5 types of continuing education startups can offer their employees

Some of the biggest corporations have multi-million dollar continuing education budgets for their employees because they understand the value of providing ongoing education.

While, your startup most likely doesn’t have that amount of money to spend, it is a good idea to have a healthy budget for employee training. When you allocate money to this, you are investing not only in your team, but in your startup.

Let’s take a look at five types of continuing education startups can offer their employees.

#1: Offer a learning stipend

One thing your startup can do is offer your employees a specified amount as a learning stipend. This is actually a cash benefit that your employees use to pursue some type of continuing education or professional development.

They might use it for classes at the local university, conferences, workshops, or something else.

Many companies offer this perk to employees in effort to encourage ongoing learning and growth. The amount is up to you, but $1000-2000 seems to be about average.

#2: Pay for college

This is a big one, and when offering this, you’ll want to include some stipulations.

For example, if you’re offering to pay for one, two, three, or four years of advanced education, then it pays to have your employees commit to working for you for a certain amount of years.

You might also choose to offer a tuition stipend that isn’t the whole amount of the employee’s tuition, but a large portion of it. And, you might specific which college or university they can attend. You might work something out with the school for reduced tuition costs as well.

In addition, you might want to add something about the type of degree that you’ll pay for. For example, if you’re a tech startup, you might agree to pay for computer classes.

While this seems like a big chunk of money, research shows that it does work in reducing employee turnover.

#3: Offer regular learning experiences

Consider sending your team to regular conferences to promote lifelong learning.

When planning these, consider sending several employees at one time to save on travel expenses.

It shouldn’t be just any conference but one you find valuable. These might be industry or career based conferences. They can offer much to your team in the way of presentations, break-out sessions, and networking opportunities.

In addition, these learning experiences are often offered in beautiful areas, so it’s an additional perk to your employees.

#4: Encourage webinars

These are great one-time learning experiences offered online. They’re usually targeted to a specific area of learning.

For example, if you sell hot tubs, your manufacturer may offer webinars for your sales team. These are great opportunities for your team to listen, engage, and ask questions of the presenters.

As a bonus, they don’t cost you anything other than time.

#5: Leverage online courses

Instead of offering an entire college education, you might encourage your staff to take an online class one semester or a seminar course.

These may take place over several weeks or even several months and can be a lower-cost way to help your employees can new skills and knowledge.

For example, you might find an online course that helps your managers be better leaders and learn more about working with a team.

Final thoughts

In today’s competitive job market, adding perks to your employees’ benefits package can help boost your employee retention which is important to the success of your startup.

In addition, extra perks help you hire the best, most qualified team. You’ll find the better your perks are, the better shot you have at competing with the larger companies.

Today’s employees want to work for a company they respect and one that respects them. By offering continuing education, you tell your employees they’re valued, and you want them to stick around.

They’ll, in turn, show you added loyalty and work harder and better for you.

Want more?

Since 2006, Escalon has helped thousands of startups get off the ground with our back-office solutions for HR, payroll, recruiting, insurance, accounting and taxes — and we can help yours too. Talk to an expert today.

Image: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash