> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://guide.exiqtive.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Certify
> Prove that employees are ready for their responsibilities with badges, objective inspections, and a readiness percentage you can manage.
Certify is the second step of the exIQtive method. Once responsibilities are [clear](/concepts/clarify), Certify proves that each employee is **ready** to perform them, and turns that proof into a number you can manage.
## Why certify
Most organizations train on the job. An expert coaches a new hire through their responsibilities, and the knowledge passes by word of mouth. That knowledge is **tribal**: it lives in people's heads, so it's hard to scale and hard to check.
The goal is an organization where most employees are competent, a few are experts, and everyone gets there fast. Certification creates accountability on both sides: the employee knows what readiness requires, and the expert's results are multiplied across the people they certify.
## Certify readiness, not training
Attending training doesn't prove anything. Readiness does. An employee is ready when they:
1. **Know** what to do (knowledge)
2. **Can do it** (ability)
3. **Do it** (behavior)
exIQtive certifies all three, one responsibility at a time.
## One badge per responsibility
Every responsibility an employee holds has its own badge, and each badge sits on one of five levels:
| Badge | Readiness | What it certifies |
| - | - | - |
| Novice | 0% | Can't do it yet |
| Apprentice | 50% | Can do it, supervised |
| Proficient | 100% | Can do it, unsupervised |
| Coach | 125% | Trains and certifies employees |
| Architect | 150% | Builds institutional knowledge and certifies Coaches |
The levels fall into three zones: **Developing** (Novice and Apprentice), **Competent** (Proficient), and **Expert** (Coach and Architect). See [The badge ladder](/user-guide/readiness/badge-ladder) for how badges are earned and what keeps them valid.
## Inspection, not evaluation
An evaluation is subjective: it relies on one person's view, drawn from tribal knowledge. An **inspection** is objective: it checks the employee against institutional knowledge that everyone can see.
Objective certification takes three steps:
An Architect captures how the responsibility is performed, in short videos, articles, and quizzes.
The Architect turns that knowledge into checkpoints, which together form the Inspection Protocol.
A Coach inspects the employee against the checkpoints and issues the badge.
See [Checkpoints](/checkpoints/overview) and [Inspecting a responsibility](/coaching/inspecting-a-responsibility).
## Measure readiness
Because every badge has a percentage, readiness is simple math: you can't manage what you don't measure.
An employee's readiness is the average of their responsibilities' badge levels. For example, an employee with an Apprentice (50%), a Proficient (100%), and a Coach (125%) badge on three equally important responsibilities has a readiness of (50 + 100 + 125) รท 3 = **92%**.
exIQtive weights each responsibility by its importance, so the percentage you see can differ from a simple average. See [How readiness is calculated](/user-guide/readiness/how-readiness-is-calculated).
When readiness is visible to everyone, it drives accountability: what's measured gets improved. See [Communicating readiness to your employees](/readiness/communicating-readiness).
### Ready today, growing for tomorrow
Readiness covers more than the job someone does today. An employee's readiness for their **primary position** shows how ready they are now. Their readiness for a **next position** they're preparing for shows how far along they are on that path. Positions in a [job family](/organization/job-families) form a ladder, such as Staff Accountant, Senior Accountant, Controller, and CFO. See [Employee/position assignments](/organization/employee-position-assignments).
### What reduces readiness
Three things can lower an employee's readiness:
* **Changed responsibilities:** the responsibilities for a position change.
* **Badge expiration:** a badge reaches the end of its grace period or its responsibility is retired.
* **Badge removal:** an administrator removes a badge.
An expired or removed badge counts as Novice (0%) until the employee is inspected again.
## Related
Readiness levels, badges, and inspections.
Badge levels and statuses in detail.
The inspection checklist for a responsibility.
Turn strategy into clear responsibilities.
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