Interview with Edward M. Hallowell, MD, author of Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People Interview by Juliet Harrison E dward Hallowell, MD, is a psychiatrist, served as an instructor at Harvard Medical School for 20 years, and is the director of the Hallowell Centers in New York City and Sudbury, Massachusetts. He has written two popular Harvard Business Review articles and authored 18 books, including the national bestseller Driven to Distraction, that have sold millions of copies. In his latest book, Shine, Edward combines new research into brain science with what we know about performance management to offer a proven process for managers to get the best from their teams and their people. Hallowell introduces what he calls, ‘‘the cycle of excellence’’ – a five-step plan that draws on his own work of helping people overcome attention deficit problems and become more productive in everyday life. What was the inspiration behind writing your recent book: Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People? For many years, I have been working with people who have learning differences to help them achieve peak performance. About 15 years ago, I got interested in getting into the population at large, specifically around the area of business and studying peak performance. I wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review about 12 years ago, called ‘‘The human moment at work’’[1] which was about the disappearance of face-to-face communication as it is replaced by electronic communication, which has only become truer and truer in recent years. I also became interested in how stressed and busy people are in this electronic age, so I wrote another article for Harvard Business Review called: ‘‘Overloaded circuits: why smart people underperform’’[2]. The article had such an impact that I went from that to a book called: Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About the Snap. From that, there was an enthusiastic response, so I thought well why do not I write a manual on how to bring the best out in people, since I have been studying it for most of my professional life; with special attention to the modern age and the obstacles and opportunities our electronic age presents. This was also informed by the recent discoveries in brain science, and is where Shine came from: getting the best out of using brain science to get the best out of your people. In your book, you talk about the phenomenon of ‘‘overloaded circuits’’, which means that people’s best efforts fail because they are working too hard. Why do you think this is? It is the technology, which is wonderful and in no way do I disparage it. We just have to be careful to use it, or it will use us. We have broken down all the boundaries, so you can be interrupted at any time, any place. In fact, people spend about a third of their day dealing with unplanned interruptions – well that is a colossal waste of time. People have to learn to reco ...

1. Interview with Edward M. Hallowell, MD,
author of Shine: Using Brain Science to
Get the Best from Your People
Interview by Juliet Harrison
E
dward Hallowell, MD, is a psychiatrist, served as an instructor
at Harvard Medical
School for 20 years, and is the director of the Hallowell Centers
in New York City and
Sudbury, Massachusetts. He has written two popular Harvard
Business Review
articles and authored 18 books, including the national bestseller
Driven to Distraction, that
have sold millions of copies.
In his latest book, Shine, Edward combines new research into
brain science with what we
know about performance management to offer a proven process
for managers to get the
best from their teams and their people. Hallowell introduces
what he calls, ‘‘the cycle of
excellence’’ – a five-step plan that draws on his own work of
helping people overcome

2. attention deficit problems and become more productive in
everyday life.
What was the inspiration behind writing your recent book:
Shine: Using Brain
Science to Get the Best from Your People?
For many years, I have been working with people who have
learning differences to help them
achieve peak performance. About 15 years ago, I got interested
in getting into the
population at large, specifically around the area of business and
studying peak
performance. I wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review
about 12 years ago,
called ‘‘The human moment at work’’[1] which was about the
disappearance of face-to-face
communication as it is replaced by electronic communication,
which has only become truer
and truer in recent years. I also became interested in how
stressed and busy people are in
this electronic age, so I wrote another article for Harvard
Business Review called:
‘‘Overloaded circuits: why smart people underperform’’[2]. The
article had such an impact
that I went from that to a book called: Crazy Busy:

