The two-way payoff of MBAs

Donna Russo of Digital Federal Credit Union: “We tend to build some loyalty and … appreciation” from employees by helping to pay for courses while not demanding they give the money back should they leave within a certain time frame.

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By Livia Gershon

Everyone knows that the way to get a great job is to get a great education. But sometimes, the process works the other way around. A 2013 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 59 percent of member companies help pay for employees to attend graduate school and 61 percent provide help with undergraduate degrees. That makes these benefits more popular with companies than smoking cessation programs, business cell phones or car allowances.

Looking at Central Massachusetts businesses that provide tuition reimbursement, it’s easy to see why the programs, including those that lead to master’s in business administration (MBA) degrees, are so popular.

At Worcester-based Fallon Health, about 7 percent of employees — or about 70 people — are enrolled in college through the tuition reimbursement program at any one time. For many, it’s a way to improve their technical skills in health care or health administration fields. Others are enrolled in MBA programs at Central Massachusetts schools.

While very few jobs with the company require MBAs, Scott Beaird, Fallon’s senior director of talent management, said getting one can be valuable for both employees and employer.

“By having this continuing education, you’re going to increase your value to the organization,” he said. “We hope that by doing this, our employees will further their career paths with us. Health care is an ever-changing industry, and it’s important to us that our managers and our employees are as up to date as they can be with the evolving world.”

Donna Russo, senior vice president of human resources and training at Marlborough-based Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU), echoed that sentiment.

“Knowing someone has just completed or is in a program, we know they’re up to date,” she said, particularly when it comes to employees learning about fast-changing topics like IT. “When those folks are pursuing their education in the IT world, it’s definitely a boon to the credit union, or any organization.”

EMC Corp. collaborates with Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business to offer its own on-site MBA program at the data storage company’s Hopkinton headquarters, and it also provides tuition reimbursement for employees enrolling in other programs. In an email interview, EMC’s director of benefits, Lauri Tenney, said the company strives to help workers advance in whatever areas would be most useful to them on the job.

“Our philosophy is that employees and managers should work together to determine what is important to their development and career goals and act accordingly,” she said. “In addition, we partner with several local universities to make suggestions to our employees on courses focusing on leadership, globalization, innovation and systems engineering — topics we feel are important to EMC employees.”

In many cases, tuition reimbursement is just part of a larger effort by employers to keep workers learning. DCU provides a variety of internal training and development, while EMC offers non-degree programs with partners including the MIT’s Sloan Executive Education Program. Fallon Health offers hundreds of hours of self-paced training, as well as on-site classes on business topics provided in partnership with Worcester-based Becker College.

But is it enough?

The financial investments employers make in tuition reimbursement are generally not enough to subsidize all of an employee’s education, but they can make getting a degree more affordable. Fallon Health provides full-time employees with up to $3,500 per school year for classes, while DCU offers $800 per class for undergraduates and $1,250 for graduate students up to a maximum of five classes. EMC gives employees up to $10,000 per calendar year for graduate courses or $20,000 per calendar year for accelerated coursework, and it also has relationships with some schools that provide additional discounts.

While some employers guard that investment by requiring employees to stay on the job for a specified period after finishing their coursework, or demanding that they reimburse the money if they leave, Russo said that hasn’t been necessary at DCU.

“I think instead we tend to build some loyalty and a sense of appreciation for the help and support that the credit union has provided them,” she said.

Some years back, Russo said, a teller came to her looking for advice on getting into the HR field. She enrolled in a master’s degree program and squeezed classes in while raising her family.

“She chipped away over years and years and years,” Russo said.

When the worker finally finished the program two years ago, there happened to be an opening in the HR department, and Russo gave her the job right away. She’s now involved in helping other workers advance in their careers.

“She’s great at doing career counseling now because she’s been through it,” Russo said. n