Basics of Accounting and Finance

The purpose of this course is to introduce human resource managers to the basics of accounting and finance. We will use a combination of lecture, case analysis, and problem sets to examine financial statements, principles of valuation, project valuation, and firm valuation. All participants will be able to succeed in the course without any prerequisites. Participants who have previously studied corporate accounting and/or finance will want to pursue other opportunities.

Topics Covered:
• Reading and interpreting financial statements
• Calculating present and future values (e.g., a mortgage payment or saving for retirement)
• Evaluating which organizational projects to invest in and why
• Understanding why some firms are worth more than others

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Linking People to the Bottom Line

The purpose of this course is to provide human resource managers with the analytic tools necessary to link workforce attributes—such as turnover and employee satisfaction—to bottom-line costs and benefits. This course will use a combination of lecture and case analysis. All participants will be able to succeed in the course without any prerequisites.

Topics Covered:
• Metrics for assessing firm performance
• Metrics for assessing human resource management performance
• Methods for calculating human resource costs and benefits

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HRM’S Strategic Role in Contributing to Organizational Effectiveness

Effective management of human resources has proven to be a critical component in the success of a business. Effective HR leads to positive employee outcomes including engagement, commitment, satisfaction, and performance. Effective HR also has been linked to superior company performance. In this workshop, participants will examine leading companies’ best practices in the areas of recruitment, selection, training, performance management and compensation.

Topics Covered:
• How can human resources be managed so that they create a competitive advantage for a firm?
• How can a company find qualified applicants and identify the applicants who will be outstanding employees?
• What are the critical decisions that must be made in creating an effective training program?
• How can a performance management system be created so that it accurately evaluates performance and encourages employers to continually improve?
• What are the key steps in creating a compensation system that is fair and competitive?

Who will benefit:
HR and business professionals who are interested in gaining insights on best practices in human resources.

Instructor
Sandy J. Wayne, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago, Professor & Director of the Center for Human Resource Management

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Overview of employment law/government

Legal issues in the workplace are complex and sometimes overwhelming. In this session, participants will get a current in-depth review of EEO, Federal, state and local laws, regulations and court cases to help them better understand the spirit of the law and how best to comply.

Topics Covered:
• Hiring Practices
• Employment Discrimination Law
• Compensation and Benefits
• Discharge
• Common Law and Constitutional Limits
• Restrictions on Leaving a Job
• Unemployment
• Retirement
• Disability, Injury and Illness
• Occupational Safety and Health

Who will benefit:
Any person interested in a better understanding of employment law, particularly human resource professionals.

Instructor
Michael LeRoy, JD, Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations and College of Law

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Fundamentals of Benefits and Compensation

For most companies employee compensation and benefits are the largest expenses and one of the most difficult to manage. Finding competitive levels of compensation and benefits that motivate employees without overpaying is key. In this session, participants will review basic economics, equity issues, benefits, and incentives.

Topics Covered:
• Internal Equity
• External Equity
• Contingent Pay and Group Incentives
• Compensable factors
• ESOP
• Employment bands
• External Labor pool
• Financial Statement

Who will benefit:
Persons who are responsible for compensating employees, HR practitioners or mangers involved in pay increase/decision making.

Instructor
Peter Thompson, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago, Lecturer, Management Studies

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Change Management

Change Management provides systematic tools and methods to help individuals, teams and organizations transition for the current state to a desired future state. Too often, change is initiated and led in ways that fail to fully deliver the intended results. Done well, managed change builds essential capability in organizations.

Topics Covered:
• The challenge of change in today's workplace
• The role of the human resource function in leading change
• A multi-stakeholder model for change management
• Social and technical dimensions of change
• Implementation and policy deployment
• Cross-functional alignment -- finance, sales, marketing, operations, etc.
• Why resistance to change is often rational and potentially constructive
• Sustaining change and delivering results

Who will benefit:
HR and business professionals who are interested in effectively leading change initiatives in their organizations.

Instructors
Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Ph.D Dean of the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana

Gentz Franz, MHRIR Director of Development at the School of Labor and Employment Relations

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Introduction to Workplace Safety and Security

A 2006 American Worker Safety Survey performed by the National Safety Council reported 5000 workplace deaths and 3.7 million disabling injuries in 2004. In the same year, the cost of accidental injuries at work was nearly $142 billion. The National Safety Council’s “Injury Facts” report of 2007 revealed that a work related death occurs in America once every hour. All enterprises want to provide a safe and secure work environment, but how do you identify the needs and implement positive cultural changes to accomplish this task? Safety and security are normally considered supportive roles in business operations, yet their impact has a direct effect on company profits and losses. Loss time accidents, worker compensation insurance premiums, and OSHA fines for non-compliances all greatly influence the profit line. Protection of assets, employees, proprietary information and public safety are major issues in the security world. In this workshop, participants will learn how to incorporate safety and security policies and rules to support business goals, improve safety attitudes, and utilize security.

Topics Covered:
• Understand your safety attitude in your work environment
• Learn to pro-actively identify safety concerns
• Review Blood borne pathogen issues, safe lifting, Haz com Applications
• Practice ways to heighten Safety Awareness—Safety incentives
• Determine ways to facilitate security

Who will benefit:
Anyone with safety/security responsibilities; in particular, HR professionals.