3. Overstretched, Overbooked and About
the Snap. From that, there was an enthusiastic response, so I
thought well why do not I write
a manual on how to bring the best out in people, since I have
been studying it for most of my
professional life; with special attention to the modern age and
the obstacles and
opportunities our electronic age presents. This was also
informed by the recent discoveries
in brain science, and is where Shine came from: getting the best
out of using brain science to
get the best out of your people.
In your book, you talk about the phenomenon of ‘‘overloaded
circuits’’, which means
that people’s best efforts fail because they are working too hard.
Why do you think
this is?
It is the technology, which is wonderful and in no way do I
disparage it. We just have to be
careful to use it, or it will use us. We have broken down all the
boundaries, so you can be
interrupted at any time, any place. In fact, people spend about a
third of their day dealing
with unplanned interruptions – well that is a colossal waste of
time. People have to learn to

4. reconstruct boundaries so that they can actually spend some
time thinking. When you ask
DOI 10.1108/09670731111140766 VOL. 19 NO. 4 2011, pp. 43-
45, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0967-0734 j
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL
DIGEST j PAGE 43
Edward M. Hallowell
people where they do their best thinking, they rarely say ‘‘at
work’’. We have allowed
ourselves to be infiltrated by distractions, interruptions,
messages etc. If you then also throw
in the economic demise and the pressures that this creates, then
that of course only makes it
worse.
People are working in what I call ‘‘F-state’’: frantic, frenzied,
frazzled, forgetful, and
frustrated – and about to utter another F word! Instead, they
should be working in what I call
‘‘C-state’’: cool, calm, collected, careful, concentrated, curious,
creative, and courteous.
That is where you do your best work, but modern life conspires
to drive people into the

5. F-state.
How can employees go about achieving peak performance
amidst all the
distractions of the modern world?
The solution that I lay out in my book is a five-step process for
managing high performance.
What is probably the cornerstone of it, the key to it is what I
call ‘‘connection’’, so the feeling
that you are part of something larger than yourself. If you are
overstretched and about to
snap, you’ll be in a negative emotional state. Emotion is really
the on-off switch for
peak-performance. A lot of people don’t realize that, but your
emotional state determines
whether you will achieve excellence or not. If you are in F-
state, if you are frantic and frazzled
and forgetful, there is no way that you can do your best. The
enlightened work-place now
creates conditions of positive connections.
How have you used your experiences as a psychiatrist to
influence your
management theories?
It really is a theory rooted in empirical evidence, or brain
science, as well as the wisdom I

6. have gained over the years, but it begins by selecting the right
match. A lot of people don’t
achieve their best because they are simply in the wrong job. I
give various instruments that
they can use to assess whether they are in the right place or not.
The second step is to connect, and that’s the key: creating the
positive emotional
environment. The key for the manager is to create those
boundaries and conditions for
positive connections; a work environment that’s high on trust
and low on fear. Then, as you
create that environment, you naturally are able to kick in with
your imagination. Imaginative
involvement with work is absolutely essential to bring out the
best in people. That is where
your create thinking comes in, and that is where you add more
than you even knew you had.
As that happens, you naturally want to work harder, and that is
the fourth step which I call
‘‘grapple and grow’’. When you are in a state where it is
coming through selection,
connection and imagination, then you want to work harder.
These are the people that give
120 percent, because they want to.

7. As you grapple and grow you naturally get to the final step
which is for peak performance:
you ‘‘shine’’. You are at your best and you receive recognition,
which also connects you to
the people who are recognizing you. That really is the source of
the loyalty and means that
people don’t leave the company, which is another key to the
success of any organization.
How can managers identify whether their employees are in the
right job?
Ask them! It is that simple. I have a more organized system,
which I call the Hallowell
Self-Report Job-Fit Scale. This works you through a series of
questions to determine if you
are in the right job. The right job is basically the overlap of
three spheres: what you are good
at, what you like to do, and what someone is willing to pay you
to do. When those three
spheres overlap, that ought to be your job. A lot of people just
aren’t there and are afraid to
talk about it, and their managers don’t ask and just focus on
their performance without ever
thinking, ‘‘is this the best match?’’.

