The Top Way to Keep Your Best Employees - Oracle Certifications

Want to keep your best talent? Invest in their learning and development.

I read an article recently about recession proofing your organization with digital badging. The article made some great points about how the record low unemployment rate (3.9% in December 2018) may not last, with some analysts predicting a slow down in growth as early as 2020.

The article went on to point out that during the 'Great Recession of 2008,' employers who focused on training and developing their workforce over cutting jobs and focusing solely on the bottom line actually made financial gains. "On average, those top 10% of engaged employers posted profit gains of 26% through the last recession, compared with a 14% decline at comparable employers, says Jim Harter, Chief Workplace Scientist at Gallup."

The author wrapped up the article with a compelling finding supporting training and digital credentialing. "When employees are trained on the job, an organization can save an average of $70,000 annually and receive a 10% increase in productivity, according to Forbes."

This got me thinking. . .

Certification is a sound investment in any economy!

Oracle Certification has a well-established digital credentialing program. Surveys consistently show that having certified individuals in your organization increases productivity, customer satisfaction, and job satisfaction. It would stand to reason that if a focus on training and development could help to recession-proof your business by keeping your best talent and making them more productive, the same training and development could help keep your best talent during a time of economic growth.  

According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, published January 9, 2019, the ratio of unemployed persons per job opening was 0.9 in November 2018. This means that there is more than one job opening for every unemployed person, which shows a dramatic decrease from Great Recession numbers, when there were more than six unemployed people for every job opening.

Employment experts say that this is an excellent time to look for a new job. So, how do you keep your talent? Invest in them! Certification increases job satisfaction by giving employees more knowledge and skills to help them perform better. 

63.1 percent of respondents to Certification Magazine's 2019 Salary Survey either agree or strongly agree that getting certified has improved their workplace productivity. A whopping 67.4 percent either agree or strongly agree that getting certified has increased their ability to solve problems.

Our experts say about Oracle Certification Exams

Oracle Retail Omnichannel Suite Innovations Power New Consumer Experiences

Oracle Retail continues its momentum in enabling digital transformation in the retail community with the launch of Oracle Retail Xstore Office Cloud Service. The service centralizes all back-office elements of store operations, eliminating the need for data center investment, providing a faster implementation timeline and creating a more responsive business model attuned to shifts in consumer preferences. With Oracle Retail Xstore Office Cloud Service, retailers can continue to take advantage of cloud solutions while maintaining critical point-of-service functions on- premises.

“Historically retailers have been slow to upgrade their POS solutions, often waiting 5-7 years before considering an upgrade, which has thwarted their ability to keep pace and provide dynamic, engaging experience to their customers,” said Jeff Warren, Vice President, Oracle Retail. “By moving Xstore back office to the cloud, customers can benefit from a continuous cadence of innovation that enables lower their total cost of ownership through centralized services and store operations.”

New Omnichannel Suite Updates

Xstore Point-of-Service, which is operating today in more than 83 countries, is the cornerstone of the Oracle Retail Omnichannel Suite. The solution delivers a comprehensive set of customer and associate experiences that meet the expectations of today’s modern retailers.

“During the 2018 Holiday season, successful retailers relied on accurate inventory as the foundation for fulfilling omnichannel journeys and meeting customer demand,” said Chris Sarne, senior director of omnichannel strategy, Oracle Retail. “This new generation of cloud services provides a real-time view into critical enterprise data that is the foundation for great brand experiences for consumers.”

