Today's workforce is like a giant sponge - everyone, especially Millennials, wants to absorb as much knowledge as possible. That presents a question for employers. Can you use that information - employees' desire to learn - to your advantage in terms of talent strategies? And if so, how? A well designed tuition assistance program can do far more than develop specific functional skills, says the new EdAssist® report, In Demand: Tuition Assistance. "By creating employee growth opportunities that tightly align with organizational goals, employers can offer the long-term career development employees want, while delivering on the strategic talent goals the organization needs."

Goal: Recruitment

When it comes to attracting top talent, tuition assistance is one way to get there. Data from the report shows that 79% of respondents call tuition assistance an important or very important factor in joining their company.

Goal: Retention

Once you've got great employees, you'll have to work hard to keep them. Tuition benefits can help you get there, too, as long as your program appeals to them; 81% of respondents indicate that their employer's tuition assistance program makes them more likely to stay with the organization.

Goal: Engagement

After recruiting top talent and finding a way to keep them in it for the long haul, engagement is the next hurdle. And tuition benefits can help solve this, too. In fact, 86% call tuition assistance the important sibling of engagement - job satisfaction.

Case Studies in Strategic Planning

The data leads to the obvious next question - how exactly can you tailor your program? An example can be found in one company's challenge with recruitment. In a period of growth, the company was struggling to recruit frontline workers who'd want to stick with the job; but the target demographic just wasn't seeing the job as a career. By strategically reframing the company's tuition assistance program to show long-term learning opportunities - and consequently, career growth - the employer was able to attract employees who were interested in committing. "Tuition assistance participants were 50% less likely to leave the organization," said the report, "suggesting that the people who were drawn in by the ability to learn and grow were proving to be the best investments."

Interested in seeing more data on strategic planning, and learning about the benefits of implementing a targeted tuition assistance program? Download the full report, "In Demand: Tuition Assistance."