How Credentialing Boosts Competitive Advantage, Business Performance, and Profitability

A good credential is like a good ladder: it should be on a firm footing or foundation, against the right wall, with rungs or steps placed and spaced for safe upward mobility. It is helpful to have a spotter to steady the ladder, monitor your position and balance, alert passersby, and increase safety. A proper ladder enables you to get the job done, ie, accomplish your goal, because climbing a ladder without reaching your goal is like painting without finishing.

Foundation

A career ladder has a solid foundation when linked to a respected nonprofit or trade organization that offers upskilling, certification, and licensing opportunities.

Examples include:

1. The American Hospital Association's Certified Health Care Environmental Services (CHESP) credential recognizes knowledge of environmental services operations, planning, infection prevention, compliance, waste management, finance, and administration.
2. Indoor Exposure Index (INDEX) (501(c)(3) pending) is developing a science-based program to certify and license individuals and businesses with the knowledge, skills, and operational practices needed to reduce indoor exposures and better define and meet environmental services goals.

Wall (The Correct One)

Just as a ladder leaning against the correct wall, credentialing can directly help your business when it involves upskilling to improve the quality and professionalism of your work.

Examples range from handwashing to obtaining certification in surface bioload reduction.

Rungs

Each class you take or certification you earn is like a sturdy rung on a ladder. Create a visual representation of your career ladder, label the rungs or steps, and indicate where you’re at on the ladder. How high you go depends on where you place your ladder and when you take the steps.

Spotter

The safest way to use a ladder, beyond placing it on a solid surface and at the proper angle, is to work with consultants who can guide and encourage your progress. Think of them as your spotter who observes and steadies your climb and encourages you to carefully take the next step. There are consultants trained in indoor air quality exposures related to cleaning for health (ideally to be INDEX-Certified), just as there are consultants trained in handwashing and bioload reduction.

Accomplishment

Credentialing provides a way to showcase professionalism, accomplishments, and compliance with regulatory, safety, and health requirements, while building employee and customer confidence. Your credentials are strong across your resume, email signature, and online presence, underscoring the importance of highlighting accomplishments that reflect your position on the career ladder.

Earnings

The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW), an independent nonprofit research and policy institute that studies career paths, found that individuals with certifications or licenses earn more than those without them and that these credentials enhance credibility and lead to greater career advancement.

It sounds obvious, even basic, but too few environmental services (EVS) professionals have credentials, and if they have them, they don’t promote them effectively.

Promoting Your Credentials

It is a beautiful sight to see those framed certificates hanging on your office wall as a backdrop for your Zoom or Teams meetings.

Digital credentialing and badging make it easier, more powerful, and pervasive to promote your expertise and build client trust.

According to Educause, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance the strategic use of technology and data to further education, digital badges are validated indicators of accomplishments or skills, and “represent [credentials] in the way that a diploma represents a degree.”

Digital badging should be part of a long-term credentialing strategy. Digital badges may include a QR code that, when scanned, directs the user to a validation or home page. They can be incorporated into websites, social media, email signatures, and more to showcase skills, knowledge, and accomplishments virtually.

Conclusion
Hold a meeting with your team to decide which certifications will help you perform with greater skill and consistency, where to place your ladder or ladders, and how you will climb each one.

Credentialing builds customer trust, competitive advantage, and business profitability.

It also develops people: Step by step, workers ascend the ladder and become more self-confident and capable.

As S. Truett Cathy, an American businessman, said and mountaineers will tell you: “No goal [or summit] is too high if you climb with care and confidence.”