walmart becoming the latest company to
offer free college tuition to workers
in an attempt to retain people in its
workforce
and attract new employees this move
comes as retailers are facing worker
shortages despite a record number of
jobs
open across the country joining me now
employee bridge
chief workforce analyst joni bailey
jenny what perks are you seeing this is
a pretty great perk
but what what what more do you have
this is a great perk and definitely one
that employees should take advantage of
many companies do
offer uh tuition reimbursement uh
but there also are other perks you know
this is a really hot
and competitive job market right now so
you know companies are
offering more pay um that's probably
tough
on the list right now but also 401k
matching
paid time off maybe extra paid time off
um is definitely something that you know
people really get excited about to have
a little bit more downtime
but in this market dagon what's really
interesting
is that people are looking for
opportunities
where they can have flexibility and
possibly work
from home i think during the pandemic
you know
american workers showed that they can be
productive
in jobs that allow them to work from
home and they want to keep working
remotely so
that is also a perk right now and also
having some flexibility in your schedule
as well steve forbes jump in here
um johnny i'm wondering uh in terms of
uh perks
what's happening with the health care
benefits as you know
companies have been going for high
deductible plans
uh many of them have them now with some
of them with health savings accounts
uh where's the trend in that where
employees have up to now have been
paying more and more out of pocket
for health care yeah you know we've seen
that steve
every year you know the increasing cost
of healthcare benefits
companies are you know putting some of
that cost
on the employee but there are
programs in place we're seeing that
companies are partnering with their
insurance companies putting
additional wellness programs in place
trying to encourage people
you know to really live a healthy
lifestyle and have ways to reduce
their insurance costs but unfortunately
the cost of health insurance
isn't going away and we we see that that
you know is still something that
employees do have to pay for but
it is an important piece of the puzzle
with
attracting workers you know employees
want an attractive
health insurance and benefits program
rob luna do you have a
question here yeah you know i guess the
biggest
challenge is jenny what you're saying
and i think we're seeing in our industry
people really want this flexible
work from home you know hybrid type of
approach coming back when you look at
some of these retailers though
like walmart you know the the tuition i
think
also is a tremendous benefit but what
are some of the other things that they
can do because obviously they need
people in the stores that's not an
option for them
right you know retailers are actually
known
for having great tuition reimbursement
programs
they're doing it for a number of reasons
they are offering
education and covering expenses because
they
they do feel partly that they play a
role in society of getting people to
work and improving their skills
they're trying to train the workers for
tomorrow so you'll see
many retailers are offering tuition
reimbursement
to part-time and full-time employees
it really is a great program they also
do it because
it's a retention strategy they feel that
if they get
the worker on board and offer them this
benefit and get them in the program they
can
keep that employee working because if
they left the job
obviously they would lose that benefit
so
it really is a great benefit and i think
it's one that we will continue to see
will stay
other benefits though certainly right
now are it comes back to that flex
time bonuses wages
productivity bonuses you know if they're
hitting certain thresholds
really making sure like even in the peak
seasons for retailers
having attendance bonuses and
productivity is something we'll probably
see through the holiday season
so employees are trying to employers are
trying to do everything they can to hold
on to their people right now
joni thank you so much terrific to see
you joni bally