CEO of Your Career Benefit Fund
This is a story shared to us from a strategic alliance Partner, Jay Colker, Founder and Principal Facilitator at Crowdsourced Coaching. It is a great idea on ways to fuel learning for holistic growth and development. Who says it has to be only career tracked anymore? And to think, this was an idea implemented in the banking industry back in 1980’s.
Overview of CEO of Your Career Benefit Fund
Dr. Jay Colker
For eleven years I was Chief Learning Officer of a 2.4-billion-dollar bank holding company. I saw a gap in our support of employees. There were ample funds available for training for the current roles. Besides a tuition reimbursement benefit, there were not funds provided to support training for future roles. The CEO of Your Career Benefit Fund was requested and approved with this goal in mind.
There were 600 employees in the institution where this fund was initiated. If everyone took advantage of the fund, $300,000 would have to be allocated. With each annual budget, we estimated the utilization rate and budgeted accordingly. Employees could use the funds in a number of ways with some guidelines in place. If they wanted to attend outside training, it had to be on their own time via a day off or a vacation day. Sometimes managers were flexible in support of employees by allowing work time to take a training class. This was a great way to help employees feel supported and more engaged.
In addition to training workshops, employees could purchase books, books on tape, or any other training that would help their career growth. They could also hire a consultant, for example, for speech training or training in any other competency that would not be covered under the Learning and Development Department offerings for employees in their current roles.
There was a form that employees completed to seek approval. The below wording was an explanation on the form. Training must be related to any role within the institution. Given that we had 12 companies in the US and internationally, most training could be justified as applying to that rule. I felt the benefit could be expanded to non-organization roles to help employees feel supported and to help them be engaged over a longer period of time.
If a number of employees requested the same training, we coordinated it in-house with an outside consultant. For example, approximately 15 employees wanted Spanish language training. The language trainer came in late afternoon after employees finished their work day to attend the classes.
The CEO of Your Career Budget has a maximum of $500 per employee to attend external training for preparing for next job opportunities. This is for any external training (other than formal degree programs) and can include training in competencies and other skill needs. Employees must be employed 90 days and must be in good standing.
If work less than 20 hours per week, maximum benefit will be reduced proportionately. Approval must be through Employee Development. All active employees in good standing are eligible.
Any training facility for the CEO of Your Career must be approved by Learning and Development. A list of approved training sites will be published over time. This allows flexible alternatives including independent consulting and training organizations. Approval for any requested change of schedule to accommodate a class or workshop for career development must be made by your supervisor.
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