Frequently Asked Questions

Why the sudden need for Certification in Employee Performance Management? Is there some change in the Recruitment and Selection process for Managers?
Where did the Mansis Certification in Employee Performance Management come from?
What is learned in the Mansis Certification in Employee Performance Management?
Who should consider acquiring an Employee Performance Management Certification?
What's really new about this Certification program?
But surely effective people management skills can take years to develop and not much can be learned in a few days?
Aren't people all different; there's no real magic potion for managing everyone, is there? There's no one way to manage people.
What about extreme situations that a generic system isn't designed to handle? What if, in fact, a lot of experience is necessary to resolve some employee management issue?
Is this Certification just for individuals?
What does this Certification give to the individual manager?
Why is it called Employee Performance Management Certification?
Is the Mansis Certification transferable across industries?

1. Why the sudden need for Certification in Employee Performance Management? Is there some change in the Recruitment and Selection process for Managers?

Yes, there is a change and a significant one at that.

Ten years ago if an organization was recruiting for a manager, it wanted smart, energetic candidates with job related experience, contemporary management education and knowledge, and a good personal presentation. The organization assumed (or deduced) that candidates had the required job skills from their education, experience, knowledge presented typically in an interview, and, if possible, from some form of skill certification such as a professional Accounting designation.

And consequently if you were looking for a management job, you wanted an attractive resume showing your management education and experience, you made sure you had good presentation skills and you prepared yourself to answer questions in an interview showing your grasp of contemporary management concepts. For example, back then, an MBA was a ticket to a management career.

Today it’s different. Executives are not looking for candidates with the potential to become effective managers. First, they need candidates who can perform the job from the get-go; people with the skills they can use immediately. But secondly, the critical importance of people management for an organization’s survival is now patently obvious to many executives and as a result they want evidence that management candidates actually possess these skills. And experience is showing that education, knowledge and even experience do not guarantee that prospective managers possess the right people management skills.

So what today’s management recruits need in addition to what they needed a decade ago, is proof that they have the both the necessary knowledge and the skills to manage people effectively. They need to show that they can do the job they are applying for and can do it the right way.

THE SOLUTION

Prospective managers need to be able to show, and organizations need to be able to know, that individuals applying for management jobs actually have the right knowledge and skills for successfully managing people. An independent certification of employee performance management knowledge and skills accomplishes this objective.

Managing people is the Mansis specialty, and so we teach prospective and current managers a system of skills and procedures that has proven successful for leading and directing employees in all industries, and then certify that these skills and knowledge have been tested and successfully demonstrated by our students.

2. Where did the Mansis Certification in Employee Performance Management come from?

It is actually the culmination of over 30 years of research and experience. The Mansis Certification is based, first of all, on teaching thousands of employees in hundreds of organizations a very practical and simple system of skills and procedures for managing people (The Mansis Performance Management System).

And secondly, it comes from our experience measuring and certifying people management skills. Mansis was one of the first companies in Western Canada (in the early 1970s) to introduce Assessment Centre technology to both business and government. – Assessment Centre being a process used to objectively measure someone’s acquired or innate skills and abilities at, for example, managing people and resolving typical employee performance problems.

3. What is learned in the Mansis Certification in Employee Performance Management?

Through 28 classroom hours plus about 16 hours of home study, participants learn the full Mansis Performance Management System: including a contemporary knowledge base and simple, practical, skills, forms and procedures for developing and managing people successfully – a research-proven System that works. Mansis then examines each participant to certify that they have the requisite knowledge and skills to develop and manage people.

4. Who should consider acquiring an Employee Performance Management Certification?

If you’re a student (College, University) or considering changing careers, this Certification would give you an advantage when applying for management positions, or for creating your own entrepreneurial business.

If you currently manage people in any organization, the knowledge and skills will provide you with effective tools to lead, direct and develop your employees and to resolve performance problems.

If you are an organization leader who sees the need for an in-house system to ensure consistency in how your members are supervised and managed, you should consider Certification for your whole management team.

5. What's really new about this Certification program?

It provides a first-time opportunity for ANYONE, either wanting to get into a management career, or currently in a management position, to demonstrate to a prospective or current employer that they do, in fact, have and can successfully use skills and a body of knowledge for managing people very effectively. For example, here’s a situation we often see in the newspaper career Ads or on the internet:

Wanted: Manager	Qualifications: Experience Managing People
But unfortunately it can result in this RECRUITING DILEMMA:
Prospective Applicant: When “people management” skills are required, it’s hard to prove that you actually have them. Employers know that degrees and most training programs don’t guarantee any level of skill. Experience as a manager is a questionable quarantee of actually having good skills. It depends on the organization you worked for and its people management practices.	Prospective Employer: Almost all “people management” related courses on an applicant’s resume indicate “attendance” and not necessarily any acquired skill. Experience in a management position is no guarantee of a candidate’s people management skills. It will depend more on the people management practices of the organization the person came from and whether the person actually used those skills.
WHAT IS NEEDED:
Prospective Applicant: You need a way of proving that you have the skills for developing and managing people. Your formal education and work experience will most likely not give you that. You need some way to learn “people management” skills if you’re in a job where you don’t do that or your current organization doesn’t do it very well.	Prospective Employer: You need a way to know with a high degree of certainty that candidates applying for a management job have the skills for that critical “people management” part of the job.
SOLUTION:
Prospective Applicant: You need to be able to learn and demonstrate effective “people management” skills and knowledge and have that competency tested and Certified. You need a way to break free from the vicious circle of not having the opportunity to learn people management skills in your current job.	Prospective Employer: Candidates present themselves to you with a personal Certification in people management to show that their knowledge and skills have been demonstrated, tested and Certified by an independent authority.

