Monthly Archives: January 2018

Which HR Certification is Better? An Analysis of the SHRM-CP and PHR [Updated 2021]

Last week I received an interesting question that echoed what I’ve seen from dozens of people around the new year:

I came across this discussion while trying to formulate an argument supporting the value and credibility of the SHRM-CP credential.

I have years years of HR experience and about five years ago, I started looking at HRCI and the PHR certification. Eventually, I hit the experience AND degree requirements to take the PHR, but decided to go with the certification offered by SHRM, thinking that a credential offered directly by the society would hold equal if not more weight.

My immediate supervisor is PHR credentialed. When I announced that I had earned my SHRM-CP credential, the response was underwhelming and I was left with the impression that they are not convinced that it is on par with the PHR credential.

We are in the process of updating a Professional Development policy for our company and I'd really like to be able to present an argument for recognizing the SHRM-CP as equivalent to the PHR. I've done a bit of looking online, but have yet to see anything that clearly compares the two credentials.

Over the last few years, the piece I wrote about the PHR vs the SHRM-CP certifications has been seen hundreds of thousands of times. I’ve had dozens of comments and questions from people, and over time my thoughts have changed a bit and have become more clear. Plus, some of the actions of the certifying bodies themselves are changing how I view the world. First, let’s address the question at hand.

If you are curious about the SPHR and the SHRM-SCP as a senior HR professional, check out this piece that examines the differences in the exams and which you should take

Continue reading →

sleep wellness

The Biggest Sleep Study in History Uncovered this Chilling Fact About Us

Recently I caught a story on Yahoo Finance about the analysis of more than six billion nights of sleep data released from FitBit. We all think about sleep in almost abstract terms–I sleep or I don’t, I’m sleepy or I’m not, etc. But this has a real, tangible effect on how we operate as humans and how we perform at work, at home, and elsewhere. For instance, women get an average of six hours and fifty minutes of sleep per night, but men get six hours and twenty six minutes of sleep, both of them more than 13% less than the recommended eight hour a night target.

While it might be hard to adjust that overall number due to work, life, and family responsibilities (I have four kids under the age of eight, just sayin’!) one thing we can work on is bedtime consistency.

Here’s a snippet from the article:

Bedtime consistency

The biggest finding in Fitbit's data may be the link between sleep quality and bedtime consistency.

That, Gleichauf explains, “is this idea that your bedtime varies.”

And in America, it really does vary — by an average of 64 minutes. You might go to bed at 11 p.m. on weeknights, but stay up after midnight on the weekends.

The Fitbit data shows that your sleep suffers as a result. If your bedtime varies by two hours over the week, you'll average half hour of sleep a night less than someone whose bedtime varies by only 30 minutes.

And you'll pay the price.

By the time your weekly bedtime variation is 2 hours, it's costing you half an hour of sleep a night.

You know how jet lag works, right? “When you have jet lag, it's the mismatch between the actual time, in the zone you're in, and your circadian rhythm,” Gleichauf told me. “You're not on the right part of that curve to make you fall asleep.” So, at night in your new city, you lie there for hours, unable to fall asleep — and then in the middle of the next day, you're overcome by exhaustion.

When your bedtime varies over the week, then, you're creating self-induced jet lag. Gleichauf calls it social jet lag: On Monday, when you have to go back to work (and drag your bedtime backward), you feel crummy and you're more likely to get sick.

(Dr. Till Roenneberg, professor at the Institute of Medical Psychology at the University of Munich, calculates that every hour of social jetlag increases your risk of being overweight or obese by about 33%.)

“I'm super excited about this data,” Heneghan says. “For the first time ever, we were actually able to show the link between consistency and how long you sleep.” Source

Continue reading →

Can a Business Grow Competitively While Doing Social Good? [Podcast]

The United States is experiencing one of the lowest unemployment rates in history, and a new study from Express Employment Professionals shows that 8 in 10 businesses expect to grow this year. Where will that talent come from, since artificial intelligence isn’t here yet to save us?

joe delossFor most employers, this means that retention is going to be more important this year than ever before, and this is especially true for employers where turnover in customer-facing roles leads to critical gaps in coverage, performance, and service. We need to be asking ourselves how we can treat the people we hire in such a way that we actually improve their lives. It’s about more than just offering them a paycheck in so many ways.

In the interview below, I speak with Joe DeLoss, Head Fryer and Founder at Hot Chicken Takeover. The question I asked in the title (can a business be competitive while doing social good?) is clearly answered in this interview as we talk about his mission and vision for the company in the context of the social impact it has.

Subscribers, click through to listen to the interview.

Show Notes

Episode link: Listen on the We’re Only Human Podcast page

Customers come first. Time is money. Tie it to the bottom line.

In each of these instances, we think we’re serving the business. But what if we thought first with our heart instead of our head–could we still serve the business just as well? In this interview with Joe DeLoss, Head Fryer and Founder of Hot Chicken Takeover, we will deeply challenge your thinking on that concept.

In this episode, I talk with Joe about the company’s rapid growth, unorthodox hiring strategies, and what happens when you bend from your principles during times of high-pressure growth (hint: not a good idea). Additionally, they discuss tailoring employee benefits to meet the needs of the workers instead of offering a template plan like the competition. Through it all, you’ll hear Joe’s focus is not just on marketing strategy or chicken recipes, but on the employees he serves as the leader of the business.