8. PAGE 44jHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
INTERNATIONAL DIGESTj VOL. 19 NO. 4 2011
Could you give any examples of organizations that are
performing particularly well in
terms of managing their employees’ performance?
I would say SAS, which is a huge company in North Carolina
and was voted the number one
company to work for by Fortune Magazine. They take this very,
very seriously. Jim
Goodnight, the CEO has said that our brains are our most
valuable asset, so we better
manage them well. They have things like ensuring that you go
home by 5:00 p.m.; they have
a gym on site and a laundry for your clothes so that you can
work out everyday. They take the
business of managing the brains in the workplace very seriously
and as a result, they are at
the top of their industry.
You talk about two of the main problems in the workplace being
disconnection and
overload. Could you take us through why you think these are
particularly
problematic issues?
They are really two sides of the same coin, so when you are

9. overloaded you cannot connect.
If you’re crazy busy, you can’t connect and are just frantically
swimming as fast as you can.
It’s sort of a modern paradox, in that as we have super-
connected electronically, we have
disconnected inter-personally. As we allow this flood of
messages and interruptions that
makes us ever more busy electronically, we are ever less
available interpersonally. That is
the crux of it: with overload comes disconnection, and as you
disconnect you are less able to
work at your best, so you get overloaded, so it becomes a
vicious cycle.
Keywords:
Brain,
Sciences,
Performance management
Notes
1. http://hbr.org/1999/01/the-human-moment-at-work/ar/1
2. http://hbr.org/2005/01/overloaded-circuits/ar/1
VOL. 19 NO. 4 2011 jHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
INTERNATIONAL DIGESTj PAGE 45

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The SHRM Assurance of Learning Exam: Assessing the Field’s
Awareness and Perceptions of this External Validation
Test for Human Resource Graduates
Scott W. Lester
University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
Kristy J. Lauver
University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
This study investigates the level of awareness and perceptions
of the Assurance of Learning Exam (AOL)
in the HR field. This exam is a substitute for students no longer

11. eligible to sit for the Professional in
Human Resources exam. Of the professional and student
samples, 75% had little or no knowledge of the
(AOL) exam—lower than test proponents would prefer.
However, 75% of those familiar with the exam
indicated that passing it would positively influence their hiring
decision. Alumni (63%) indicated that
passing the exam helped during their job search. Implications
for both practitioners and academics are
discussed.
One challenge recent college graduates face as they enter into a
profession is that potential employers
frequently seek to hire someone with previous experience.
Being at the outset of their careers, these job
seekers face an obstacle to getting their foot in the door to
obtain this desired experience and demonstrate
their ability to excel. One potential mechanism these individuals
can use to prove their competency is to
take an external validation exam. Some professional fields offer
voluntary certification. A couple of
examples include operations management (with the CPIM exam)
and information technology (with a
variety of targeted certifications). In the human resource
management field, students preparing to
graduate used to be allowed to sit for the Professional in Human
Resources (PHR) certification exam, and
if they passed the exam, to become fully certified after
completing two years of exempt-level HR
experience.
Recent research has demonstrated the value of the PHR for
newly minted graduates who are entering
the field for the first time. Lester, Mencl, Maranto, Bourne &
Keaveny (2010) found that students who

12. passed the PHR exam were two and a half times more likely
than their peers who did not pass (or did not
take) the PHR exam to get a human resources job upon
graduation. In addition, Lester, Fertig, & Dwyer
(2011) found that 90% of organizational leaders perceived
voluntary HR certification for their HR
professionals as beneficial for their company, and those leaders
holding an HR certification indicated they
use certification to a greater extent in their decision process
when hiring employees.
The importance that employers are placing on candidates
demonstrating competency across a broad
spectrum of business areas is in part driven by the fact that HR
professionals have earned a seat at the
executive table and are relied on to address the human capital
implications of strategic formulation and
implementation decisions (Schramm, 2011). The breadth of
knowledge required is evident from the major
24 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice Vol.
15(3) 2015
topical areas evaluated on the current AOL exam which include:
employee and labor relations,
employment law, strategy, compensation and benefits, training
and development, and workforce planning
(SHRM, 2011). Human Resource degree programs are likely to
have coursework in these areas as well as
a core of business classes that span across other functional areas
such as finance, accounting, marketing,
and information systems.

