Diane Burton is a professor in the ILR School at Cornell University. Her primary appointment is in human resource studies, with courtesy appointments in organizational behavior and sociology. Prior to joining the Cornell faculty in 2009, Professor Burton was a faculty member at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She began her academic career at the Harvard Business School teaching leadership and organizational behavior. Professor Burton earned her Ph.D. in sociology at Stanford University and served as a lecturer and researcher in organizational behavior and human resources management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Compensation
and BenefitsCornell Certificate Program
Overview and Courses
Compensation and benefits play an essential role in attracting and retaining the key talent you need in your organization.
In this certificate program, you'll delve into the intricate world of compensation, from traditional pay structures to the broader concept of total rewards. Throughout the courses, you'll explore the philosophical underpinnings of compensation systems and access practical strategies to design and manage them in alignment with organizational goals. Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to examine employee benefits beyond monetary compensation, discovering how to tailor programs to enhance the overall employee experience and reinforce organizational culture.
Upon completing the program, you'll emerge with the strategic insights and practical skills needed to navigate the complexities of setting compensation and benefits effectively in today's competitive landscape.
The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear.
Course list
The conversation around employee pay has changed over the years from one of base salaries, bonuses, and cash compensation, to a “total rewards” approach that seeks the right blend of monetary and non-monetary elements that will engage each employee while generating valuable business results.
Cornell University ILR School faculty Linda Barrington and Diane Burton are the thought leaders behind Cornell's prestigious Institute for Compensation Studies. This team of authors offers a learning experience that applies evidence-based, social science approaches to the field of compensation. This course will equip you with the tools and insights needed to apply a “total rewards” view to compensation that aligns with your organization's strategic goals and operational realities.
How does your organization determine how much to pay employees across their different roles? How do you balance the need to attract and retain talent with the need to promote internal pay fairness? It is crucial that your organization define clear answers to these questions.
Employee salaries are typically among the highest business expenses. Making compensation decisions in ways that attract the best talent and contribute to internal fairness is a major concern of human resource professionals. Some organizations have compensation structures in place, while others do not use them at all. This course provides a comprehensive overview of the use of compensation structures.
You'll start by exploring some of the philosophical concepts underpinning pay structures. You'll look at the decisions your organization will need to make before creating a pay structure. After you examine the philosophical and practical considerations, you'll see how to develop a pay structure. Professor Tae-Youn Park leads you through the process of building a pay structure for your organization, providing a step-by-step framework that you can bring back to your organization. He then gives you hands-on experience with developing a pay structure that matches both your organization's needs and its values. Along the way, you will discover how to collect, choose, and use market pay data.
Finally, you'll take a close look at some specific issues with pay structures. You'll discover how to use a pay structure to make decisions around employee pay. You'll explore the advantages and disadvantages of pay transparency. You'll end the course by identifying the various teams within your organization who need to be engaged to help manage pay structures effectively.
By the end of this course, you will be ready to make informed decisions about pay structures for your organization. You'll be able to assist senior leaders in articulating a pay philosophy and determining a pay transparency policy. You will also have the insights you need to advise senior management. Throughout the course, Professor Park weaves research-based information with practical advice so that you'll be prepared to guide your organization through the process of designing and managing compensation structures.
The following course is required to be completed before taking this course:
- Total Rewards Compensation
This course introduces the idea of benchmarking, or comparing your salaries to those of your competitors. Benchmarking is one of several factors that organizations use to determine employee pay. Additional factors include the organization's compensation philosophy, ways beyond salary that employees are compensated, and the organization's budget. Organizations need to strike the right balance of paying enough to attract and retain quality employees but not paying more they can afford.
In this course, you will explore the different salary surveys used in benchmarking analysis and how to decide what surveys are best for your organization. You will also examine strategies for reviewing and analyzing those surveys. Finally, you will consider how to use the results of your analysis to adjust salary structures and how to communicate the results of your analysis to the organization.
