Why HR Should NOT Attempt to Manage Education Benefits Alone

Every company wants to be competitive in attracting stellar workers. To do so, it is paramount to assemble the best compensation packages for high-caliber professionals. At the core of popular emerging employee benefits are tuition reimbursement and degree continuation programs: with 72% of all businesses having them and over 80% of new talent ranking them as important, education benefits are the new must-have perk.

Implementing such programs is easier said than done, though. More often than not, the burden of designing, marketing, and administering these benefit programs falls on HR’s lap. With the multitude of other duties that they hold, adding the complicated task of managing education assistance programs can be both a strain on staff and a poor use of invested funds.

HR Is Busy As It Is

As a department, Human Resources is tasked with finding and hiring new employees, managing conflict resolution, individual development, and implementing broad strategic changes. This is already a tremendous mix of granular detail work as well as big-picture planning that creates a difficult balance for the department. Adding the task of designing, marketing, and managing an education benefits program and there’s simply too much to do. 

Universities Are Challenging to Navigate

Colleges and universities have complicated systems for course selection, payment, and credit transfers. Their complex administrations have entire dedicated staffs to help learners navigate their decisions. For an HR department to not only shop around for universities but to also research and understand their process for matriculation is simply too much.

Luckily, there are professionals who know the system top-to-bottom that can assist in the process. With a little guidance, an Education Concierge can expedite the selection of universities with programs that suit an organization’s strategic goals. They can also eliminate the headache of learning how to select the right degree program, efficiently enroll employees, and address scheduling and billing concerns.

Use Your Time Wisely

It’s no secret that managing education benefits is an investment. In addition to the up-front cost of reimbursing tuition for participants, there is a steady stream of expenses to pay HR to implement changes. These expenditures are investments whose value diminishes when an HR department has more on their plate than they can handle. 

The first consequence of going it alone is that setting up education benefits takes longer. For every week that a benefits program remains inactive, its value diminishes. The most effective way to solve this is by partnering with a group of experts that can help set up the program fast. 

Doing the Job Right

In addition to timeliness, an Education Concierge will lend their expertise to ensure that a job is done right. Nothing will diminish the efficacy of employer education benefits more than a dysfunctional program. Not only does it hurt your bottom line, but it severely interrupts the reputability of a company’s benefits. This permeates and eats away at all other goals that benefits seek to achieve: hiring, retention, and development.