The HR Certification Institute contracts with the Professional Examination Service (PES) to screen the HR Certification Institute exam applications for eligibility, process payments, issue Authorization to Test letters, score the exams and mail score reports and certificates. PES also provides psychometric expertise on item writing, exam construction and item analysis.

Thomson Prometric is the global leader in technology-enabled testing and assessment services for information technology certification, academic admissions and professional licensure and certifications. The HR Certification Institute contracts with Thomson Prometric for exam delivery services. These services include scheduling, administering and proctoring the exams.

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Benjamin Shimberg from The Chauncey Group International writes that certification "is based on the voluntary action on the part of an occupational or professional group to institute a system by which it can grant recognition to those practitioners who have met some stated level of training and experience. Such individuals are granted a certificate or diploma attesting to the fact that they have met the standards of the credentialing organization and are entitled to make the public aware of their credentialed status" (Craig G. Schoon and I. Leon Smith, The Licensure and Certification Mission: Legal, Social, and Political Foundations, Forbes Custom Publishing, 2000, p. 146).

Certifications differ from certificate programs because certifications, by definition, include an experience component. Certificate programs, on the other hand, award certificates once a course of study has been successfully completed and does not require experience. A certification awards a designation (for example, PHR or SPHR).

Certifications differ from licensures because they are voluntary and nongovernmental. Licensures are governmentally sanctioned credentials and are required to practice.

Why is certification desirable? Certification sets those with the credential apart--or above--those without it. Obviously, there are a number of advantages, then, to seeking certification. Certification becomes a public recognition of professional achievement -- both within and ultimately outside of the profession. For many, achieving certification becomes a personal professional goal -- a way to test one's knowledge and to measure oneself against one's peers. To a lesser extent, others use it as an aid to career advancement.

Certifications also help fledgling professions establish themselves -- witness the flurry of IT "certifications" over the past few years. Certifications serve to define what an individual needs to know in order to be an acknowledged "expert" in that field.

While certification signifies mastery of a body of knowledge, it does not, in and of itself, teach the mastery; any certification that purports to do so may be a certificate program in disguise. Because certifications include a work experience component, certification examinations are, by definition, experiential based. Because of the experiential component to certification, any preparation material, then, that also purports to "teach to the test" should be suspect. At most, preparation materials and courses should be considered refresher courses.

Certification through the HR Certification Institute is completely voluntary and is conferred solely for the purposes stated above. HR Certification Institute does not recommend that organizations or individuals incorporate PHR or SPHR certification as a condition of employment or advancement.