Today, the Oracle Retail Omnichannel Suite of solutions enables 64 different shopper journey combinations. As part of Oracle’s Omnichannel product portfolio, Oracle Retail Xstore Point of Service is pre-integrated with several cloud services, including Oracle Retail Customer Engagement, Oracle Retail Order Management, Oracle Retail XBRi Loss Prevention and Oracle Commerce Cloud offerings, enabling end-to-end omnichannel retailing. Additional updates to the Oracle Retail Omnichannel Portfolio of Solutions and Cloud Services include:

• Mobility Enhancements: Retailers look to enable their associates to engage consumers sooner to drive interactions with the brand and deliver a higher level of service. Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service can be deployed on thin client and mobile offerings to allow an associate to capture the sale at the point of intent. Additionally, the store associates and managers are equipped with reporting that enables faster and more efficient decision making.
• RFID Integration: Many retailers have invested in RFID-based supply chain processes to help ensure the accuracy of supply right through to store inventory counting. To enable maintenance of the accuracy of stock position in the store, Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service can extend the sales and returns processes to include RFID data and pass this upstream through services to supporting RFID enabled inventory systems.
• Supporting Customer Experiences: As the retailers reinvent their brick and mortar footprints they are recognizing the value of the physical store as a vehicle to provide customers with unique experiences. With investment increasing in destination-based activities such as in-store coffee shops, candy and wine bars, the POS needs to address the requirements of these additional services without alternate software. Oracle Retail Xstore has extended functionality to address these evolving experiences, all within the same Xstore Point-of-Service code base.
• Easier Workflow: Oracle enhanced the workflow of Oracle Retail Order Management Cloud Service to provide customer service with a more intuitive interface with coordinated and transparent outcomes to fulfillment consumer demand.
• Customer Context: Oracle Retail Customer Engagement Cloud Service has adopted a role-based, modern user experience for better usability in supporting marketing operations and execution. The cloud service integrates to Oracle Retail Offer Optimization and taps into the productivity of artificial intelligence with integration to digital assistants.
• Exploiting Science for Speed and Scale: Oracle Retail XBRi Loss Prevention can go directly from identifying exceptions, for example, excessive gift cards, refunds, and exchanges, to identifying either the account or the cashiers that are at risk, or leveraging machine learning to flag business anomalies. This means that loss prevention officers no longer have to chase down the data behind the risk report in order to determine who or what to investigate. Now more than ever, the ability to deliver best-in-class functionality to the field can happen in a fraction of the time required for an enterprise, on-premises solutions. Retailers can implement Oracle Retail Cloud Services in as little as seven weeks from provisioning.
• Hardware Innovation: The Oracle Retail Xstore Suite has always offered a highly flexible deployment model that includes thick, thin, tablet, handheld options at the store. We are pleased to unveil a new self-service experience on an Oracle point-of-sale kiosk at NRF 2019.

Success Secrets: How you can Pass Oracle Certification Exams in first attempt 

Guide to Getting Started With Java Certification - Oracle Certifications

Working a career plan is hard enough without having to dig around to find everything you need.

The Java Foundations 1Z0-811 exam is priced lower but don’t let that fool you.  It is still a valid certification credential.  If you've taken Java Foundations training or the Java Coding and Concepts MOOC this is a great place to start.

If you've attended the Java Fundamentals training and had some hands on experience then the Java SE 8 Programmer I 1Z0-808 exam is a good choice. 

And, if you create web-based user interfaces using JavaScript along with JSPs, JSFs, servlets and handle business logic or have taken the Developing Applications for the Java EE 7 Platform course then the Java EE 7 Application Developer 1Z0-900 exam is for you.

The difference between the Junior Associate and the Associate certification credential is experience.  Take the Junior Associate if you haven’t gotten that needed experience yet.

Now that you know where to start its time to get ready for the exam.

First thing to do is to review Exam Topics.  This gives you a detailed list on what you will be tested on.  After reviewing the list you can determine what kind and how much additional help you need to prepare.   

Here's what's available to help prepare for the Java SE 8 Programmer I 1Z0-808 and the Java EE 7 Application Developer 1Z0-900 exams.

Exam prep 4-6 hour recorded guide. Note that an Exam Prep Seminar Package will include your exam voucher and a free retake voucher if you need it.

Hope you found this helpful!

Our experts say about Oracle Certification Exams