Upskilling Your Talent Development Expertise Through Certification
Continuous technological and social advances are changing the workplace through major evolutions in role design and project-based collaboration. These changes are driving the transition towards skill-based learning and career paths. As a result, people’s potential and performance are increasingly being assessed by their combination of verified skills and abilities rather than their previous experience or job titles.
Talent and leadership development professionals add value by applying their expertise and skillset to assess, recruit, develop, coach, and promote people at work.
Every year, globally, thousands of talent professionals become certified to use MHS’ market-leading talent assessments such as the Emotional Quotient-Inventory 2.0® (EQ-i 2.0®), the Change Style Indicator®, and the Influence Style Indicator™.
These tools are leveraged to help organizations achieve important workplace outcomes, such as:
- Developing employees’ emotional intelligence
- Assessing leadership potential; and
- Navigating organizations through change.
Here’s what one talent professional had to say about their certification experience:
“I have thoroughly enjoyed this program. My Trainer was excellent and made me and the other delegates extremely comfortable, taking all the time needed for our questions and to ensure our understanding. I have found this program to be more valuable than many other courses that I’ve done for my professional development in leadership consulting.”
Certification ensures consistency and accuracy
To ensure consistency and accuracy in the use of MHS’ talent assessments, certification is essential for:
- Gaining the skills and confidence to comprehend the theory and science behind the assessment
- Interpreting your client’s results; and
- Conducting a feedback session that helps develop your client’s self-awareness and provides insights into development opportunities.
Once the certification is complete, assessments can be purchased and administered with your clients through MHS’ talent assessment portal. A 2022 MHS survey of newly certified EQ-i 2.0/EQ 360® users found that 85% became certified as part of their leadership and development practice.
Certifications for assessments such as the EQ-i 2.0 are designed to be scientifically grounded, flexible, and depending on the assessment, are offered through trainer-led facilitation or self-paced lessons.
Certification provides scientifically grounded knowledge
Each certification, whether trainer-led or self-paced, includes information on the science behind the assessment’s development, including important psychometric data on its reliability, validity, and norms.
For example, the EQ-i 2.0/EQ 360 certification curriculum covers the research conducted on emotional intelligence and the EQ model that the assessment is based on. It also includes information on how valid and reliable the assessment is.
Information on the reliability and validity of an assessment is critical to trusting its effectiveness in measuring skills and its ability to make connections with important outcomes such as workplace performance. With the variety of assessments on the market claiming to measure the same abilities and traits, being able to share this psychometric data with your clients can be invaluable to achieve their buy-in.
Certification is focused on skill development
Our certifications include tools for skill development, such as:
- Coaching by a Master Trainer using a debrief of your own assessment results
- Practice exercises on debriefing and developing feedback strategies; and
- Resources to build your feedback strategies such as sample reports.
After becoming certified, MHS provides additional resources to develop your skillset through our talent assessment portal, such as micro-lessons, facilitation guides, and a user manual.
The 2022 MHS survey of newly certified EQ-i 2.0/EQ 360 users found that 90% agree they had sufficient opportunities to practice the skills they learned, and 97% agree that the certification provided what they need to use the assessment.
As part of your professional development, certifications are eligible for Continuing Education (CE) and Professional Development (PD) credits from organizations such as APA, ICF, and SHRM.
Many clients are interested in implementing the skills and knowledge they learned in their certification beyond providing debriefs. As a result, MHS offers complementary off-the-shelf products such as EQ Connections™ and the Emotionally Effective Leader Workshop, which are used to facilitate workshops on developing emotional intelligence.
Research on emotional intelligence has found it to be positively related to both job performance1 and effective leadership2, and these workshops can be valuable resources in your development toolkit.
Certification is offered through multiple methods
At MHS, we aim to create flexible certification models by offering a mix of trainer-led hybrid, online, and in-person sessions or self-paced online learning.
We deliver trainer-led talent certifications through an international network of Master Trainers from countries around the world, including Canada, U.S., Ireland, South Africa, and Sweden.
Trainer-led certification for assessments include MHS’ EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360, Change Style Indicator, Influence Style Indicator, Hardiness Resilience Gauge™ (HRG), Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test™ (MSCEIT™), and Pearman Personality Integrator®. These assessments and reports are longer and more complex in terms of interpretation and debriefing.
These certifications include a debrief of your own assessment from a Master Trainer, online pre-work modules, and one to two days of live facilitation. A schedule of live, hybrid, and online trainer-led sessions can be found on our certification calendar.
Clients who complete trainer-led certification value the benefits of asking questions, practicing techniques, and knowledge sharing with other professionals in real life. 97% of learners who complete the EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 certification through one of our Master Trainers would recommend it to others.
Self-paced certifications offer flexibility and are completed through our talent assessment portal for assessments such as the Sales Aptitude Profile™, Customer Service Aptitude Profile™, and the Entrepreneurial Edge™. These assessments and reports are generally shorter and simpler to understand and interpret.
As a talent professional, you understand that the expertise required to administer assessments and tools that accurately measure and develop people’s skills and abilities is becoming even more crucial. Upskilling through certification provides you with a major advantage by building your assessment toolkit and boosting your professional credibility.
Have any questions? Reach out to us here.
References
1O’Boyle Jr., E. H., Humphrey, R. H., Pollack, J. M., Hawver, H. H., & Story, P. A. (2011). The relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(5), 788-818.
2Mills, L. B. (2009). A meta-analysis of the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective leadership. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 3(2), 22-38.