13. Interestingly, right at the time when empirical evidence was
showing the value of the PHR exam for
individuals entering the profession, the governing body for the
PHR, the Human Resource Certification
Institute (HRCI), decided to change the eligibility requirements
such that students were no longer allowed
to sit for the exam unless they had already satisfied the two-
year, exempt-level experience requirement.
This decision to restrict student eligibility generated a great
deal of debate as HR educators and some
HR practitioners worried about the loss of this external
validation tool for students who were going out on
the job market. The Society of Human Resource Management
(SHRM) responded to the concerns that
were raised by creating the Assurance of Learning (AOL) exam
in 2010 so that students and recent
graduates would have another mechanism for demonstrating
their functional competency starting in 2011,
when the PHR eligibility changes went into effect.
The Society of Human Resource Management is the most
predominant professional association in the
field. The association provides resources and educational and
career opportunities for over 275,000
members in 160 countries (SHRM, 2014). Given that SHRM
often provides direction for the field, it was
not surprising that they took the lead to provide an alternative
validation mechanism for students.
The PHR certification exam is the most widely taken
certification exam in the Human Resource field
and, consequently, has good name recognition. Creating a
substitute for this exam is a major undertaking
and SHRM was diligent in its efforts to create a new and
reputable exam over the course of an 18-month

14. time period. This is now the fourth year of the exam’s
existence, and those involved with the tool’s
development have completed the cross-validation process for
the exam. While it is essential to test and
confirm the exam’s validity, there are additional questions of
particular interest at this junction: (1) How
aware is the HR field of this new external validation exam?, (2)
How aware of the AOL exam are the
educational institutions that are preparing HR majors for this
profession?, and (3) How favorably is the
exam being received by members of the profession? The
following investigation will address these three
questions, the answers to which will provide preliminary
evidence regarding how valuable the AOL exam
is (as a substitute for the PHR) for students graduating from HR
programs.
The Society for Human Resource Management has demonstrated
a firm commitment to human
resource management education over the past decade. This
organization has conducted a variety of
survey-based research as well as focus groups to gather data
from the field on what should be included in
HRM curricula (Kluttz & Cohen, 2003). SHRM specified the
most widespread HRM curriculum
recommendations in its SHRM Human Resource Curriculum
Guidebook and Templates for
Undergraduate and Graduate Programs (SHRM, 2006). Over 100
HRM programs have met the criteria
laid out in this Curriculum Guidebook and have been recognized
as SHRM accredited programs (SHRM,
2010). These numbers clearly suggest that the Curriculum
Guidebook was well-publicized and promoted,
as it quickly gained traction, and universities responded to the
proposed core content areas in the first few
years following the publication of these program templates.

15. With the creation of the AOL exam, SHRM
provides a tool that can be used as a capstone measuring stick
of how well an HR major has achieved
competency in the recommended core content areas. SHRM
encourages universities to have their students
sit for the AOL exam and gives discounts on exam fees if
universities buy blocks of exam seats.
Yet, for these aforementioned tools to add value for students,
people must be aware of the AOL
exam, as well as the competencies it represents. Additionally,
those hiring must view the AOL exam
favorably if it is going to assist recent graduates to obtain a
position within the field. To address the
research questions of interest, data were gathered from three
different samples: (1) professionals in the
field, (2) current students in HR programs that might be
interested in taking the AOL exam, and (3)
alumni that have gone through the job search process after
passing the AOL exam. The professional
sample were able to respond to both awareness and perceived
value questions related to the AOL exam,
while current students provided feedback on their awareness of
the relatively new exam, and alumni who
Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice Vol. 15(3)
2015 25
have already taken the exam could assess the value of the exam
as they embarked on their professional
careers. The characteristics of these sample groups are
described in more detail below.

