Employees who wish to access tuition reimbursement benefits must be employed by the company for a minimum period of time.
Many companies offer some type of tuition reimbursement policy. Each of these policies can be different, have a variety of limits on the total payout, and may have many different basic rules or exclusions. In most cases, employees should be familiar with company policy so they don’t accidentally take courses that the company doesn’t pay for.
One feature of the tuition refund policy in many organizations is that companies will not pay if courses are not approved. The employee must ensure that he or she can earn a passing grade before enrolling in a course. Employers typically pay after the course has been completed and the employee can submit proof with a passing transcript in one or more classes. This means that the first few classes an individual attends will have to be paid for out of pocket, although with subsequent reimbursements, classes attended may not require the employee to pay up front. However, there may be outright limitations on the reimbursement available, and companies often establish this aspect of their tuition reimbursement policy in advance.
Additional common features of a tuition reimbursement policy include requirements that the employee work at a company for a certain period of time. This can vary, but many companies require that a person has been employed for at least one year. The employee may also need to work full time, although this may vary by company. Other companies may claim that employees are only eligible for reimbursement if they remain with the company for one year after the incident; otherwise, the money may have to be returned to the company or removed from the final checks.
Companies often strictly state in their tuition reimbursement policy that courses taken must be related to company work. This does not necessarily mean that the classes attended have to be in the employee’s current work area. A machinist might really want to work in human resources or management, and these classes might pass because the company employs people who specialize in these things. In fact, having a manufacturing or other background can make a manager or human resources person invaluable, as they have insight into how other parts of the business work. There’s enough gray area here that it’s wise for people to check with whoever administers tuition reimbursement to verify that classes taken or degrees earned meet defined “related field” standards.
There are some companies that have partnerships with local universities. This could mean that people are only eligible for tuition reimbursement if they attend a partner university. Finding out if these tuition reimbursement policy restrictions exist is usually fairly easy by asking human resources.
The best way to determine exactly what help is available is to carefully examine a tuition reimbursement policy and ask about any unclear details. There can be a lot of variation, so looking at common characteristics, unless it is the basis for comparing two companies, may not be very helpful. Another thing employees might consider if a company doesn’t have such a policy is to apply for one, or simply apply for tuition assistance on an individual basis. It can be argued strongly that this perk of the job is valuable to the company as it fosters company loyalty, results in a better-skilled workforce, and allows for internal promotion.