Low Cost Family Education Benefits May Be a Way to Boost Retention

An article in the June 1 issue of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal tells us that there are more than 1 million families supporting college freshman in the U.S.  Draw a one to two year circle around this and you can further estimate that there may be several million families in the throes of college exploration and preparation.  This presents employers an opportunity to distinguish themselves by providing a small array of low cost benefits geared to support and assist these employees.

The article offers ideas for several potential offerings, including:

• Hold college prep seminars.  Offer a noontime seminar covering topics such as college search techniques, making the most of a college visit, college entrance requirements, financial aid and scholarships.
• Establish a scholarship program.  Employers can support employees by setting up a scholarship program, with only one or several scholarships, depending on budget.  Scholarship America, for example, is an organization that helps companies set up scholarship and tuition reimbursement programs.  One of my clients, a specialized transportation services company, offers scholarships to children of employees who plan to attend college in pursuit of a transportation career.  The founder sees this offering as a critical part of the company's mission.
• Offer career exploration.  Participate in career days at area high schools, offer job shadowing opportunities or host a field trip luncheon for eleventh graders to learn about your industry.
• Add college advisory services assistance to your menu of benefits.  Do some basic due diligence by interviewing local college planning and test preparation services to insure their quality and professionalistm, then provide this list of reputable services (with whatever disclaimers are appropriate) to your employees.  You might even negotiate employee discounts with these businesses.

I admit that I might be biased favorably toward offerings like these, being smack in the middle of the target demographic as parent of a college student and an eleventh grader, but I thought these suggestions represented good ways that an employer - even a small business or nonprofit - could differentiate themselves.

Comments

[http://almostgotit.wordpress.com]

Here, here! As a fellow-parent-of-an-eleventh-grader, I can tell you that this is a HUGE issue for a growing number of families. Acknowledging this just seems like a smart move for any employer who can manage it. Let me tell you: when $30-40,000 annual tuitions are becoming normative, any employer who tries to ignore these facts is ignoring an elephant that most families begin to notice several years (up to 18!) before they even send anyone to college. Any efforts an employer makes to ease the way towards college for employee families -- *including non-monetary assistance*, just as you suggest -- is guaranteed to be appreciated. My own career choices at the moment are very much influenced not only by considerations of salary but also by those educational benefits that may be available to my children (or even to myself... continued education for adults, of course, being another growing issue for many employees!)

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AB - There are, indeed, a lot of us in this boat - and I agree that any assistance and support would be appreciated. Thanks for the comment !