OG Blog

Organizations that develop and manage personnel credentials are very familiar with methods that define professional competencies for their constituents. These organizations use job task analyses (JTAs) to create a standard job description accepted by the profession. The JTA process uses subject matter experts where they:

1. Describe their jobs accurately.
2. Describe the tasks workers perform.
3. Describe the elements of the tasks.
4. Identify tasks that require specific knowledge, skills, and worker behavior.

Credential development methods can be extended to devise programs to recognize industry organizations. These organizations can be companies involved in trade industry activities or association members. Companies should be recognized for the compliance activities they perform. For example, Federal Government regulations require the safe transport of food, the industry responds by guiding its membership to published best practices that are deemed to comply. Then the trade association establishes a program that recognizes the companies alignment with the published best practices. These programs have two tangible benefits to stakeholders: 1) it will recognize organizations for their commitment to best practices, and 2) it will assist users of services (e.g.customers) in identifying companies using industry guidance. An example of this type of program is found here.

The elements of any certification program are 1) accreditation management, 2) scheme management, 3) testing services, and 4) certificate communications. These elements are supported by both direct expenses, such as membership with an accrediting organization, setup fees for testing service, software for certificant communications, experts for statistical analyses, etc., as well as volunteers and staff to oversee and manage the aspect of each element. The table below presents these elements.

The infrastructure to manage, coordinate and deliver a certification program needs to be considered. These resources include dedicated volunteers - subject matter experts (SME) - who are necessary as content developers and guide market penetration of the certification program. Dedicated staff will manage duties, such as: organize the SME committee, develop and maintain records of meetings, document policy, and procedures, engage expert consultants on test development and analysis, employ a test delivery company, and other appropriate functions. Managing these activities with volunteers (professionals with daytime responsibilities) extends the development timeline and could miss critical details. SMEs and staff partner to separate duties to ensure the certification and its competency requirements and measures are independent, fair, and equitable.

In the United States the building and construction industry is regulated through codes that govern all aspects of building construction - structural, mechanical, fire performance, plumbing and the other building systems. States and local governments adopt model building codes as law to ensure the safe occupancy of the public. Building codes help safeguard life and protect the public welfare by regulating design, construction practices, construction material quality, location, occupancy and maintenance of buildings and structures.

Model building codes are the basis for these building regulations. The International Code Council (ICC) is the leading source of model building codes and provides the framework and culture to ensure the model code provides safe solutions for safe buildings. The ICC model code development framework is based on the principles of openness, transparency, balance of interest, due process and consensus. Anyone can provide a code proposal - and many industries and individuals do just that - which then goes through a rigorous process before it becomes code. The code development process includes public hearings where experts review the code proposals and hear pro and con arguments on their merits and then decide to approve. The culture of the ICC draws on an array of experts, including architects, builders, building code officials, contractors, building owners and government officials, as well as experts from industry, academia and product testing organizations. This framework and culture contributes to the mission of building safety. 

Operative Greenwald Inc. provides consulting to clients to help communicate the merits of building code proposals. Recently OG published articles in the Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants Interface and Construction Specifier magazines.

Certification programs target individuals who want to be recognized for their expertise. Individuals showing interest in a certification program usually “raise their hands” with the certification organization and a dialog starts between the individual and the organization on the value of the certification. Then, the organization takes the necessary actions to convert hand-raisers to certificants.

Consequently, the task for the certification organization is to promote the value propositions that address the needs of many groups: applicants, certificants, users of certificant services, regulators, the public, and other groups. For example, applicants want well defined eligibility requirements and ease of applications, certificants want the users of services to recognize the certification, users of services want cost effective systems, regulators want a competent workforce that understands and applies regulation correctly, the public wants safe systems, and the list can go on. In the end, a certification promotion program must:

• Identify customers and their differing needs
• Create messages you want each type of customer to receive about how you fulfill their needs
• Select a medium to transfer the message, such as advertising (print/broadcast/other), social media, conferences, etc.
• Collect feedback to adjust your actions

Goal of Certification Promotion

The goal of certification promotion is to expand the endorsements and to advocate and position the credentials offered by the organization within public and private sector organizations. Some example of these type of promotion programs are:

• Educate key decision makers at targeted organizations on the benefits of professionals who have the credential.
• Develop a strategy for a general media awareness campaign and image building on the benefits of certified professionals.
• Highlight ALL the major elements of the certification blueprint to capture what certificants do on behalf of the industry they represent.
• Maintain solid relationship and activities supporting allied organizations and attend, exhibit, and speak at yearly conferences

Generally, the vision and mission statements of an organization with certification programs can be crafted to state that the organization's competency standards and certification programs are acknowledged, accepted, and endorsed globally.