The following course is required to be completed before taking this course:
- Total Rewards Compensation
- Designing and Managing Compensation Structures
This course provides an introduction to employee benefits. Employee benefits is a key part of an organization's total rewards program, which also includes compensation and other valuable workplace experiences. Employee benefits is a surprisingly large umbrella of programs offered by an employer to the benefit of the employee and their eligible dependents, and every organization can tailor its benefit plan offerings to fit their employee populations and business model.
Throughout this course, you will be exposed to the major employee benefit programs and workplace experiences offered by American employers. You will explore the tremendous variation in how these programs are offered, both in terms of the programs themselves and the design features of each program.
The breadth, depth, and variation of benefit programs gives each employer the opportunity to design their benefit strategy and offerings to attract and retain their optimal employee workforce. The nation's top employers consider their employee benefits and workplace experiences to be key parts of their employment brand and overall human resources strategy.
The following course is required to be completed before taking this course:
- Total Rewards Compensation
- Designing and Managing Compensation Structures
- Benchmarking Competitive Pay Levels
How It Works
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Faculty Authors
Linda Barrington is the Associate Dean for External Relations in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business as well as the executive director of Cornell’s Institute for Compensation Studies. Dr. Barrington’s published research addresses employee compensation, gender issues in the workplace, employees with disabilities, and workforce demographics.
Tae-Youn Park (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is the Associate Professor of Human Resource Studies in the ILR School, Cornell University. Professor Park’s research examines how employment policies and practices, such as compensation, parental leave, and employee turnover and retention, affect both employers and employees. His work has been published in many influential journals across disciplines, including Academy of Management Journal, Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Applied Psychology, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Strategic Management Journal, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. He currently serves on the editorial board of Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, and Compensation and Benefit Review.
Before joining the ILR School, Professor Park’s was a Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Dean’s Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of Management in the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University. He taught three MBA courses and won a dean’s research productivity award in 2015 at Vanderbilt.
Allen P. Jackson served as a compensation consultant with a predecessor of Willis Towers Watson for 24 years. He ran the firm’s Global Databases Group, which conducted hundreds of compensation surveys in over 75 countries, and he helped develop and refine the firm’s data collection, analysis and reporting methodologies. He also advised the boards of major private and public companies in the media, information and entertainment industries. Mr. Jackson has an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia University.
Michael L. Davis is a former human resources professional with experience working in consulting, business, academia, and industry associations. Prior to his retirement in 2014, Mr. Davis served as General Mills’ Executive Vice President of Global Human Resources and had been the company’s chief human resources officer since 2008. He joined General Mills in 1996 as VP, Compensation & Benefits, and later served as VP, HR, Corporate, and VP, HR, U.S. Retail. Mr. Davis was named Senior Vice President in 2008 and Executive Vice President in 2013.
Before he joined General Mills, Mr. Davis worked at Towers Perrin (formerly TPF&C) from 1981 to 1996 in various compensation consultant roles. He was named both a principal (partner) and a vice president (senior partner) while at the firm and consulted mainly with large corporations and boards. Upon leaving Towers Perrin, Mr. Davis was the firm’s worldwide consulting practice leader for executive compensation.
Mr. Davis has served on the boards (and in board leadership roles) for a number of human resources industry associations, including the National Business Group on Health (chair), the Human Resources Policy Association (vice chair), the Center on Executive Compensation (one of the founders), the American Health Policy Institute (founding chair), the Employee Benefits Research Institute (chair), WorldatWork (chair), the National Committee for Quality Assurance (executive committee), and the National Academy of Human Resources (executive committee). He also served as an ongoing advisor to World 50 and HR50x on education matters for senior HR executives.
In 2012, Mr. Davis was named a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources. In the following year, he was named the Distinguished Human Resources Executive by the National Academy of Management.
Throughout his professional career, Mr. Davis has guest-lectured at several leading universities and served as an adjunct professor at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, from 2006 to 2019, where he taught graduate courses in Compensation Benefits, Executive Compensation, and Teamwork and Leadership. He currently serves as Executive-in-Residence at Cornell University’s ILR School.
