Recruiter Certification program

AIRS is a great learning provider for recruiters who want to become more adept at Advanced internet searches. All tactical recruiters need to be good at this and I think AIRS is the leading training provider in terms of advanced internet searches. But getting your "CIR" does not put you in the elite status of recruiting - consider other critical recruiting functions that need equal depth of certification:
consider other skill sets, such as:

- assessment techniques and methodologies
- due diligence practices specific to your organization (eg. specific to Canadian jurisdictions
- prescreening and interviewing techniques
- Negotiation and closing techniques
- Channel Management strategies for recruiting managers
- Onboarding practices
- Hiring Manager consultation

While AIRS has diversified and offered some of these courses online there is value to developing a detailed, structured corporate recruiting certification program that an organization customizes for their specific purposes.

I piloted several AIRS training a few years ago (eg. AIRS "all you can eat" training offer) and in my opinion, some of the courses offered are either a little lite, too american centric, or require face to face meeting in order for recruiters to get a lot of value (eg. competency based interviewing -- needs face to face practice time). In addition, internet search technique is good for the electronically astute, but we all know that everyone masters the internet at different paces. I took the face-to-face Advanced Search Techniques in Chicago, and can attest to the value of face-to-face vs. online training.

In short, developing recruiter certification will add credibility if AIRS internet search training, or a similar equivalent, is included in the training curriculum, but should not be the "end-all" of a certification program.