16. METHODS
Sample and Procedure
The three targeted samples were all invited to participate
through an electronic data collection effort.
The research team conducted a thorough internet search to
identify the e-mail addresses of as many
professional SHRM chapter presidents as possible across the
United States. The aforementioned search
resulted in 369 usable e-mail addresses. A link to an electronic
survey was emailed to these SHRM
contacts. In addition to being invited to participate in the study,
these individuals were also asked to
forward the survey link to all the members on their current
chapter roster. Recipients were told that the
survey inquired about their awareness of, and perceptions of,
the SHRM Assurance of Learning (AOL)
exam. Recipients also were assured that their participation was
confidential and that their responses to the
electronic survey would go directly to a secure, third-party
website that could be accessed only by the
research team. One follow-up message was sent to remind
recipients to complete the survey (and forward
the link to their chapter members) if they had not already done
so. This electronic survey methodology
has been touted as an effective way to save cost, protect
participant data, increase response rates and
improve efficiency (Forrest, 2003; Burns & Bush, 2005)
The same procedural approach was used to gather feedback from
HR majors from around the United
States. An internet search was conducted to identify the faculty
advisors of student SHRM chapters at
universities and colleges. This search yielded 493 usable e-mail

17. addresses. The advisors were asked to
forward the survey link to all the students on their SHRM
roster. It was surprising that more faculty
advisors were located than professional chapter presidents, but
further inspection of the list revealed some
chapters had co-advisors. After the survey was initially sent to
this sample, several e-mails were received
indicating that some individuals were no longer affiliated with a
chapter or that a chapter was not
currently active.
The third sample was a group of HR alumni from the authors’
university that had previously taken the
AOL exam. While the larger student sample was able to provide
feedback related to the overall awareness
of the exam at learning institutions across the country, this
targeted group of alumni was more familiar
with the exam and better equipped to assess the perceptions that
recruiters had of the exam and the extent
to which having passed the exam facilitated their job search
process. This third sample included 20
alumni responses (out of a possible 57 who took the exam in
between spring 2011 - spring 2013), which
equated to a 35% response rate. In the first two samples, there
was no way for the research team to know
how many chapter presidents (and faculty advisors) actually
chose to forward the survey link. Thus, an
exact response rate was unable to be calculated.
Two hundred and thirty-eight professional SHRM members
responded to the survey, and 117 current
student chapter members participated. While the total size of
these two samples (355) was lower than
hoped for, there was a good geographic dispersion of the
responses. Specifically there were HR
professional participants from 30 different states and student

18. chapter participants from 16 different states.
In terms of demographic characteristics, the professional sample
was 78% female, 85% Caucasian, and
75% of the respondents had at least a four-year college degree.
Fifty percent of these participants were
from large companies (250 employees or more), 57% had been
in the profession for less than 10 years,
and 56% were over the age of 40. Seventy-seven percent of the
sample indicated that recruiting and
selection was part of their job, with 23% indicating that it was
40% or more of their job. The sample of
current students was also 78% female, 88% Caucasian, and a
large majority (70%) were traditionally-
aged students (i.e., 18-24 years of age). The alumni sample was
95% traditionally-aged recent graduates
(i.e., 22-25 years of age) with one student being slightly older
but still under 30. Seventy percent of these
alumni were female.
26 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice Vol.
15(3) 2015
Measures
Awareness of the Exam
Both the professional sample and the current student sample
were asked to indicate their level of
awareness of the AOL exam on a scale of 1 = to no extent to 5 =
to a great extent. If they were aware of
the exam, they were then asked which informational sources
were used to learn about the exam. The

