Deterrents to participation in company supported tuition reimbursement

With today's labor crunch brought on by a prospering economy, companies are striving to offer creative benefits packages in order to recruit and retain the best employees. Tuition assistance is viewed as one such recruiting and retention tool. Forward thinking companies realize that an up to date and educated workforce is essential for continued success in a today's ever-changing global work community. The latest increases in technology and information require continued education to stay current. The purpose of this study was to determine what factors deter employees from participating in a company supported tuition reimbursement program. A population of 105 retail specialty chain store employees yielded 74 responses. An existing instrument, Deterrents to Participation Scale-General, was modified to collect data in this study. Deterring factors measured were educational cost, lack of self-confidence, low personal priority, time constrains, lack of encouragement, lack of interest, lack of relevance, and personal problems. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze data obtained from the survey. Results indicated that the eight factors under study did not deter employees in participating in educational activities. No relation was found between any demographic variable and the eight factors. However, the data revealed that the structure of the tuition reimbursement program might exclude some employees from participating. This exclusion may negatively affect employee retention, the purpose of the program's existence.