1
Content
Should
a
company
pay
for
its
employee’s education?
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Should the company pay for its employee’s
education? The tuition assistance offered by employers for their workers seeking postsecondary education Training is an omnipresent and crucial part of the services that sustain learners.
However, it is not clear why employers have such assistance since postsecondary education is not. Perhaps the example of a "general skill" that boosts business salaries is portrayed. The following explores why employers offer to fund their employees' education and might Place
some light on the more specific issues.
Postsecondary education skills are arguably the most general since they improve specific fundamental skills that are commonly useful, such as listening and analytical skills. For many employers, often occupationally specialized services, such as nursing or computer engineering, are essential. Course work needs to be fairly structured, and prospective
employers will quickly obtain transcripts that certify comprehension at least some degree of the content being learned. When we talk about the services that a company wants to give to its employees, we have to
consider its long-term and short-term impact. What are the qualitative and quantitative benefits involved with the company's choice for the employees? Starting with the benefits associated with paying for the employee's education. When you encourage your employees to
be more skilled and capable of higher pay, you can have a more skilled workforce instead of recruiting new people. As per the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Human Capital Benchmarking Report, the average cost per hire is $4129 in the USA. After
having new hires, companies spend around $1075 to train them, and the process can take from 3 to 6 months to have a smoother transition. At the same time, older employees have the same education and working styles and cannot contribute much to higher roles A 2016-17 research completed by The Graduate! Network showed that education services were influential in their ability to accomplish corporate objectives from the viewpoint of an employer, including reduced attrition and improved customer loyalty, employee participation 3
and efficiency, and benefit. McKinsey researchers suggest that if they continue to reskill their
workforces now, corporations will recover healthier from the pandemic In order to reform antiquated talent and school funding practices, the global pandemic has introduced fresh pressure and risks involving bold thought. Present approaches to funding education and job preparedness fail to fulfil the work market's demands. We need to develop employee engagement programs in the higher ed and job area that are appealing
and meaningful to the employee and construct and maintain a professional workforce.
When a company can pay for its employee's education, they are skilling them and building trust and loyalty. Instead of leaving their job to pursue their higher education, they can continue their education when their company pays for their education. Employees can return to higher positions and higher pay. An employee has an incentive to continue their education without any financial burden. At the same time, the company can retain talent and can upskill them. Since the employee is already aware of their company's culture, values, and working style, they don't need any extra training and efforts to move from one
role to another. The company is more employee-centric and can value its workforce's dreams and aspirations by doing such acts. When employees like to move from one company to another in search of opportunities, the company can retain them by providing
higher education and higher pay. Companies like TCS provide the sabbatical opportunity for employees to study by taking leave, but they don't pay for their higher education. Companies like Deloitte, Infosys, and Capgemini pay for their employees' certification courses if they pass the exams. Expanding it to employees' higher education adds to employee morale, builds trust, and improves employees' working style. It even helps the company to have tax benefits by paying for employee's education. There is ample proof that this is the best way forward, so why don't we move quickly to employer-sponsored
employee education services to scale up? Employer-sponsored programs for employee education are not ready to be expanded. In an iPhone environment, the current user interface is Byzantine and long, excessively processed, and about as user-friendly as a
rotary phone. We need to create an environment that is both simple and interesting to highlight these services' strengths.
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According to studies by the U.S., businesses can compete on how much they can locate, procure, grow, advance, and retain talent. Foundation Chamber of Commerce. In a
competitive job market and economy, graduates and employers can search for expertise and credentials and the opportunity to be agile. Communities can also contend based on their ability to recruit, produce, and sustain competitive labor, stimulating economic growth, opportunity, and stability.
According to a recent analysis that showed the insurance insurer, Cigna saved $1.29 in
lower attrition and hiring expenses for every $1 it expended on tuition compensation, college incentives typically pay dividends for the company and employee. Participants were 10% more likely to be recruited and, over three years, made an average of 43% more
than peers who did not take advantage of the service.
On the other hand, what can be the downside if the company decides to provide education
to employees at their own cost. Employee retention is one of the critical concerns. If a company is spending on its employees' knowledge, they should be able to recover it. Suppose the employee leaves the company immediately after their education. In that case,
it's a payoff for the company to pay for the current employee and recruit new people in the place of one who left. Another aspect is if most of the workforce express their willingness for higher education than those you will offer and to whom not. It might create a chaotic
situation. Therefore it is essential to have a robust system build to determine who is eligible for pay and who is not. How much trust and faith the company hold in the person in terms of working for the company after completing education. For what all courses is a company willing to pay, the educational short term certification courses or the high-end courses such as MBA, MS. The company has to make policies considering all these facts into the mind. They have to come up with the guideline of the minimum eligibility criteria. What if an employee stops the course in between or leaves the company before
completion. Is the company able to provide the expected pay and role to the employee after their education? It was somewhat a waste of time and money for the company as the employee will eventually leave the company. Is the course, the employee wants to take
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align with the working style and goals of the firm? If not, the company should guide the
employees in taking the courses that align with the current functionalities. Suppose the firm is planning to expand into the new markets. In that case, the company can take advantage of this scheme, train its contemporary best performers to get them under the education and be
part of the new segments or business unit.
Suppose the company can build a robust policy system to determine which employees can be
paid for education and the underlying parameters. In that case, companies can save costs and have a more knowledgeable workforce. Companies can collaborate with the Government under the Skilled India mission to benefit from the whole process, apart from the tax benefit.
However, not every firm should give this advantage, particularly not without any conditions attached. Considering an employee's past performance is a critical factor while considering any such requests from the workforce. Some employers provide tuition insurance, but to achieve the full benefit, they require a high GPA. When employees take courses like MBA or M.S., it becomes a prominent one. MBA and M.S. are one of the most high-end courses.
Some employees can take advantage of such policies to get their education free and then move to another organization. H.R. should talk to employees interested in applying for education to understand their mindset and behaviour. What are the key reasons for an
employee to opt for higher education? Suppose it is evident form the initial stage that employee wants the pay and role which current organization cannot provide even after the higher education. In that case, there is no point in paying for the education of such employees. It's the responsibility of the company to design a robust plan where H.R. can evaluate the employees ambition and their career growth. Companies can have tie ups with different institutions to have flexible educational courses for their employees based on the demand of the skills required for carrying out the daily job tasks and the one that can align with the interest of the employees as well. 6
These tie-ups can help companies to reduce their overall cost and can help some employees to take such courses instead of going for full-time higher education. The flexible program recognizes that employees learn in different ways and at different speeds. At the end, paying
for employee's education is a good option for companies if they can design a robust system to implement the same. Name- Pooja Chaudhary, College- IIM Rohtak
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SHOULD COMPANY PAY FOR ITS EMPLOYEES’
EDUCATION? The best organizations out there (Apple, Google, and Starbucks to give some examples) make them thing in like manner: educational cost repayment programs. This may appear to be conflicting. All things considered, for what reason would organizations profit by burning through cash on their representatives' instruction? Actually, the companies advantage the same amount of as representatives do from educational cost repayment programs. The following are
the benefits for an employer of paying for its employee’s education: • Draw in Top Talent: It’s an obvious fact that brilliant, competent representatives are exceptionally pined for by businesses. These skilled laborers have loads of chances when looking for business, which implies they can be more specific in which organizations they work for. Serious advantages, for example, educational cost repayment can pull in and tempt work searchers. Offering educational cost repayment shows high-esteem up-and-comers that
your organization is put resources into their expert and instructive development, and it may be the integral factor between that organization's proposition for employment and a contending boss' offer. • Lessen Turnover: Since educational cost repayment is such a significant advantage for representatives, they won't have any desire to leave behind it. It encourages a feeling of dependability between the representative and the business; since the business is put
resources into the worker's turn of events and achievement, the worker feels more put resources into the organization's prosperity. This implies workers stay longer, decreasing turnover and sparing your organization the expenses of finding and preparing fresh recruits.
As the business, you additionally have the alternative of legally upholding this reliability. A few organizations require representatives accepting educational cost repayment to stay at the organization for a predetermined time allotment during or after their examinations (e.g., 3-5 years), and if a worker neglects to meet this necessity, they will be considered answerable for the expense of educational cost. While not reasonable for all organizations, it's a feasible method to guarantee low turnover.
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• Increment Productivity: Tuition repayment not just urges representatives to remain with your organization for more, however you'll have a more instructed labor force too. Contingent upon the sorts instructive projects offered, businesses could see advancement of their workers' delicate aptitudes (e.g., correspondence, basic reasoning) or more particular abilities (e.g., factual examination, programming improvement). In any case,
you'll see improved execution and expanded efficiency from representatives who are more educated, which means more an incentive for your organization. Moreover, most educational cost repayment programs are discretionary, implying that it's dependent upon
the workers to exploit these advantages. This gives the organization more understanding into which workers are proactive about their own proficient turn of events, helping administrators and chiefs settle on more educated choices with regards to development ways for their immediate reports. 
Improved Employee Morale: Offering an instructive repayment program can cause
representatives to feel better about working for you, as it shows you are intrigued and worried about their fates. Regardless of whether they don't have quick intends to exploit the program, it can satisfy them realizing instructive open doors are there should they wish to seek after them later on. More joyful representatives are frequently more beneficial and might be more averse to leave an association for a more lucrative opening for work.

Ameliorated Worker Skills: Education repayment projects can urge representatives to create abilities that advantage your association. For instance, by offering to pay a few or the entirety of the expense of an administration preparing program, you can direct representatives who show solid authority abilities toward an administrative way inside your organization. By restricting course determination just to those that advantage your organization, the companies can build the odds that workers will utilize their preparation to propel their vocation at your organization and not take their
new abilities to a contender. You can likewise necessitate that they remain with the organization for a particular timeframe to fit the bill for repayment. 9
Tax reductions: Companies with educational cost repayment arrangements for their representatives additionally get tax breaks. Accepting the approaches fulfill the Internal Revenue Service's instructive help program necessities, Example: the U.S. government will repay organizations for up to $5,250 per representative every year in instructive costs. Extra government repayment may apply for workers taking courses explicitly intended for their employment obligations. These tax cuts permit organizations to offer important advantages for their workers for a diminished and now and again insignificant expense.
Way of life Benefits: Offering non-vocation related instruction repayment projects to your representatives can likewise profit you. For example, paying for courses that show representatives how to deal with their weight or quit smoking can assist them with
improving their physical wellbeing, which means less downtime from work because of ailment. Budgetary administration courses can assist representatives with killing obligation or put something aside for retirement, decreasing their degree of stress and
permitting them to concentrate all the more obviously while at work. For the most part, there are two strategies that you can use to offer instructive advantages to your representatives and acquire great expense treatment for all concerned: • Paying or Reimbursing Employees for Work-Related Education: Reimbursing or paying for representatives' costs for business related training is an incredible method to add to your workers' aptitudes and information, which they would then be able to apply to help make your business a triumph. Furthermore, for managers, the sum paid or repaid for a representative's training costs is a deductible operational expense. To really sweeten the deal, if the instructive costs qualify, representatives might have the option to bar the
installment or repayment from net salary as what is known as a working condition incidental advantage. • Instructive Assistance Programs for Educational Expenses: Employers who wish to offer workers tax-exempt advantages for instructive costs, whether or not the costs are work related, can do as such by utilizing an instructive help program. 10
• Instructive help programs permit managers to furnish representatives with instructive help of up to $5,250 every year rejected from a worker's salary. Managers can guarantee a business allowance for instructive representative advantages paid and are not needed to pay FICA or FUTA finance charges for benefits gave under the program.
The Educational cost Reimbursement Factors to Consider for the organization are as follows:
On the off chance that you do choose to offer educational cost repayment as an
advantage, there are various elements to consider. Here are only a couple inquiries to consider when drafting your organization's approach.
What will be the upward furthest reaches of educational cost costs you repay? When
will you repay them? (For instance, Chrysler's program offers educational cost repayment forthright while Starbucks holds up until the finish of the semester.)
Which representatives are qualified (e.g., sorts of laborers, residency, and so on)?
Will you permit representatives to concentrate any subject or limit them to certain business related controls?
Will your program apply to all degrees of instruction (e.g., are graduate degree
programs qualified)?
Do workers need to learn at a specific school or set of schools, or would they be able to pick the program themselves?
What occurs if representatives leave the organization in a course?
What occurs if the ideal result isn't reached? For instance, imagine a scenario in which they drop a course without finishing it or bomb the course.
While educational cost help advantages can offer some incentive to workers like promotion, development, compensation, updated skills set etc; they're likewise valuable for associations. Exploration has indicated that these advantages pull in ability, hold laborers, address aptitudes holes and improve efficiency.
