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Attracting top talent and maintaining a healthy, happy workforce is an increasing challenge for human resources managers. Not only is losing good employees disappointing, but identifying, vetting, and training new recruits is also time-consuming and expensive.
Additionally, many of today’s eager and educated recruits are looking for well-rounded and unique benefits packages that meet their individualized needs. How attractive is your benefits package? Are you losing talent to other companies with more lucrative offers?
Did you know – 44.2 million Americans struggle with student loan debt? Student loan debt surpassed the $1.4 trillionmark in 2018, making it the #2 consumer debt in the nation, second only to mortgages. The average monthly student loan payment is just over $350. And, to top off the debt cake, 11.2% of student loans are considered delinquent (90+ days late or in default). It’s not hard to understand why recent college grads and millennials are postponing important life events like purchasing homes and starting a family. The student loan debt struggle is real and is only getting worse.
Adding a student loan assistance program to your overall benefits offerings will provide a unique perk for current and future employees and will give your company a competitive edge.
PlanSource has partnered with Tuition.io, the industry’s preferred student loan assistance provider, to effortlessly integrate this savvy solution into your existing benefits management platform.
A student loan assistance program is a unique benefit offered by employers in which the employer contributes payments towards an employee’s student loan debt. The goal of this benefit is to reduce interest accrual and overall payoff time of an employee’s student loan debt. Though student loan assistance programs are a relatively new offering in the benefits space, adoption is growing quickly.
Who Is Tuition.io?
Tuition.io is a strategic PlanSource QuickConnect partner that helps the nation’s best companies free their employees from student loan debt. Tuition.io offers a one-stop solution for assisting with student loan debt via a secure, user-friendly platform that can scale for businesses of any size. As a QuickConnect partner, Tuition.io allows you to easily add this employee perk into the PlanSource benefits management platform.
As discussed above, the amount of student loan debt that recent graduates are carrying is truly insurmountable. To put things into perspective:
Millennials, in particular, are the largest demographic affected by the student debt crisis. Millennials also happen to be the fastest-growing segment of the workforce. Addressing this major pain point among this highly sought-after segment of workers will provide an attractive differentiator for your organization to help you recruit and retain employees.
Fact: 90% of workers say they’d stay at a company for 5 years if offered Student Loan Assistance
What is the Demand And Adoption for Student Loan Assistance Programs?
In general, 20-25% of employees take advantage of student loan contributions (according to Tuition.io enrollment data). This represents, on average, 100% participation from employees that have student loan debt, demonstrating that this is a benefit that employees want and will use if offered. Additionally, a recent Glassdoor survey found that 79% of employees would prefer new or additional benefits over a pay increase.
Student loan assistance programs are considered a “non-traditional” benefit, meaning a benefit that is not typically (yet) offered by companies. Examples of “non-traditional” benefits and adoption rates include:
Though student loan repayment assistance is currently the least common non-traditional benefit, we expect adoption to grow rapidly and for priorities to shift as employers and employees begin to realize the importance of financial well-being. Now is the time to be ahead of the curve and stand out from the crowd with a truly unique benefits offering.
Fact: The number of companies expected to adopt student loan repayment programs is expected to jump to 26% in 2018, up from 4% in 2015.
What Are The Benefits Of Student Loan Assistance Programs?
Building stronger recruitment and retention programs are the primary benefits of offering a student loan assistance program. As discussed, turnover is a costly problem for organizations and soliciting top talent is a challenge for many industries. Offering a student loan repayment program can help your company stand out from the crowd and keep your current employees engaged.
The average job tenure window is shrinking (down to 4.2 years in 2016 from 4.6 years in 2014). Employees are constantly searching for the next step in their career and will end up having 12-15 jobs, on average, throughout their lifetime.
We know that recruiting and retaining top talent is a struggle for organizations, but what if your company could offer a unique and cost-effective solution to strengthen recruiting efforts and increase employee tenure? Providing student loan repayment assistance is the perfect way to provide a unique benefit to employees that will actually make a difference in their lives.
Increase profit and productivity → Engaged workforces outperform less engaged companies by 22% in profitability and 21% in productivity.
How Does Student Loan Repayment Assistance Work?
The student loan assistance program offered by Tuition.io is simple. The skilled team at Tuition.io will work one-on-one with your organization to design a custom plan that is tailored to your unique workforce. Tuition.io does all of the work (literally) and your company will receive a full on-boarding and training process. The platform is intuitive and easy to use, providing a simple and hands-off experience for your company.
Don’t Forget: Tuition.io easily integrates with the PlanSource Benefits Management platform!
Want To See Tuition.io In Action?
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