19. respondent could choose any of the following: The SHRM
website, the SHRM Facebook page, the
SHRM Twitter feed, a SHRM LinkedIn connection, a SHRM e-
mail, an announcement at their SHRM
chapter, from a fellow HR professional (or student), or from a
SHRM mailing. In addition, they were
asked to indicate their primary informational resource regarding
the AOL exam. Finally, they were asked
to indicate (from the aforementioned list) which SHRM
resources they used to stay current on issues
affecting the HR professional (they were allowed to select all
that apply).
Perceptions of the Exam
The professional sample was asked to assess the percentage of
time that the SHRM AOL exam
entered into the discussion when conducting job interviews with
recent graduates. Furthermore, they were
asked to indicate who initiated the discussion (the applicant or
the interviewer) when it did come up. The
professionals were also asked the extent to which passing the
SHRM AOL exam impacted: (1) the hiring
decision, (2) the starting salary, and (3) the responsibilities
given to the new hire. One question had the
professionals indicate whether they would hire someone who
had passed the AOL exam over someone
who had not (all other things being equal). Finally, they were
asked one question regarding whether they
would view someone passing the Professional in Human
Resources (PHR) exam more or less favorably
than someone who passed the Assurance of Learning (AOL)
exam.
Like the professional sample, the alumni sample was asked if

20. the AOL exam entered into their job
interview discussions, and if so, who initiated that conversation.
They were also asked to assess the extent
to which passing the exam helped them in the job interview and
the extent to which the exam helped them
to prepare for their current position. Finally, alumni were asked
the extent to which the AOL exam paved
the way for them to receive additional developmental
opportunities.
RESULTS
The means and standard deviations for the variables of interest
can be found in Table 1.
A major finding from this study is that 75% of both the
professional sample and the student sample
indicated that they had either “no knowledge” or “very limited”
knowledge of the SHRM Assurance of
Learning exam. Sixty percent of the professionals indicated that
they did not know anything about the
exam. Furthermore, there was no significantly greater awareness
on the part of those professionals who
spent a greater percentage of their job recruiting. Forty-eight
percent of the current student respondents
said they did not know anything about the exam. While the
sample size is on the comparatively small
side, the SHRM organization would likely be disappointed that
awareness is not higher now that the exam
has been on the market for three full years. Given that there is
room for improvement on the awareness
side, it is important to look at which communication
mechanisms might be most effective in increasing
awareness.

21. When asked about the primary source by which they learned of
the AOL exam, both the professional
sample and the student sample indicated that the SHRM
website, a SHRM e-mail, or an announcement at
a SHRM meeting were the top three sources of information.
When asked about the sources they use to
stay current on HR issues, again both the professional sample
and the current student sample revealed that
SHRM chapter meetings were the most frequent choice followed
by the SHRM website and the SHRM
newsletter. Table 2 shows the frequency with which each
information source was chosen by both the
professional and the current student sample.
Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice Vol. 15(3)
2015 27
TABLE 1
MEANS FOR VARIABLES OF INTEREST
N Mean StDev N Mean StDev N Mean StDev
Awareness of AOLa 238 1.81 1.20 117 1.88 1.07
AOL discussed in interviewb 235 1.32 .90 18 1.39 .70 114 .52
.52
Discussion initiatorc 228 1.3 .64 16 .94 .68 114 6.39 6.52
AOL factor in the hiring decisiona 233 2.64 1.21
AOL & starting salarya 227 2.19 .99
AOL & new hire responsibilitiesa 231 2.41 1.03
AOL vs PHR in hiringd 231 1.96 .84
AOL preference in hiringe 221 1.16 .37

22. Desire to learn more about AOLe 206 1.56 .50 115 1.22 .41
Plan to take AOLf 116 2.20 .89
a Scale of 1 -5, 1 = no extent, 5 = a great extent
b Percentage of interviews, with increments of 20%; 0 = none, 6
= 81 – 100%
c 1 = neither, 2 = interviewer, 3 = candidate
d Scale of 1 -5, 1 = PHR much more attractive; 5 = AOL Exam
much more attractive
e Yes = 1, No = 2
f Undecided = 0, Yes = 1, No = 2
TABLE 2
SHRM RESOURCES: FREQUENCY OF USE
Professionals Students
Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
Panel A: Primary Source for information on AOL Exam
Unaware 128 53.8 49 41.9
SHRM chapter email 25 10.5 13 11.1
SHRM website 21 8.8 13 11.1
Announcement at chapter meeting 20 8.4 10 8.5
Fellow student/HR professional 20 8.4 7 6.0
Chapter mailing 5 2.1 7 6.0
Other 17 7.1 18 15.4
Panel B: Sources used to stay current on HR issues
SHRM chapter meetings 165 67.6 65 55.6
SHRM website 163 66.8 61 52.1
SHRM newsletter 91 37.3 33 28.2
SHRM LinkedIn connection 59 24.2 21 17.9
SHRM Facebook page 23 9.4 19 16.2
SHRM Twitter feed 14 5.7 8 6.8
Other 24 9.8 9 7.7