IInstructor(s)
TBA

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Fundamentals of Staffing: Making the Right Hire

Hiring the right people is fundamental to the success of your company. This interactive workshop increases your knowledge and understanding of the hiring process; from recognizing a need for new hires through on-boarding and the evaluation of the hiring process. Special emphasis is placed on the role and responsibilities of the HR practitioner including:
• Developing a pool of qualified candidates
• Understanding costs and benefits of new hires
• Coordinating hiring efforts strategically with your company’s needs
• Facilitating decision-making at all stages of the hiring process

Topics Covered:
• When is it time to add an employee?
• Affirmative Action
• Job descriptions and KSAOs
• Legal issues and compliance
• Application forms
• Applicant screening
• Interviewing and assessments
• Background and reference checks
• Understanding person-organization fit
• Drug and medical testing
• On-boarding and mentoring
• Handling the rejected applicant
• Metrics for evaluating hiring success

Who will benefit:
All employees responsible for making hiring decisions; particularly Human Resource professionals.

Instructor
Cindy Guthrie, MS, SPHR

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Fundamentals of Training

Are your employees asking for training but do not know what kind of training they need? Or are they seeking training that doesn’t help the organization? In this session, participants will learn how to manage the myriad of considerations before initiating training. Attendees will review: How to determine if the training will help the company meet its strategic goals?; What is the task that needs to be trained?; How will the individuals be trained? What method should be used (distance learning, computer assisted instruction, multimedia, web-based, virtual reality, simulations)? Who will benefit from training? After training has taken place, What kind of evaluation will determine if the training has met the objectives? What evidence is there to show that training has assisted in completing the task?

Topics Covered:
• Needs assessment
• Training evaluation
• Development
• Career Management

Who will benefit:
Anyone who is interested in a better understanding of training in particular HR professionals responsible for employee training.

Instructor
Cindy Guthrie, MS, SPHR

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HR Capstone Portfolio

Participants will create a portfolio of completed assignments related to various workshop material and HR work experiences. It is the intention of the capstone project to increase transference by relating workshop material to the participants’ real work / life experiences.

Topics Covered:
Topics included in participants’ portfolios will vary depending on the workshop assignments completed and included in the portfolio.

Who will benefit:
Persons seeking Illinois HR Excellence certification are required to complete this program. Workshop participants seeking a systematic compilation of their workshop knowledge will benefit from completing the on-line My HR Portfolio.

Instructor
The instructor varies based on subject matter.

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Business Operations for HR Professionals

Basics of Accounting & Finance
Linking People to the Bottom Line

Instructor
Jeff Ericksen, PhD

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Performance Management to Achieve Results

Managing employee performance effectively is one of the most complex and challenging issues facing companies today. While business leaders acknowledge the need for implementing effective performance management systems, recent studies indicate that an overwhelming majority of performance appraisal and management systems are unsuccessful. The purpose of this workshop is to highlight the challenges, opportunities, and pitfalls that govern implementation of these systems in the present business context. The workshop also aims at providing participants with practical and conceptual tools that will aid them in designing and implement performance management systems. This workshop includes case studies and group discussion.

Topics Covered:
• Developing Performance Management Systems: The Business Context
• Measuring Performance: Methods and Approaches
• Contemporary Issues in Performance Management

Who will benefit:
HR and business professionals who are interested in gaining insights on best practices in performance management.

Instructor
Aparna Joshi, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Identifying and Developing Leaders

Leadership is a hot topic in the business magazines and it should be. Organizations have figured out that leadership creates the environment that is conducive to performance and better performance is conducive to better organizational outcomes.
In this workshop, participants will design and implement a plan to increase their personal effectiveness to achieve their personal goals and better understand how they impact others and improve their leadership skills in the process.

Topics Covered:
• Understanding your own leadership style
• Develop a leadership plan
• Situational Leadership
• Understanding the importance of practicing leadership, social networks, and succession planning.
• Emotional Intelligence
• Leadership across cultures

Who will benefit:
Anyone interested in improving their leadership skills in particular, HR professionals involved in growing leaders for an organization.

Instructor
Dave Henderson, MS, Ph D candidate

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Health Insurance and Pension Issues in the Workplace

A substantial part of employees’ compensation comes in the form of non-wage benefits, such as health insurance and retirement plans. The goal of this course is to critically examine why firms offer particular benefits, how benefit design influences employees and firms, and how government policies and reform efforts affect firms.

Topics covered

• Why do firms offer benefits in the first place?
• Why do health insurance costs grow so fast?
• How insurance costs affect firms’ profitability and employees’ overall compensation?
• Do new forms of health insurance reduce costs or raise profitability?
• How will health insurance policy reform influence firms?
• How is the pension landscape changing?
• Does including company stock in a retirement portfolio hurt employees?
• Can employees effectively manage their own defined contribution plans?

Who will benefit from this course?
The course is designed for human resource professionals who already have a basic understanding of benefit programs, but would like to better understand the relationship between benefits, firm performance, and employees’ total compensation.

Instructor
Darren Lubotsky, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Economics, School of Labor and Employment Relations, and Institute of Government and Public Affairs
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Creating and Managing a Diverse Workforce for Organizational Effectiveness

Participants in this workshop will explore “What is Diversity?”
How do you measure diversity? What are the benefits of diversity?
How does one manage diversity? Is there a link between diversity and higher firm performance? Through group exercises, case studies, videos, participants will gain a better understanding of diversity and its impact at work.

Topics Covered:
• Civil Rights Act 1964; 1991
• Affirmative Action
• Sexual Harassment
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
• Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978
• Americans with Disabilities of 1990
• Family Medical Leave Act of 1993

Who will benefit:
All employees and in particular human resource professionals charged with managing diversity in an organization.

Instructor
Jenny Hoobler, PhD