Where to Begin: Building a High-quality Digital Credentialing Program

For both organizations and individuals, skills are increasingly measured and evaluated not by subjective self-reporting or lines on a résumé, but by digital badges that document specific skills.

Digital credentials are transforming how we learn, grow and prove our expertise. With millions of badges already issued, leading employers, educators and other organizations are embracing digital badges to stay competitive.

When you’ve moved beyond “credential curious” and are planning — or already starting — to design a digital badge program for your organization, establishing a strong foundation will lead to long-term success.

The experience of the Credly Top Elite Issuers of 2024 can guide you through a successful digital credentialing program, help you avoid common pitfalls and maximize your impact.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

As you design and implement your digital credentialing program, it's important to avoid common pitfalls that can hinder success. By learning from the experiences of top issuers, you can steer clear of these challenges and create a program that delivers value from the start. Below are key mistakes to watch out for, along with tips on how to ensure your initiative stays on track and achieves long-term success.

Skipping the planning phase: Developing a digital credentialing program without a plan is like building a house without blueprints — a bad idea. Consider the types of verified credentials you’ll offer, the credentialing platform and how you’ll prevent fraud. Clear goals and a strategy to reach them ensures your program will be scalable, sustainable and successful.

Proceeding without buy-in: Failing to define clear responsibilities and secure buy-in across functions and key stakeholders can erode the foundation of your digital credentials program. Without clear ownership, critical tasks can fall through the cracks.

Forgoing relationships across information technology, legal, communications, human resources, learning and development and other departments can help speed up program adoption. Cross-departmental support undergirds successful rollouts.

Overcomplicating your offer: Too many badges at the outset can stall a growing program. Imagine launching a new initiative with dozens of different badges, each with its own criteria and meaning. This complexity can overwhelm administrators, confuse earners and dilute value. Instead, start with a focused set of badges to allow the program to gain traction before expanding.

Ignoring platform integration: Platforms that don’t seamlessly integrate with your existing tech stack create many problems. Data silos and manual processes may proliferate, creating inefficiencies and frustration. For example, without learning management system integration, it becomes difficult to track learning pathways and award credentials automatically, undermining the program's ability to recognize achievement.

Five Steps to Laying a Strong Foundation

Now that we’ve covered what to avoid, let’s turn to the essential steps for success. Top issuers have shared their insights on the crucial actions that set the stage for long-term impact. These steps not only ensure your program’s credibility but also help you stay on track as you scale. Here are five key actions to take when laying the groundwork for your organization’s digital credentialing initiative.

1. Define Your Objectives and Scope

The first crucial step is aligning credentialing objectives to broader organizational goals, like improving recruitment and retention strategy or elevating brand reputation.  Then, focus on key outcomes of your credentialing strategy that can support these overall goals, such as accelerating skill development, improving development pathways, and increasing employee engagement.

Next, determine the areas of focus for your program. Will you prioritize leadership skills, technical certifications, or diversity and inclusion initiatives? Finally, measure the success of your program through metrics, such as the number of badges issued, learner satisfaction, knowledge retention rates and career progression.

2. Choose a Credentialing Platform and Technology Stack

Selecting the right credentialing platform is crucial for long-term success. To ensure seamless user experience and facilitate interoperability with other platforms, you might want to prioritize Open Badge 3.0 compliance, which ensures a seamless user experience and facilitates interoperability with other platforms.

I think one of the greatest parts of Credly is just ease of use. The fact that I can get that recognition very easily from Cisco through Credly, then I'm able to share it just as easily, and then I'm able to take those badges with me wherever I go...  I think if you're going to put all this work into getting that skill, you want the recognition part to be easy.

Ryan Rose

Director, Learning and Development

Prioritize platforms that offer easy integration with your existing systems to maximize efficiency and scalability. Robust customer support is also essential for smooth implementation and ongoing maintenance. Finally, ensure the platform prioritizes security and badge verification features, ideally by adhering to recognized data security standards such as ISO 27001 or ISO 27701.

Consider the example of top issuer ISC2, the world's leading cybersecurity member association. Their highly sought-after certifications are prime targets for fraud, making the security and verifiability offered by their chosen platform, Credly, essential for protecting their brand and the value of their credentials.

3. Establish Governance and Support Structures

The next step to building a strong digital credentialing system is to define governance policies and procedures for issuing badges, including who approves them and the process for revising or retiring outdated credentials.

Think of these as the rules of the road — without them, chaos reigns. Assign roles for administrators, issuers and other stakeholders to streamline workflows and prevent bottlenecks.

4. Develop a Credential Framework

A well-structured credentialing framework is key to creating a program that is meaningful and motivating. Here’s how:

• Define clear badge tiers, like beginner, intermediate and advanced, that reflect different levels of achievement. Ensuring each tier represents a distinct step in the learner’s journey.
  
  
• Include a range of badge types to recognize various skills, experiences and accomplishments — like class, exam or project completion — and cater to different learning styles and goals. Google Cloud, for example, offers both certifications and micro-credentials to recognize different types of learning and achievement.
  
  
• Establish a clear progression system that encourages continuous learning and growth, with each badge signifying a meaningful milestone on the path to mastery. Creating pathways from beginner to intermediate to advanced badges will encourage continuous learning and growth. For example, top issuer Scaled Agile is building out its Advance Role Certification paths to allow learners more opportunities to advance skills.

5. Plan Your Communication Strategy

The last step is to communicate clearly so that all stakeholders understand the program’s goals and their roles in supporting its success. Tips include:

• Engage internal stakeholders to align different functions around the program’s purpose and goals. This encourages collaboration and allows everyone to easily find resources for help.
  
  
• Engage earners by communicating the value of badges and how to accept them. Encourage badge earners to showcase their achievements on professional networks like LinkedIn to highlight their skills, which also generates program awareness. Offer support in the form of a dedicated site with FAQs, user guides, live support and provide regular updates on changes and new badges.
  
  

Build to Last: The Foundation of Effective Credentialing

A strong foundation is essential for any successful digital credentialing program. Without a solid groundwork, gaps may develop and your credentialing structure won’t reach its full potential. By prioritizing the right platform, aligning with organizational goals and focusing on learners, you can ensure scalability and longevity.

Make sure to check out our Top Elite Issuers Profile to learn from their experience. Ready to take your credentialing program to the next level? Schedule a consultation with Credly today.