Go Beyond Open Enrollment with Your Education Benefit Offerings

During a company’s annual open enrollment period, employees are alert and engaged about their benefits program. They are asked to review and perhaps adjust their health and welfare benefit elections. Without distracting them from actions they must take, open enrollment can also be a great time to market other benefit offerings, including education benefits, which can be mutually beneficial for both employees and organizations.

Teresa Sebert, Senior Director, Total Rewards, at Strategic Education, Inc., recently discussed open enrollment and how education benefits can be part of the wider conversation about employees’ options.

Traditionally, open enrollment is when employees change their insurance coverage or other benefit options. In your experience, does this include interest in taking advantage of education benefits as well?

There’s intensified interest in understanding all the benefits options and, if you offer education benefits, open enrollment can be a great time to remind them of the significant value available to them. Companies are usually comprehensive in their approach to what they offer. It is important to balance what employees need to know to make immediate benefit-related decisions and sprinkle in the other benefits that help them grow or save, like education benefits and retirement. They’re not always prioritized, and many workers end up not knowing what’s available to them. Using open enrollment to showcase the full offering when you have employee attention is important, but I also think companies need to discuss education benefits year-round.

How do companies typically get the word out to employees about education benefits?

It’s a mixture of approaches. Education benefits can be listed on your website and in documents that the company distributes. But I think the most helpful thing is to make education benefits part of the conversations that employees have with their managers. This can be done annually, at mid-year check-ins, or during performance reviews. Managers talking with employees about career goals and how the company is willing to invest in their growth through education benefits can be very powerful and helpful for employees to understand their options. It is also good for the company, because while the employee is learning and growing, they bring their new ideas to work with them.

Sharing this info can also be a part of recruitment events. Knowing a company is willing to support personal and career growth draws in motivated applicants. Getting a degree while you work—especially when the company is paying—can be great news for a prospective employee. Maybe they just finished school and are getting their first job; it would be great to make sure they understand that another degree is possible and supported by their employer.

How can a partner like Workforce Edge help with these initiatives?

The Workforce Edge team helps with messaging efforts and events, but the thing I really love about Workforce Edge is the platform. It’s designed so well and makes it easy for users to go in and see their company, available schools, and classes. Everybody is short on time, so anything we can do to make it easier for someone to see the options and think about their future—it can make a difference.

When people can see what’s possible, they can dream about their future and their next career steps. The Workforce Edge site makes it easy for them to do so.

What are some important things for employers to keep in mind about open enrollment? About offering education benefits in general?

Beyond getting the word out and making sure people know about their education benefits, it helps to have advocates within a company. These people have pursued education for themselves and can speak to how straightforward the process can be, especially if they earned a degree with the company’s support. Advocates help others understand how education can be possible: if one person on your team has done it, you can visualize it for yourself.

In my work, I see high engagement and satisfaction rates from folks pursuing education. It’s in a company’s best interest to offer education benefits to support its people. Open enrollment is the logical time to raise awareness about the options available to employees, but it can be a part of conversations you’re having all year long.

To explore learning options for your team, contact a Workforce Edge specialist today.