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Free Courses

Here's a list of some of the best FREE courses available on the web.

These courses come from a variety of websites. Some of them may require registration. When you click a link to the course, a window will open with the course page.
Bean Counting 101
This is an introduction to the basics of accounting for non-accountants.
Introduction to Accounting
This course designed for small business defines and describes accounting and explains its importance. In addition, the course provides detailed explanations of the various types of financial statements.

Compensation and Benefits
Employee Benefits Strategies This course provides an overview for strategic employee benefits planning. First you’ll learn what benefits your organization must offer based on federal employee benefits laws. Then you’ll find out how to select employee benefits programs by using employee benefits survey forms to determine their preferences. You’ll learn how to control per employee health care costs and you’ll find out the basics of cafeteria plans. This course also covers the basics of employee health insurance, employee vacation benefits, defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution 401(k) plans, dental insurance, life insurance, disability insurance and Workers’ Compensation. Finally, you’ll learn about employee benefit communications programs.
Environments of Compensation and Benefits Administration This course describes the economic, social, organizational and technical environments that influence compensation and benefits administration in the U.S. Labor markets, worker values, organization factors and the impact of the Internet are a few of the topics covered.
Federal Employment Laws that Impact Compensation and Benefits This online course offers an overview of various US federal employment laws that deal with compensation and benefits administration. This information is critical because we live in a litigious society. Employers and HR professionals must know exactly what federal law requires regarding employee compensation and benefits administration as well as requirements regarding recordkeeping, hiring and discharge.
Online Compensation and Benefits Administration Today HR has many options for administering salary compensation and employee benefits plans online. This course teaches you what to think about when considering this feature for your organization.

Employee Resources
Employee Health Insurance: Choosing a Plan that’s Right for You This course is designed to guide an employee through the process of choosing a health insurance plan. A broad overview of group health plans is offered. Special attention is given to common terms used when discussing the various types of health plans. Upon completion of the course, you should be prepared to select an employer-sponsored health care plan.
Employee Life and Disability Insurance This course presents a broad overview of individual and employer-provided life and disability insurance policies. You’ll learn how to evaluate your own needs for life and disability insurance. Then you’ll find out about necessary supplements to those policies.
How to Manage Personal Debt This course presents a bird’s-eye view of personal debt. You’ll learn about different types of debt, including: student loans, credit card debt, home mortgages and auto loans. You’ll also learn how to get out of debt and where to go for financial help.
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) and 401(k) Plans This course teaches the basics of how to invest for your retirement. Here we discuss two popular retirement savings plans: the 401(k) and the Individual Retirement Account (IRA). We also explain how stocks, bonds and mutual funds fit into a diversified retirement portfolio. Upon completion of this course, you should have a clear understanding of how to maximize your savings in order to meet your retirement goals.
Planning for the Government’s Help in Retirement: This course will guide you through the U.S. Social Security and Medicare programs. You will learn what to expect from these programs during your retirement. You will find out when the best time to begin receiving benefits is and how your benefits will be taxed. Also covered is how your family members can receive from your Social Security benefits.

Incentive Compensation
Creating an Incentive Pay Plan This course teaches you how to select and administer incentive pay plans for your organization. It describes the importance of incentive pay and the organizations that are best suited for these types of plans. It then covers the different types of incentive pay plans available and the factors that must be considered in plan design. Finally, this course reviews the administration of incentive plans and how to avoid common problems.
Installing Pay-for-Performance Plans in Your Organization In this course you’ll learn how to create a pay-for-performance system for your organization. This differs from a variable pay plan, in that pay-for-performance bases pay increases on a performance appraisal, not quantifiable work output. Pay for performance is growing in popularity because it allows organizations to reward employees for goals key to organization success. This course will show you whether or not pay for performance is appropriate for your company and how to set up a pay-for-performance plan.
Sales Compensation and Expense Allowances This course discusses the creation of sales compensation plans. It describes the steps you must take to set a plan up, including setting goals, choosing measures and establishing formulas. Then it discusses how to evaluate the success of the plan. Finally, this course looks at special sales compensation, including travel allowances and expense accounts.

