Credentialing Process

Credentialing process is personnel measures designed to assess the conformity of the level of labor, qualities and potential of the individual with the requirements of the activity performed.

The main purpose of certification is not control over performance (although this is also very important) but the identification of re-serves to increase the employee’s return.

Properly conducted credentialing process helps to:

identify the level of development of professional qualities of em-ployees;
determine the potential for professional growth of employees and form a personnel reserve;
motivate employees to perform their duties more efficiently;
create an incentive system that directly reflects the performance of employees;
form a training program taking into account the personnel devel-opment potentials identified during the certification process.

Today, certification is becoming one of the key points in the over-all assessment of the store staff. In addition to general tasks, it solves its specific tasks, namely, the problem of improving the quality of external and internal services, as well as improving the quality and volume of knowledge of store employees about the goods sold.

The certification process can be divided into three main stages:

Preparatory stage: preparation of an order on certification, ap-proval of the certification committee, preparation and reproduction of documentation, informing staff about the timing and features of certification;
The main stage: the organization of work of the certification committee for the departments of the enterprise, the assessment of individual contributions of employees, filling out questionnaires, computer processing of the results;
The final stage: summing up the certification results, making personal decisions on employees.

A message about the beginning of certification rarely causes de-light among store staff. In order to avoid a deliberately negative reaction, it is necessary to explain to employees the need for certification, as well as to tell in detail about its goals and expected results. Only the full transparency of certification activities is able to attract store employees to interact with the leadership in this matter. Store employees should understand that certification is designed to help create an individual approach to stimulating each employee.

So, in order for the certification to be successful and not meet with opposition from the company’s employees, it is necessary to conduct informational training of personnel: inform the employees in advance about the date of certification, its objectives and specific assessment methods. This will help employees overcome the sense of fear and uncertainty that arose in connection with certification.

The manager should consider the candidates who will be included in the certification committee and entrust them with the preparation of checklists and questionnaires. In addition, it is necessary to provide for re-certification.

The estimated parameters of each employee in the certification system are determined by the scope of the company.

The main parameters of personnel assessment:

position in the organizational hierarchy;
practical results;
job competency.

The situation in the organizational hierarchy in this case is characterized by the responsibility that the employee must take upon him-/herself in fulfilling his/her duties, as well as by the volume and complexity of independent decisions that he or she needs to make. The main methods for assessing the compliance of an employee with a position held in this aspect are business games (cases). Assessment of the practical results of the employee’s work is carried out through checklists. The official competence of an employee is evaluated by a special commission in the process of fulfilling his or her daily duties.

It is customary to build a general system for assessing the per-formance of personnel taking into account tangible and intangible factors.

An example of material factors are:

level of personal sales,
presence at work (accounting for missed working days and their reasons),
the number of hours worked.

Intangible factors may include:

customer relations – the number of regular customers of the em-ployee, the number of daily customers, the presence of gratitude and complaints from visitors, etc.;
loyalty to the company – friendliness with employees, respect for superiors, responsibility, consent to replace a colleague in work, and so on;
initiative – the implementation of work that is not part of the re-sponsibilities of the co-worker, the willingness to work overtime.

The choice of personnel assessment method depends on its pa-rameters. The most commonly used methods include:

a checklist – is a survey of employees regarding their algorithm of actions during one of the organizational events taking place in the everyday life of any store, for example, its opening or closing. It is important that the job descriptions of the employee contain a detailed description of what he or she needs to do in this case. Based on the results of checking the checklists, the compliance of the actions of employees with the provisions of the job description is revealed. If an employee makes mistakes, they can be quickly eliminated. In addition, checklists help management understand how to improve store employees and what needs to be done. Moreover, checklists help to identify gaps in training programs and adjust them to achieve the best results;
business games (cases) – modeling of typical business situations characteristic of the evaluated activity, which allow assessing the level of professionalism of participants, their mental and organizational abilities;
interview (conversation) – allows you to get information about professional goals and values, organizational skills, communica-tive and personal characteristics;
tests – help to obtain information about the qualities that affect a person’s behavior and determine his or her professional effec-tiveness. The use of tests makes it possible to refine or supple-ment the information obtained in the framework of other methods.

For real control and an objective approach to each participant, regardless of personal relationships, it is necessary to develop an assessment system and determine the acceptable number of errors in answering questions.

After the certification is completed, an adequate management re-sponse should follow, that is, employees should see concrete re-sults.

In the case of successful certification, the employee should be encouraged: the salary is increased, a bonus is added for fulfilling standards, bonuses, depending on his or her contribution to the store’s activities, there should be a promotion, and so on.

In the case when the employee has not passed certification, the commission makes a decision on the necessity of passing the training program. Indeed, the negative results of personnel testing are also the results that allow the enterprise management to identify problematic issues in the personnel management process. It must be remembered that the certification of personnel is closely related to training and professional development. Certification of store employees allows you to identify gaps in their knowledge and skills. To eliminate these problems, it is necessary to adjust the plan of training activities according to the results of certification. Thus, the training process – certification – adjustment of knowledge will allow increasing the qualification of personnel in the shortest possible time. On the other hand, training programs prepare staff for the next certification, thereby increasing the likelihood of it being passed by all co-workers of the store with further receipt of bonuses and bonuses. Certification increases the effectiveness of training events, allowing you to further “enhance” the knowledge of employees only in the area where it is really neces-sary, avoiding wasting time on well-learned moments.

Credentialing process is one of the most effective ways to create and maintain a professional staff. It allows identifying the most promising employees for their subsequent transfer to higher posts. In particular, a personnel reserve is formed for managerial positions, which allows creating an effective team of managers from among the store employees who know the specifics of its activity without resorting to hiring specialists using external sources.

For many modern companies, Credentialing process has become one of the basic elements of corporate culture.