Online Undergraduate Certificate in Human Resources Management

To gain skills and knowledge related to human resources to prepare for a job or continue education at the undergraduate level.

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Discuss features, founders, and benefits of various management perspectives, skills required by managers, and the need for an ethical business structure and a diverse business environment
• Explain specific responsibilities of and skills needed for human resource management (HRM), types of illegal discrimination, and techniques to conduct successful interviews and choose prospective employees appropriately
• Demonstrate methods of organizing material for a professional setting, by composing business memos, emails, outlines, reports, and proposals using the ABC method
• Discuss the features and examples of various compensation strategies, calculate appropriate pay increases, and analyze features of total compensation
• Explain accepted theories regarding training and the management of the training function in organizations, and identify successful and unsuccessful training practices
• Describe the legally required social insurance programs for employees in the United States, the difference between group and individual insurance; the requirements for qualified pension plans and evaluate benefit packages to determine comprehensive plan coverage
• Explain the features of labor organizations, the effects of labor unions on employees and businesses, and how labor organizations fit into the business structure of the United States

Applicants are required to complete two Basic Skills Assessments, one in reading and one in math, to determine the level of readiness for beginning their selected program. Additional studies may be required.

Succeed by learning how to use your Penn Foster program, and learn how to effectively manage your time, talents, and resources in your personal life, academics, and in your career.

Objectives:

• Understand how to use your Student Portal.
• Access the Penn Foster Community and use it to find answers.
• Connect with Penn Foster on various social media sites.
• Examine your individual life goals and the steps needed to fulfill them.
• Recognize how your personal financial goals mirror that of most businesses.
• Use time management skills to make the most of your day.
• Determine personal financial goals.
• Set up a typical budget.
• Explain why creative thinking, research, planning, gathering resources, and production and marketing are vital for the start-up and maintenance of a business.

This course will review the functions of management and its role in planning, leading, organizing, motivating, and controlling.

Objectives:

• Define and correctly use business terms.
• Explain the importance of communication.
• Identify the steps of managerial decision making.
• Explain the relevance of the basic skills required by managers.
• Describe major components of various management perspectives.
• Discuss the ever-increasing employee diversity and the management activities required for the changing workforce.

Textbook: Management: A Real World Approach

This course provides an overview of Human Resources Management (HRM) as it's understood today. It illustrates the dynamic interaction of the personnel functions with each other and with the objectives of an organization.

Objectives:

• Describe the elements of human resource management, including labor considerations, regulation, and management of workflow
• Explain how companies should prepare for and implement HRM to hire new employees and create training programs
• Identify the aspects of employee, career, and turnover management
• Summarize how employees are paid, including legal requirements, performance-based pay, commissions, salaries, and benefits
• Describe other HRM functions including collective bargaining, labor relations, global HRM, and building a high-performance organization

Additional Course Materials:
Textbook: Fundamentals of Human Resource Management

This course provides an introduction to the various methods of organizing material for a professional setting. Students will compose business documents using the ABC method. These include memos, emails, outlines, reports and proposals, descriptions, and organizing materials. Students also work on honing their grammar skills.

Objectives:

• Describe the basics of the writing process and the ABC method of organizing material for a document
• Identify the parts of speech in a sentence
• Demonstrate correct pronoun use
• Choose proper and effective words for writing documents
• Identify the elements of a well-written sentence
• Demonstrate how to use length, directness, emphasis, and variety to craft impactful sentences
• Explain how to construct a coherent paragraph
• Describe how to write an effective cover letter and resume
• Format and write an interoffice memorandum, a routine business letter, and an effective email
• Identify the different ways to write for blogs, the Internet, and social media
• Describe how to create an organized formal outline
• Identify the types of research and methods of documentation used in business and technical writing
• Explain how to create visual interest and clarity in reports with illustrations, tables, graphs, charts, and overall design
• Explain the purpose and importance of various types of informal reports
• Describe the nature of formal reports and identify their components
• Differentiate among external, internal, informal, and formal proposals
• Describe an object or a process and prepare a set of instructions
• Describe the preparation and submission of professional and technical articles and manuals

The course covers the basic components of a total compensation package (salary, bonus, and benefits), the development, implementation, and maintenance of a program, the impact of internal and external equity, and additional factors which must be considered for the overall success of a program.

Objectives:

• Explain the factors and methods included in compensation strategies
• Describe how to evaluate employee performance and motivate workers using compensation strategies
• Explain how unions, laws, and special groups affect compensation
• Discuss labor regulation locally and globally
• Compare job postings for different pay models

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Compensation

Learn the accepted theory regarding training and the elements of training.

Objectives:

• Learn the management of the training function in organizations, training design, and training methods.
• Analyze successful and unsuccessful training practices.
• Get tips on best practices for training in several training areas.
• Examine the pros and cons of training evaluation.

Research Assignment

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Effective Training: Systems, Strategies, and Practices

This course examines employer and employee objectives for benefit plans.

Objectives:

• Discover legally required social insurance programs for employees in the United States.
• Learn about the characteristics of group insurance and individual insurance in the categories of life, medical, dental, and disability.
• Compare managed care plans with traditional medical expense plans.
• Study the general requirements that must be met by qualified pension plans with respect to eligibility and plan coverage; nondiscrimination in benefits and contributions; funding; vesting; limitations on benefits and contributions; payout restrictions; and top-heavy rules.
• Learn the difference in pension benefit formulas.
• Discover general features of pension funding instruments and when each might best be used.
• Interpret qualified and nonqualified pension plans.

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Employee Benefits

This course examines the interaction between organized labor unions and company management pertaining to rights and responsibilities, negotiations, and collective bargaining.

Objectives:

• Learn the current trends in labor organization in light of changes in the labor force, such as the trend toward a two-tier wage system.
• Discover why workers join unions and why management is sometimes not enthusiastic about unions.
• Study the long struggle to establish the voice of organized labor in America from the nineteenth century to the present.
• Discover the relationship between national and local unions.
• Learn characteristics of the collective bargaining process and why early negotiations are marked by exaggerated demands.
• Study variables that impact labor management negotiations
• Find out the two major approaches to wage adjustments: escalator clauses and wage reopeners.
• Study the nature of concessionary bargaining on the part of organized labor.
• Study administrative issues under collective bargaining, including the role of seniority and affirmative action.

Research Assignment

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Labor Relations

This assessment will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the program. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.