6 Reasons Why Companies Should Invest in Employee Education

The numbers don’t lie: countless studies show that investing in employee education is key to company success. 

On the surface, employer-sponsored education appears to benefit employees most. In today’s workforce—where retaining talent is a top priority—that’s certainly valuable. However, organizations also stand to gain significantly from offering education benefits. 

Reducing hiring costs, promoting internal growth, and facilitating upward mobility are all positive outcomes of investing in employee education—and they are a win-win for both your employees and your company’s bottom line.

Broadly speaking, employer-sponsored education refers to an employer offering education benefits or assistance to its employees who are pursuing continued education. These benefits can take a variety of forms, including tuition reimbursement, scholarships, and student loan repayment benefits.

It’s common for a learner to pursue an associate's, bachelor’s, or master’s degree through this pathway, but a company may also offer benefits to learners pursuing certificates or other non-degree training. In the current job market—in which job-hopping is becoming not only the norm, but a strategic career move for many—companies are exploring new ways to retain their best and brightest employees.

Employer-sponsored education is currently emerging as one of the best ways to do this for two reasons: it allows employees to develop new skills that make them more productive, creative, and effective in their jobs, which, in turn, also benefits their employer. 

Some benefits of employer-sponsored education are more obvious than others. Let’s take a look at six ways that your company benefits when you invest in your employees:

1. Inspires productivity and performance
2. Increases employee engagement and retention
3. Eliminates hiring costs via internal mobility
4. Enhances employer brand and talent attraction
5. Improves performance through flexible and accessible education
6. Reduces risk and compliance errors

Your employees want to excel in their job; even if they aren’t striving toward a promotion, they most likely have a desire to do rewarding, engaging work. However, the inaccessibility of education and training can impede this goal. 

By facilitating opportunities for both upskilling and reskilling, you set your employees up to increase their productivity through new skills and more efficient practices. Education ensures that skill gaps lessen, job performance improves, and employees become a stronger asset to your company. 

An Axonify study reports that 9 out of 10 employees are more engaged at work when they receive formal training. Furthermore, according to LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report, the top retention strategy for companies is providing learning and workforce development opportunities. 

The rationale behind this is simple: when employees are engaged at work, they're more likely to stay in their role. For employees, this allows them to build new skills that they can use throughout their career; for employers, this ensures that employees are engaged, less likely to leave, and using their newly built skills to benefit the company.  

Hiring new employees isn’t cheap. On average, companies spend an average of $4,683 for every new hire, with executive hiring costing upwards of $28,329 per hire. Rather than making this steep initial investment, many companies are shifting their focus toward promoting internally. 

Providing education benefits is an excellent way to facilitate upward mobility for your employees; invest in their continued journey with your company, and your employees will continue to invest their time and talents in your company. 

To attract top talent, your company needs to demonstrate to potential candidates why they should want to work for you. Along with fair compensation and work-life balance, many candidates prioritize employee education benefits in their job search. By providing these benefits, you can attract more qualified candidates and establish your company as one that invests in its employees.

This approach, in turn, strengthens your brand, making it a powerful public relations/corporate social responsibility tool for your company. By investing in your workforce, you create positive brand equity with the general public. Furthermore, this creates more revenue-driving opportunities for customers who prefer to do business with ethical, forward-thinking businesses. 

Especially for learners in the workforce, the obstacles to continuing education can seem insurmountable. Rising costs and inflexible in-person classes deter many employees from completing their degrees or pursuing additional credentials. However, employer-sponsored education can alleviate these obstacles.  

Along with eliminating the cost barrier through tuition assistance programs and learning stipends, many companies partner with institutions that offer flexible online degree programs—such as the University of Cincinnati. By allowing employees to pursue their education while still working, your company directly benefits as they build new skills and apply them to their work.  

In 2025, over 70% of employee training happens informally on the job. While on-the-job experience is important, technical skill and regulatory compliance are imperative—and in these situations, a lack of formal instruction or training can lead to minor or major errors. 

Especially in fields like law, medicine, and engineering, these mistakes carry potentially life-threatening risks and ramifications. When employees have robust education benefits and access to learning opportunities, they’re better prepared for their jobs—which results in fewer problems for your company.  

It’s easy to see why investing in employee education is beneficial.

How can you get started? By taking several factors into consideration, you’ll ensure that employees take advantage of education benefits—and that it helps your company thrive. 

As we’ve discussed above, there are several different models for employee education. Tuition reimbursement, a common option, allows learners to enroll in continued education and then receive reimbursement for tuition costs, textbooks, and additional costs. This reimbursement may be paid directly on behalf of the student or applied to qualified education loans.

Another common model is scholarships or business partnerships. In these cases, education benefits are offered through a formal partnership between the company and a specific educational institution. For example, many learners enrolled in the University of Cincinnati’s online degree programs receive education benefits due to working for businesses that partner with UC Online.  

When establishing any education benefits, it’s imperative that you establish clear, transparent policies for how employees can take advantage of those benefits. These guidelines may include any of the following: 

1. Eligibility. Are there any requirements employees must meet prior to receiving educational benefits? Employee eligibility might hinge upon maintaining good attendance and job performance, being employed by the company for a minimum number of months, or agreeing to stay with the company for a set amount of time after receiving education benefits. 
2. Benefit caps. The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) specifies how much assistance employers can provide tax-free to employees each year. However, your company may set additional limits or caps on education benefits, such as an annual cap on assistance received or a limit to how many degrees or certificates an employee can receive reimbursement for. 
3. Field of study. Most companies provide education benefits under the stipulation that the student’s field of study applies to their job. When launching this benefit, you’ll want to decide if you’ll require this from employees, and, if so, what the approval process will be. You might require students to provide a curriculum or explain the degree’s relevance to their role before they enroll.

4. Minimum GPA. You may require that learners receive tuition assistance or other benefits maintain a certain GPA in all coursework. To enforce this policy, you can request official transcripts (or, if taking a non-graded course, proof of completion) from employees prior to reimbursement. 

Interested in expanding your company’s education benefits? At the University of Cincinnati, we want to meet you where you’re at. 

UC’s online programs offer a high return-on-investment to your employees. Learners can pursue their education at a flexible pace that accommodates their career and personal life—whether that’s a micro credential, professional certificate, bachelor’s degree, or one of the following master’s degrees:

• Master of Business Administration (MBA)
• Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering
• Master of Health Administration (Executive)
• Master of Health Informatics
• Master of Science in Business Analytics
• Master of Science in Information Technology
• Master of Science in Pharmacy Leadership
• Master of Science in Respiratory Therapy

A business partnership with UC may be the right fit for your company’s needs. If you’re a managing director, connect with us today and start investing in employee growth. 

Interested in continued education for yourself? Start a conversation with your employer today—and explore what opportunities are available to you through UC. 

One thing is clear: education benefits can make or break your business. They’re a crucial opportunity to show your employees that you are invested in their success and growth. If you provide your employees with support as they build new skills, your company is certain to reap the rewards!