Governance Evaluation - Review relevant governance documents to understand policies that govern the organization and its activities. Key documents would include current strategic plans, bylaws, minutes, governance documents and financials, marketing plans, needs assessments, member survey data, membership statistics, dues, fees, and benefits. Additionally, conduct a governance assessment through the use of an evaluation tool; a survey asking leaders questions in key governance and oversight areas. The survey would focus on organization leadership roles and responsibilities: strategic direction and market positioning, organizational resources, and oversight.

Strategic Planning – Work with the current leadership to understand their current strategic position, ascertain their views of the organization’s professional environment, and identify opportunities and challenges facing an industry or profession and the programs and services. Facilitate discussions on association governance, membership development, program, and areas where the consensus believes the Association should be in the future. Using the strategic plan, identify programs and projects – current and proposed – that meet strategic goals. Develop specific project outcome statements to communicate the project’s objectives. These recommendations become the basis of yearly work plans that tie together the strategic plan and organization budget.

Membership Analysis – The basis for a member profile is an understanding of what members know and value. Utilizing knowledge of SMEs – long-term members – qualitative discussions will prepare a comprehensive list of activities associated with job duties, management duties, outreach activities – whatever members do daily.

Synthesis of Organizational Data

The information collected using these three elements identifies the organizational gaps. During the three components' implementation, organization staff and leaders have been engaged and fully informed of the data and results. Therefore, organizational modifications that have been vetted and agreed upon by staff and leadership can be implemented at the level of individual tasks. Organization improvements that cross all three elements of this organization review are discussed at the leadership level for approval and implementation.

February 16, 2021

Planning a comprehensive and systematic approach to developing a workforce that is adequate in numbers and skill level requires attention to four specific elements:

• Forecasting – Accurately forecasting demand and supply for specifically skilled workers
• Career Awareness and Recruiting – career awareness that creates career interest
• Training – Training in rigorous, accredited, industry-based certificate-bearing programs
• Employing – Systematic process to move individuals directly from training to careers

Career Awareness. Career awareness programs are critical as competition for workers increase and every industry must differentiate itself in order to keep current personnel and recruit new workers. Career paths are critical tools to clearly explain the options and career growth opportunities each industry can provide. Efforts to recruit and train the next generation of professionals includes reaching students in secondary schools, job training programs, and helping veterans find civilian career. For example, the Navy COOL (Credentialing Opportunities On-Line) Program helps Navy Service members find information on civilian careers that are related to their military experience.

Training. The continuous evolution of regulations and processes within any industry or profession brings with it a series of challenges. Professionals working in an industry are faced daily with new technologies, new regulatory requirements, and uncertain economic times where “doing more with less” is the norm. A competent workforce has the agility to respond to evolving and changing practices where personnel start with a common level of competency and continue learning through recognized professional development.

Workforce Training Analysis. 

To understand the magnitude of a workforce training program, an assessment is conducted to understand the current state of workforce within an industry and address the elements of workforce training. Learning outcomes are developed from a process for analyzing the knowledge areas and tasks performed by individuals in an occupation. Results from this analysis establish a body of knowledge that reflects the skills, knowledge, and abilities required for competent job performance. The body of knowledge establishes the job blueprint that is the basis of the certification/certificate  program assessment or examination. The body of knowledge can also provide the basis for textbook and curriculum development in support to professionalize the workforce.

Employment. Employers must play a role in finding employment and launching their careers of workers they identify and train. An integral element of an effective workforce development program is a systematic process to move individuals directly from training to careers. The details of the systematic process may vary from company to company and organization to organization but general elements of the process include: case management and placement, on-boarding assistance, mentoring, and follow up.

January 21, 2021

Certifications are unique in that they recognize the certificant of their professional competency and once certified, certificants are usually required to recertify. Recertification is a process to maintain continued competency. Certificants are responsible for conducting ongoing self-assessments of their continued competence and this process is a key component in determining how they build upon their knowledge, skills and abilities.

