What I Learned from My First WorldatWork CCP Class

A new year means a new set of goals, and one of mine is working toward my CCP certification. I’m so excited to finally be starting this journey! 🎉 To be honest, I’ve contemplated doing this for years, and now that I have the support of an amazing boss and a company that values my education, I decided it was time to go for it.

My first class is officially done, and with each one I complete, I want to document my experience. 📝 I know many compensation professionals question whether these courses are worth the investment, so I’ll be sharing my journey along the way. So far, this first class has been a great start!

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📚 Understanding the Impact of Total Rewards

This first course took a deep dive into the different aspects of total rewards:

✅ Compensation

✅ Benefits

✅ Recognition

✅ Career Development

✅ Well-Being

It really made me reflect on my own experience as an employee and why I feel so happy in my current role. Here are my key takeaways:

💰 Compensation

I learned the least from this section, mainly because it covered fundamental frameworks for base pay structures—things I was already familiar with. However, I did learn about a form of pay called “piece-pay,” which I had never heard of before. That was a cool new insight!

🏥 Benefits

This section didn’t dive too deeply into new concepts for me, but it reinforced my existing knowledge. Nothing groundbreaking, but still important to understand as part of the total rewards package.

🎖️ Recognition

Now, this was where I had some real lightbulb moments. 💡 The class emphasized the importance of immediate recognition and how simple gestures can have a significant impact. Things like:

• ☕ A Starbucks gift card

• ✍️ A handwritten thank-you note

• 🍩 Bringing in treats for the team

As an employee, I’ve always appreciated these acts of appreciation—even the non-monetary ones. This made me realize how crucial it is for managers to be taught how to recognize employees effectively. The class pointed out that employees don’t want to wait until the end of the year for a raise to feel appreciated; they want recognition in the moment or shortly after their contributions.

🚀 Career Development

This section really made me reflect on my own career path and what has made me happiest in my jobs. The answer? Companies that support my growth, foster development, and provide opportunities to advance.

It reinforced how crucial career development is for both employees and companies—when organizations invest in their people, everyone benefits. 📈

🧘‍♀️ Well-Being

I really enjoyed this section because it highlighted how companies should support employee well-being. As someone who specializes in compensation, I sometimes forget to include well-being as part of the total rewards conversation.

A big takeaway here was the growing importance of work-from-home flexibility. 🏡💻 I have to admit—this is a huge one for me. As a working mom, companies that aren’t flexible or require employees to be in the office five days a week are a big red flag 🚩. Even before COVID, I worked from home two days a week, and when I got promoted seven years ago, one of the perks was officially getting those two WFH days. I was ecstatic! It was a non-monetary benefit, but I valued it immensely.

🗝️ The Biggest Takeaway: Communication is Key

The number one lesson from this class? For companies to have a successful People Value Proposition (PVP) (or Employee Value Proposition—EVP), they need to communicate their total rewards effectively. 🗣️

I think this is where many companies struggle. Employees often don’t even realize everything their employer is offering them! Clear, consistent communication about total rewards can make a massive difference in employee satisfaction and retention. ✅

🎯 Looking Ahead

As a compensation professional looking to expand my knowledge into the broader world of Total Rewards, I found this course incredibly informative. Honestly, some of these aspects wouldn’t have even crossed my mind if someone had asked me to define “total rewards” before taking the class. 🤔

I’m already looking forward to the next class and can’t wait to share more insights along the way! 🚀