Cornell University ILR School

ILRHR522: Total Rewards Compensation

Course Project

Part I - Analyze a Total Rewards Program

Now that you have had a chance to review the total rewards continuum and examine some information related to the compensation plan at Chipotle, demonstrate your understanding of a total rewards program by answering the following questions.

Answer the questions in the grid below.
What are the elements of the total rewards framework that are being used at Chipotle?
What are some of the direct benefits offered to employees?
What are some of the indirect or blended benefits offered to employees?
What are some of the experiential benefits offered to employees?
How do you see each of these factors influencing the total rewards philosophy at Chipotle?
· Financial
· Strategy
· Workforce
· External

Save your work.

You will submit this completed project at the end of the course for grading and credit.

Part II - Investigate Pay Transparency

To investigate the impact that pay transparency has in the workplace, you have explored three free-market websites (Glassdoor.com, Payscale.com, and Salary.com) that provide a means for pay transparency.

As you respond, please be sure to discuss compensation decisions within the workplace, how these relate to compensation process, and how the workplace is impacted by the approach to pay described.

Answer the questions within the grid below.
Now that you have explored these sites, consider the implications to the workplace. How has the greater availability of compensation information through websites such as Glassdoor.com positively impacted pay transparency?
Does this greater availability create any potential pitfalls? Thinking about your own organization, how could pay process transparency be improved?
In this module, you examined organizational justice. How do you see pay transparency and organizational justice theory being related?

Save your work.

You will submit this completed project at the end of the course for grading and credit.

Part III - Evaluate Jobs

Review the Job Comparison file. Compare two out of the three Job Evaluation Worksheets prepared within this document. Review the information on these hypothetical organizationsbased onthe job evaluation worksheets outlined.

Provide a short paragraph (250 words or less) that compares and contrasts your conclusions regardingtwoof the three hypothetical organizations, making specific reference to your interpretation of which talents and employee characteristics are compensable and how the values and weights vary.

Job Evaluation Summary:

Save your work.

You will submit this completed project at the end of the course for grading and credit.

Part IV - Final Analysis of a Total Rewards Program

Scenario:

In this part of the course project, you will imagine that you are a consultant hired by Chipotle Mexican Grill to examine their total rewards strategy vis-à-vis their business and operations strategy. Two goals are of primary concern to Chipotle: (1) maintaining a culture of top performers and (2) controlling labor costs.

Instructions:

1. Review the Chipotle Annual Report that you downloaded, paying particular attention to pages 13 and 14.

2. Review this statement from the Chipotle executive team:

"Our business could be adversely affected by increased labor costs or difficulties in finding the right employees for our restaurants and the right field leaders.

"Labor is a primary component of our operating costs, and we believe good managers and crew are a key part of our success. We devote significant resources to recruiting and training our general managers and crew. Increased labor costs...would adversely impact our operating costs.

"Our success also depends in part on the energy and skills of our employees and our ability to hire, motivate and keep qualified employees, especially general managers and crew members. As we grow, we believe we will need to promote or hire additional top-performing field leaders to ensure we hire and motivate good managers and crew, and it may be difficult to identify and keep those field leaders. Our failure to find and keep enough employees who are a good fit with our culture could delay planned restaurant openings, result in higher employee turnover or erode our employee and restaurant cultures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Restaurant operators have traditionally experienced relatively high employee turnover rates. Any increase in our turnover rates for managers or crew could be costly and could negatively impact our operations."

Answer the questions within the grid below.
How well does Chipotle’s current total rewards strategy align with its business and operational strategy of creating a culture of top performers while controlling labor costs?
What new element of total rewards should Chipotle introduce to better align its total rewards strategy with its business and operational strategy of creating a culture of top performers while controlling labor costs?
Which part of Chipotle’s current offerings do you think is working most successfully? Offer your expert opinion of which element or elements should be continued.
Reflect on Chipotle’s stated objective of “providing employees with meaningful rewards while maintaining alignment with shareholder interests, corporate values, and important management initiatives.” Based on your research in this course, identify how well you think Chipotle is communicating its rewards to its employees. Do you think employees are aware of the company’s compensation philosophy? Support your answer.

Part V – Memo to Chipotle’s Leadership Team

In this part of the course project, you will compile your recommendations for Chipotle into a memo, based on your analysis from Part IV.

Instructions:

1. Reflect on your analysis from Part IV.

2. List your recommended changes for Chipotle.

3. In the space below, compile a memo to Chipotle’s leadership team outlining your proposed recommendations.

4. Save your work and submit based on course instructions.

Memo to Chipotle’s Leadership Team: