An individual with a professional certification brings credibility and expertise to the organization. But when you look closer, you’ll see that a certified individual brings a package of multiple competencies to the table. These competencies are important both in terms of ability to the job as well as long term benefit to the organization. Many times, a professional certification brings both expressed and implied competencies to your organization. If you are looking to bring in more people with a special designation or if you are considering sending your brightest through the program, be sure to examine the expressed competencies and determine what competencies you can imply. The CFA designation will provide your organization with a long list of expressed and implied competencies. Let’s discuss those in detail so that you can determine if the CFA designation competencies match those of your organization. Continue reading this post…

Certifications and professional designations have a value to the organization and the individual only if they are recognized or explainable in terms of the standards they uphold. In other words, both individual and organization look for designations that can be used to market, lend credibility, and explain standards, education and experience. Many organizations have internal certification or designation programs and these are a great way to get associates involved and retain them. But what does an internal certification actually prove? Everyone inside the organization knows what the certification means, what the person had to do to get it, and what standards he or she was held to. But outside of that organization, what value is the certification to shareholders, customers, or other organizations? The CFA designation is well known throughout the world, and because of its structure, gives your organization and each individual the recognition and standard they deserve. Let’s find out how. Continue reading this post…

The CFA study program encompasses many areas of the financial industry, as well as a strong emphasis on ethics and professional responsibility. As we’ve discussed briefly, the CFA candidate must pass three exam levels. The CFA Institute recommends that each candidate spend at least 250 hours in preparation for each level. The curriculum is self-study, which means that the candidate can pace him or herself according to his or her own comfort level. However, as exams are only given on certain dates, the candidate must create the pace to fit within those timelines. From the organizational perspective, the fact that the program is self-paced is very important. The candidate that completes all three levels successfully will prove that he or she is dedicated, determined, and goal-oriented. From an education perspective, we know that any self-paced program requires this dedication and determination, not to mention the discipline to make study a part of every day life. Continue reading this post…

The CFA designation, or Chartered Financial Analyst, is a high-level certification for professionals in the areas of investment and financial analysis. The program consists of self-study, along with three exam levels that measure almost every level of learning. Professionals must also meet criteria for time in the profession, as well as a high level of competency and ethics. The CFA program, offered by the CFA Institute, is global in its reach and has been in existence since 1962. In the financial world, a CFA designation is considered to be among the highest of professional designations. In view of these criteria, the CFA designation is beneficial for both the individual and the organization in several ways, including the curriculum, the CFA standards and recognition, competencies, and in an overall sense at the organizational level. Before we examine each piece, let’s discuss in more detail what the CFA designation means, which professionals hold this designation, and what organizations look for CFA designated charterholders. Continue reading this post…

We all instinctively know that learning and development within the corporate space is ‘supposed to’ make a difference.  Yet, far too often the programs (not necessary the people) fail due to the following reasons.  Some of these reasons are structural, but too many times it is just poor project management.

A primary reason many programs and courses fail is because there is no “Accountability”.  Learning and Development departments think that they provide accountability by counting the number of seats in the program, or talking about how and why this program is valuable. But they fail in the correlation of the program to the participant job or position. Continue reading this post…

As we close our discussion on creating a coaching or mentoring program, you must take the time to make the program permanent. You’ve measured the success of the program in both human capital and otherwise. You’ve shown that success to the decision makers and stakeholders and they are “on board”. Let’s look at some ways that you can make the program a permanent part of the organization.

First, the key part of permanence is to always be a step ahead of the organization. If things are going to change, you need to be aware of the coming changes. To do this, you should keep in contact with your executive sponsors or stakeholders. Set regular meetings with them using the coaching program as a meeting subject in order to keep the program in their minds. Be prepared to show how you’re evaluating and making changes along the way, both the good and the difficult changes. Once you’ve got this “window” into the future of the organization, you can always be on the lookout for ways to change the program with the organization. And when you do this, your executive sponsorship and buy-in will continue. Continue reading this post…

The coaching or mentoring program you’ve created is up and running, you’ve evaluated, and you’ve made changes. At this point, you’re probably seeing the successes of the program and would like to help others in the organization achieve those successes. Don’t be afraid to look for ways to expand your coaching or mentoring program. Here are some ways to get more people interested and to expand the reach of your successful program.

First, consider incentive for coaches. If you’ve already implemented incentives for coaches or mentors, look at what incentives you are offering and determine if those are going to be sustainable. If so, offer those incentives to new coaches and mentors in order to get the program into an expansion. If the incentives were experimental, think about expanding them and making them permanent. Under these conditions, think about moving to more valuable incentives. When you find that coaches and mentors are Continue reading this post…