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.