HUMAN RESOURCES

An organization is only as good as its culture—and building that culture frequently begins with the HR department. Diversity, equity, and inclusion have evolved from a focus on compliance to a strategic-level cultural effort with a demonstrated positive impact on a company’s performance and business results. Today such a culture is much more than a legal or moral requirement; it’s also a competitive advantage. This specialized HR certificate program provides a deep foundation for you to identify, develop, and support HR initiatives for diversity and inclusion that can improve not only your organization’s culture but its success. The program includes four core courses, complemented by your choice of two elective courses, allowing you to tailor your learning to your specific interests and career goals. This program includes two years of free access to the HR and Workplace Belonging Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking sites and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice efforts are becoming increasingly important in every industry and organization. This push toward diversity encompasses more than just creating an inclusive climate for the employees that are already in your workplace; your organization’s hiring process, from recruitment through to retention and employee success, is an opportunity to create a more inclusive and diverse workforce. Approaching hiring with an inclusion-centered framework that mitigates bias can result in hiring more qualified people with marginalized identities across all roles in your organization and ensuring that those potential employees feel like they belong in your organization even before their first day at work. This certificate will explore the three stages of hiring — building talent pools, adopting selection practices, and onboarding for employee engagement — detailing methods of inclusion for each stage. By refocusing your hiring practices on inclusion, you can meet and exceed your organization’s DEI goals then sustain them over time. The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear. This program includes two years of free access to Symposium! These events feature a week of live, highly participatory virtual Zoom sessions with Cornell faculty and experts to explore today’s most pressing diversity and inclusion topics, including equity, unconscious bias, psychological safety, inclusive leadership, and cross-cultural conversations. Symposium events are held several times throughout the year. Once enrolled in the course, Counteracting Unconscious Bias, you will receive information about upcoming events. Throughout the year, you may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete the certificate program.

In today’s competitive business landscape, executive compensation is integral to attracting, retaining, and motivating senior leadership. This foundational certificate program offers a comprehensive introduction to executive compensation, providing you with the essential concepts and tools needed to evaluate, manage, and design pay structures that align leadership performance with organizational objectives. The program explores the critical relationships among leadership compensation, organizational performance, and corporate governance. The program begins by establishing a financial foundation necessary for analyzing executive compensation decisions. You will discover how to interpret corporate financial statements — income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements — and apply financial performance metrics like ratio analysis to assess profitability, asset management, and industry comparisons. Building on this knowledge, subsequent courses delve into executive pay structures, such as base salaries, bonuses, long-term incentives, and performance-based compensation. You’ll explore how to create effective executive incentive programs that drive accountability, align leadership goals with organizational success, and meet the expectations of stakeholders. Designed for HR professionals, analysts, and business leaders, this program combines self-paced coursework, real-world case studies, and expert insights to provide actionable knowledge you can apply in the workplace. By the end of the program, you’ll be equipped to critically assess executive compensation frameworks, craft impactful incentive plans, and understand their influence on organizational outcomes in today’s dynamic business environment. The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear. This program includes a full year of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

This certificate program is designed for management and union representatives new to labor relations who need to learn the basics. The program focuses on two key aspects of labor relations: negotiating an agreement (collective bargaining) and operating within an agreement (contract administration). Throughout the courses, you will have the opportunity to practice and apply key skills to your own organization’s issues and dynamics. You will focus on establishing a foundation in collective bargaining within the union environment and then take a close look at contract negotiation, including how to cost out a contract during tense and fast-moving negotiations. The last two courses provide a time-tested, comprehensive method to address workplace conflict, from the grievance through arbitration. The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

The device you are using to read this page was created by people in the global workforce. Do you know from which country it originated? Or which international labor agreements, if any, affect the workers who made it? What about the company that sells the product; does it promise fair treatment of those workers? In this certificate program, you will examine labor practices in the global supply chain and consider how those practices vary and evolve. First, you’ll examine the regulatory framework for global labor relations, including the impact of national treaties on workers. To accomplish this, you’ll explore labor models in your own country as well as other relevant countries, including where your organization does business. You will then explore industry self-regulation, such as Nike’s Labor Standards, and consider the realities of auditing overseas partners. You’ll also identify the risks of and barriers to transparency along with the ways that reliable data can be made available to consumers and industry partners. You’ll have six months to complete the required elements for this certificate program, but this flexible approach allows you to finish sooner based on your schedule.

During complicated times, employee relations issues skyrocket. Managing these issues, with a process in place to mitigate further internal problems in a professional manner, can be challenging. Poor handling of internal investigations can result in legal and monetary damages, reputational harm to an organization, and a negative impact on employee morale. In this certificate program, you will explore a framework for conducting effective employee relations (ER) conversations with employees and managers. When workplace complaints turn more serious, it is important you complete a thorough and fair internal investigation. This program will take you through the full investigation process, starting with conducting an interview. From there you will work on structuring and conducting the investigation. Finally, you will conclude and evaluate the investigation. Throughout this program, you will learn and apply the frameworks, processes, and communication skills needed to help you develop effective ER management practices for conducting conversations and conducting internal investigations that will enhance the success of the organization’s mission through its employees. The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

Whether you’re a generalist, specialist or new to the world of human resources, there are core competencies that every HR professional should know. A Certificate in Human Resources Management gives you the foundation needed for a successful career by providing ways for you to align your HR department to your organization’s goals. The 9 courses within the program are result-oriented and practical, with real-world examples and exercises. By the end of the human resources management certificate, you will have the skills necessary to develop and implement successful HR practices that will help your organization improve its performance through better overall people management. Human resources management topics covered in the program include compensation, labor relations, driving engagement, training and development, employee performance, and more. For the best experience in this program it is recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

This certificate program is designed to help current and aspiring human resource managers and staff understand employment laws and regulations in order to deal effectively with labor-related legal issues in the workplace. The courses address key employment law requirements in the United States and also provide guidance on the implementation of employment policies and practices in countries with different legal systems. The program begins with a focus on establishing a structured framework for analysis of workplace legal issues. It then moves into a close look at US laws relating to equal employment opportunity, leave, compensation, safety, employee relations, and other employment issues. The last two courses address a global context with a comparison of employment laws in different parts of the world, followed by a study of best practices in developing HR policies and practices in multinational settings. The courses feature downloadable, interactive tools designed to help HR professionals assess and deal with a variety of legal issues in the workplace. For the best experience in this program it is recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

The role of today’s HR manager demands broad responsibilities that include organizational leadership and strategic thinking. As the profession evolves, HR departments are being called upon to make bigger-picture decisions and to execute well-defined HR strategies that align with larger organizational strategies. As an HR manager, can you articulate your company’s business goals and strategy? Do you know how best to align your human resource tools and expertise—from recruitment, to talent management, to engagement—to support this strategy? Upon completion of this online certificate program, you should be able to speak and understand the language of your business leaders with ease. This certificate consists of six two-week courses. This advanced HR management certificate program provides a broad organizational perspective, laying the foundation for you to identify, develop, and measure HR initiatives critical to your firm’s bottom-line success. For the best experience in this program it is recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

HR has always been about people, and this remains true today. However, given the rapid digital transformation in today’s organizations, the need for data-driven decision making has become essential. There is both a shortage of analytical talent within HR and an increasing demand for these types of skills. In this certificate program, you will learn to analyze, and visualize HR data to inform decisions and recommendations. You will strengthen your analytical acumen to make decisions through analysis and enhance your communication effectiveness through storytelling with data and credible insights. Through the application of data analytics you will be positioned to examine common HR challenges around hiring top talent, engaging the workforce, managing retention, and evaluating workforce diversity more rigorously. You will also apply a cost-based approach to determine the business impact and return on investment associated with HR initiatives. By the end of this program, you will have developed the strategic and systematic measures necessary to excel in HR analytics. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