Diane Burton is a professor in the ILR School at Cornell University. Her primary appointment is in human resource studies, with courtesy appointments in organizational behavior and sociology. Prior to joining the Cornell faculty in 2009, Professor Burton was a faculty member at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She began her academic career at the Harvard Business School teaching leadership and organizational behavior. Professor Burton earned her Ph.D. in sociology at Stanford University and served as a lecturer and researcher in organizational behavior and human resources management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Linda Barrington is the Associate Dean for External Relations in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business as well as the executive director of Cornell’s Institute for Compensation Studies. Dr. Barrington’s published research addresses employee compensation, gender issues in the workplace, employees with disabilities, and workforce demographics.
Tae-Youn Park (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is the Associate Professor of Human Resource Studies in the ILR School, Cornell University. Professor Park’s research examines how employment policies and practices, such as compensation, parental leave, and employee turnover and retention, affect both employers and employees. His work has been published in many influential journals across disciplines, including Academy of Management Journal, Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Applied Psychology, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Strategic Management Journal, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. He currently serves on the editorial board of Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, and Compensation and Benefit Review.
Before joining the ILR School, Professor Park’s was a Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Dean’s Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of Management in the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University. He taught three MBA courses and won a dean’s research productivity award in 2015 at Vanderbilt.
Allen P. Jackson served as a compensation consultant with a predecessor of Willis Towers Watson for 24 years. He ran the firm’s Global Databases Group, which conducted hundreds of compensation surveys in over 75 countries, and he helped develop and refine the firm’s data collection, analysis and reporting methodologies. He also advised the boards of major private and public companies in the media, information and entertainment industries. Mr. Jackson has an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia University.
Michael L. Davis is a former human resources professional with experience working in consulting, business, academia, and industry associations. Prior to his retirement in 2014, Mr. Davis served as General Mills’ Executive Vice President of Global Human Resources and had been the company’s chief human resources officer since 2008. He joined General Mills in 1996 as VP, Compensation & Benefits, and later served as VP, HR, Corporate, and VP, HR, U.S. Retail. Mr. Davis was named Senior Vice President in 2008 and Executive Vice President in 2013.
Before he joined General Mills, Mr. Davis worked at Towers Perrin (formerly TPF&C) from 1981 to 1996 in various compensation consultant roles. He was named both a principal (partner) and a vice president (senior partner) while at the firm and consulted mainly with large corporations and boards. Upon leaving Towers Perrin, Mr. Davis was the firm’s worldwide consulting practice leader for executive compensation.
Mr. Davis has served on the boards (and in board leadership roles) for a number of human resources industry associations, including the National Business Group on Health (chair), the Human Resources Policy Association (vice chair), the Center on Executive Compensation (one of the founders), the American Health Policy Institute (founding chair), the Employee Benefits Research Institute (chair), WorldatWork (chair), the National Committee for Quality Assurance (executive committee), and the National Academy of Human Resources (executive committee). He also served as an ongoing advisor to World 50 and HR50x on education matters for senior HR executives.
In 2012, Mr. Davis was named a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources. In the following year, he was named the Distinguished Human Resources Executive by the National Academy of Management.
Throughout his professional career, Mr. Davis has guest-lectured at several leading universities and served as an adjunct professor at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, from 2006 to 2019, where he taught graduate courses in Compensation Benefits, Executive Compensation, and Teamwork and Leadership. He currently serves as Executive-in-Residence at Cornell University’s ILR School.
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Key Course Takeaways
- Design and manage compensation structures
- Appraise the total rewards within the employment relationship
- Use benchmarking to maintain competitive pay levels
- Determine the appropriate benefits package to attract and retain talent
Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.What You'll Earn
- Compensation and Benefits Certificate from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations
- 80 Professional Development Hours (8 CEUs)
- 80 Professional Development Credits (PDCs) toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification
- 80 Credit hours towards HRCI recertification
Who Should Enroll
- Human resources professionals
- Compensation and benefits specialists
- Operational and financial decision makers
- Governments/nonprofits interested in pay-for-performance
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Compensation and Benefits
Select Payment Method | Cost |
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$3,750 | |