Oftentimes, you’ll see employers listing things like skill development and advancing your career as one of the benefits they offer, but you won’t be surprised to hear that they usually fail to deliver on these promises.

However, with the employee education assistance program, more commonly known as EAP, you can ensure that you’re getting the most out of your employment, regardless of your employer’s financial standing.

Through the program, the federal government offers funding to local businesses in order to help them fund their employee’s higher education courses, ranging from undergraduate degrees to professional development and skill-building courses.

There are more than a few reasons why educational assistance is so popular these days, and the main one is the fact that development is one of job seekers’ top priorities when looking for an employer, and if you’re able to offer it, you’re already ahead of the competition.

Employee retention

As expected, giving your employees more incentive to keep working for you can work wonders in terms of retaining them as part of your workforce, and if you’re able to offer more than other employers in the area, you’re bound to see success.

Reports have shown that retaining high-quality workers is much harder than hiring new ones, which goes against the popular belief that it costs more to hire a new worker for the same position.

That being said, one should factor in the training costs and the amount of time it takes for a new employee to set into the workplace, which could potentially put a dent in your finances if done too often.

Retaining talent requires you to adapt to your employees’ needs, and even though it may look expensive when taken at face value, it could save you thousands in the long run, especially if the workers you retain are particularly effective at what they do.

Improve recruitment efforts

Of course, much like employee benefits offer incentives to keep working for one employer, they’re also an amazing tool when it comes to recruiting new talent for your company.

If your company offers EAP, you may already be able to give your employees more than what the average job-seeker is looking for in a business, essentially turning you into a talent magnet.

EAP can do incredible things for any business, from promoting flexibility and long-term value to attracting passionate and growth-focused workers to your company, and once your workforce is filled with people dedicated to the job they do, you’ve hit the jackpot.

On top of this, having high-quality and high-skill talent means it’ll be easier to fill in roles in the company through internal recruiting rather than hiring an outside man for the job.

Skill enhancement

It’s needless to say that no matter what your company does, every new employee will require at least a bit of training to get used to the work they’ll be doing.

Oftentimes, if you’re hiring young talent for your company, it’ll be their first real job, and they’re definitely not going to be able to compete with seasoned veterans in the field.

However, with EAP, you’re giving your employees opportunities to grow, and it’s been found that 70% of all employees are more than willing to quit their current job in order to get one where they’ll be able to enhance their skills.

In fact, even those who don’t have upskilling as one of their main priorities are interested, as 50% of them have stated that they’d rather work for an employer that offers the opportunity rather than one that doesn’t.

The tax benefits

With the help of employee education assistance programs, a business can gain access to a number of different benefits, including several tax deductions.

If a business offers EAP, they’re entitled to a $5.25k tax deduction per employee receiving these benefits, meaning that education reimbursements up to $5.25k don’t have to be declared on one’s tax returns.

That being said, a number of different criteria need to be met in order to qualify for these deductions.

From a written EAP plan to the benefits being purely education based, the training in question is directly related to the employee’s current position in the company.

Reimbursement is not possible if the training’s purpose was to reward an employee or if it’d been used for leisure purposes.

Final word

Giving your employees opportunities to grow has been all the rage lately, and seeing as so many businesses are enrolling in these federal EAP programs, many job-seekers are going to prefer companies that offer employee benefits.

Skill growth and career advancement are one of the most valued things in today’s job market, and if you’re able to promise, as well as deliver on said promises, to your employees, you’re always going to be one step ahead of the competition.