Company Bonuses in the Form of Education

In the 1970s, American economist Milton Friedman wrote a book called 'There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch,' explaining that free things often incur hidden costs. When Friedman made this declaration, he neglected to think that one day, companies would provide their employees with perks like a free education.

According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, 85 percent of employers with 20 or more workers provide such academic perks. Among their reasons: To maintain employee loyalty and enhance their business.

"People are the key asset in professional services organizations, therefore, the effective development and management of our employees is critical to our success in the marketplace," explains Stephanie Aeder, national director of Total Rewards, the tuition reimbursement program offered at Deloitte & Touche Services LLP, a professional services firm that provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services.

Deloitte & Touche is just one of a growing number of companies recognizing the perks of offering their employees education perks. Read about the scholastic offerings of this, and three other generous companies …

Deloitte Programs Retain Top Talent
Deloitte & Touche offers all its employees who work over 20 hours or more per week and have at least one year of service at Deloitte a rebate of up to $10,000 per year, covering tuition, books and fees. The only condition: Employees must maintain a 3.0 GPA or its equivalent in order to be reimbursed. If not, that employee has to pick up their school tab.

"Our tuition assistance program is a vehicle for continuing education and improvement," says Aeder. "It enables our employees to enhance their professional growth and development."

Deloitte's Total Rewards program also supports the company's efforts to attract and retain high-performing talent. Beyond tuition assistance, Deloitte offers employees education and development programs from within. "They're structured to accommodate our busy professionals and reflect a variety of interests," says Aeder, who's responsible for leading the areas of compensation and benefits to Deloitte employees. This is accomplished through a blended approach to learning -- both online, as well as classroom training. "We give [our employees] the flexibility and support to reach their full potential, both professionally and personally," Aeder says.

Since the offer is so grand, Employees are jumping at the opportunity to learn on the company's dime. "In the past several years, we've seen an encouraging increase in course enrollments and in completion rates," Aeder attests. In fact, from June 2006 to June 2007, Deloitte spent $7.7 million on tuition reimbursement alone. About 1,137 employees participated in the program and received on average $6,800 for assistance.

Increasing Participation at SureWest
At SureWest Communications, a company that provides advanced telecommunications services to the greater Sacramento, CA, area, employees are covered for the cost of tuition and books for courses that lead to a degree or certification at an accredited college or university -- so long as they receive a C grade or better in their classes. "Because SureWest is a cutting-edge, technology-driven organization, we recently enhanced our program to also include company-approved technical and vocational trade schools," adds Michelle Brown, employee relations specialist at the regional company.

There's a $5,000 maximum per year, and a $20,000 maximum per lifetime for employees who are taking advantage of the company's tuition assistance program.

Brown says that tuition rebates help the employees, and at the same time, benefit the company's bottom line by increasing employee retention and productivity. "It's a great opportunity for our employees to boost their business performance," she explains. "Studies show that employees who are being challenged and learning new skills are more productive and experience a greater overall job satisfaction."

Aside from tuition assistance, SureWest also provides a variety of on-site training courses in business ethics, business writing, communications, active listening, enhancing emotional intelligence and business etiquette, just to name a few. And employees are responding. "We have seen an increase in the participation rate of our education reimbursement program since we enhanced it to cover up to 100 percent of the cost," Brown points out.

"Pursuing a degree has been a goal of mine for some time now," says Jeff Willoughby, an IT specialist at SureWest. "SureWest helped significantly in the fulfillment of that dream."

Scheduling was hectic for the full-time student and full-time employee during his stint -- which amounted to a handful of years for both his bachelor's and graduate degree -- at California State University in Sacramento. Willoughby would work a typical 8-to-5 day in the office, then head off for four hours in the classroom. When he'd get home, he'd first tackle homework. "Most classes demanded that I spend 10 to 20 hours per week reading, writing and creating presentations." That's when Willoughby's weekends would come in handy.

To make scholastic matters simpler, Willoughby took a mixture of classes online and on campus. "I utilized the [tuition assistance] program to help me pay for my bachelor's degree in business management [also],” explains the family man. "I'm fortunate to have a supportive family. My wife coordinated our calendars so we’d still have some time on weekends to spend together."

