By D. Zachary Misko
I don’t know about you, but I shop quite a bit on Amazon. I love the fact that I can do it anytime, often get lower prices, and check out what other buyers have to say about an item I am interested in. The ratings and customer reviews can be helpful, especially if it’s something I haven’t purchased before and am less familiar with it. A few times, it has actually made me change brands to a better-rated or cheaper product. Of course, the five-star rating system isn’t unique to Amazon. We’ve become familiar with it and see it often: when choosing a restaurant, booking a hotel, and even when selecting a movie for Friday night. Consumer Reports also gives us an opportunity to review those big purchases before committing to a product. The platform helps us assess the best brand to meet our needs and makes the shopping experience easier by highlighting the top choices, saving time, and ensuring a good long-term outcome.
The HRO Today Association recognizes the value of this type of data. Information like customer satisfaction data; crowd-sourced opinions; expert evaluations; and third-party, merit-based designations or awards can be useful in saving consumers time, energy, and frustration, resulting in a positive experience.
And the association also recognizes that you are busy and that your time is valuable. We know that you require access to research, best practices, industry tools, references, and a network of experts who can help when you have HR services and/or technology needs to outsource or purchase. Therefore, this year, we changed our approach to offer you the best products, services, and resources to help you work smarter and not harder. A full list of offerings is available on our website. You’ll find things that have been in place since the association was formed as well as new and improved offerings for this year.
I’ll highlight one of the new products that we are unveiling at the September 12th HRO Today Association Conference in Philadelphia: an HR Services and Technology Provider Certification Program. Certification can be one of the most powerful initiatives of an organization or industry, allowing you to learn key components, specific deliverables, and information imperative to your overall needs. The benefits of this program include:
- providing a key strategy for helping individuals better position themselves in our competitive marketplace;
- helping to protect the health, safety, or welfare of consumers;
- helping to create standards of performance for the industry; and
- ensuring customers have access to qualified service providers.
As well, certification programs over the years have helped elevate a profession and transform entire industries. But the extent to which it can accomplish any of these things depends in part upon the knowledge, skill, and effort in finalizing the program details. At HRO Today, our Baker’s Dozen Customer Satisfaction lists, our magazine, our research, and our company and team experience, combined with our Board of Advisors, customers, and members mean we have the knowledge and skills to create a successful certification program. This is an important industry standard and benchmark -a special thank you to all of our members who assisted in the planning and creation of this program!
I hope to see you at the upcoming HRO Today Association Conference on September 12 in Philadelphia. If you don’t have your ticket, please visit our website and purchase your tickets today. Industry experts and thought leaders Dr. Beverly Kay, Maren Hogan, Johnny Campbell, and Tom McMakin are just some of the people who will be sharing insights and presenting at our event this year!
