Human Resources Undergraduate Certificate Curriculum

This course is an introduction to distance learning, study skills and techniques, reading textbooks and study guides, and reviewing for examinations. You’ll learn about individual life goals and steps needed to fulfill them; similarities between personal financial goals and business goals; determining personal financial goals; setting up a budget; and researching, planning, starting up, and maintaining a business.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Identify the four basic kinds of life goals
• 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

(3 CREDITS)

In the business world, people are sometimes put into management situations when they really don’t understand what management is all about. Although some are able to step into a management position and handle it naturally, others find the responsibilities to be overwhelming. Management courses are a must. For those proficient in managerial positions, management courses can help improve their skills and gain a better understanding of their new responsibilities. For those who are overwhelmed by a new management position, or who strive to secure a management position, management courses help by presenting concepts and ideas to build new skills.

This course is divided into lessons that discuss the foundations and principles of management, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. As you read the textbook, try to relate the material to your own experiences. If you don’t have any management experience, try to put yourself in the place of your manager and relate the material to those experiences.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Summarize the functions of management and the basic steps in various planning processes
• Explain how to make effective decisions as a manager and a leader
• Describe the fundamental elements of an organization’s structure and the components of an organization’s competitive environment
• Explain principles for setting goals that motivate employees, why companies develop control systems, and why teamwork is beneficial
• Analyze why diversity is a critical organizational and managerial issue, and describe the criteria for technology decisions and managing change
• Demonstrate the foundations and principles of management by completing an open-book proctored exam

Welcome to your Human Resources Management course, which is designed to introduce you to the field. Your textbook's learning objectives, found at the outset of each chapter, are meant to introduce you to basic concepts, theories, and perspectives related to effective human resource management. Further, your text includes a wealth of case studies and features that will help you understand practical problems and applications of human resource management principles. If you're seriously thinking about a career in human resource management, you should take advantage of these extra features, even when they aren't assigned.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• 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
• Explain key aspects of the field of human resource management

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

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Recognize how to use words correctly and effectively
• Produce a well-constructed interoffice memo, workplace email, and business letter
• Produce a brief business report based on findings obtained using research techniques and methods of documentation
• Produce an informal report that lists findings of an investigation and provides recommendations for issues raised in the findings
• Describe procedures for creating proposals, descriptions, instructions, and manuals for the workplace
• Create a detailed proposal designed to solve an internal human resource issue

The course highlights important points of compensation in contemporary work environments. Throughout your studies, you'll learn about different forms of pay, compensation strategies, competitive pay models, and performance evaluation and management techniques. You'll also learn about different laws surrounding compensation and global pay systems. At the end of this course, you'll complete an essay that asks you to take all you've learned throughout your studies and analyze several different job postings that cover these concepts.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• 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
• Demonstrate knowledge on compensation, pay models, laws, and management techniques

Employee training takes place in every business. In some organizations, employee training is a formalized process that continues throughout an employee’s entire career. In other organizations, employee training is an informal event used to introduce new employees to the basic skills they’ll need to complete their tasks. Your current or future employer will approach training by some combination of the two methods. This course will help you make employee training a more efficient and effective process. After completing this course, you should be a valuable asset to any employer.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Describe the various elements in the organizational training process
• Categorize the various training designs and methods
• Analyze the significance of development, implementation, and evaluation of training processes
• Explain the concept of adult learning theory and how it influences employee training
• Describe the interrelationships among the five phases of the training process model

This course will introduce you to the many elements of employee benefits. After studying the fundamentals of employee benefits programs, you’ll learn about different types of benefits plans, including retirement, health care, and life insurance plans. You’ll discover the benefits of paid time off, such as holiday and vacation time, as well as how accommodation and enhancement benefits can improve employee well-being. You’ll learn to distinguish among the various services and products available from private and public providers. Finally, you’ll learn about the management of employee benefits programs. The knowledge you gain from this course will help in your pursuit of a career in human resources.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Analyze the fundamentals of employee benefits
• Identify the types and benefits of various retirement, health care, and life insurance plans
• Categorize the benefits and purposes of paid time off, accommodation, and enhancement benefits
• Examine the management of employee benefits programs
• Apply your knowledge of employee benefits to evaluate the benefits packages of three similar companies
• Prepare for the final exam

Upon completion of this course, you’ll know a lot more about labor relations in America. Despite the heavy emphasis on self-reliance and entrepreneurship in our society, the great majority of us won’t discover the next version of Microsoft or become titans of industry or masters of the universe in the realm of international finance. Any healthy society needs competent teachers, reliable electricians, compassionate and competent healthcare workers, devoted law enforcement officers, firefighters, lathe operators, and technicians of all kinds. Capital may move the pieces on the economic board and corporations many pretend to be “people” whose “free speech” is reckoned in dollars, but at the fabled end of the day, it’s average, everyday people like us who must carry the weight of day-to-day labor. Capital means nothing without labor. Labor means too little if it isn’t justly rewarded and garbed in dignity.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Analyze the role played by labor unions and the impact of labor laws
• Explain labor relations management and bargaining strategies, structure, and constraints
• Discuss empowerment, partnership, globalization, and financialization
• Analyze various labor relations standards and considerations and what’s expected of the union
• Analyze the successes and challenges facing ALPA