Willoughby ended up paying for his MBA because he had exhausted his tuition assistance benefits for his undergraduate degree.

As Willoughby juggled all of his obligations from BA to MBA, SureWest also accommodated his schedule further when conflicts would occasionally arise. "They encouraged my participation in the degree program," Willoughby points out, "On more than one occasion, I did need to make time for school and my manager supported that. My peers were supportive, too when my schedule would change as a result of my education."

After it's all said and done, Willoughby's co-workers know there's a purpose for their support. His school pursuits will only benefit the team since he hopes to use his additional degrees to venture off into SureWest's technology R&D department or in other areas of business development.

Aflac Helps Employees' Personal Goals
"Aflac, a Fortune 500 company that insures more than 40 million people worldwide, offers its employees programs dedicated to enhance professional, as well as personal growth," says Sharon Douglas, Aflac chief people officer. The Paul S. Amos Educational Scholarship was established to aid employees in obtaining bachelor's and master's degrees from accredited colleges or universities. Employees are reimbursed fully for a maximum of nine semester hours so long as they maintain at least a 2.5 GPA for undergraduate students and a 3.0 for graduate students.

"We encourage our employees to continuously increase their learning and skill level because our philosophy is that learning is for a lifetime," says Douglas. "As technology continues to improve our business, we want our employees to enhance their skills to keep pace with those changes."

At the Aflac headquarters in Columbus, GA, for example, 43 employees used the tuition reimbursement benefit while 24 employees' children and grandchildren were offered scholarships.

Because of the amount invested in its employees, Aflac makes careful decisions about its educational offerings. The company conducts research through focus groups, dialogue sessions and employee surveys to gauge the interest and needs of their workforce. "Many employees shared the desire to take a course centered around personal finances so now we offer quarterly Lunch and Learn sessions on budgeting and saving, credit scoring, fundamentals of investing, and women and investing," Douglas says. These sessions are so popular, there's a waiting list ."

And the company's continued dedication to helping their employees on the education home front hasn't gone unnoticed. They were placed in 'Training' magazine's Top 125 list for outstanding workforce development programs for the seventh consecutive year in a row.

Ultimately, Aflac's learning programs are not just geared at enhancing the employees' skills, but also their lives. "It's part of the Aflac philosophy," Douglas points out. "If we take care of the employees, the employees will take care of the business."

A Priority at The Dow Chemical Company
The Dow Chemical Company, a leader in science and technology that provides innovative chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services, boasts similar programs. Dow's tuition reimbursement program has no GPA requirement, however employees are not allowed to leave the company within two years after completing a degree. In addition, Dow requires that the degree relate to an employee's work at Dow.

"Continuous education and developing the skills of our employees is a key priority for us," says Jerry Pritchett, director of talent management at Dow.

Amy Chartier, a pricing coordinator at Dow, is making the most out of her employment at the company. The full-time student is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree at Northwood University in Midland, MI,

She wants to take her career at Dow to the next level. "Right now I’m handling Dow Automotive pricing in customer service, which is an administrative role," she says. "My hope is that once I obtain a higher degree, I will be able to eventually work in the Supply Chain division as a planner."

To accomplish that goal, she's willing to make sacrifices. "Managing my time to accommodate school and working full-time has been a challenge" she says. With her hectic schedule, it’s often hard to find time to do homework, but Chartier thinks she found the best solution: "I take a combination of on-campus, online and independent study courses."

Because of dedication like Chartier’s, Dow administrators realize that their tuition refund policy is a major contributor to employee engagement, a topic the company takes very seriously. "Learning is something that touches everybody at Dow," Pritchett points out. As a matter of fact, in 2005, Dow employees from around the world completed over 500,000 courses via online learning and approximately 400,000 hours of classroom learning.

It's working. In 2005, 121 employees were promoted from professional to leader levels at Dow’s North American region, partly due to tuition refunds, mentoring, and other scholastic initiatives at Dow.

So there is such a thing as a free lunch -- in this case, free money for school. Education-related benefits are but one offering companies can provide to entice and reward you. Are you lucky enough to work for a company that fully invests in you? If so, don't forget to take advantage of the perks.

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