For more information about Joe and HCT, check out the links below:

To see all the show archives and learn more about We’re Only Human, please visit https://upstarthr.com/podcast

Onboarding: Creating Connections to Coworkers and Culture

onboarding connections cultureThe onboarding process can be one of the most overlooked areas for organizations needing a quick win in the overall employee experience. Instead of leveraging this process as a way to drive engagement and create a lasting impression, some organizations tend to deliver a subpar experience or forego the practice altogether.

Employees want an onboarding experience, but all too often they only get an orientation session and a handful of paperwork to sift through. However, employees should have an onboarding experience that gives them not only deeper insights into the business, but more connectivity into the culture, the people and the history.

According to the ADP Research Institute, the majority of employees want employers to take time to orient new employees to the policies, benefits and culture of the employer, yet many firms don’t make this a priority. This is strange, because from an employer perspective, onboarding was the number one choice in some of my 2017 research into talent acquisition priorities. Continue reading →

Will an HR Certification Make Me More Valuable for a Senior HR Role? [Reader Question]

hr certification career optionsHR certification questions are often seen as pretty binary: either I get one or I don’t. But in reality there’s a lot of nuance to the decision. Should I get an HR degree or an HR certification? Will this help my career? Can it make me more competitive? How much money can I make?

That’s because certification is tied in with our personal lives in that it supports us financially, if we do it right.

For the sake of the author I’m not sharing the person’s real name. 

Hi, Ben!

I am an HR Generalist in a school district. We only have two HR staff here. The rumor is that there may be an opening for an HR Director. I would love a shot at the job. The issue is that my co-worker has been at the district for a long time and I have only been there about two years even though I have nearly 10 years of HR experience.

I feel taking the PHR exam would possibly give me a shot at the Director's job. What are your thoughts?

-Nancy

My Response to Nancy

Two questions wrapped into one!

First the easy one: if you want to pursue the PHR then go for it. There’s nothing that forces you to tell everyone at work that you’re pursuing the exam on the off chance you don’t pass, and you could have it as soon as March/April if you decide to jump in with both feet. No time like the present, right? If you’re worried about preparing then I’d highly recommend the courses that we’ve put together simply because they help in ways that no other system does. If you have the budget, the HRCP materials even offer a “pass or money back” guarantee, which is hard to beat.

Secondly, let’s look at the career front. While this is still a rumor you should start thinking critically about what makes you a fit for the role.

  • Can you demonstrate your leadership skills now, before the job even exists?
  • How can you start positioning yourself as the kind of person that would be a fit for the job in the eyes of those around you?
  • What other hard or soft skills do you need to pick up in order to be competitive for the role?

Thinking this through helps because when it comes open, even if it’s a publicly posted opening, you have an edge because some of the local leadership should see you as a strategic player, not just another administrative paper pusher.

Let me know if that helps or if I can offer anything more to support you! I think it’s a good question not only because it’s making you think about certification, but because it’s making you think about yourself in terms of how qualified/ready you might be for a leadership role. This book I reviewed previously might be helpful in guiding you towards ways to be influential as a leader even before you get the “title” to go along with it.

Anyone else have comments or suggestions for Nancy?

If you have your own question you’d like featured here, feel free to shoot it to me at ben@upstarthr.com for consideration. 

randy swart

Talent Lessons from the Transportation Industry [Podcast]

How should you structure your talent attraction and retention strategies if you are in an industry where there are sharp declines in talent entering the field, high turnover rates, and a physically and emotionally demanding job description?

That’s what we’re here today to find out.

We hear all the time about driverless cars and automated trucks, but those advances still aren’t a reality yet. At this point we still have a large number of human drivers navigating the roads and keeping the nation and the world economies chugging along. But the trucking and logistics industry also has its troubles–driver shortages. high turnover rates. low engagement. tough work and work environments.

randy swart

Randy Swart, COO of A. Duie Pyle

Today I speak with Randy Swart, Chief Operating Officer from A. Duie Pyle, to understand some of the impact of this profession on the nation’s economy and how his company has been able to dramatically outperform its peers in the industry with low turnover, high employee engagement, and a phenomenal culture. I highly encourage you to take notes because Randy breaks out his company’s playbook and shares some concrete ideas for how the company accomplishes these feats. Regardless of your industry or company size, the takeaways and insights are really incredible for those employers looking to improve their onboarding, training, or even their employee experience.

Show Notes

We’re Only Human 19 – Lessons on Culture & Engagement from the Trucking Industry

Host: Ben Eubanks

Guest: Randy Swart, COO, A. Duie Pyle

What would you do if you found out that you were facing a drastic shortage in the primary candidates you hire? How would you work to retain the workers you have while simultaneously marketing your business to potential applicants?

In today’s conversation, Ben interviews Randy Swart to answer these very real questions that he deals with every day. As COO of A. Duie Pyle, Swart helps to run the transportation and logistics company through its normal operations. But the challenges the industry faces are anything but normal: turnover is rampant, the workforce is aging, and predictions of shortages continue to be ever more severe.

In the discussion, Swart shares some of the key practices that A. Duie Pyle uses to not only keep workers from leaving, but to actually help them enjoy the work they do at the same time. Regardless of the industry or company, listeners will have some wonderful takeaways from a true business leader on how to create more value for our employees.

For more information on A. Duie Pyle: https://www.aduiepyle.com/

For more episodes and information about We’re Only Human: https://upstarthr.com/podcast