Job Analysis/Evaluation
Conducting Job Analysis This course will teach you how to perform job analysis from the ground up. The result of this work will be written job descriptions that are used for many personnel tasks, including job evaluation, hiring, and setting salaries. You will learn how job analysis questionnaires, such as the PAQ job analysis questionnaire, can be used to update your organization’s job documentation for legal compliance with FLSA new overtime laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and comparable worth legislation.
Installing Job Evaluation in Your Organization While growing in importance worldwide, job evaluation is losing ground in the United States. Some U.S. compensation specialists now rely almost entirely on "what the market pays" when setting salaries. This course reviews the history of job evaluation and shows where it still holds great importance in the fight against pay discrimination. We will guide you through the steps of job evaluation, where jobs are classified based on their duties and importance. Upon completion of this course, you will be ready to launch a job evaluation program in your own organization.

Management Compensation
Managerial and Executive Compensation This course analyzes how managerial compensation is set. We will discuss the goals and theories behind these programs, including the use of incentives, bonuses and stock options; the advantages of deferred compensation; and the use of perquisites and golden parachutes. Then this course looks at the question of whether today’s executives are really worth their ever-growing compensation packages.

Mediation
History and Theory of Dispute Mediation This course provides those interested in practicing mediation with a theoretical framework upon which to base their practice. As well as giving an overview of mediation and the work of the mediator, it provides an historical context for mediation. The course also discusses various theories of conflict. These discussions explore what conflict is, how it arises and how it develops. Overall, the course will help you not only to understand some of the motivating factors behind conflict, but also how mediation can help people in conflict to reach mutually acceptable settlements.

Recruitment
Online Recruiting This course presents the ins and outs of using Internet career sites and resume listings to find new employees. We’ll show you how these sites operate and what you can do to protect your organization from headhunters that use the Internet to rob organizations of valuable employees. In addition, we’ll show you how to use your organization’s own website to attract the right employees.

Relocation Planning
Employee Relocations Employee relocation planning is a necessary part of HR. This course teaches you how to set up employee relocation packages for executive relocation, new hires and everything in between. You’ll learn how to establish home purchase assistance programs that include real estate appraisal, home loans and company mortgage assistance. You’ll also learn how to plan for the use of moving companies, travel allowances and family assistance programs to help with the settling in process. Finally, you’ll learn how to use a cost-of-living calculator that helps you compare cost of living by state and city in order to determine an adequate cost-of-living allowance for an employee relocation package.

Salary Administration

Creating a Competitive Salary Assessment Determining salary ranges is a complicated task. This course discusses the importance of setting and administering equitable salary structures. We also analyze the differences between merit and automatic progression and focus special attention on the challenges that organizations must face including: the labor market, unions and the impact of free Internet salary information.
Creating a Competitive Salary Structure This course focuses on the development of a single competitive salary structure for a single labor market with the goal of allowing a company to achieve competitive salary levels with a comparison competitive group of companies. It shows you have to create this structure using all jobs within the organization or only benchmark jobs. Then it explains how to audit and maintain this structure over time.
Organization Wage Determinations Before establishing or adjusting a wage structure, you must consider your organization’s internal and external labor market. Doing so will allow you to make decisions about average job salaries that take into account: labor costs, employee productivity, employee retention, salary comparisons to competitors, cost-of-living comparisons, labor unions and more.
Salary Increase Planning This course reviews 3 different types of approaches to salary increase planning: those based on salary surveys of competitive market rates, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA’s) and merit increases (such as pay for performance). We’ll show you how to use each method and what resources are available to the manager responsible for planning salary increases. In addition, we’ll demonstrate budgeting techniques and control methods to make sure salary compensation costs are kept in check throughout the year.

