Answer to Question #460 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Q

I work at a power plant in the design engineering organization. How does my becoming a CHP benefit the company?

A

The benefit to the company doesn't seem as clear as does the benefit to the employee, but the American Board of Health Physics believes that the benefits are just as real and tangible. Every company seeks employees with demonstrated technical abilities, persistence, and keen problem-solving skills, as well as employees who are ready for positions of increased responsibility and accountability. Employers want professionals who have demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge of their career field so that their technical skills can be applied to much broader areas of that career field, as is often highly desirable for management positions. They also want employees who have pledged themselves to a code of professional ethics and then live by that code.

Employers also want their professionals to hold credentials that command immediate respect with regulators, the public, and other professionals. Professional certification, whether in health physics or any other profession, is one way of demonstrating these positive attributes in a nationally recognized and widely respected forum. In short, we believe that employers believe that board-certified professionals "on balance" make for better-qualified employees. A recent CHP status survey at nuclear utilities appears to support this opinion. Many utilities preferred CHPs for higher-level positions; a few even required professional certification. Comments received back from the respondents strongly suggested that their employers believed that CHP was a positive qualification attribute, comparable to senior reactor operator or professional engineer for promotional capabilities. Other respondents said it would be difficult to reach a senior health physicist level without the CHP. Several of the survey responses indicated that employers are more than willing to reimburse expenses to take the CHP exam and/or expenses associated with certification maintenance.

Edward F. Maher, ScD, CHP