Demand for certified human resources professionals in Internet-based job announcements

Aguinis, H., Michaelis, S. E., & Jones, N. M.
International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Vol 13, Issue 2,  Pages 160-171

We tested empirically whether potential employers require and/or prefer human resources (HR)professionals who hold an HR certification. We analyzed each of 1,873 HR job announcements
available over a one-week period on monster.com, hotjobs.yahoo.com, careerbuilder.com, and shrm.org. Results showed that only 9 (i.e., .48%) job announcements stated that there was a requirement and only 70 (i.e., 3.73%) job announcements stated that there was a preference for job applicants with any type of HR certification. In spite of the low overall demand for certified HR professionals, results indicated that the demand is slightly higher for jobs posted on shrm.org, certain job titles (e.g., HR Director, HR Generalist), HR specialty areas (e.g., employee relations, general HR), industries (e.g., manufacturing), and for jobs requiring more
years of HR job experience. Overall, results suggest that the field of HR needs to do a better job of gathering evidence about validity, utility, and lack of adverse impact regarding the use of
certification in selection and assessment decision making. Once this evidence is collected, employers may perceive HR certification as a more critical signal of a job applicant’s future contributions.