An in-house education benefits program may seem like the cost-effective or “hands-on” option. But as organizations grow, so does the complexity of managing these programs on your own.
The true costs of managing an education benefits program in-house extend far beyond the line-item cost. Organizations often outgrow self-managed programs and without expert support, the sneaky complexity can lead to inefficiencies, risk exposure and missed opportunities to drive ROI and engagement.
What does it really mean to manage education benefits in-house?
When organizations offer education benefits, like tuition assistance or student loan repayment support, there are two options for the program:
- Manage a program internally using HR and internal systems
- Partner with a dedicated education benefits partner
Managing an education benefit program in-house means your internal teams are responsible for the full program lifecycle. Most of these programs rely on email workflows, spreadsheets, and manual reviews across HR, payroll, and finance.
From administration and compliance to employee support and program optimization, here’s what’s really going on behind the scenes:
- Handling employee support: answering policy questions, helping employees navigate options and reimbursement, and resolving issues.
- Ensuring compliance: verifying eligibility, ensuring approvals align with policy, tracking usage, and managing deadlines.
- Sourcing and evaluating education partners: researching programs, institutions, and credentials that align with business goals.
- Driving employee engagement and utilization: communicating the benefit, creating pathways, and resolving confusion or friction in the application process.
This program is functional but leaves a lot of strategic opportunities on the table.
What are the costs of managing your education program in-house
82% of employers offer formal training or education to keep employees’ skills current. But at what cost? From day-to-day administration to reimbursements and career pathways, most in-house programs aren’t seeing a return on investment. It’s not surprising when you break it down.
Cost #1: Administrative Burden on Internal HR Teams
Employee education benefits solutions are complex. Managing them requires policy creation, compliance monitoring, data tracking, and employee support. This is often done without dedicated resources or specialized knowledge.
Plus, manual processes drain HR capacity and can lead to inconsistency. Valuable hours are spent on tasks like:
- Coordinating reimbursements
- Verifying eligibility
- Reviewing transcripts and grades
- Answering recurring employee questions
The administrative burden for managing effective programs can be expensive and time-consuming, especially for those with programs across multiple locations, job levels, and business units. With in-house programs, many organizations don’t have the resources or experience to develop programs aligned with unique workforce strategy.
Cost #2: Low Employee Participation
Another cost to consider is that in-house programs often struggle with ongoing communication, coaching, and support for employees needed to drive program engagement. Managers often do not have the tools or bandwidth to effectively promote the benefits and coach their teams through the process.
Without clear communication or financial support structures, many employees don’t use the benefit program. Common barriers include:
- Confusing processes
- Reimbursement-only models that create barriers for front line and lower income workers
- Limited guidance on value and career alignment
On average, only 1% to 5% of employees take advantage of employer-provided tuition reimbursement, which doesn’t take into consideration that student loan repayment is also eligible. In comparison, EdAssist sees nearly 2x that utilization rate with clients from tailored communications, built-in coaching, and easy access.
Cost #3: Misuse, Ineligible Approvals, and Compliance Risks
A big cost for in-house programs is related to compliance challenges. Organizations who opt to work with specialized partners do so the many reasons, but one is a shortage of internal resources or knowledge. Education assistance programs like tuition reimbursement or student loan repayment must adhere to specific regulations. Internal teams may also lack the expertise or bandwidth for proper oversight.
Some risks include:
- Inconsistent reimbursements across employees
- Improper payroll reporting
- Gaps in policy enforcement
- Exposure to non-approved programs or missing documentation
Many education benefit programs are outdated, missing critical safeguards to protect the organization from fraud, misuse, or policy gaps. Managing the program in-house means you may miss timely information and can’t strategically adjust programs in advance ahead of the legislative changes (like the OBBB / Tax Reconciliation Act).
Cost #4: Limited Visibility into Data and ROI
If your team lacks the tools or time to track outcomes like retention, promotion, or cost savings, it becomes impossible to demonstrate value. In-house programs often operate with limited data and few insights, making it challenging to optimize or justify investment.