Wanted: Manager

Qualifications: Experience Managing People

But unfortunately it can result in this
RECRUITING DILEMMA:

Prospective Applicant:

When “people management” skills are required, it’s hard to prove that you actually have them.

Employers know that degrees and most training programs don’t guarantee any level of skill.

Experience as a manager is a questionable quarantee of actually having good skills. It depends on the organization you worked for and its people management practices.

Prospective Employer:

Almost all “people management” related courses on an applicant’s resume indicate “attendance” and not necessarily any acquired skill.

Experience in a management position is no guarantee of a candidate’s people management skills. It will depend more on the people management practices of the organization the person came from and whether the person actually used those skills.

WHAT IS NEEDED:

Prospective Applicant:

You need a way of proving that you have the skills for developing and managing people. Your formal education and work experience will most likely not give you that.

You need some way to learn “people management” skills if you’re in a job where you don’t do that or your current organization doesn’t do it very well.

Prospective Employer:

You need a way to know with a high degree of certainty that candidates applying for a management job have the skills for that critical “people management” part of the job.

SOLUTION:

Prospective Applicant:

You need to be able to learn and demonstrate effective “people management” skills and knowledge and have that competency tested and Certified.

You need a way to break free from the vicious circle of not having the opportunity to learn people management skills in your current job.

Prospective Employer:

Candidates present themselves to you with a personal Certification in people management to show that their knowledge and skills have been demonstrated, tested and Certified by an independent authority.

6. But surely effective people management skills can take years to develop and not much can be learned in a few days?

That’s true and there’s always more to learn, but the Mansis Performance Management System has all that time and experience built into it, so there no need for everyone to go back to square one and learn from long trial and error. That’s been done for you. And as well, the Principles of Managing People and the core skills that make up the Mansis System are fundamental and are always appropriate and effective.

7. Aren't people all different; there's no real magic potion for managing everyone, is there? There's no one way to manage people.

Although the evidence has been clear for decades, many people are still surprised that there are generic people management skills and that a “system” for performance management is critical for the successful implementation and continued use of these skills, especially in an organization. I agree that people are all different to some degree, and there’s no such thing as a magic potion. But yes, there is a way for managing people that takes into account that people are all different.

8. What about extreme situations that a generic system isn't designed to handle? What if, in fact, a lot of experience is necessary to resolve some employee management issue?

First, there is a great deal of experience built right into the skills and processes taught in the Certification Program. But part of the skill set for Certified students is knowing when to get help, for example from an HR professional, legal direction or outside special expertise. But not having the skills or experience to successfully handle 100% of any potential performance issue with an employee is no excuse not to acquire the skills to handle 99% of the likely situations.

9. Is this Certification just for individuals?

Yes, but a business or organization could decide to have all their management certified, so that there is a common and effective approach to managing people throughout the business – the best way to go.

We’ve essentially been doing that for decades, but without the certification. We left it to the company to assess whether their managers, etc. actually displayed the skills they were taught in class, on the job. And they were able to do that by using the system we taught to all the management. In other words, use of the System was used to implement the System.

But if the company doesn’t have those skills and processes in place as part of the company’s operational culture – and most don’t – then we can at least certify that individual managers have those necessary people management competencies.

10. What does this Certification give to the individual manager?

In addition to a solid body of knowledge and a very effective set of practical skills to manage people anywhere, the Certification gives you a framework to continually learn and perfect these skills – it’s not a process that stops.

A bit of history if I may:

The Mansis Performance Management System is a well-grounded, research based and tested model but it has evolved over 30 years. It’s really the product of hundreds (if not thousands) of academics, researchers, applied management scientists, and the experience and wisdom of very many managers and executives. No one can claim rights to 30 years of that knowledge and the experience of hundreds.

What the staff at Mansis have done, however, is to create a fundamental model of managing people based on this research and experience, and then we have used that model, since the 1980’s, as a base to test, incorporate or reject hundreds of people management theories and concepts, so that the Mansis Performance Management model (or System) can continuously become more effective, and not get cluttered by well-marketed, short-lived “fads, fashions and folderol.” Improvements and new valid insights into managing people are always appearing, but the fundamentals are indeed fundamental, and our model allows us to sort the wheat from the chaff.

As I advise my University students, be skeptical when reading or hearing about the latest revolutionary theory or approach to managing people. Management Science is heavily into the market place, so buyer beware. Like taking care of your physical health, managing people shouldn’t be experimented with lightly. We are playing with lives, after all.

11. Why is it called Employee Performance Management Certification?

There were many titles for this program that we considered. Some suggested a Certification in Human Resource Management, but no, that’s quite different. HR Mgt refers to the HR function in an organization, including administrative specialties such as payroll, benefits, recruiting, HR planning and so forth. We do not certify HR specialists. There are organizations and associations that do that.

Certification in People Management is too broad and the title is rather bland.

Performance Management Certification was considered. That would be a good choice, because after all the core of our Program is learning a Performance Management System. But that title could be confusing, because the term performance management is also used in other fields such as Information Technology and Operations Management.

This is not a Certification in Management. Management is much broader and would include other topics such as marketing, finance and accounting, production and planning, and we are not certifying that someone is a fully trained manager.

But we are certifying that the person knows how to manage the performance of, most commonly, employees in any environment or organization, and at any organizational level; so Employee Performance Management Certification seemed to be the best answer.

12. Is the Mansis Certification transferable across industries?

Yes. Because the Certification is focused on demonstrating the skills and knowledge of a specific System (The Mansis System) that has been shown for many years to be successfully applicable to organizations in many industries, the Certification is transferable.