Opinion: Do your employees have unfinished credentials?

When life has its challenges, especially financial, the first focus is usually the basics – a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food on the table. Basically, it’s a mode of living paycheck to paycheck just to make ends meet.

If a person was working on an industry-specific certification or attending college, that is one of the first areas cut from the budget and put on hold until finances improve. Unfortunately, those are the same areas that will help a person move past paycheck-to-paycheck living.

Employees with unfinished credentials tend to have jobs that pay less or have skills that cannot increase because they have not received additional education beyond high school. And the reality is, by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require postsecondary education and training beyond high school, according to a report by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce in 2013.

There are a few options for employers to help their company and assist their employees.

Employers can create an anonymous survey to determine the number of employees who have unfinished credentials and what is needed for completion. For example, if someone attending Missouri State University has 100 college credits, they may qualify for the bachelor of general studies program, individualized major program or a traditional academic degree program. Once an employer knows how many employees have unfinished credentials, employers can determine if they can provide assistance.

Sometimes, just offering a scholarship for the employee to complete credentials or allowing flexible work schedules so the employee can attend classes during the day is an easy solution.

Another option is to use salary savings from vacant positions to create apprenticeship positions. If several employees are interested in this option, have an employee competition to compete for the apprenticeship positions.

Training and development assignments are another way to increase skills of existing employees.

T&D assignments require a vacant higher-skilled position to be used to train a lower-skilled employee to learn and perform duties of the higher-skilled position. The employee signs an agreement that they will keep the same rate of pay while on the T&D assignment. During the T&D assignment, the person completes any educational and training requirements. The employer agrees to promote the employee to the higher-skilled position with successful completion of position requirements.

This works well for an employee receiving lower wages because if they receive government assistance, they would no longer need assistance once in a higher-paying job.

T&D assignments are ideal for permanent employees who have passed probation. In this case, the employer backfills the position with a limited-term appointment. This is required because if the T&D assignment does not work for the employee, the employee has a right to return to their previous position.

Providing additional educational opportunities for existing employees can benefit your business and our local economy. Just like instead of tuition reimbursement, which requires the employee to have the funds up front, consider scholarships for employees who are close to completing credentials.

It’s a win-win for the employer, employee and our community to reach the goal of 60 percent postsecondary attainment rate by 2020.

Francine Pratt is director of Prosper Springfield, a poverty reduction initiative led by Community Partnership of the Ozarks and United Way of the Ozarks. She can be reached at fpratt@cpozarks.org.