Lyons, seniors Bayer and Wood present research at Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology conference 

The co-authored research examines the external pressures within the human resource industry influencing an increased demand for HR certifications. 

By Erin Manchuso '19

Senior human resource management students Jenna Bayer and Roxanna Wood and Brian Lyons, associate professor of management in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, presented research on industry demand for human resource certifications at the 34th annual Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Conference held April 4-6 in Maryland.

The co-authors shared their research entitled, “Reexamining the base rate of demand for HR certifications in the United States.”

The paper’s summary reads: “External pressures by an increasing number of certified Human Resources (HR) professionals and a new entrant into the HR certification market substantiated the need to establish a new base rate of demand for HR certification. Building on previous studies, the current study analyzed over 5,300 job announcements and found that: (a) the demand for HR certification increased from 15.6% (Lyons, Mueller, Gruys, & Meyers, 2012) to 20.7%; (b) the number of job announcements requiring HR certification increased from 1.1% (Lyons et al., 2012) to 2.6%; (c) HRCI certifications were generally in demand more often than SHRM certifications; and (d) the demand for HR certification for managerial-level jobs increased from 25.1% (Lyons et al., 2012) to 33.7%.”

The co-authors expect their research will be published within the next year.

After graduation, Bayer will join IBM in its U.S. Public Service, Global Services division as a business consultant. Wood will continue her human resources study at Cornell University in its Master of Industrial Labor Relations program.

SIOP is the premier membership organization for the science and practice of industrial and organizational psychology. While an independent organization with its own governance, SIOP also represents Division 14 of the American Psychological Association and is an organizational affiliate of the Association for Psychological Science.