Should more companies offer educational incentives as a part of their benefits package?

Answer 1

That would be nice. I used to work for a huge corporation that would finance education - regardless of subject. It was a nice perk, but staying at that impersonal behemoth was not an option as there were too many negatives.

The smaller company I work for now also will reimburse education, but only if it applies to a job in the company.

Bottom line: we in the USA spend so much time at work, I am all in favor of laws that require companies to provide more benefits.

If you're referring to greater pay for those with educational degrees, I say no way. There is a guy in my office who would lose a thinking match to a rock and he's got a bunch of degrees. I honestly don't know how he got them.

Answer 2

Whether this will benefit a company depends on several factors. And trust me, the purpose of such programs is primarily to benefit the company in one way or another, as is everything else a business spends money on.

First the company has to consider whether they have the financial and administrative resources to offer such a program and, if so, how extensive a program can they afford. Many small businesses and startups don't offer educational incentives due to the cost and additional paperwork. If they do, they generally limit the program in order to control cost and paperwork, and to get the "most bang for their buck. For example, they almost always require the education to be job-specific and they may limit annual spending to a fixed amount.

For companies that can afford to offer educational incentives, they must decide if the benefits of the program outweigh the costs. The owners, Board of Directors, and/or shareholders will have to be convinced that the program makes sense from a fiscal perspective.

The benefits of successful educational incentive programs include:

- improved employee job performance
- infusion of fresh, current ideas into the company
-increased employee motivation
-increased employee job satisfaction
-decreased employee turnover
-attraction of high quality employees

In addition to money and time, a potential cost of offering educational incentives is the possibility of educating the employee to the point they wil no longer be satisfied with their current job. This may not be a problem in a large organization that frequently has openings for positions of all levels, because they can simply promote the employee. However, if the company does not have a position available that matches the employee's new skill/knowledge level, that employee is likely to go elsewhere. In such cases, an educational incentive program can actually increase employee turnover!

This last concern is the primary reason that many educational incentive programs require that the education be pertinent to the employee's current (or in some cases, potential future) position within the company. For example, a company would likely agree to support a lab technician's request to take a class on Chemical Safety. They would be much less likely to approve that same employee's request to take classes in Massage Therapy.

I would agree that offering educational incentive programs for job-specific classes is beneficial to most companies, provided that they are in keeping with the size and budget of the company.

However, you may have come accross employers that offer incentives for any type of education, regardless of applicability. Whether this is of benefit is questionable for most companies. The primary benefit of offering this is to increase employee morale and to attract employees. Taking this more risky approach is best suited to very large institutions that have tough competition for qualified employees. This could include Universities and very large corporations.

Answer 3

no that would cost a company a lot of money. Think of it in this manner, if you owned a buisness, and your looking to make money, and the biggest expense is labor,but there are other expenses like electricity, supplies, taxes, insurance, you would want to retain as much money as possible would you as the buisness owner offer such an option? small buisness couldn't afford it. Large corporations could but again they are looking to turn a profit. If a company had 1000 employees, and they all wanted to learn let's say they paid out 2000 bucks per person for books and tuition, well do the math would you spend that much?

Answer 4

Yes.

This is called investing in Human Capital. Investing in Human Capital is one of the major tasks of good Economics...

Answer 5

Absolutely. Wouldn't you want an employee who is dedicated enough that they would want to always further their knowledge in the business so that they constantly stay on top of their game?

Answer 6

Yes, because not enough people are educated these days. They're mostly ignorant.

Answer 7

they do