In the March 2020 edition of The Alpine Buzz, we featured the Kinaxis Certification Program on the Phase I launch of their digital badging initiative that is designed to benefit candidates earning certifications. We recently caught up with Joe Cannata, Director of Certification, to learn about their program’s progress, growth, and return on investment (ROI).
Kinaxis, a leading provider of cloud-based supply chain software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, is focused on training people to be skilled users of its solutions. The primary focus is on its platform called Kinaxis RapidResponse®. The target population for the Kinaxis certification program is thousands of RapidResponse customer users, employees, and partners.
CertMetrics maintains the rules and calculations for when a candidate earns a credential and then, through real-time integration with Credly, pushes over this information to Credly to issue and update digital badges within their platform. Certification badges are immediately verifiable. Users can click a digital badge to see the path required to earn the badge, including the associated skills, required courses and exams. Credential earners can also unlock new job opportunities with Credly’s Acclaim Talent Directory.
“In Phase II, we expanded badging beyond certification with company and human resource recognition for achievements such as our ‘Spirit of Kinaxis’ awards. Not all who are employees or associated with Kinaxis will seek certification because their roles might not require it,” explained Cannata.
Phase II allows these individuals outside of the certification program the opportunity to earn badges for alternate activities such as participating in hackathons, developing patents, acting as Cultural Ambassadors, and serving on the Kinaxis Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
“Badging is a differentiator for candidates and consultants who want career advancement, promotions, or to explore new avenues of learning and career opportunities. It also calls attention to Kinaxis and helps advertise the skills of those in our alliance partner and professional services ecosystem. That gives us an impressive presence and a competitive advantage,” said Cannata.
The Value of Social Media in Badging
Social media continues to play a critical role in raising brand awareness at Kinaxis. With the use of Ayzenberg’s Earned Media Value Index (EMVI), Kinaxis can see a snapshot view of the impact of their social media impressions. The EMVI assigns a dollar value to every interaction made with a post or account on social media and calculates the total value of their “earned” interactions. These values are added together to create a single dollar value. The more impressions, the better, because it’s like getting free advertising.
“Most of our candidates are consultants who work for our partners or who are in professional services,” stated Cannata. “They are an extremely competitive group and when they earn a certification and receive the coveted badge, they typically share it right away on social media. This affords them bragging rights, and it also gives Kinaxis an opportunity to give badge earners the attention they deserve.”
Top executives at Kinaxis are proud of the accomplishments of candidates. They take the time to view posts of Kinaxis badge earners on LinkedIn and celebrate them by clicking “likes” and providing occasional comments. It’s great advertising for both Kinaxis and the badge earner and gives Kinaxis unique publicity.
Badging continues to benefit both Kinaxis and badge earners. Kinaxis receives great advertising and badge earners receive recognition that helps them with promotions, new learning opportunities, and career advancement.
Certification badge earners continue to applaud one another’s success. They can share directly from Credly’s Acclaim platform to social media sites and promote their badging accomplishments, which they do most commonly on LinkedIn feeds. “This positive practice is continuing to foster collaboration, problem solving, and good will in the certification community,” offered Cannata. “I regularly go out and congratulate those earning badges and find it valuable and rewarding.” Click here to view Cannata’s badge as an example of a typical share.
Cannata is in the process of polling the Kinaxis community to find out which badge(s) they are proudest to have earned. Click here to see Cannata’s recent inquiry.
According to Cannata, the excitement and value around badging continues to increase on many levels at Kinaxis:
“It’s a definite win: win for our deserving badge earners who want to advance their learning, certification, and career paths and for Kinaxis as we continue to reap a very positive ROI from badging that helps increase the growth and success of the Kinaxis Certification Program.”