Tuition reimbursement Essay Example for Free

Tuition reimbursement Essay Introduction According to (Hall, 2000. 30-31), tuition reimbursement refers to a study program for adult learners which involve provision of financial help to meet the cost of education of the adult learners. The organizations for which the adult learners work for are required to meet the educational costs as part of employees’ benefits and growth and development strategy. According to (Hall, 2000. 30-31) tuition reimbursement has several benefits to an organization. First of all, tuition reimbursement increases productivity of the organization in that, with the acquisition of new skills, employees are empowered to perform more complex tasks faster and more efficiently than it is the case whereby employees lack important skills and training.    The second direct advantage of the tuition reimbursement program is the fact that, employees given the opportunity to study become more loyal to the organization and feel more close to the organization and therefore are less likely to quit their jobs. In this way, tuition reimbursement greatly puts employee turnover very low to the advantage of the organization’s growth.   Therefore tuition reimbursement leads to improved employee retention and clearly minimizes the costs associated with the staffing process. This increases profits for the organization. For the organization, tuition reimbursement qualifies the given organization to tax benefits in accordance to the revenues act of 1978 (Rocchi, 1997.87-90). This is beneficial to both the organization and the employees in that, the organization saves a lot in terms of taxes payable to the government, the tuition reimbursement is crucial to the employees in that, they stand to gain promotions easily than their counterparts who may not poses such skills and knowledge.   Tuition reimbursement are important to an organization in that, employees become more skilled and as a result, the organization ends up with a more united work force which is not only effective but also efficient since there is a general feeling of security for the employees and a feeling of being appreciated. Tuition reimbursement is very important to organizations in that it gives a chance to those who missed the opportunity while young but have the willingness and the desire to achieve high academic standards.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Human resources form the engine of an organization. An organization, which wants to achieve its goals and objectives, should invest in knowledge management as it is the heart of empowering employees as well as mentoring their talents. Any organization, which does not take into consideration, the learning needs of employees is bound to fail in its objectives. The greatest challenge facing organizations as far as career growth and development of employee are concerned is increased costs associated with funding employee adult learning courses.   It is approximated that, organizations spent about $1800 to train a single employee annually something which is quite tasking on part of the organization (Spooner, 1999.12-43). Such a huge amount of money evidently causes financial constraints and if managers do not appreciate the importance of career development, it is hard for organizations to sponsor adult learning programs on basis of the huge associated costs. Adult learning has very many advantages in that it determines job performance and the success of a given organization. The fact that learners have had a considerable exposure to job aspects, challenges and real issues implies that, given an opportunity to study, the adult learners stands a great chance of taking theories and concepts to real life issues (Schwartz, 1992.56-98). Adult learners can easily link concepts to issues at work something which implies that, given an opportunity to learn, adult learners can even outperform fresh graduates in terms of connecting class lesson to practicals work situations and are therefore likely to overcome barriers in the work place. While fresh recruits find it hard to link class theories to work situations and challenges, and learners easily associate into work situations what they study in school. When adult when adult learners go into college, they go there with a vision. Perhaps, having seen challenging tasks, which need some knowledge they lacked, they proceed to college with a dream, with some expectations and a clear focus of what to gain in the studies. Usually it is very tough for adult learners to go back to class considering that, they have financial burdens such as families to fend for and many other financial commitments. This implies that, by the time an adult makes the decision to go back to class, the motivation is very high, the expectations are realistic and the drive is genuine. While young learners may end up in schools for a number of different reasons, different sources of motivation, it is rare to get the same case being true for the adults. This is the reason why human resources managers should come up with tuition reimbursement programs for adult learners willing to go back to studies. The company has a moral obligation to nurture the talent in the employees not withstanding the employers’ gains achieved after they have invested in the studies of their employees. Usually employees who are sponsored to schools would rarely quit a job soon after the training something which implies that, the new skills and knowledge learnt in school is likely to benefit the company considering the wealth of evidence linking training to increased job performance. If employees are given the necessary support in terms of sponsorship to attain their academic goals, this is to the employees; a form of empowerment is likely to boost their morale making them to improve their job performance.   Employees who decide to go back for studies after a while and after having a contact with the job environment are more likely to appreciate what education means to their lives and they are also more likely to have the right attitude towards studies (Andrieu, St. John, 1993.44-79). The above implies that the outcome of tuition reimbursement is that; the organization will have focused and knowledgeable human resources. For the organization, it also implies that, they can promote such employees to managerial positions instead of recruiting from outside the organization whenever they need to fill senior job vacancies.   This to the organization is beneficial in that, employees who have been with the organization for longer periods understand the organizations’ environment, external and internal processes in a better way. This are an advantage to the organization in that, the organization will not have to incur the expenses associated with debriefing new employees who carry on organizational cultures from their previous organization to their new organization. Normally, no organization operates in similar manner like any other given organization and therefore employees who are recruited on the strength of their past experience usually face challenges in adjusting to the new organization’s culture. These difficulties in adjusting to new environment may some time take long periods of time and therefore negatively affect job performance in the organization. Tuition reimbursements are the best solution to the prevention of inconveniences and uncertainties of having to recruit certain skills outside the organization. Conclusion Tuition reimbursement programs if well utilized can be beneficial to an organization. The program is however faced with great challenges considering that it can be open to abuse by employers who may use the program as a bait to woo employees in to remaining with the organization against their wishes. However, if well utilized, the program greatly improves productivity, employee motivation and saves the company a lot in terms of tax benefits such organizations enjoy from the government. There is a need for all organization to implement the program so that, any willing employee can enjoy the benefits associated with tuition reimbursement schemes. References Andrieu, S. St. John. E. (1993.44-79). The Influence of Prices on Graduate Student Persistence. Research in Higher Education, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 399-425. Hall, K. (2000. 30-31). Distance Education: An Insider’s View. AALL Spectrum. Rocchi, B. (1997.87-90). Nine Reasons Why You Should Go To Professional Conferences. NetNexus. 3. Schwartz, A. (1992.56-98) How to Handle Conflict Between Employees. Supervisory Management (37) Spooner, F. (1999.12-43) Student Rating of Instruction in Distance Learning and On-Campus Classes. Journal of Educational Research. (92)