HR Skills® offers two certificates: HR Skills® Fundamentals and HR Skills® Best Practices. 

The HR Skills® Fundamentals certificate includes 8 courses selected and designed to provide learners with the fundamental skills needed to begin a career path in Human Resources.  

HR Skills® Best Practices includes 8 courses focused on training in the behaviors, practices and approaches that enable HR professionals, organizational leaders, managers, and supervisors to foster better connections, communicate effectively, provide useful feedback, and navigate difficult situations. It is geared towards those that may be interested in advancing their career to a position that includes supervisory and managerial responsibilities, but is appropriate for anyone hoping to advance their interpersonal skills.

No — there are no prerequisites, so the certificates are appropriate for anyone.

Yes, all HR Skills® courses carry recertification credits for both HRCI® and SHRM® credentials.  Additionally, HR Skills® Coaching, Progressive Discipline and SMART Goals for Performance Evaluation courses carry PMI® PDUs. See each course description for the specific number of credits.

Each course will take approximately 2 hours to complete.  You can therefore expect around 16 course hours associated with the HR Skills® Fundamentals certificate, and 16 course hours for the HR Skills® Best Practices certificate.

There is not a specific order in which you should take the courses, but there are courses designed to be taken towards a particular HR Skills® certificate.  The certificates and their respective courses are as follows

HR Skills® Best Practices Certificate Course List:

• Coaching for HR
• Progressive Discipline
• Performance Evaluation (SMART Goals)
• Conflict Resolution for HR 
• Handling Difficult Conversations 
• Communication and HR 
• Leadership and HR
• Problem Solving

HR Skills® Fundamentals Certificate Course List:

• The Hiring Process
• Interviewing
• Onboarding 
• Training and Development
• Interpreting Data
• Effective Meetings
• Exit Interviews 
• HR Federal Law

Absolutely.  The HR Skills® certificates are designed to provide multi-level training to meet multiple organizational needs, allowing the HR department the time to focus on the most pressing priorities within the company.  

The HR Skills® Fundamentals certificate is perfect for:  

• Organizations that are hiring entry-level HR positions and feel the new hires could use training in the areas they have not yet been exposed to. 
• Organizations that do not have the HR staff available to conduct the basic HR training for HR new-hires. 

The HR Skills® Best Practices certificate is perfect for:   

• Organizations that are promoting employees to management positions with no prior supervisory experience, who will be responsible for performing HR functions (coaching, performance evaluations, etc.).
• Organizations that want to require training for any employee that is in a position that supervises others but does not have the HR staff available to conduct the sessions. 
• Organizations that are experiencing personnel and/or issues within their culture and feel additional training and development is needed in interpersonal or “soft” skills.

The training offered by HR Skills® is not test prep that is aligned to industry certification exams. Rather, it is focused on understanding the field of human resources. The HR Skills® certificates can be considered the first step on a pathway to beginning a career in HR, or building on your current knowledge with skills-based training designed to enhance interpersonal, management and leadership skills.

Yes.  Both HR Skills® certificates are offered at a discount to our group and corporate cohorts. For more information on corporate partnerships, contact Jennifer Adams ([email protected]).

The HR Skills® courses are all administered online. However, for groups of a certain size, we can work to offer a learning option with both online courses and in-person instruction.  For more information on this option, contact Jennifer Adams ([email protected]).

There are final exams for each individual course within the specific certificate track.

You have 12 months to complete the courses for the specific certificate.  The courses are self-paced and can be completed in less time.

No, the HR Skills® certificates do not expire.