| Over 90% of companies offer some type of | | | | education for all employees, at all levels".o |
| Educational Assistance program for their employees. | | | | Understanding challenges of the TAP program and |
| Some programs are limited to a few classes | | | | resolving these challenges. Challenges may include |
| recommended by management, but many programs | | | | naming the persons or groups who will administer |
| include reimbursement (or even pre-pay) for | | | | program and train employees to use the TAP |
| certificates and entire degree plans. | | | | program. Another challenge may be deciding on |
| Many companies use educational assistance as a | | | | handling the program in-house or outsourcing to a |
| way to recruit employees, knowing that their | | | | Tuition Reimbursement Administrator such as EdAssist |
| competition also offers a way for employees to be | | | | or College Coach.o Measuring success of the |
| paid for their education. However, when the employee | | | | program. Is success measured by the number of |
| contracts with a company, he/she may find that the | | | | employees in the program or the number of graduates |
| education assistance is not advertised and employees | | | | or the promotions of the graduates or some other |
| are discouraged from using this benefit. Managers may | | | | measurement?o Improving quality of the program. |
| reject education requests under the guise of "limited | | | | Consistency of the program, reviewing policies, handling |
| departmental budgets". | | | | problems in a consistence manner may be some |
| But there are several corporations using tuition | | | | ways to improve quality.o Saving tuition dollars. A |
| assistance as more than a tool for recruitment. These | | | | maximum dollar amount per year per employee may |
| companies advertise their program, encourage its use, | | | | save tuition dollars. Other practices for saving tuition |
| recognize graduates, measure success of the | | | | dollars are encouraging employees to use community |
| program and align it with career development or talent | | | | college, less expensive schools, or by providing |
| management. Chris Howard has written an extensive | | | | Educational Counseling. Educational Counseling can help |
| review of Tuition Assistance Programs (TAP) in "Best | | | | an employee select the best program, progress |
| Practices for Maximizing a Key Talent Investment" in | | | | through the program and save tuition dollars. |
| Bersin and Associates Industry Study, January, 2009. | | | | Companies such as Encompass Education, College |
| Howard offers 4 levels of TAP Maturity Models and | | | | Coach and EduPlan can provide academic advising for |
| gives case studies for each Best Practice. Howard | | | | employees. |
| stresses aligning TAP with Talent Management for | | | | Best practices in TAP include goals, consistency, |
| best results and value from the education assistance | | | | problem resolution, measuring success and align |
| programs. | | | | program with career development or talent |
| Some other Best Practices might be added, including:o | | | | management. These practices provide best results |
| Outlining clear goals for the TAP program. Goals might | | | | and value for the company and for the employees. |
| be "promoting leadership" or "promoting skills and | | | | |