Strategic Compensation : A Human Resource

This book reflects the importance of employees as a key element of strategic compensation programs. In exploring the art of compensation and its role in promoting companies' competitive advantages, the author develops a solid understanding of compensation practices, the context of compensation practice, the criteria used to compensate employees, compensation system design issues, employee benefits, and contemporary challenges that compensation professionals will face well into the 21st century. KEY TOPICS The book's five-part organization covers specific topics under the headings of setting the stage for strategic compensation, bases for pay, designing compensation systems, employee benefits, and contemporary strategic compensation challenges. For compensation specialists and analysts, and human resource and compensation managers.

Companies' success in the marketplace is as much a function of the way business practitioners manage employees as it is a function of companies' structures and financial resources. Compensating employees represents a critical human resource management practice: Without sound compensation systems, companies cannot attract and retain the best-qualified employees. Compensation systems can promote companies' competitive advantage when they are properly aligned with strategic goals. Likewise, compensation practices can undermine competitive advantage when they are designed and implemented haphazardly. The title of this book--Strategic Compensation: A Human Resource Management Approach--reflects the importance of employees as key elements of strategic compensation programs. The purpose of this book is to provide knowledge of the art of compensation practice and its role in promoting companies' competitive advantage. Students will be best prepared to assume the roles of competent compensation professionals if they possess a grounded understanding of compensation practices and the environments in which business professionals plan, implement, and evaluate compensation systems. Thus, we examine the context of compensation practice, the criteria used to compensate employees, compensation system design issues, employee benefits, and the contemporary challenges that compensation professionals will face well into this century. ABOUT THIS BOOK This book contains 14 chapters, lending itself well to courses offered as 10-week quarters or 15-week semesters. The chapters are organized in five parts: Part I: Setting the Stage for Strategic Compensation Part II: Bases for Pay Part III: Designing Compensation Systems Part IV: Employee Benefits Part V Contemporary Strategic Compensation Challenges Course instructors on a 10-week schedule might consider spending 2 weeks on each part. Given a 15-week schedule, course instructors might consider spending 1 week on each chapter. Each chapter contains a chapter outline, learning objectives, key terms, and discussion questions. In addition, each chapter includes two features. The "Stretching the Dollar" features describe examples of how companies or employees experience greater-than-anticipated benefits from expenditures on compensation and on developing compensation systems. The "Flip Side of the Coin" features point out possible inconsistencies of particular compensation issues or discuss how well-intended practices fall short of benefiting companies or employees. Each chapter contains new features designed to promote student learning and student-instructor interactions. These features are described inNew to the Third Edition. This textbook is well suited to a variety of students, including undergraduate and master's degree students. In addition, the book was prepared for use by all business students, regardless of their majors. Both human resource management majors and other majors (accounting, finance, general management, international management, marketing, and organizational behavior) will benefit equally well fromStrategic Compensation.After all, virtually every manager, regardless of functional area, will be involved in making compensation decisions. Practitioners beginning work in compensation or current professionals will findStrategic Compensationa useful reference. NEW TO THE THIRD EDITION The third edition includes some exciting new features. Compensation in Action The brief introductions in each chapter focus on compensation practice issues, often citing compensation consultants or referencing companies' experiences with compensation. Exciting articles follow at the end of each chapter that give a more detailed treatment of the issues. These articles come from the practitioner-oriented literature such asWorkspan(the offi