23. For those professionals who were aware of the AOL exam, the
second focus of interest was how
favorably they viewed the exam as an external validation and
the extent to which it would influence their
hiring and placement decisions. When asked whether the exam
was discussed during interviews, only
one-fifth of participants gave affirmative answers. These
numbers could trigger the concern that if the
student did not mention the exam it would not be discussed. To
proactively address this concern, we
included a question that asked the participant to indicate who
initiated the AOL exam discussion.
Interestingly, of the 46 individuals who said the exam was part
of the conversation, 24 indicated the
interviewer brought it up with 22 indicating the applicant
initiated the conversation. The professionals
familiar with the AOL exam appear to accept it as a good
assessment of competency. Seventy-five
percent of professionals indicated that it would influence their
hiring decisions; furthermore, 25% of
28 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice Vol.
15(3) 2015
respondents indicated that it would impact their decision to a
considerable or great extent. All other things
being equal, 85% of respondents indicated they would hire
someone who passed the AOL exam over
someone who did not. Interestingly, 37% of the professional
respondents indicated that passing the AOL
exam would influence the starting salary they offered to some
extent. Also, 47% reported that passing the

24. AOL exam would influence the responsibilities given to a new
hire. While the successful completion of
the AOL exam was viewed favorably, 70% of these same
respondents indicated that if they were
comparing a candidate who passed the AOL exam to one who
passed the PHR exam, the candidate with
the PHR on their resume would be seen as “somewhat” or
“much more” attractive.
Looking forward, one encouraging sign was that 44% of the
professional sample indicated that they
were interested in learning more about the AOL exam.
Therefore, if SHRM thinks carefully about how to
distribute AOL-related information to its professional members,
it should be able to increase awareness
since they appear open to learning more. This desire to learn
more was even stronger within the current
student sample. Seven-eight percent reported that they would
like more information. Furthermore, when
asked if they planned to take the AOL exam, only 18% said
“no”, while 31% said “yes” and 51% were
still “undecided.” Marketing the exam more effectively and
getting information out to these students will
likely lead to a higher number of undecided students taking the
exam.
The alumni sample did perceive value in passing the AOL exam.
Fifty percent of these respondents
indicated that the AOL exam did come up in job interviews, and
56% said they proactively mentioned
their test-taking experience. Five out of every eight respondents
felt that it helped them during the job
interview and somewhat prepared them for the job. Sixty
percent of these alumni respondents currently
held HR jobs and 45% of them had their HR position at the time
of graduation. Not only did these

25. participants see the AOL exam as a means to assist them in
obtaining an HR job, 50% of them also
indicated that passing the exam assisted them in getting
additional development opportunities with their
employer once they were hired. These opportunities included
access to management trainee programs and
advanced training modules, invitations to serve on special task
forces, and greater responsibility for work
decisions and outcomes.
DISCUSSION
The findings of this investigation suggest that those somewhat
familiar with the SHRM Assurance of
Learning Exam tend to have positive perceptions of the exam.
The biggest concern is that, at least within
this data sample, awareness levels are rather low, with only
25% of respondents having more than limited
knowledge of the exam. This was true both among professional
SHRM members as well as student
SHRM members. One reason why these numbers are lower than
expected is because of SHRM’s
affiliation with the exam. SHRM members would be expected to
have a greater likelihood of hearing
about the exam compared to HR professionals who are not
active SHRM members.
One of the most encouraging findings is that those who know of
the exam tend to incorporate it into
their hiring decisions. The exam appears to be one of those
factors that would help recruiters decide
between two similarly qualified applicants. It is important to
note, however, that recruiters did not

