THE COMPENSATION HANDBOOK:
A State-of-the-Art Guide to
Compensation, Strategy and Design

The Compensation Handbook has been recognized as the most authoritative reference book in the compensation field for over 35 years. The book's success has resulted from:

• Identifying the most significant issues impacting compensation and human resources practitioners
• Providing the best straightforward, comprehensive, and understandable solutions to deal with issues
• Presenting the thoughts and research of respected and prestigious compensation leaders
• Offering unique and innovative approaches not found elsewhere
• Building on the strong foundation of past editions
• Imparting the best historical and current compensation tools, methods, and diagnostics for compensation and human resources professionals to align their programs with key issues

Each edition of the book has its own novel foundation. The first three editions focused on the evolution of new compensation techniques and methodologies as they applied to the business and social environment of their eras. The fourth edition is based on a framework of compensation diagnostics. It structures prior and current approaches into a cohesive set of guiding principles that helps practitioners to select the most appropriate compensation methodology.

The fifth edition's objective is to demonstrate to human resources and compensation professionals how they can address a dramatically changing set of human capital issues. These include:

• New strategies for winning the talent wars
• Addressing the retirement of the baby boomers, the greatest talent management issue of the twenty-first century
• Responding to a multicultural, multigenerational workforce
• The globalization of human capital

Thanks to the contributions of 64 compensation specialists, 45 of whom are new authors to The Compensation Handbook, this edition contains new, updated, or revised chapters. This "linkage" to talent management issues provides common threads and a roadmap for developing a comprehensive approach to compensation program design and implementation. The fourth edition's structural integrity is maintained because our readers have expressed their appreciation of consistency when seeking updated information and solutions to compensation issues.

We again, as we did for the fourth edition, dedicate this book with appreciation and affection to Milton L. Rock, consummate compensation and business guru, whose vision spearheaded the first through third editions of The Compensation Handbook.