Compensation and benefits play an essential role in attracting and retaining the key talent you need in your organization. In this certificate program, you'll delve into the intricate world of compensation, from traditional pay structures to the broader concept of total rewards. Throughout the courses, you'll explore the philosophical underpinnings of compensation systems and access practical strategies to design and manage them in alignment with organizational goals. Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to examine employee benefits beyond monetary compensation, discovering how to tailor programs to enhance the overall employee experience and reinforce organizational culture. Upon completing the program, you'll emerge with the strategic insights and practical skills needed to navigate the complexities of setting compensation and benefits effectively in today's competitive landscape. The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

Human resources is a broad topic that touches on many facets of an organization, but there are some core concepts that all HR practitioners should know. This certificate in Human Resources Essentials will discuss those concepts and give you the set of skills you need to get started. Whether you are new to HR, perform the HR function in addition to other roles, or need to have an understanding of the HR role, this certificate will give you a strong foundation to make a difference in your organization. Equipping you to strengthen your team, communicate effectively, and handle any workplace issues, this series is essential for anyone touching the HR role. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR and Leadership Symposium!  These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking sites and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

Attracting the right talent to the right positions is one of the top challenges today’s organizations face. Hiring is on the rise, and competition for skilled employees is steeper than ever. Beyond talent acquisition, organizations face mounting pressure to retain talent, manage compensation equitably, and build a pipeline of future leaders to ensure long-term success. In this program, you’ll learn key strategies to plan for, acquire, and retain high-quality talent for your team, organization, or clients. You’ll explore how to adapt to evolving market conditions while applying structured, research-based approaches to staffing, interviewing, onboarding, and compensation. By focusing not just on the “how” but the “why,” you’ll strengthen your ability to make evidence-based hiring decisions, foster early engagement through effective onboarding, and apply a total rewards perspective to compensation that aligns with organizational goals. You’ll examine how to build compensation structures that support both internal fairness and external competitiveness, while connecting talent practices to broader organizational systems and strategy. Ultimately, you’ll come away with an agile and comprehensive approach to attracting, developing, and engaging critical talent - empowering you to meet the demands of today’s dynamic and fast-changing workforce landscape. For the best experience in this program it is recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear. This program includes two full years of free access to Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking sites and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

Today’s best companies realize that HR isn’t simply about operations and benefits administration. Rather, it has the power to transform an organization by delivering competitive advantage through its most critical asset: people. Developed by faculty experts from one of the world’s top HR schools, this unique certificate program is designed to equip human resources leaders at all levels to add strategic value and insights to an organization, develop meaningful consulting relationships with company stakeholders, and align HR initiatives with business strategy. Courses focus on HR innovation and relevance, with topics ranging from people analytics to enhancing the employee experience with design thinking principles. They also address pressing issues and challenges around how to manage virtual teams and leverage technology to attract and retain a productive workforce. Ultimately, the program is a great launch point for any leader interested in elevating HR to a more strategic and innovative business function at the heart of an organization. For the best experience in this program it is recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear. This program includes two full years of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking sites and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

A robust compliance function will have a significant effect on an organization, positively impacting its daily operations and helping to mitigate risk. This certificate program will introduce you to the role of compliance within organizations and how it is maintained through internal rule systems. Throughout this program, you will explore the rules of compliance and how they can be maintained sustainably for your organization. First, you will analyze the manner in which rules and policies serve an organization. Through this process, you will take away best practices on the elements of effective rule design and the use of policing techniques to ensure rules are followed. In anticipation of potential issues, you will delve into the process for investigating violations and consider the available responses to those violations. By the end of this certificate program, you will have developed an in-depth understanding of how to design, enforce, and continuously improve your own organizational compliance policies in a way that can benefit your business and your career. The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear.