26. indicate the exam as one of the top contributors to their
decision. Our survey did contain one “rank-order”
question where respondents were asked to list in order of
importance 12 factors that could influence their
hiring decision. The average ranking for the SHRM AOL exam
was 6.63. The three most influential
factors according to this sample were: (1) professional
experience, (2) interviewing skills and (3)
internships. Interestingly, the fact that HR professionals still
place the most emphasis on professional
experience reinforces the importance of SHRM creating this
external validation mechanism for HR
graduates since the PHR exam is no longer a viable option for
them under the new eligibility
requirements.
One’s immediate response might be to focus on interviewing
and internships. In fact, 63% of
graduating senior have completed at least one internship
(Internships.com, 2014). Additionally, most
universities have a career services department that provides
interview skills training. This suggests that
Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice Vol. 15(3)
2015 29
external competency exams, while not the primary factor, may
be an important distinguishing factor in
assisting students in obtaining employment.
While this study provides some preliminary evidence regarding
the awareness of and perceptions of
the AOL exam within the profession, it is important to

27. recognize the limitation of a relatively small
sample size. Even though it came from a broad cross-section of
geographical areas, the total number of
respondents was rather low. The total numbers of respondents
could have been low because a high
percentage of SHRM presidents and SHRM faculty advisors
chose not to forward the link. However, this
explanation appears to be unlikely since a similar methodology
was used by Lester & Dwyer (2012) to
gather perceptions of the Professional in Human Resources
(PHR) exam, and the same methodology
generated over 2000 responses. Another possibility is that
SHRM members who received the link were
unfamiliar with the exam and therefore chose not to complete
the survey after receiving the link.
While this study did ask the professional sample several
demographic questions, future research could
benefit from including more detailed questions such as whether
the respondent had a degree in HR, had
obtained voluntary HR certification, and how long they had
been in the profession. This information
would help to gauge their likely receptivity to a new exam.
Furthermore, our coding scheme of the gender
variable as either male or female did not take into account
transgender populations and should be
broadened in future research.
While HR educators are eager to see the AOL exam assist their
students in the same way that the
PHR did prior to 2011 (Lester et al. 2010), it is also important
to recognize that expectations for a quick
ascent into familiarity across the field may not have been
realistic. AOL exam developers at SHRM were
told by test development consultants that it usually takes 5-10
years for a new certification-type exam to

28. gain traction and take off within the field. In addition to
gathering feedback from the field, it was also
important to touch base with those who are most familiar with
the use of the exam—those involved with
SHRM’s academic initiatives. SHRM reports that the actual
number of AOL examinees has gone from
114 in the spring of 2011 to 394 in the spring of 2014. In
addition, while the authors’ university was one
of only four to send their cohort of HR majors through the exam
in 2011 and 2012, SHRM reports that in
the Spring of 2014 the number of university cohorts taking the
AOL exam jumped up to 25 (N. A.
Woolever, personal communication, May 8, 2014).
In summary, it appears that SHRM and others affiliated with the
launch of the Assurance of Learning
Exam have made some progress in getting word of the exam out
to the profession. Despite this progress,
the results of this investigation show that the organization
cannot rest on its laurels as a large portion of
the profession still has a limited understanding of the exam or
no knowledge of the exam at all. Hopefully
the SHRM organization and HR educators across the nation will
continue to work to promote this
validation tool for students as it is important for graduates to
have a way to set themselves apart in the job
market. Additionally, it is important for graduates to be able to
obtain an opportunity to gain professional
experience. Our findings show that professional experience has
the most influence on recruiters’ hiring
decisions, often placing promising new graduates at a
disadvantage. The AOL exam provides an objective
mechanism that allows recruiters to assess applicants’
competency in the absence of prior professional
positions. Thus, the AOL exam has the potential to serve both
recruiters and graduates well.

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