In-house programs have limitations to maximizing the ROI of workforce education. For example, here are some metrics you may want to track:
- Administrative costs (hours and systems)
- Participation and utilization rate
- Completion rate
- Retention delta among participants
- Cost per successful outcome (e.g. credential, completion, promotion)
- Compliance exceptions rate
With limited visibility into data, it’s difficult to connect your education benefits to broader talent strategies to drive long-term value. To stay competitive, these programs must be strategically aligned with business goals and workforce needs, while clearly demonstrating their impact.
Most education benefit programs are ineffective because they’re under designed, not because of budget. An in-house model may not be flexible or forward-looking enough to align with fast-changing business needs. It may support education needs but not necessarily the skills, roles, or pipelines your business is trying to grow. There are limitations to offering flexible learning opportunities in business relevant areas of study to encourage upskilling and career mobility. For example, does your program offer tuition discounts with the right schools and programs? Working with a partner can deliver discounts and strategic direction for filling critical roles, establishing a strong talent pipeline for hard-to-fill roles.
Another unexpected cost is from standards and expectations changing faster than employees can keep up. For example: In recent years, we’ve seen that AI is changing the skills mandate and employers struggle to keep their programs up to speed. Every trend or change in the workforce puts pressure on benefit programs to constantly iterate. Not being able to keep up means in-house programs quickly become outdated and workforce growth stalls. A strong partner can reduce risks from changing workforce trends, optimize your investment, and improve outcomes for your employees.Cost #5: Lack of Strategic Alignment with Workforce Goals
Cost #6: Changing Workforce Education Trends
What are the projected savings with an education benefit partner?
If these costs sound familiar, the alternative doesn’t have to be a “set it and forget it” option. Many companies already offer education benefits, but the real value lies in how those benefits are used and managed. Simply having a program in place doesn’t move the needle on retention, skills growth, or ROI.
An education benefit partner delivers meaningful cost savings by increasing utilization, improving outcomes, and eliminating the administrative burdens that weigh down internal teams. The result is a more scalable, employee-friendly, and cost-efficient program.
As an example, even without considering the impact on recruitment, employee engagement, employee skill development, internal mobility, and retention, EdAssist provides a 144% ROI in expenditure savings on the program alone.
Partnering with EdAssist doesn't mean you're completely hands off. It means freeing up your teams to focus on strategy initiatives by offloading time-consuming manual tasks.
Reducing Turnover Costs Through Improved Retention
Education benefits only reduce turnover when employees are both aware of them and see a clear link to their career goals. A partner like EdAssist manages employee communications, driving higher participation and program relevance.
This engagement directly contributes to improved retention and reduced attrition-related expenses. Savings are driven by:
- Increased employee engagement with the program
- Lower turnover rates among participants
- Reduced backfill and onboarding costs (often 1.5-2x their salary)
Even a small decrease in turnover can translate into significant saving annually, factoring in reduced recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity. This is even more significant in industries with critical hard-to-fill roles, with severe shortages especially felt in healthcare.
Lowering Cost per Employee, Increasing Value per Employee
Many internal programs suffer from low engagement, vague career paths, and poor alignment with business priorities. A partner can help direct dollars invested to meaningful outcomes, not wasted effort. For example:
- Higher utilization rates with more employees benefiting from the program
- Increased completion rates, resulting in real credentials and skill development
- Strategic alignment to critical roles and business needs
- Reduced spend on incomplete or misaligned learning
By acting as a true strategic partner, EdAssist helps companies move beyond simply offering education access. Instead, organizations achieve measurable workforce outcomes, lowering cost per result while maximizing overall program value.
Optimize education benefits with EdAssist
While it may seem cost-effective upfront, managing an education benefit program in-house means your HR team does it all, which often leads to inefficiencies, lower participation, and higher risk of fraud.
A strong partner can reduce administrative lift, strengthen employee engagement, improve access and equity, ensure compliance, and provide the data and insight you need to drive better decisions.
For decades, EdAssist has been the industry leader in education benefits, creating measurable savings for top Fortune 500 organizations and beyond by increasing utilization, improving outcomes, and removing administrative burdens that drag down internal resources.
Ready to optimize your education benefits program? Get a no-cost assessment of your existing program and see what savings can be achieved by partnering with EdAssist.
