Recertification Lifecycle December 29, 2010

Background & Methodology This secondary study concludes the recertification lifecycle project The recertification lifecycle project started with an analysis of US & OUS recertification rates and was followed by the recertification satisfaction primary survey* This study analyzed the records of 90,256 HR professionals certified before % were in the U.S. and 1% were based O.U.S. Totals may not sum 100% due to rounding * Suggest reading the recertification survey as well as the results of this final study

Retention Profiles: US & OUS

US certificants kept their credential 19% more than OUS certificants % Current Certified* * First certified from 2003 to 2006 Clear need to reinforce the recertification channel OUS. 19%

Having multiple credentials increased retention up to 75% Having more than one credential (“up selling”) increased retention (e.g., 89% of PHR, SPHR and GPHR were still active while only 51% with PHR only were still active) But….only ~10% had more than one credential. % Current Certified 75%

Time to Up Sell: 1 st & 2 nd Cycle Time to Migrate (Up Sell)% total First Cycle35% Second Cycle38% Third or More Cycle27% 73% of certificants who purchased a second product did so in the 1 st or 2 nd recertification cycle Brainstorming: up selling should start in the 1 st cycle as an alternative to accrue the 60 recertification credits needed in the current cycle.

Profiles: Multiple & Single Product

86% of those that dropped did so in the 1 st cycle (i.e., 1 st cycle is key to retention) Timing to Drop Out Concentrate retention strategies (e.g., reminders) on the 1 st recertification cycle

86% of PHRs that dropped did so in 1 st cycle as compared to 15% of GPHRs The increased retention of GPHR was mainly due to the fact that GPHR was the second or third credential Time to Drop OutPHRSPHRGPHR 1 st Cycle86%80%15% 2 nd Cycle13%19%53% 3 rd or More Cycles1% 32%

Recommendations Reinforce recertification channel OUS to increase retention Focus on “Up-Selling” as a way to increase retention –Start promoting additional credential in the middle of 1 st cycle –Recognize those with more than one credential –Measure and adopt as goal % of certificants with more than one credential Consider the following: –Adopting different approach (e.g., recognition) for Male HR Professionals (especially in the US) –Offering incentives (e.g., recert price discount) for HR professionals in smaller organizations with less than 100 employees (especially OUS) –Aggressively using reminders and other retention strategies in the 1 st recert cycle –Simplifying the recert policy (see PMI new recertification policy as benchmark) in 2012PMI new recertification policy –Adopting as part of the recert policy, that the 2 nd product (up sell) could be an alternative to accrue 60 recert credit hour for the 1 st credential –Other recommendations proposed in the recertification satisfaction survey Conduct future study on recert metrics (e.g., alternatives to measure recertification rate & additional performance metrics such as % with more than one credential)