Employee education benefits are being asked to do a very different job than they were even a few years ago
Participation and program completion still matter. But employers increasingly need education benefits to do more: build critical skills, prepare employees for hard-to-fill roles, support retention, and create pathways for internal mobility.
The question for HR and talent leaders, then, isn’t simply whether employees are using their education benefits. It’s whether those benefits are designed to deliver the workforce outcomes the business will need next.
New research commissioned by EdAssist by Bright Horizons® and conducted by HR Dive offers a closer look at that challenge. The survey of 151 senior HR and talent leaders at large U.S. employers reveals both how strategically important education benefits have become and where programs still have room to evolve.
The report explores where programs are gaining traction, where barriers remain, and what distinguishes high-performing education benefit strategies. Download The Dynamics of Corporate Education Benefits: Is Your Program Built for What’s Next.
How do education benefits support workforce strategy?
As skills needs change, employers can’t rely exclusively on hiring to build every capability they need. That makes developing the workforce already inside the organization increasingly important.
Education benefits can play a meaningful role in that strategy, but only when learning is connected to actual workforce needs. The new research found that workforce reskilling ranked first when HR leaders were asked about their top talent-strategy priority for the next 12 months. Role-specific skills, critical thinking and problem solving, AI, and collaboration and teamwork are also among employers’ leading areas of focus for workforce upskilling.
That changes the role of an education benefit. A broad catalog of learning opportunities may provide access, but access alone doesn’t tell employees what skills are valuable, what learning will build them, or where those new capabilities could take them.
The opportunity for employers is to connect those dots.
What prevents employees from using education benefits?
Before an education benefit can contribute to retention, workforce readiness, or internal mobility, employees have to be able to use it. And while it sounds simple, in practice, it isn’t.
Among the employers surveyed, 81% identified lack of time as a leading obstacle to participation. Complex approval processes and lack of awareness also emerged as barriers.
These findings point to an important consideration for employers evaluating or modernizing tuition assistance programs: program design matters as much as program availability.
High-performing education benefits reduce friction by making learning accessible, flexible, and relevant to employees’ goals. That may mean examining the employee experience surrounding enrollment, approvals, financial requirements, program formats, communication, and support.
The goal isn’t participation for participation’s sake. Removing barriers creates the foundation for education investments to influence broader workforce outcomes.
How should employers measure the ROI of education benefits?
Participation and program completion are among the most common ways employers evaluate education benefits today. Employee satisfaction, retention, and internal mobility are also among the top metrics tracked by surveyed organizations.
But the research highlights a bigger opportunity to connect education participation to what happens next:
- Do participating employees stay longer?
- Are employees moving into new roles?
- Are education investments helping build the skills the business needs?
- Are internal candidates becoming better prepared to fill priority positions?
Answering those questions requires workforce education strategy to align across learning and development, talent management, total rewards, and workforce planning.
For HR and talent leaders evaluating the ROI of education benefits, that distinction is important. Utilization tells you whether employees are using a program, but workforce outcomes help tell you what that investment is accomplishing.
How can education benefits support internal mobility and career advancement?
One of the most revealing findings in the research may not be what employers lack, but the disconnect between what’s already in place for their corporate education benefits.
Nearly 90% of surveyed respondents reported that their organizations have defined career pathways. Yet HR leaders identified clearer alignment between coursework and internal career pathways as one of the improvements that could have the greatest impact on their education benefits programs.
Defined career pathways alone don't necessarily connect learning to internal mobility. Employees also need visibility into which education builds relevant skills, which skills prepare them for specific roles, and how those roles connect to opportunities inside the organization.
For education benefits to support internal mobility, employees need greater visibility into how learning connects to skills, how those skills connect to roles, and how those roles connect to opportunities within their organization. This finding was also supported by the 2026 Education Index making it important that career pathways are visible, navigable, and meaningful connected to education benefits.
What makes an education benefits program future-ready?
Across the findings, three priorities emerge for employers that want to strengthen their employee education benefits strategy.
Remove barriers to participation
Education programs need to fit within the realities of employees’ lives. Addressing time constraints, administrative friction, financial barriers, and awareness can make education more accessible to working learners.
Download the Report for examples of how companies strategically strengthened their education benefits.
Align education with workforce priorities
Education investments should evolve alongside the skills and roles the organization needs. With workforce reskilling at the forefront of employers’ priorities, organizations have an opportunity to more intentionally connect learning options with role-specific capabilities, emerging technologies, and other critical skills.
Create visible pathways to advancement
Employees need to understand not only what they can learn, but where that learning can take them. Connecting education choices with skills, roles, and internal career opportunities can help transform an education benefit into an engine for workforce advancement.
Together, these three priorities shift the conversation from “Do employees use our education benefit?” to a much more strategic question: “Is our education benefit helping build the workforce our organization needs?”
See how your education benefits program compares
Education benefits have earned a more strategic role in talent and workforce planning. Now, program design needs to keep pace with that ambition.
The full Dynamics of Corporate Education Benefits report examines data from what 151 senior HR and talent leaders say about the state of employer-sponsored education today, including:
- Barriers preventing employees from taking advantage of education benefits
- How organizations are measuring impact beyond participation
- Skills and talent priorities shaping education strategies
- Connections between education, career pathways, and internal mobility
- Three keys to building a more future-ready education benefit
Download the exclusive research to see how your program compares and what high-performing education benefits programs are doing differently.
Frequently asked questions about employee education benefits
What are employee education benefits? Employee education benefits are employer-sponsored programs that help employees pursue education and skill development. Increasingly, employers are looking to these programs not only as a benefit, but as part of a broader talent strategy for building skills, supporting retention, and preparing employees for career advancement
How do education benefits support talent strategy? Among the HR and talent leaders surveyed, 83% say education benefits actively support their organization's talent strategy, and 82% say they help fill critical or hard-to-fill roles.
What is the biggest barrier to employee participation in education benefits? Lack of time is a leading barrier. In the research, 81% of surveyed employers identified lack of time as an obstacle to participation. Complex approval processes and lack of awareness also emerged as barriers.
How can education benefits support internal mobility? Education benefits can support internal mobility by connecting learning opportunities with the skills employees need for specific roles and making career pathways easier to understand and navigate. The research found that nearly 90% of surveyed respondents report having defined career pathways, while clearer alignment between coursework and those pathways remains an opportunity for improvement.
How should employers measure education benefit ROI? Employers can look beyond utilization and completion to evaluate outcomes such as retention, internal mobility, skill development, and preparation for priority roles. The research identifies participation, program completion, employee satisfaction, retention, and internal mobility among metrics organizations currently track.
