THE CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY
HRD 325 COMPENSATION and BENEFITS DESIGN
COURSE OUTLINE
Facilitator: Dennis Campos, MPA
I
Course Goals/Objectives
The emphasis of this course is on the managerial level concepts and practices of
compensation and benefits administration with emphasis on current theories of
compensation and benefits trends, cost, value and systems. Insights from thought
leaders will be explored to enrich the learning experience. Attention is given to
(1) the changing nature of compensation and benefits, (2) changing expectations
of employees and competitive needs of employers and (3) evolving trends in
performance and pay realignment to the strategic objectives of the organization.
The course provides each student with an experiential opportunity to develop the
managerial skills necessary to design and understand the performance based
compensation and benefit programs for an organization.
II
Methodology
Class time is taken up with discussion, small group assignments and lecture that
are punctuated with questions that will force the student to take a position and
justify that position.
III
Textbooks
Text #1
The WorldatWork Handbook of Compensation, Benefits & Total Rewards, World
at Work, 2007.
Text #2
Zingheim, Patricia K. And Schuster, Jay R., High Performance Pay, World at
Work Press, 2007.
IV
Grading Policy
Grade Composition:
Mini Paper (5pages)
Class Participation
Final Paper (10 pages)
Grade:
A+
=
A
=
A=
B+
=
B
=
B=
C+
=
C
=
C=
V
20%
40%
40%
4.0
4.0
3.7
3.3
3.0
2.7
2.3
2.0
1.7
Schedule for Classes and Assigned Readings
September 6
Introduction & Total Rewards
Text #1
Chapter 1-Total Rewards: Everything Employees Value in the
Employment Relationship
Chapter 2-Why the Total Rewards Approach Works
Chapter 3-Developing a Total Rewards Strategy
Text #2
Introduction to Book
Chapter 1-Winning the Battle for Superkeepers
Chapter 2-Creating a Powerful Customized Workplace Rewards
Brand
Chapter 3-Fixing Performance Management: A Key Priority
September 13
Building the Tools of Total Rewards
Text #1
Chapter 4-Designing a Total Rewards Program
Chapter 5-Communicating Total Rewards
Chapter 6-Compensation Fundamentals
Text #2
Chapter 7-Can Base Pay Reward Performance?
Chapter 9- Competencies and Rewards
Mini Paper Due
Five page critique of an existing (real life) total rewards cash
compensation only program using the information found in both
texts and at least two periodical articles.
September 20
Executive Compensation
Text #1
Chapter 13-Executive Compensation: An Introduction
Text #2
Chapter 13-Executive Compensation: Doing the ‘Heavy-Lifting’
September 27
Pay for Performance
Text #1
Chapter 14-Linking Pay to Performance
Text #2
Chapter 17-Pay Changes Going Forward
October 4
Equity Compensation
Text #1
Chapter 16-Equity Based Rewards
October 11
Employee Benefits Introduction
Text #1
Chapter 17-Employee Benefit Basics
Chapter 18- Benefits Compliance
October 18
Strategic Employee Benefits
Text #1
Chapter 20-Planning Benefits Strategically
Chapter 21-Implementing Flexible Benefits
Handouts
Benefits in the Future
Final Papers Due
Nine page critique of an existing (real life) total rewards non cash
compensation only program using the information found in both
text books and two periodical articles. Include a one page
executive summary. Total ten pages.