Educating employees can benefit the company as much as it benefits their staffWalmart is to offer its employees an exciting new incentive, which will give them the chance to enjoy college tuition for just $1 per day. The programmes will take place at universities providing courses for working adults.
Business and Supply-Chain Management
The courses will charge $1 a day, which works out as $75 per semester. However, the only courses available at these low costs are supply-chain management or business.
1.4 million staff will potentially benefit from this move but in order to qualify the staff must have worked at Walmart for 90 days prior to commencing their course.
The idea is that taking these courses will improve retention rates at the company and help staff to engage more with their work. If the staff member leaves Walmart before finishing their studies then they can still continue on the course but will need to finish paying for the tuition themselves.
Many other companies also have learning assistance for employees. For example, Starbucks offer places at Arizona State University for undergraduate degrees and Chipotle Mexican Grill gives staff annual allowances to spend on education.
Improving Professional Skills
Educating employees can benefit the company as much as it benefits their staff. Training can fill in gaps in employees’ skill sets and allow staff members to take on more responsibilities. It can potentially save a company money in the long-term as the employees will become up-skilled.
Having an attractive training programme and cost-reduced education is also a great incentive for new employees to join the company over any rivals, with new staff members able to see their long-term careers at the business.
Benefits of Online Study
The universities partnering with Walmart for its new initiative are the University of Florida in Gainesville, Bellevue University in Bellevue, Nebraska, and Brandman University in Irvine, California. These universities all offer the courses with online study available, so students can take part in the classes wherever they are based.
Although the staff who would like to take up the offer from Walmart can only study business or supply chain management, these subjects and the skills taught on these courses are applicable to many different areas. This approach to inclusive education for staff members looks set to be copied by other companies with more an more businesses starting to offer training programmes and subsidised education to staff.
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