analysis resulted in the identification of 3 major themes: understanding of veterans as a means to determining organizational, job, and environmental fit; targeting veterans for recruitment and hiring; and retaining veterans as members of the small business civilian workforce. The implications for social change included the potential for a reduction of the unemployment rate among veterans and an increase in veterans\u27 purchasing power in support of their local communities

Workforce planning and facility utilization using a two-stage stochastic recourse approach

Hi-tech manufacturing uses sophisticated and capital intensive processes that require a highly skilled workforce. Fluctuating demand leads to either a shortage of skilled workers that causes unmet demand or an excess of skilled labor that causes worker idleness. This mismatch in the available and required skillsets is a source of potential loss for the organization. This thesis formulates an industry-motivated workforce planning and facility utilization problem as a two-stage stochastic recourse program that considers fluctuating demand over a long planning horizon and includes business and labor rules, e.g., hiring, firing, overtime, cross-training, and shift swapping, that govern the structure of the workforce. Solutions to this problem are computed using a scenario-based approach and indicate that the cost of workforce formation can be significantly reduced by using the recourse problem

Exploring the Cybersecurity Hiring Gap

Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing segments of information technology. The Commonwealth of Virginia has 30,000 cyber-related jobs open because of the lack of skilled candidates. The study is necessary because some business managers lack strategies for hiring cybersecurity professionals for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracts. The purpose of this case study was to explore strategies business managers in DoD contracting companies used to fill cybersecurity positions. The conceptual framework used for this study was the organizational learning theory. A purposeful sample of 8 successful business managers with cybersecurity responsibilities working for U.S. DoD contracting companies that successfully hired cybersecurity professionals in Hampton Roads, VA participated in the study. Data collection included semistructured interviews and a review of job postings from the companies represented by the participants. Coding, content, and thematic analysis were the methods used to analyze data. Within-methods triangulation was used to add accuracy to the analysis. At the conclusion of the data analysis, two main themes emerged: maintaining contractual requirements and a strong recruiting process. Contractual requirements guided how hiring managers hired cybersecurity personnel and executed the contract. A strong hiring process added efficiency to the hiring process. The findings of the study may contribute to positive social change by encouraging the recruitment and retention of cybersecurity professionals. Skilled cybersecurity professionals may safeguard businesses and society from Internet crime, thereby encouraging the safe exchange and containment of data

A Case Study Of A Community College’s Basic Firefighter Program And Its Capacity To Meet Regional Firefighting Requirements

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the firefighter training programs offered at a local community college and the capacity of these programs for meeting the needs of local stakeholders. The stakeholders that were considered include current students, graduates, local firefighting officials, and citizens who are currently served by this county’s emergency services. A review of the current firefighter program components at this North Carolina community college will be used to determine whether changes should be made to better prepare firefighting candidates for professional departments within the local county. The study applies a case study research design using data derived from surveys, interviews, an analysis of the current curriculum, and regional emergency response data. Overall, this study illustrates an industry shift and a need to modify the current training program. Recommendation were made for these modifications consistent with study’s results

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Teacher Factors and Academic Performance of High School Students

This study examined the relationship between teacher factors and student achievement, measured by high school grade point average while controlling for student and school-level factors. The study focused on teacher certification, teacher experience, full-time employment status, level of academic degree, and teacher absenteeism for the first semester of the school year. The student factors that were included are gender, race, socioeconomic status, the number of students enrolled in Advanced Placement, and International Baccalaureate courses the students took during their high school careers. The school-level factor included in the study was the percentage of students who receive free and reduced lunches. This research method was a nonexperimental, relational, explanatory design with quantitative methods. This study used the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, a survey that was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (Lauff & Ingels, 2014). The analysis included a multinomial logistic regression and variance inflation factors test. The sample size was 6,861 students from 750 schools within the United States. Students whose teachers possess certain characteristics were more likely to be academically successful, measured by HSGPA. Specifically, these characteristics include the total number of years teaching for K–12 mathematics, the total years teaching for K–12 English, and whether the teachers held full-time math-teacher status and were certified mathematics teachers were determined to be statistically significant. The empirical evidence outlined in this study, as well as the recommendations provided in this dissertation, can assist policymakers and administrators in obtaining the information needed to address minimum teaching requirements and their hiring practices to increase academic achievement

Competencies Required of Human Resource Professionals in the Government Contracting Industry

The purpose of this study was to determine if a unique set of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) were required of Human Resource Practitioners (HRPs) in federal-level Government Contracting Companies (GCC) in the United States. Study results identified additional sets of HR-related KSAs to perform with minimum competency within a government-contracting environment. The results of this study can assist in creation and development of training or education curriculum for HRPs interested in or currently working in GCCs. Study results provided parameters for job descriptions for HRP recruitment within GCCs and HRP promotional opportunities