Back to school: Professional development key to millennial workers

If you’re an employer not offering staffers solid opportunities for professional development, you may want to do some rethinking.

Eighty-seven percent of millennials say such workplace offerings are important to them, since they identify their jobs as opportunities to learn and grow. In the same 2016 Gallup study, 59 percent call such development an “extremely important” differentiator in job searches. As such, Gallup categorizes it as one of the top three ways employers can retain millennials.

“The problem is that managers are not providing the development opportunities millennials want, and the opportunities they do offer are missing the mark,” Gallup reports, pointing out that fewer than 50 percent of millennials strongly believe they’ve had opportunities to learn and grow in the past year.

The obvious advantage to employers? Better-educated workers with higher-level skills, without the added administration of employment taxes. And such perks can be tax deductible as long as they maintain or improve the employee’s job skills without leading to a completely new trade or business.

Here are some options for employee professional development:

Education reimbursement: This can apply to job-related costs and/or education unrelated to employment. Tax-free reimbursement is federally capped at $5,250 per year per employee, and can apply to tuition, fees, books, equipment and supplies. Further reimbursement counts as taxable wages unless classified as a fringe benefit. Note the federal rules about excluding certain employees.

On-site training: Instruction allowing employees to keep up with technology, improve sales techniques or brush up on other skills can help them adapt to changes, work more efficiently and increase job satisfaction. And it’s tax deductible.

Assistance with student loans: This year, the Wall Street Journal reported companies are attracting new employees by including student loan payments in benefit packages. Innovators include PricewaterhouseCoopers, financial-services firm Natixis Global Asset Management and online food ordering platform ChowNow, but only 3 percent of companies nationwide were offering the benefit in a 2015 survey. In a different 2015 survey of students and recent college graduates, more than half said they’d rather receive loan repayments than a health plan, and nearly half preferred them to a 401(k). Such benefits are now taxable, but pending federal legislation could render them excluded from gross income.

Giving raises and/or promotions for educational achievement: If your company can’t pay for education itself, it could at least provide tangible recognition for such achievement. Otherwise, the employee may seek other employment to justify the time, money and effort he’s put into improving himself.

While older generations may have the mindset new millennial employees haven’t “earned” the right to such benefits, they may have to change their thinking to compete in the increasingly competitive new job market, advises the Gallup poll.

“Managers need to recognize millennials don’t feel entitled, they feel empowered,” it notes. “(They) need to be more proactive and thoughtful when it comes to opening conversations about growth and development with their millennial workers.”