Employee Education: An Important Benefit as Part of a Total Compensation Statement
Generous employee benefit packages are critical to attracting, motivating and retaining top talent. Benefit packages can add tens of thousands of dollars to an employee’s salary, giving them opportunities to maintain work-life balance, grow in their career, and take care of their health.
One innovative benefit that employees value highly is a significant employee education benefit. Here are some excellent reasons to add education benefits to your total compensation statement.
Demonstrate Employer’s Commitment to Employee Development
Whether the company reimburses undergraduate, graduate, or associates degree programs, the benefit clearly demonstrates the company’s willingness to invest in employees willing to invest in their own future.
The type of benefit each company offers varies according to the specific targets of the benefit.
For example, employers can offer tuition benefits and/or either partial or full reimbursement for course and/or book costs.
A second type of commitment is shown when employers offer flexible hours to allow employees to take courses during work hours, for example, rather than taking up only personal time. Flex time, or some option for telecommuting, are innovative responses to an employee’s needs when taking a challenging course load.
Improves Employee Performance
Employees who seek out job-specific education, like business degrees at the undergrad or graduate level, will translate their new skills into their daily job tasks. Any employer can target specific skills for employees to acquire through a tuition reimbursement plan.
The employer can take advantage of the employee’s new qualifications to improve their workplace rather than going through the costly process of recruiting new talent. If new hires are necessary, however, the education benefit can give companies the edge when recruiting. This is especially true for a small business trying to attract talent away from larger corporations.
Employees Can Grow with the Company
Employers that attract top talent are the ones that also help their employees to grow with the company. A recent study showed that 61% of survey respondents confirmed that they are more likely to stay with a company longer, up to five years, after taking advantage of educational benefits. The company benefits from their years of experience and new educational skills, while employees rise up the ranks.
The morale boost that comes with education benefits feeds into happier employees who work harder and are more likely to stay in your company. Even employees who choose not to take advantage of the benefit immediately, or who have no plans to do so in the near future, get the benefit of knowing that they can – and the morale boost that comes with working for a company they know cares about their future.
Health Benefits
Employers can offer courses that are in non-career areas, like smoking cessation or health improvement. These simple courses can lead to healthier employees, and that can translate into less sick time and consequently more productive employees.
Companies can also offer classes in work-life balance like stress reduction, which makes people more alert while working, or financial management, which contributes to better living as a result of increased savings and debt reduction.
Your company can learn about the many pluses of including an education benefit in your total compensation statement at compackage.com.
