Evolving Your Company's Education Benefits

Evolving Your Education Benefits: Putting the Assistance Back into Tuition Assistance

wpengine Blog Online Degree January 31, 2020 | 0

It’s an investment in your company and in your people. So, ask yourself, are you making the most of the educational benefits you offer?

Tuition assistance or reimbursement programs are common across most industries, and today’s employees expect to see this type of program as part of a benefits package.

Theoretically, tuition reimbursement is a win-win. Employees receives better training and increase their chances of career advancement, and the company gains a more productive worker. So, everyone should be happy.

So then why aren’t they?

In reality, these incredibly valuable benefits are often underutilized and poorly promoted within organizations. There are several potential reasons for this, including:

Lack of employee information on how to use the program
The overall complexity of university costs, transfer credits, formats and more
A huge range of educational options, and a lack of time for either HR or employees to sort through them all
The limitation of degree programs due to partnerships with only a specific set of schools
Terms and conditions that may be unfavorable to employees, such as requiring them to pay tuition out-of-pocket and requiring lengthy time between reimbursement
A perception within upper management that tuition reimbursement doesn’t have an ROI, leading to HR managers to discourage use of the program

Therein lies some of the challenges plaguing the efficacy of company education benefits. However, by simply retraining the way we think about education benefits and the way it is rolled out to employees, companies can start to not only see the ROI from these programs but also reap the benefits that go beyond the bottom line.

How an Education Concierge Can Improve Your Tuition Assistance Benefits

Not unlike hiring a third party to navigate the complexities of healthcare and retirement benefits, it’s becoming a best practice for businesses to utilize outside experts and consultants to improve their education benefits programs. These services lighten the burden on HR, while bringing the sort of practical results only true experts can deliver.

Partnering with an education concierge gives companies the opportunity to maximize their investment in tuition assistance programs by:

1 – Sorting through the educational landscape There are currently more than 30,000 accredited online educational programs, with more being added every day. Who has time to sift through all the options? Probably not your employees, and certainly not a stretched HR department. An education concierge is well versed in degree offerings from the universe of university programs. They can identify the right degrees at the right price and offer a short list of options to save time.

2 – Customized goals-based educational plans The last thing you want is your employees wasting money on degree programs they won’t complete, or coursework that isn’t transferable to your workplace. That’s a tall order for HR. An education concierge works with each individual employer and employee to determine how the right degree can align with corporate goals – giving both parties the best chance at benefiting from the investment.

3 – Unbiased class selection A reputable educational concierge service never takes money from universities in exchange for referrals or tries to push every operation/employee towards the same educational option. They offer truly independent, unbiased evaluations of the educational opportunities available, encouraging growth and improvement among your workforce.

4 – Handling the bureaucracy

Dealing with university red tape can be a gigantic hassle that no one wants to be faced with. That’s why you hire an education concierge. Experts in the fields of higher ed administration, an education concierge levels the playing field to help HR process applications and understand pre-requisites faster and can create a customized plan on behalf of your employee that best fits their goals, timelines and schedules.

Pioneering Education Concierge Services

ClearDegree is the number one provider of education concierge services. In fact, we’re the innovators behind the movement. We’ve been here since day one.

Born from the extensive analysis and evaluation of the employee education benefits landscape, ClearDegree created a more individualized approach to a curated degree program for professionals. Our methodology has helps businesses realize the value of tuition assistance, has elevated professionals to the next level of their careers, and led to increased longevity of talented workforces.

Put ClearDegree to work for you company. Get to know our higher ed experts and the education concierge services we offer and find out how you can benefit from learning more.

Interested in learning about a smarter way HR can approach tuition assistance? Check out our whitepaper, Education Benefits 3.0.