Why I’m not renewing my SHRM Cert
And it has nothing to do with DEI.
HR Folks far and wide have been talking about the speech that Johnny C Taylor gave at the SHRM national conference recently.
It’s a 48 minute speech and there’s a lot to unpack. I think a lot of pros in the field took away a great deal of value from it. The idea that the workforce is being reshaped and if HR doesn’t evolve, we’re at risk of extinction. I don’t disagree with the concept and the call to action. Here’s why HR people specifically should heed his advice but recognize when they’re being marketed to.
If you take nothing but this statement from this post, remember this: I have two predictions about SHRM.
Prediction 1: SHRM will announce a new certification focused on combining HR with AI in the next 6 months.
Prediction 2: SHRM will begin the process of moving from non-profit to for profit.
A great deal of Johnny’s speech is about the survey he conducted with 92 CEO’s about the impact and reputation of their HR people. Spoiler alert: 10% love HR, 60% tolerate it, and 30% see little or no value.
He explains how the reputation of HR has changed in the past five years. Within his research group, many mentioned that HR was a key partner when navigating the crisis management of the Pandemic. Moreover, he explains that CEO’s feel like HR has lost credibility since those days, in no small part stemming from The Great Resignation era of 2022. CEO’s (who he reminds us are our customer) are asking “Why should I retain my people? I showed them loyalty during the pandemic and then they resigned shortly following it.”
Clarification #1: During the pandemic, people in sectors like retail, food, entertainment, & travel/hospitality were shown no loyalty. These industries collapsed and many never recovered. I’d never heard of the conept of furlough until COVID and it’s something I never hope to have to say again.
Clarification #2: The Tech Industry boomed during Covid. There was record growth in this sector and record valuations. Market demand for an updated tech stack in the new remote era soared and overvaluations in the Tech industry drove The Great Resignation -and guess what, that’s not your HR team’s fault.
I would even go so far as to argue that this is still very much playing a role in the current state of AI Layoffs. If you don’t believe me, check out this post.
Johnny also encourages HR people to get to know their business better and he’s right. HR should know the business. I think Johnny knows his business better than most HR people do.
Perception in the market for SHRM has been rough under Johnny’s leadership. When he announced at the 2024 Annual Conference that SHRM was taking the Equity out of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, HR pros from all around the country took to social media in anger. Many claiming that they had dropped or were planning to drop their membership and certification. (As a side note, I don’t disagree with his approach. I actually posted about it in 2024.)
SHRM poured gasoline on the fire when they announced that Robby Starbuck would join as a panelist for the SHRM 2025 Blueprint event. The WSJ claiming that it prompted many attendees to pull out of the event.
Then, in December of 2025, Business Insider reported that SHRM lost a lawsuit and a jury awarded a previous employee award of 11.5M for racial discrimination.
Yeah, things have been rough for them but here’s where this gets interesting: SHRM’s revenue has still increased year over year - substantially. So with so much backlash from HR pros, claiming to not renew certs and not attend events, how has Mr. Taylor managed deliver such substantial increases to revenue?
Business Insider reported that SHRM's overall membership increased approximately 16% during Taylor's tenure. It also reported that membership revenue increased from approximately $69M to $75.6M in 2024 and that SHRM raised the annual membership price by 8% in February 2024. (There is a pay wall, sorry guys.)
So if you watch the full 48-minute speech, you’ll be impressed. Johnny C. Taylor is undeniably bright, charismatic, and polished.
SHRM pulled out all the stops for the production. The speech opened with a full military-style salute honoring America’s 250th birthday, complete with impressive visuals and theatrics. At one point, an enormous, visually stunning lion appeared on stage.
And while there’s no doubt that Mr. Taylor has a vision for SHRM, I’m out bro. I’m tired of being made to feel inadequate by an organization who sells the very products that will solve my inadequacy.
Like I said, Johnny C Taylor knows his business better than most HR professionals.
Over and out. And as always, HR people are people too.
#cancelyourpeo #nextlevelhr