Re-Certification – Don’t Forget

Congratulations on becoming certified. When you became certified – whether it was last month, last year or three or more years ago – you demonstrated not only your support of the HR profession, but your professional commitment to excellence in the field. Your journey, however, has just started.

Re-certification demonstrates your continued dedication to stay up to date with the rapidly changing HR profession. To retain the PHR, SPHR or GPHR designations, HRCI requires all certified individuals to recertify every three years by accumulating 60 credit hours through continuing education, instruction, on-the-job experience, research and publishing, leadership activities or professional membership in a national HR association. For SPHR certified individuals, 15 of the 60 hours must be in strategic HR management; for GPHR certified individuals, 30 hours must be in international HR management. Certified individuals also have the option of recertifying by exam. HRCI now has an online system for tracking recertification activities.

Your Re-Certification Cycle

Your certification cycle begins in the month in which you first become certified. For example, if you became certified in December 2007, you will be due to recertify three years from that date (December 2010). A recertification application may be submitted online or you may submit a paper application.

Pre-Approved Programs

When selecting programs you may come across some that have an “Approved-for-Credit” seal from HRCI. While you are not required to have preapproved programs on your recertification application, it eliminates the guesswork when taking continuing education workshops, conferences, seminars or courses by letting you know that HRCI will accept the credit hours from the program when you include them on your application.

Don't Procrastinate...

Just remember to keep up with your recertification credits as you go so by the end of the three years, you have your 60 credit hours and are ready for three more years as a recognized certified professional.