Recertification is a process to maintain continued competency

The recertification process requires the certificant to attest to participating in professional development activities by self-declaration. That is, the certificant submits a form to the certifying organization listing the professional development activities, activity start and end date, relevant certification blueprint areas and contact hours, or hours of the activity. Activity start and end dates confirm that the certificant is taking these within their certification cycle – between the certification start and expiration dates. The certifying body would review the recertification application for completeness to ensure the required number of professional development hours is documented.

Demand for Professional Development 

Professional development (PD) is synonymous with continuing education. These are courses offered at conferences, webinars and workshops or other venues. In fact, a certification program puts forth a demand of a required number of professional development hours per year. Consequently, knowing this demand and presuming program growth, an estimate of yearly professional development revenue can be obtained. The figure below shows the potential demand for a certification program requiring 10 PD hours per year as a function of the certificant pool. For example, a 1000 certificant pool puts a PD demand into the marketplace of approximately $350,000 when PD is estimated to cost $50 an hour.

Organizations that offer both certification and PD activities benefit from growth of both programs. Certification organizations with no professional development focus can approach allied PD organizations to discuss the benefits of collaborating. While certification organizations usually won’t endorse PD, they can point their certificants to companies that offer aligned professional development activities. 

January 4, 2021

Expert members describe their activities more accurately than anyone else.

Successful membership retention and recruitment involves managing an organization’s culture, market penetration, and programs. Today, professional and trade associations use a variety of tools to develop programs that ensure membership retention and acquire new members. Usually, this means analyzing databases, purchase activity, conference attendance, and other factors. These are passive analytical methods attempt to understand membership behavior. On the other hand, an active analytical method – asking members who they are - can be useful tool borrowed from the field of personnel credential and curriculum development.

Organizations that develop and manage personnel credentials are very familiar with methods that define professional competencies for their constituents. These organizations use the job task analysis (JTA) to create a standard job description accepted by the profession. The JTA process uses subject matter experts where subject matter experts (SME), 1) describe their jobs accurately, 2) describe the tasks workers perform, 3) describe the elements of the tasks, and 4) identify tasks that require certain knowledge, skills, and worker behavior. The JTA collects quantitative data by surveying the profession on the importance, criticality, and frequency of knowledge, and tasks.

For professional societies that already offer personnel credentialing, the work is done. These organizations know what their members value. To maintain their credential membership programs in these organizations offer networking to share best practices and professional development.

If your professional society does not offer a credential, the board of directors can take on the task of defining what the membership does in day-to-day activities. This qualitative membership profile usually goes through a process of vetting with long-standing members and staff. This is accomplished through dialog with the board of directors and identified experts via meetings, teleconferences, and other interactions. This establishes a draft membership profile that covers the knowledge and tasks performed by members. On the other hand, trade associations can conduct a similar qualitative analysis with their directors to identify a typical company member. Since trade associations know what their member companies provide, or sell, this profile would focus more on how products are sold and the relationships needed to open or maintain their markets.

BUILD YOUR MEMBERSHIP PROFILE

The basis for the membership profile is an understanding of what members know and value. Utilizing knowledge of SMEs – these long-term members – qualitative discussions will prepare a comprehensive list of activities associated with job duties, management duties, outreach activities – whatever members do daily. This qualitative discussion uses brainstorm techniques such as equal participation, free sharing of ideas, and constructive suggestions.

Qualitative discussions provide a framework for developing 1) entire membership profiles, 2) segments that describe large work areas in performance terms, and 3) activities that represent the specific outcomes resulting in a product or service. For example, a technical professional society targeting consultants as members a profile would include demographic data, such as years of experiences. One segment would include client development and activities within client development could include email marketing, brochure development, and conference attendance. For a trade association of product manufacturers, profiles would include industry market share, segments; materials used and activities; stockpiling, material standards and quality control.

VALIDATE YOUR MEMEBRSHIP PROFILE

Validating the membership profile requires stakeholder engagement through distributing a survey sent to a broad range of members. This survey quantifies the membership profile by asking members to rank the importance, criticality, and frequency of profile, segments and tasks. The results can be used to determine the weighting of activities identified within the segments of the membership profile. Using survey accumulated scale ratings, the mean rating for each segment is determined and discussed with the SME group. Once ratings are established segments can be weighted to create the profile.

The validated membership profile provides leadership and staff insight into member knowledge and skills, segments and activities, worker behaviors, tools, equipment, supplies, materials, terms/acronyms, and future trends/concerns. This profile can support the development of association programs such as education, advocacy, publications, affinity among others. Your association can also use the profile as a filter to assess the needs of a particular program.