Why should we care?
An HR Excellence Award, certifies the Employer who cares about its employees, values professionalism, follows updated HR practices and makes a difference in the field. What’s more?
It is a tool for employee engagement, a unique collaborative, learning and developmental experience for those involved. This experience in turn, can leverage a virtuous circle reflected at tandem not only on people’s morale and loyalty but also on business results. A renowned HR Certification, becomes a competitive advantage, establishes Employer’s fame among stakeholders and attracts potential talent, contributing in Organization’s continuous improvement, growth and sustainability.
What is all about?
Among numerous HR Certifications around the Globe, three really stand out, when it comes to their assessment’s independent methods and impact on Employers recognition, namely, in alphabetical order, “Great Place to Work”, “Investors in People” and “Top Employer”.
Great place to work 
HOW
- Launch the “Trust Index”, a research-backed employee experience survey, to employees, during a 2-week period
- Complete of a “Cultural Brief”, which provides details about company’s programs and practices
- Compete according to the size of the organization to other companies that decide to participate on that particular year.
- In case an Organization is recognized on the top 10 list of the Best Workplace recognition, it gets a great access to benchmarking reports and useful templates and the recognition gets published with the particular ranking as well.
Investors in people
HOW
- People Framework – Assessing the Organization against a predetermined analytical framework. The model audits how well the company is doing at leading, improving and supportingits people, tone from the top and is compared to other companies in its industry or its size.
- Assessment – Survey people through interviews for their feedback.
- Report – Recommendations to help Organization improve. There are 4 achievement levels: Standard, Silver, Gold or Platinum.
- Making Improvements – Three (3) years Accreditation and an Action plan for what changes the company is going to make over that time. A practitioner checks in at 12 and 24 months to see how company’s getting on.
For smaller organizations with less than 50 people, there is the option of “We invest in people One (1)-year accreditation”, which offers an in-depth organization analysis at a significantly reduced cost, compared to full, three-year accreditation.
On top of “We invest in People” accreditation, there’re also the “We invest in Wellbeing”(examining psychological, social and physical goals) and “We invest in Apprentices” (assessing communication, commitment and development aspects) accreditations, which respectively certify an Organization’s relevant practices and lasts three (3) years.
Top employer
HOW
The Organization under assessment must first meet a set of minimum qualifying criteria. To be eligible for participation, must have at least 250 local or 2.500 international employees, as well as, formalized HR practices. Once one meets the standards gets certified, if not, it stays confidential.
Stage 1. Survey-The “HR Best Practices Survey” looks at people practices based on 6 domains which covers 10 topics expanding over 600 practices, over key HR themes: Steer, Shape, Attract, Develop, Engage and Unite.
Stage 2. Validation process – the proof is based on data
Stage 3. Certification – recognition well deserved
Stage 4. Feedback – learning from feedback is key
Certifications’ ID in a snapshot
| GREAT PLACE TO WORK | INVESTORS IN PEOPLE | TOP EMPLOYER |
|---|---|---|
| A Recognition Program | A Standard Certification | A Certification Program |
| Culture assessement | People management assessment | HR Policies & Practicies assessment |
| Short Employee Survey completion period | Pre-assessment on a given framework | Eligible Companies with > 250 employees or 2500 international |
| Benchmarking | Multidimensional, thorough assessment, involving employees and leaders | Thorough and multidimensional assessment |
| Annual | Time and effort consuming | Learning from feedback |
| Continuous monitoring & feedback | Annual | |
| Options for 1 or 3 years lasting accreditation, depending on company’s size |
Well, maybe the time has come…
…to make the move and talk about your brand as an employer. Either small or large, start-up or well established, local or international, an Organization can grasp the opportunity to exchange knowledge and share practices, to improve its employees engagement, market talents attraction and stakeholders trust and to be recognized for its HR outstanding culture, people’s management or policies, participating and co-shaping the global HR community.
Today, we are in the midst of challenging times and thus, more substantially than ever before, an HR Excellence Certification could be for every Organization an elevator towards a next day’s new-shaped, enriched workplace and further Up!