In today's volatile global work environment, alternative dispute resolution is on the rise. Yet organizations are finding that there is a shortage of qualified mediation and dispute resolution professionals available to resolve complex commercial, international, and employment law disputes. This need creates exciting and viable opportunities for professionals to enter this field. A career in dispute resolution can offer personal flexibility and skills that can be used across multiple disciplines, provided you know where to start. Cornell's Professional Mediation Certificate covers both the process and knowledge needed for this important work, while also devoting a considerable amount of time to helping participants build a successful practice by creating a personalized strategic business plan. By the completion of the program, you’ll have gained a strong foundation in the essential mediation and arbitration skills and practices that will help you build a successful career as a professional mediator in the workplace.

Barriers to employment for people with criminal records remain a pressing challenge for organizations and communities alike. As more employers seek to expand their talent pipelines and create a stronger workforce, understanding the legal landscape and best practices around hiring justice-impacted individuals has become essential. This certificate empowers you to navigate the complexities of employment law as it relates to justice-impacted individuals, equipping you to create effective hiring strategies, often referred to as “fair-chance” hiring. You will explore the far-reaching effects of mass incarceration on workforce participation and examine the laws and compliance requirements that govern the hiring of individuals with criminal records. Through practical guidance, you’ll determine how to address background check limitations, develop strategies to widen your applicant pool, and implement internal practices that foster retention and advancement for justice-impacted employees. You’ll also discover how to leverage partnerships with workforce development and community-based organizations to support your hiring initiatives. By completing this program, you will be prepared to confidently support job seekers, champion fair employment practices, and build more resilient teams. The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear. This program includes two years of free access to the HR Symposium! These highly interactive virtual events span multiple days and explore today’s most pressing topics. Symposium offers exclusive opportunities to engage in real-time discussions with your eCornell community, applying insights from your courses to real-world scenarios. Through reflections and small-group discussions, you’ll deepen your learning, broaden your perspective, and expand your professional network. Symposium events are held throughout the year, providing ongoing opportunities to stay engaged, gain fresh perspectives, and strengthen your skills. Once enrolled, you’ll receive access to the Symposium networking site and details about upcoming sessions. You can participate in as many as you’d like to make the most of your experience, though attendance is not required to complete your program.

Learn to navigate challenging conversations and manage conflict in the workplace productively.

In today’s business environment, hybrid work models are commonplace and can serve to attract and retain employees. Successful models require a strong group culture to keep organizations running smoothly and productively. For many organizations, hybrid models represent a significant shift in how work gets done. As such, managers and leaders need to rethink what it means to lead in this new environment. Certainly some of the leadership approaches that are used in fully in-person groups or in fully virtual groups still apply, but hybrid models also create a number of unique leadership opportunities and challenges. Key success factors include creating an inclusive hybrid work environment and effective collaboration processes, as well as implementing strategic and deliberate communication norms. In this certificate program, you will examine a variety of hybrid work models and hybrid workgroup scenarios. You’ll have the opportunity to explore the interconnectedness of culture and productivity in hybrid teams and identify best practices for launching a hybrid team. By the end of the program, you will have discovered new ways to confidently manage hybrid teams for high performance. The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear.

This certificate provides a focused, practical understanding of how artificial intelligence is transforming the HR function. Across four courses, you will explore core AI technologies and their applications to key areas, including talent acquisition, performance management, and workforce analytics, with an emphasis on data, ethics, and organizational impact. Each course combines expert-led insights, practical tools, and structured activities to help you assess challenges, identify AI opportunities, and evaluate risks within your organization. By the end of the certificate, you will be able to identify where AI can add value across HR, assess data and governance needs, and evaluate tools and vendors. You’ll be prepared to balance efficiency with fairness and lead informed, responsible AI adoption. You must complete the first course, Understanding AI Technologies in Human Resources, before completing any other courses within this certificate program. This program includes two years of free access to the HR and AI Symposiums! These events feature live, highly participatory virtual Zoom sessions with Cornell faculty and experts to explore today’s most pressing topics. Throughout the year, you may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending a Symposium is not required to successfully complete the certificate program.