HRCP Blog

This week’s question of the week on the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) website examines the significance of the “PHR Only” and “SPHR Only” designations in the HRCI body of knowledge. The information is worth repeating here:

Q. I am preparing to take the PHR exam in May, and I noticed that some areas covered in the HRCI body of knowledge are marked either “PHR Only” or “SPHR Only.” Why is this, and does it mean that I don’t need to know anything about the items marked “SPHR Only?”

A. When HRCI conducted its most recent practice analysis in 2005, the HR professionals who responded to our survey indicated that a few responsibility areas were performed chiefly by those at the PHR level and some others chiefly by those at the SPHR level. Therefore, exam questions that relate specifically to those job responsibilities were moved to the appropriate level exam.

This does not mean, however, that you may not need to know something about the related knowledge level or underlying concept. For example, in the Employee and Labor Relations functional area, responsibility #11 “Participate in collective bargaining activities, including contract negotiation and administration” is now marked SPHR ONLY. Therefore a question dealing with specific contract negotiation strategies or activities would appear on the SPHR exam. However, in the US, the National Labor Relations Act covers most collective bargaining agreements in the private sector. Therefore, the PHR exam might appropriately ask a question about the NLRA and its impact on the collective bargaining process, since it appears in Knowledge Area #48 of the body of knowledge.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 am and is filed under About the exams. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.