According to Payscale, a Seattle-based compensation consulting group, HR professionals do find value in earning certifications. A July 2012 Payscale analysis found that HR professionals with certification were more likely to advance to senior roles. In addition, those with certification made up to $10,000 more per year, especially at higher job levels, such as HR director or HR manager. In some cities, certification meant as much as $20,000 more per year for some jobs.

"The professional distinction of a certification serves to set experts apart from other HR professionals," the report said. "Those who get certified not only gain a valuable education, but also increase their job opportunities and pay."

The future's so bright…

For the record, both SHRM and HRCI say their systems are in great shape and receive strong industry support.

"Our progress is spectacular to this point. We've haven't hit too many road bumps along the way," said Alex Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, and SHRM vice president. "We're seeing a huge groundswell."

He points to numbers such as 16,000 applications for eligibility for the new SHRM credentials, and added that 1,000 groups that provide certification preparation have signed up to help train HR professionals on the new system.

Alonso concedes there were some questions and criticism when the new system launched.

"There was a small minority that indicated they were unhappy with having to go through two processes," he said. "That minority has died down considerably. The overwhelming majority of the phone calls we receive [now] are, 'what can I do to insure that I'm engaged in this initiative, and how do I go about obtaining my new credentials?'"

Linda Anguish, SPHR, GPHR and director of certification products at HRCI, emphasized that her group is an independent certification organization with decades of experience certifying HR professionals. She said there was some initial confusion around the SHRM announcement, but her group has been reassuring people that it isn't going anywhere.

"We're in a competitive marketplace now, and when people make a decision to become certified, they choose which agency offers the higher value. We simply emphasize the fact that certification is our core competency, we've been doing it for almost 40 years now. We are the highest standard in certification for the HR profession," she said. "We're still here, and we're going to continue doing what we're doing."

Competency controversy

The biggest point of controversy between the new groups is SHRM's claim that the old system lacked a way to measure competency.

"Something that we take very seriously here at SHRM is the need to advance the profession," Alonso said. "One area that we felt was an important way to ensure that we were supporting the profession was to embed the competency model into certification."

Alonso said the new approach is designed to test not just what someone knows, but how they use that knowledge. "The emphasis is not just the mastery of a body of knowledge, it's a mastery of how you use what you know," he said.

For their part, HRCI officials say that competency testing was already built in to their model. "We have always been competency-based," Anguish said. "We feel that competencies have always been an important part of our certification process. What we don't embrace is a specific proprietary competency model."

A dual track for certification?

With both sides dug in on their respective systems, it remains to be seen which model HR professionals will eventually see as the standard—or if they simply start becoming certified by both.

Tim Sackett, a contributor to the Fistful of Talent blog, said in a podcast that after his initial negative reaction to the SHRM move, he decided to pursue the new certification path in the future.

"I don't like having two divided [systems]," he said in the podcast. "To me, this is the death of HRCI. I'm paid through 2017, after that point I'm not going to do both."

However, it could be a bit early for such a gloomy prediction. Morris Kleiner, the AFL-CIO chair of labor policy at the University of Minnesota, noted there are many professions with more than one certification track.

"This is not unique to HR," he said. "In many other occupations there are different ways to become certified."

Amy Wangerin, SPHR, director of HR training for MRA, a Waukesha, Wisconsin management association, said her group, which trains HR professionals on certification, intends to work with both SHRM and HRCI in the future.

"We are advocates of obtaining certification," she said. "We are supporting both [systems] … it's too early to tell if people will choose one over the other."

Wangerin agreed that there was some controversy when SHRM first announced its certification system.

"Going back to 2014, the HR community was initially curious and confused and there was some frustration as well," she said. "But now that the dust is settling and SHRM certification is a reality in 2015, folks are navigating the knowns—if they know they are certified [with HRCI], they know they can also certify with SHRM."

Wangerin said both systems have unique strengths; and that she's not sure if her group will end up recommending one over the other.

"We have competition where we didn't have it before, and competition is a good thing," she said. "The new emphasis on certification elevates the profession, and it elevates individual career development. We are waiting with everybody else to see where it all ends up.

"In the long run, the clear winner is the HR profession," he said. "Because options are good, and options help advance the profession as a whole."