Traditionally, early-career employees gradually acquired workplace skills while doing entry-level tasks. But LinkedIn research found that 63% of executives expect AI to eliminate entry-level tasks at their companies. This creates a critical skills gap that associations can fill by positioning their credentialing programs as essential upskilling solutions for employers.
However, many HR managers and department heads know nothing about your association’s credentialing programs and their strategic value. This post provides design and marketing strategies to help you demonstrate credentialing ROI to employers, gain executive buy-in, and increase employer-sponsored participation in your professional development programs.
How to Design Credentials That Employers Actually Want
Gain employer buy-in for your association’s credentialing programs by involving them early in the program design process. Invite company reps to participate in an employer advisory group that helps you prioritize and design credentialing programs that help fill skill gaps.
Position Association Credentials for Skills-Based Hiring and Workforce Development
A May 2025 report revealed that 97% of employers are either using or exploring skills-based hiring, a 20-point increase from 2023. More good news: 96% of them believe microcredentials strengthen a candidate’s application.
On the employee side, 86% of professionals believe skill certification improves job prospects, and 90% of students see microcredentials as key to job success.
Collaborate with employers to create competency frameworks and microcredentials that deliver the skills hiring managers seek. The National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) created a competency framework for their Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) certification that aligns with industry standards, making it immediately valuable to healthcare hiring managers seeking verified expertise.
Tell employers how to check digital badge metadata for skill tags, proficiency levels, assessment scores, and other critical information. NAHQ also shows employers how to verify the CPHQ status of an individual.
Design Credentialing for an AI-Transformed Workplace
Address the skills gap created by AI eliminating entry-level tasks. Create learning pathways from entry- to higher-level skills that work alongside AI. Medical societies focus on human-centered skills like patient communication, ethical decision-making, and complex care coordination that AI can’t replicate.
Create Stackable Credentialing That Delivers Professional Development ROI
With stackable credentials, learners progress through a series of microcredentialing programs, earning one credential and digital badge after another. Another option is to design microcredentials that build toward a comprehensive certification. Give learners the ability to ‘test out’ of basic modules by passing self-assessments.
Because a microcredentialing program is less expensive and less time-intensive than more comprehensive programs, it works for an employer’s professional development budget and a busy learner’s schedule. Employers see the return on their investment as learners progress along a credentialing path and apply their new skills in the workplace.
Connect Your Association’s Credentials to Workplace Performance Data
The best marketing is verifiable workplace results. Collecting this data is a new venture for most associations. However, this data is the most compelling evidence that your credentialing programs make a difference in an employee’s performance and a company’s bottom line. For benchmarking, conduct assessments before and after participation in a credentialing program so you can measure knowledge and skills acquired.
Partner with your employer advisory group to track how credentialed employees perform on key metrics like sales numbers, customer/patient satisfaction scores, productivity measures, and employee retention. Poll supervisors about the impact of credentialing programs.
Communicate Your Association’s Credentialing Program’s Unique Value Proposition
To increase employer awareness and support, include business-focused value propositions in marketing campaigns. Regularly publish employer-focused newsletter content about workforce development challenges and how your credentials help solve these problems.
Identify and Connect with Company Decision-Makers
Survey members and learners to find out who’s making decisions about their employer-sponsored training and professional development budget: HR team, L&D team, supervisor, department head, or C-suite executive. Segment and customize the email campaigns directed at these people by decision-maker role, business size, and industry sector.
If your small staff can’t cover the entire industry at once, focus on one decision-maker segment at a time.
Target Employers with Credentialing Marketing Materials
Frame the value of your credentials around business challenges like revenue growth, customer retention, and employee turnover. Share success stories from a diverse selection of companies via multiple channels:
- Employer-targeted marketing emails and materials
- Credentialing pages on your website
- Newsletters
- Paid advertising on LinkedIn
Use post-program workplace metrics to demonstrate your program’s tangible impact. Create a ROI calculator to show potential cost savings, productivity gains, or compliance risk reduction.
Offer employer toolkits that HR or L&D teams can use to promote your programs internally.
Promote Your Association’s Workforce Development Advantage
Take advantage of the credibility and trust your association enjoys in the market. Position your association as the definitive, mission-driven authority—compared to competing for-profit education providers.
Members and learners appreciate opportunities to connect with others. Build these community experiences into your credentialing programs. In marketing copy, highlight networking and peer learning opportunities, especially if they’re your differentiator.
Emphasize Credentialing Quality over Cost
If your programs are more expensive than the competition, frame the higher cost as an investment in premium outcomes. Emphasize your rigorous program development process with employer involvement and validation. Position credentials as a quick-fix training solution that provides career-long value.
If the cost question is a barrier, address it head-on with a comparison matrix that differentiates your program from the competition’s. If numbers or industry seals of approval work in your favor, use them. NAHQ mentions their 40,000 CPHQ credentialed professionals and Joint Commission endorsement—credibility that a competitor cannot easily replicate.
Cultivate Alumni to Champion Your Credentialing Programs
Provide alumni with marketing materials and talking points to use at work when promoting programs they successfully completed.
Show your appreciation for alumni who make referrals by giving them a discount code for a future program.
Measure, Tweak, and Improve Outreach and Outcomes
Establish a benchmark before tracking employer inquiries, program enrollments from targeted companies, employer retention rates, and other useful metrics. To refine each program’s value proposition and unique selling points, keep surveying and talking with employers and participants. Every year, assess the skills needs of industry employers and the programs and marketing of your competitors.
When your association involves employers in program design, you build the trusted relationships needed to drive participation. By clearly differentiating the value of your credentialing programs, they go from being nice-to-have training into essential workforce development tools that employers actively seek and fund.
Want to discuss how microcredentialing programs can help bridge the skills gaps in your members’ industry? Contact us to set up a time to chat.