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A 2016 Accenture study including medical coverage supplier Cigna exhibited a 129% ROI for each dollar put resources into training benefits. Furthermore, the examination clarified that representatives who utilized the advantage were more averse to leave the organization and bound to get advancements Furthermore, a February 2019 article by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) named, "Instruction Benefits Present a Learning Opportunity," said that organizations with educational cost help report better by and large execution, enlistment
viability and maintenance than those that don't.
Online courses give adaptability to
representatives who are attempting to work all day, take classes and care for families," the article said.
Organizations also get an extraordinary degree of profitability regarding exposure. The expense of school and understudy obligation is head of brain for a dominant part of individuals. Some workers unquestionably advantage from the projects. In any case, the cutoff points on where the advantage can be utilized, what laborers can concentrate and how testing it tends to be for representatives to endure school while working simultaneously imply that the organizations have presumably run the numbers and realize that offering the advantage won't be very exorbitant. Organizations that offer these projects state they're an important interest in their labor force. Disney dispatched its Aspire program a year ago with an underlying speculation of $150 million more than five years and plans to signify $25 million all the more every year. A large number of representatives
are taking classes through the program, The ascent of online training: The development in online instruction in the course of the last 15 or so years had made it a lot simpler for organizations to offer these projects at scale
to laborers the nation over and even far and wide. Organizations are regularly joining forces with at any rate one establishment with online projects in offering this advantage. Subsequent to dispatching the ASU-Starbucks association in 2014, EdPlus, an establishment inside ASU that plans online courses and degree programs for the school, had the option to utilize that as a model to work with different organizations to offer comparative projects, said Sean Hobson, boss plan official at EdPlus. ASU is one of the significant pioneers in online advanced education, however in the course of recent years; various different schools have attempted to expand their ability in this space.
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For instance, Walmart as of late included Purdue Global, an all online arm of Purdue University that was made when the school gained Kaplan University, a revenue driven school, to its rundown of schools where workers could procure their degrees. In the end, it can be concluded that offering educational cost repayment to your representatives can be an extraordinary method to augment your quantifiable profit. Turnover is decreased while your organization is more appealing to qualified up-and-comers. The representatives you have are better qualified and more qualified for progression. Name- Ankur Sharma, College- SIIB Pune
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Should
a
company
pay
for
its
employee’s
education? John Wooden said, “It’s the details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” Let me ask all of you reading this, what is that little thing that sets a company apart from the million others? The answer is quite clear- qualified employees. Employees are the literal
building blocks of our companies, without them quality service and client satisfaction is impossible! So ultimately, the success of our companies is directly proportional to the employee’s
contribution
and
performance.
This brings us to the main question in focus- should companies pay for their employee's education? In this world of hassle, every company is in a race to the top. What makes that one company appeal to the most hardworking employees is these perks and benefits. Who wouldn’t enjoy furthering their knowledge and adding to their skills? Companies would benefit even more, as they get employees with a huge array of skills. Hence, it all adds up to provide a further incentive to the employees to work hard for the company and the company gains from it! Providing incentives for furthering an employee's education helps the
company
to
gain
hardworking,
productive,
and
efficient
employees.
It sure seems like a win-win situation for all.
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Employee education is necessary for the advancement and growth of a company.
Employees are the main niche on which the company stands and to foster the needs of such
an
important
part
is
integral.
Employee education can be given in various forms, be it conducting different workshops,
training sessions, fairs, educational set-ups, activities conducted, etc. It is how you choose to deliver the knowledge required for their job and how you see the benefits it can provide to your firm. The various methods for educating employees are:
1).
Direct
employee
training
This method reinforces how top-level management can directly through their mentorship train
the
employees
at
lower
levels.
The employees are under the direct control of their mentors and it can be easily analyzed which necessary skills are to be taught based on the job description. The employees are under their mentors for learning required skills which can suffice the expectations.
2).
Training
and
workshops
by
experts:
Employees can be trained under the guidance of experts who can ensure that they inculcate beneficial traits that help a company grow. Various planned training sessions and workshops can be arranged where live situations and cases can be presented to employees to be well versed in their workplace. An expert ensures that best practices are learned.
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Online
training:
Amid this global pandemic and many such situations when employees aren’t physically
available,
their
shouldn’t
education
take
a
toll.
