SHRM Certification’s Eighth Year in Review

Supporting SHRM Certification Candidates to Achieve Success

By Nancy A. Woolever

A wise person once said that an individual cannot fully listen to what others are saying if the individual continues talking. SHRM Certification, collectively as a team, always learns more from customers and candidates when we seek feedback by asking for it, and then stop talking and instead listen to feedback. Certainly, the final critical step means incorporating feedback and taking action to influence and change future behaviors, projects and programs. This year we heard a clear message from customers: “please simplify, clarify and streamline information.” Thus, 2022 became The Year of Listening, and the action plan became Streamline, Simplify and Clarify to Improve the Customer Experience.

Growth in the SHRM Certification testing program continued for the eighth straight year with the outcome that SHRM Certification had another banner year. In 2022, we exceeded previous records set in terms of the number of applicants and test-takers, grew the footprint for SHRM Certification in China by more than 10% year over year, and prepared to broaden universal reach by finalizing plans to begin testing both Korean- and Arabic-language exams in 2023. Recertification held steady at 73% overall who renewed either a SHRM-CP or a SHRM-SCP certification.

In May, SHRM implemented the work of the past two years related to the universal practice analysis completed in 2021 to catalog the global evolution of the HR profession in the SHRM Body of Applied Skills and Knowledge (SHRM BASK^TM). A shortened exam was delivered as a result of the associated length-reduction study for the SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP exams, also finalized in 2021 but implemented in 2022. With these major goals accomplished, and with the consequences of the pandemic starting to subside, SHRM certification turned its attention to fine-tuning communications and increased listening efforts to improve customer experiences.

Unchanged is SHRM’s commitment to support to each candidate’s success, and candidate feedback received early in 2022 presented opportunities to discover how to do this well. By asking how to best present information in a way that will help support candidate success and listening to the feedback given, we heard about a clear need for three things: 1) simplify the website by streamlining information, and 2) clarify the entire preparation process into digestible, achievable steps; then 3) expand programs, products and services to support the entire candidate life cycle.

Feedback also clearly endorsed that SHRM certifications continue to be the certifications most relevant to the work HR professionals do each day, and this explains why eight out of ten aspiring certificants choose to pursue the SHRM-CP or the SHRM-SCP. Research completed in 2022 points to candidates’ desire for increased credibility, skills and confidence as the primary drivers for individuals who choose to take the SHRM-CP or the SHRM-SCP exam. HR executives continue to hold very positive perceptions of SHRM certifications with no change to the data that show 92% state that it will be important to hold a SHRM certification in the future.

Thus, an important use of the team’s efforts in 2022 was to determine how to best support each HR practitioner’s professional development and career journey. Two key changes resulted: migrate and re-engineer the SHRM Certification website to the SHRM.org platform, and consistently articulate a simple pathway to achieve the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP when speaking to individuals or groups about SHRM certification. Five simple steps to achieve and maintain a SHRM Certification are Sign-up, Schedule, Study, Sit, Sustain. An accompanying redesign of the SHRM Certification website, https://www.shrm.org/certification highlights and teases out the specific processes to follow along this pathway.

Learn Customer Preferences. Meet Their Needs.

By analyzing how SHRM Certification customers use the website, the team re-engineered the site to deliver on expectations of customers as indicated by the way they search for, consume and digest information to make decisions and take actions to achieve the goal of earning a SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP. Consequently, the recently updated web site is reorganized based on the user experience. Examples of changes made to meet customer needs include

A fresh look, simpler navigation, and easier access to information: the updated site is designed to be everyone’s first stop for learning about the SHRM certification process and related products and services, and to apply for the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP exam.

Easy browsing through comprehensive content: Regardless of where users are in their certification journey—just considering becoming certified, preparing to take the test, or exploring recertification options once they’ve earned their credential—the interactive site allows for easy browsing through comprehensive content.

Improved navigation: This means that aspiring, new and current SHRM credential-holders can access useful information about all the helpful resources available to them.

One-Stop Shop for Certification Information

Specific pages within the updated website provide details on certification levels, exam preparation, academic alignment, military servicemember resources, corporate and global opportunities, recertification requirements and recertification providers.

The page on exam preparation, in particular, has been expanded to meet people’s needs. In addition to information on the SHRM Learning System, there are supplemental Self-Study resources to support candidates’ study efforts. These include the official guidebook, Ace Your SHRM Certification Exam, its accompanying workbooks featuring practice questions for both the SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP exams, plus webinars, virtual learning sessions and study options available in various modalities.

The practice question sets in the workbooks specifically respond to increasing demand from customers to have access to recently administered, but now retired, operational test items so they can practice more taking multiple choice tests. These practice question sets provide a realistic preview of the operational exam content, the exam’s structure and the content landscape covered on the exams. These workbooks that accompany the Ace Your SHRM Certification Exam guidebook also provide drilled-down information about item difficulty and rationales that support the Keyed response, and where applicable, the rationales that explain why a response option is incorrect. There is one for the SHRM-CP level exam entitled Preparing for the SHRM-CP Exam and a second workbook for the SHRM-SCP level exam entitled Preparing for the SHRM-SCP Exam. All three are available through SHRM Store.

Other supplemental resources will be added throughout the coming months. These include testimonial videos from SHRM-certified professionals and webinars that inform test-takers about interpreting their official results report or leveling up projects to upskill from SHRM-CP to SHRM-SCP certification.

A Final Word about Continued Program Growth

This snapshot presents the 2022 data points showing SHRM certification program growth. The SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP continue to be the primary choice of more than 80% of candidates who seek an HR generalist certification from the available options.

More than 35,000 individuals took the exams in the first two testing windows in 2022.
Approximately 5,050 more are scheduled to take the exam this month in December.
This year, more than 3,050 HR students in their final year of study in an HR degree took the exams, representing 118% growth year over year and representing 9% of all test-takers in 2022.
Renewals continued at a very high renewal rate. 73% of SHRM-certified HR pros renewed their SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP credentials through the recertification process again in 2022 and about 9% recertified early for a future year.
SHRM’s network of preferred providers continues to grow as well. SHRM-CPs and SHRM-SCPs can earn professional development credits (PDCs) toward recertification through the network of approximately 3,500 providers.
SHRM education team continues offering virtual instruction for certification preparation as well as live, in-person instruction via seminars and through educational partners worldwide for aspiring certificants who prefer in-person learning. And, the SHRM Learning System continues to be the premiere study option with 80% of candidates studying with the SHRM Learning System.
New supplementary study resources mentioned above—the Ace Your SHRM Certification Exam and its accompanying workbooks of recently-administered but now-retired test items—have been very popular with candidates as evidenced by one-third of candidates who purchased them in the second half of the year, when they debuted, through SHRM Store.
90% of SHRM certificants report they plan to recommend SHRM certification to colleagues.
Before the end of the year, SHRM Certification will surpass 175,000 lifetime certifications, 125,000+ of whom still have active or retired-status certifications.

SHRM Certification: Accessible. Achievable.

I hope you will explore the newly updated SHRM Certification website, https://www.shrm.org/certification to learn more about the simple, easy-to-follow process to become a SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP credential holder. We will continuously update the site and add resources as they become available. We will also continue to add complimentary and supplemental resources to guide candidates as they prepare to take the exam.

SHRM is excited to see what the future holds! If you are considering HR certification, I invite you to join the SHRM family in 2023 by earning your SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP and to also leverage the numerous and varied methods available to study and prepare in a way that suits you, your needs and your schedule best.