With fewer workers to attract due to the tight labor market, retention is more crucial than ever, and companies are custom designing continuing education programs to attract employees, reduce turnover, improve performance and offer career advancement.
And realizing that continuing education is key to keeping employees trained in the latest technological advancements, companies are warming to trends that are more strategic in addressing educational needs specific to an organization — from virtual corporate universities to bricks-and-mortar corporate colleges.
Virtual corporate universities
The biggest trend in continuing education is the trek to online universities, according to Corporate University Xchange Inc., a New York-based corporate education consulting firm.
Judy Hirschman, Kent State University’s associate dean of learning technology services, says many companies are creating virtual corporate universities — complete with audio and video conferencing capabilities — to deliver courses through their intranets or the Internet. Technological training is prevalent in a corporate university, but course offerings can range from basic educational skills to leadership training.
Hirschman notes that, in addition to designing the university’s own online certificate and degree programs offered Kent State’s Web site, the university’s KINETA division contracts with companies to help them develop their own virtual universities.
Davey Tree Expert Co. in Kent, for example, worked with Kent State to design some of the online education programs offered by The Davey Institute, such as extension courses and arborist training offered through its Web site. Jennifer Lennox, Davey’s media and online communications supervisor, says about 750 people are registered in the online education programs.
Roger Funk, vice president and manager of The Davey Institute, says that since Davey employs about 6,000 people and only 500 are in Ohio, there’s a great need for a distance learning program. So Davey is developing a program with Kent State in which the company will offer a two-year technical degree in urban forestry, issued by The Davey Institute in conjunction with Kent State.
Web-based training
Local Web-based training companies make online training options even more appealing to employers. Rob Scher, president of Streetsboro-based ontimetraining.com, says corporate America has embraced the Web-based training trend as an accessible, accountable and affordable alternative to bring continuing education on site and on screen. Advantages include easy, convenient and paperless learning, less down and out-of-the-office time, accurate results tracking and big cost savings.
In addition to interactive generic courses such as sales techniques and workplace issues, companies are requesting Web-based training courses that are specific to an employee’s specialization. For example, Kent Adhesive Products Co. (Kapco) is establishing online safety training and other training for all employees in Kapco-specific subjects, such as math and measuring, computer use and manufacturing documentation processes.
From training curriculum to software design, ontimetraining.com develops customized programs and sets up a company’s online university — whether Internet or intranet — with a menu of desired courses. Ontimetraining.com’s enrollment process and assessment management software enable administrators to determine which employees have taken which courses and what their scores were.
Ontimetraining.com also designs other communication methods for instruction within a company’s university, such as chat room training sessions and advice posting through e-mail and newsgroups.
Bricks-and-mortar corporate colleges
Some companies are establishing their own corporate colleges. Davey Tree has had its own tree sciences institute since 1909, when the company founder, John Davey, established The Davey School of Practical Forestry.
Back then, it was a three-month training school for employees. Today, it’s known as The Davey Institute of Tree Sciences and it’s an intensive one-month course — so intense that only Davey’s most promising employee arborists are selected to attend the boot-camp type training seminars, where they learn everything from tree surgery methods to tree-climbing techniques.
Many technology companies are teaming with colleges and universities to facilitate their own bricks-and-mortar corporate universities. Diebold Inc. spokesperson Mike Jacobsen says Diebold committed $3 million to help construct Stark State College of Technology’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC), then leased the entire upper floor of the ATC, using the 30,000-square-foot space as its worldwide training center.
Custom-made collegiate programs
William Beisel, dean of continuing education at the University of Akron, says that while more employers are creating corporate universities, the distance-learning trend will prevail.
“Enrollment in online courses and technology mediated instruction are growing, and learning is becoming increasingly modular and ‘just in time,'” he says.
Kent State University business and industry outreach coordinator Harold Sargus notes an emerging trend in which companies are enrolling employees in certification programs.
“We’re seeing more enrollments in the way of technology and e-commerce, and management and supervisory workshops,” says Sargus.
Amy DeGeorge, director of corporate and community services at Kent State Stark Campus, says companies are also meeting their continuing education needs with specialized contract programs for companies.
“Contract programs are when we consult with an organization to assess and develop customized training solutions for their employees,” says DeGeorge. “We also offer open enrollment courses for professionals to take on their own, or company sponsored.”
Beisel notes that the University of Akron offers corporate contract programs, in addition to volume discounts for three or more students in open enrollment programs.
“We offer a 10 percent per student discount to companies who send three to four employees to the same class, and a 15 percent per student discount for five or more employees in the same class,” he says.
Tuition reimbursement programs
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), Washington, suggests that companies invest between 2 and 3 percent of payroll on employee education and training. Karen Hasley, Kapco’s vice president of human resources, says Kapco has averaged 1.1 percent of payroll on employee training and tuition reimbursement the past two years.
“That’s not as good as we’d like it to be. We need to do a better job of publicizing the benefit, and we’re on a steady self improvement course to do that,” she says.
Currently, about 5 percent of Kapco’s work force taps into Kapco’s tuition reimbursement policy — and degree programs are not just the province of management personnel. Some manufacturing workers and office employees are pursuing undergraduate business degrees or MBAs at Kent State; others are acquiring undergrad business or mechanical engineering degrees at the University of Akron.
Typical of most tuition reimbursement policies, Kapco offers its program to employees with a year or more of service.
“We reimburse 90 percent for an A, 80 percent for a B and 70 percent for a C, with an annual maximum of $3,000 for full-time and $1,500 for part-time employees,” Hasley says, noting that if the degree is not work-related, full-time employees still receive $500 a year, and part-timers, $250.
Kapco also sends employees to the Maplewood Career Center in Kent for vocational training, and invests in other on-site and off-site training for customer service, sales and management-related topics.
“As our organization gets ‘flatter,’ with fewer rungs on a career ladder, we’re trying to offer employees job enhancement, enlarging jobs to offer them new challenges in their current positions, so employees remain engaged in their jobs and in Kapco’s future,” Hasley says.
How to reach: Kent State University’s KINETA division, (330) 672-2285; Kent State Corporate and Community Services, Stark Campus (330) 244-3300; The University of Akron, (330) 972-7028; ontimetraining.com, (330) 422-2028; The Davey Tree Expert Co., (330) 673-9511; Kent Adhesive Products Co. (Kapco), 1-800-843-5368; Diebold Inc., (330) 490-4000
Credit where credit is due Continuing education doesn’t come without a price — one that prohibits many companies from investing in training altogether. But the State of Ohio offers two programs to help subsidize training costs for Ohio companies, says Jeff Dimos of Bruner-Cox LLP.
One program, called the Ohio Training Tax Credit, is designed to increase employee retention and eliminate skill and technology deficiencies in the work force. The Ohio Training Tax Credit will credit a C corporation up to $100,000 annually, he says, noting that eligible Ohio companies include those in the manufacturing and service industries.
The second program, Ohio Industrial Training Program, was designed to create jobs, serve as a retention strategy and encourage the purchase of new equipment and technology. Eligible training includes technical skills, total quality and ISO 9000/9001. Several other areas of training are also included, and the state will reimburse companies for up to 50 percent of the training costs. For more information, contact Dimos at (330) 497-2000.
Also for manufacturing employers, the Targeted Industries Training grant covers up to 75 percent of employee training costs, with services offered by Kent State University Stark Campus, an EnterpriseOhio Network campus. Call (330) 244-3300 for more information.