Companies can provide access to different pieces of training through online courses and portal. This can also be done through online meetings or video calls organized for development and growth. Employees should ensure that they are genuinely taking serious advantage It
is
out how
you
of
embrace
4).
the
digital
this. and
go
Interactive
virtual.
sessions:
Some sessions can be organized for the employees where they learn different competencies. These sessions can include team building activities, leadership programs, teamwork
promotion, etc which keeps active participation of employees so that they remain interested in what is being delivered to them. 5).vestibule
training:
In this method, employees learn about their job and their work requirements through performing their work on dummy models or actual workplace environments created with all equipment. This is an off the job training method where they work on a prototype of how their
work
will
he
in
reality
and
helps
them
get
a
taste
of
it.
All these various methods suggest the benefits that an organization can conceive by training its employees and educating them with the necessary competencies that will embrace the
firm
in
the
future.
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Employee education is more like a moral responsibility of the employee. It is like
when a child goes to his school at first, which is a completely different environment for him, his teachers take up the responsibility to make him comfortable and adaptable to that place and impart knowledge. similarly, the employers should take it upon themselves to ensure that the employees they hire are completely familiar with what work they are supposed to do and the expectations they are required to meet. Employees should be educated and trained to be able to work efficiently in their new workplace and be more promising. It is after this fair share of work that the
employer has done when he/she can expect the employee to produce necessary results and show the best possible efforts towards the achievement of organizational goals.
It now becomes the responsibility of the employees to do their bit and help escalate the
company
to
greater
heights
and
higher
profits.
Offering non-career-related education reimbursement programs to your employees also can benefit you. as an example, paying for courses that teach employees the way to manage their weight or stop smoking can help them improve their physical health, a meaningless day off from work thanks to illness. Financial management courses can help employees eliminate debt or but retirement, reducing their level of stress
and
allowing
them
to
focus
more
clearly
while
at
work.
As a small scale employer, you'll have a difficult time attracting qualified candidates
who may like better to work for larger companies offering more comprehensive benefits packages. Offering an education reimbursement program gives you another weapon in your recruiting arsenal. albeit it is not always enough to stay an
employment candidate from accepting a suggestion from an enormous company, and an education reimbursement program may provide a competitive edge over rival small businesses in your area.
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As noted by Peter Capelli, “The American Council of Education estimates, that roughly 20% of graduate students are receiving some sort of financial assistance from their
employer to attend school to enhance their knowledge base (cited in Babson 1999), and roughly 6 percent of the much bigger pool of all undergraduates receive such gains as well. Stating a few examples from the top companies, which reaffirm the gravity of
employee
education
being
paid
by
them-
1- United Parcel Service (UPS): gives around $5,250 per year as tuition assistance
2- Starbucks(US): By partnering up with Arizona State University, Starbucks offers its US employees the opportunity to get their bachelor’s degree with full tuition coverage till their graduation
with
the
online
degree
program
provided
by
ASU.
3-McDonalds: It is famous for its ‘Archways to Opportunity’ program which helps its employees to further their education provided they maintain an efficient performance
throughout
the
course.
However, could the employees actually take advantage of this benefit? Why not! What if the employees take this opportunity to migrate to the other companies? Here, we use the uttermost caution by making a legally binding contract before the employee avails this opportunity. So usually there is a waiting period after the education benefit, meaning that the employee must remain within the same company for a few years.
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This might not appeal to some employees who do not wish to stay in such a long term commitment. Moreover, companies offer to pay for the employee's education either by reimbursement or by student loans. This adds to the companies finances and some
companies are unable to sustain them. So it’s not all gold, but with careful calculations, legal caution, and a motivated workforce, it’s quite possible. Take the example of the Skinner box by B.F. Skinner. When provided positive
reinforcement, the rat showed better performance. Similarly, when rewarded with the positive reinforcement of furthering their education, the employee works harder. When seen in real life, the correlation between the benefit of educational opportunity and better workforce performance turns out to be positive. However, it should be noted that other factors such as the Financial background of the company, its profits, and overall growth do affect
and
result
in
indifference
among
different
samples.