Workers Compensation
Workers’ Compensation Workers’ Compensation is a no-fault liability insurance program that compensates employees with payment of medical and rehabilitation costs plus lost income for injury, illness, disability or death resulting from accidents arising out of and in the course of employment. Typically state-sponsored plans, Workers’ Compensation benefits must be integrated with private-plan benefits when determining lost wages for an employee who becomes ill, disabled or dies due to job-related conditions. This course shows managers and business professionals how Workers’ Compensation insurance operates and what an organization’s obligations are under these plans.
Workers’ Compensation Lost Wages This course teaches you how to determine lost wages for Workers’ Compensation. Case examples include short-term disability, long-term disability and wrongful death. In addition, you will learn how to calculate front pay and back pay for a whistleblower wrongfully fired, an employee underpaid according to the Equal Pay Act of 1963, someone who leaves a job due to sexual harassment or an individual not hired due to discrimination.

Language
Learn a New Language Learn languages at your own pace with fun language lessons. Courses in 36 different languages with over 160 hours of lessons for each. Includes helpful tips from native speakers and focuses on conversation skills.
Back Safety Back injuries are the #1 workplace safety problem. This course discusses the most common causes of workplace back injuries and how to prevent them.
CPR FAQ Have a question about CPR? Check here first.
CPR for Children CPR in three steps for small children. This guide is to be used as a free informational resource but it cannot replace real CPR or first aid training. Please try to attend a CPR training course in your community and help save a life.
CPR for Infants CPR for infants in five simple steps. This guide is to be used as a free informational resource but it cannot replace real CPR or first aid training. Please try to attend a CPR training course in your community and help save a life.
CPR Quiz Think you’re an expert? Take our quiz and test yourself.
Hands-Only CPR for Adults CPR in two simple steps. This guide is to be used as a free informational resource but it cannot replace real CPR or first aid training. Please try to attend a CPR training course in your community and help save a life.
Hazard Communication This course outlines hazardous materials encountered on job sites and provides information on the proper handling and use of these materials.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) This course reviews the need for personal protective equipment and the responsibilities of employers and employees with regard to training and use of PPE.
Standard CPR for Adults CPR in three simple steps. This guide is to be used as a free informational resource but it cannot replace real CPR or first aid training. Please try to attend a CPR training course in your community and help save a life.

Business Management
Down-Shifting in a Slowing Economy: Business Planning Guide This course will encourage you to stand back to assess and consider new opportunities. It will also help you engage in the process of writing a revised business plan.
Franchising Basics This course will help you learn about franchising, what franchise may be right for you and how to get started.
How to Prepare a Business Plan This course provides the basic information and steps for creating a business plan.
Strategic Planning and Execution This course presents the fundamental devices used in crafting a strategy for a business venture. The course shows how to craft missions, visions, goals and strategies for your business. It shows you how to best present and execute your strategy through strategic stories, the act of organizing genius and tipping point leadership tactics.

E-Commerce
Technology 101: A Small Business Guide This course provides an overview of technology and how computers, software and the Internet are being used to help small businesses be successful.

Marketing and Advertising
Conducting a Marketing Analysis Every business must know its customers inside and out before opening its doors or launching a new product. Those that conduct a thorough marketing analysis first not only gain knowledge of their potential market's wants or needs but also learn whether or not there is "room" in the marketplace for a new concept. This comprehensive workshop will show you how to create a marketing analysis for your business.
Marketing 101: Guide to Winning Customers This course provides an overview of basic marketing concepts and strategy.
Marketing for Small Business This course covers marketing essentials, market research and marketing plan development.
Strategic Marketing: How to Win Customers in a Slowing Economy This course will help you explore new markets, conduct effective marketing, develop a marketing plan and implement successful strategies to help your business thrive in a slowing economy.

Microsoft Office 2003
Access 2003 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Excel 2003 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Outlook 2003 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
PowerPoint 2003 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Project 2003 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Publisher 2003 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Word 2003 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.

Microsoft Office 2007
Access 2007 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Excel 2007 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Outlook 2007 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
PowerPoint 2007 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Project 2007 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Publisher 2007 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.
Word 2007 Self-paced training courses provided by Microsoft.

 

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