After considering all the points and statements made above it becomes clear that a company itself should pay for employee's education. It also gives the employee a sense of belongingness and a feeling of being cared for by the employer which makes them more
interested in contributing their best efforts. the employee begins to feel that the employer has taken necessary efforts to improve his skills and invested in him, so he should reciprocate by showing the worth and result of this investment. It turns them into bigger
assets for the company and on their part, they leave no stones unturned because they are motivated and more educated. The reinforcement theory works well here, as the behavior which is a function of its consequences leads to the employees behaving more responsibly and professionally towards the aim and objective of the firm. Proving the Pygmalion effect, employees try to turn their individual goals which they expect to achieve with the subordination of organizational interests. They turn their expectations into a positive reality. It increases their employee engagement and job involvement which is like an add on advantage for the firm to climb the ladder of success.
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Education helps to reach the vision and mission but only if it is taken to correct action. This investment surely pays off the best interest, especially when it comes to the interest of the organization’s upswing. Thus, it is one such decision an employer will never regret making and can expect profound results.
Name- Priyal Jain, College-IIM Rohtak
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SHOULD A COMPANY PAY FOR IT’S
EMPLOYEE’S EDUCATION? Organizations in a bid to enhance their overall 'Employee Value Proposition' (EVP)
constantly aim to come up with certain best practices for their employees that help attract, engage and retain the top talent and ensures that organizational effectiveness and productivity are maintained.
Of the many alternatives available, one widely used option for corporations today is to provide for their employees an opportunity to get their education sponsored. This lies at the experiential level of the above pyramid giving the employees a differentiated proposition when they are a part of the organization that invests in employee's education. It helps employees grow and develop in their careers and initiates for them a path towards effective and secure career planning. Of the many alternatives available, one widely used option for corporations today is
to provide for their employees an opportunity to get their education sponsored. This lies at the experiential level of the above pyramid giving the employees a differentiated proposition when they are a part of the organization that invests in
employee's education. It helps employees grow and develop in their careers and initiates for them a path towards effective and secure career planning.
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A learning organization is one that creates an environment for its people that is conducive to learning, where the emphasis on individual learning is enhanced and the
employees are given the adequate degree to be creative and experimentative, thereby giving the organization a competitive edge in the industry in which it operates.
Organizations today pay for their employee's learning experiences in several ways, the basic one being sponsoring the degree education whether fully or partially, employees are subsequently also sent to several B-schools for Management development programs, a practice that is prevalent not only in the private sector but in the public sector as well. Companies like Tata Group, Indian Oil Corporation, Wipro, etc. all lie in this bracket, making them a lucrative employer for the candidates seeking jobs. The concept of employer-sponsored candidates in B-schools, online universities, and other knowledge imparting institutions is not new, in fact, several organizations such as Apple, Bank of America, AT&T, etc. have been doing the same for quite some time now, Deloitte provides its employees reimbursement of full their full tuition fee when they come back
to the organization post their management degree, the company goes the extra mile by providing for the preparation expense needed for the GMAT exam that the individual has to take.
A survey conducted by PwC across several working professionals talked about identifying the characteristics that influence their choices to work for that employer and the results were not surprising at all. 52% of candidates responded that the companies that provide them with 'Opportunities for career progression' and 35% that the organizations that provide 'Excellent training/development programs' are the critical element in they choosing that company for their place to work.
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Sponsoring employee's education is a way for the organization to train and develop its
employees, training today is regarded as an important element of the overall organizational climate. Several organizations today are moving towards embedding a learning culture within them, Peter Senge hence gave the concept of 'Learning
organization'. In an organizational environment where 'Return on Investment' is the first question asked upon by the top management while implementing any such policies that will inculcate expenditure at the organization's end the HR and line managers must come together to help quantify the data (Pre-training & post-training) to substantiate the sponsored education initiatives. Motorola Inc. when started investing in its employee's learning concluded that within 3 years of learning & development expenditure, the company was able to generate $3 worth revenues for every $1 spent on training by it.
Hence, their empirical evidence to support the true importance of an organization's expenditure on the employee's learning. In a truly Volatile, uncertain, complex & ambiguous (VUCA) world, training is one such element that can give the organization a
competitive edge over the others, and in truly unprecedented times such as the one we are in today can help in transforming this scary definition of VUCA into 'Vision, understanding, clarity and agility’. Some organizations take their employee's learning and education so seriously that they go out and form a corporate university of their own to ensure the mandatory and systematic learning of their workforce. It was General Electric the opened up the world's first corporate university in the late 90's and today we have across the globe roughly 4,000 such universities that complement the organization's mission, vision, strategy, and goals. Some of the notable International corporate universities are McDonald's Hamburger University, Motorola University, University of Toyota, etc. In the Indian subcontinent,
Infosys, Welspun, Azim Premji University, etc. prevail.
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A recent survey conducted for academic purposes can be used to see how organizations in the face of a global pandemic are leveraging technology to train, upskill, and provide for the learning needs of their employees. With over 70 respondents spread across 70
unique organizations the results were as follows:
The video-conferencing based learning exercises, e-Learning platforms, Video-based learning, etc. emerge out to be the ready replacement for Learning & development
initiatives that were once a part of employee's life when they used to work from the office. Throughout the pandemic not only the investments made by the organization in learning have been fruitful for employees to upskill themselves but has also helped the companies to keep their employees engaged and making them more resilient. These resilient employees hence form the resilient organizations and thus help in ensuring business longevity and continuity in a time where the global supply chains are disrupted and businesses are struggling to stay afloat.
Another question in the same survey that was conducted during the pandemic outbreak when the government of India had imposed a nationwide lockdown tried to
capture how the organizations have implemented new strategies and brought about new initiatives to
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keep the employees engaged and motivated while working remotely. Upon observation it can be seen that roughly 83% of the organizations have enforced L&D initiatives in some form of
the other to help employees upskill.
Further, to substantiate the importance of educating employees and providing them with the learning opportunities, we can take the help of SCARF model. COVID-19 has brought for businesses several challenges out of the blue, it has emerged out to be the test of leadership in what can truly be called turbulent times. It has changed the way organizations work and behave and has brought with itself a host of anxiety-related issues for the workforce which are not just limited to catching the virus but also about the repercussions it will have on their employer, economic
stability, etc. In these uncertain times, the organizations can focus on increasing the certainty of their employees by enforcing the SCARF model, which can be adopted by the
managers at all levels. The SCARF model was created by Neuroscientist David Rock and is based on the brain's 5 needs: STATUS – Our need to feel that we, and the work that we do is valued by our colleagues CERTAINTY – Our need to know what will happen next AUTONOMY – Our need to feel like we have some control over what we do every day, our choices & the environment 25
RELATEDNESS – Our need to feel the sense of belongingness FAIRNESS – Our need to feel that we are treated fairly
It is a model based on Neuroscience which can be used to help aid collaboration and helping managers influence others positively. This model works on the premise of improving team performance by:
a)
Increasing the number and quality of rewards
b)
Decreasing stress in the face of threats
From the SCARF model 3 key elements can be picked up which substantiate the importance of training and investing in employee education:
STATUS: Employees advancing in their careers by the means of educating and upskilling themselves adds to their status and self-esteem. Status is one of the biggest drivers of workplace productivity & behaviour, and hence a motivated employee is more productive.
CERTAINTY: The managers can drastically help reduce uncertainty for employees in these unprecedented times. By helping employees upskill, the employees can quickly adapt to the dynamic demands of the industry on particular tools or topics. This helps them stay relevant and makes their perception of being useful to the organization in the long-term creating a sense of security. The state of certainty or uncertainty is the one that has the most impact on the 'Flight or Fight' instincts in humans. Since we can't control an external force, along with providing the learning opportunities the managers can set clear work & performance-related
expectations, reinforce the company's values, embracing the adversity (by reframing threats & challenges into opportunities) to garner certainty amongst employees
RELATEDNESS: When organizations spend on their employee's education it inculcates a feeling of belongingness in the employees. Managers should create ample opportunities for employees to learn and grow. It has a strong impact on the employee's morale.
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The SCARF model concludes that the employee’s capacity to make decisions, solve
problems and collaborate with others is generally reduced by a threat response and increased under a reward response to these elements. Hence, institutionalising learning and education within the organization can go a long way.
While we have discussed at length the benefits that the organizations & employees both can derive out of investing in the training and education of employees, it is important to analyse the cost of not training them as well.
Hence, while the critics may argue that training incurs huge costs and the benefits derived out of it can't justify the costs associated, it is important to understand that a Systematic
approach towards training (SAT), adequate expenditure on the learning and education, strategies to link the same with that of the overarching goals of the organizations can help organizations leaps and bounds in creating that much needed competitive edge in today's
world where cutthroat competition prevails. The onus thus lies on the Human Resource managers and leaders to be able to inculcate the learning culture in the corporate fibre of the organizations to help them grow and develop.
Name- Akshit Vats, College- International Management Institute, New Delhi
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