Healthcare professionals benefit immensely by continuing to engage with education throughout their professional careers. Research shows that earning potential jumps higher for every additional level of degree earned. The skills and knowledge healthcare workers can gain through short courses online will qualify them for positions that provide them with more perks and better pay.
Yet, returning to school can be difficult for healthcare employees, many of whom are already struggling to balance the demands of their careers and the responsibilities in their personal lives. Considering that employers benefit as well from workers with more education and better training, organizations should strive to provide support to employees in the following ways:
Encourage education
The first step to supporting an employee’s education efforts is cultivating an appreciation for continued learning within the workplace. Business leaders should encourage all endeavors from employees to improve their knowledge and skill, from enrollment in a high-level degree program from a prestigious university to read the latest industry blogs.
Encouragement can look different depending on an organization’s workplace culture. For example, some business leaders might feel comfortable publicly recognizing employees actively engaged in education, positing information about the worker in the company newsletter, or announcing a worker’s program enrollment in a meeting. Another business might maintain a library of books with pertinent professional information in their offices. Business leaders might offer rewards to workers who have completed amazing education feats; they might provide a bonus or raise upon an employee’s completion of a certification course or master’s program or celebrate the occasion with a party. There are many ways to incentivize education to demonstrate support for the effort.
Provide resources
Education is never free. Workers will require time, energy, and tools to accomplish their learning goals. Employers are well-positioned to provide some of the employees’ resources to thrive in their educational pursuits. Offering these resources can eliminate the stress of returning to school, allowing workers more space to improve themselves and complete their workplace tasks.
The easiest way to encourage and support the workforce in continued learning is to assume some or all of the costs associated with education. Partnering with a local or online school to provide lower tuition costs for courses or programs can go a long way toward helping workers attain the additional skills and knowledge they need to excel in their positions. However, workplaces can also give workers a space where they can study uninterrupted or supplies for completing course projects, like office supplies or software. Most importantly, business leaders should make themselves available for guidance, as employees might benefit from the wisdom of experience in their coursework.
Offer leniency
Balancing work and life can be difficult for many employees, so the prospect of introducing the responsibilities of schoolwork can be so intimidating as to be discouraging. Employers can assuage fears surrounding the extra work of education by promising leniency regarding duties at work for the duration of a worker’s course or program.
As with encouragement, leniency takes many forms. Managers might be more forgiving of tardiness or longer breaks and lunch periods, as long as workers can demonstrate using their time wisely. Project deadlines might be pushed back if the timeframe remains reasonable.
Education is undoubtedly a boon for employees, but it is equally important to employers. Healthcare organizations benefit from a highly educated workforce through the improved skills, expanded knowledge, enhanced creativity, and overall capability afforded by extra training in the classroom. If businesses cannot financially contribute to the education of their workforce, they can at least give their workers the space and support they need to excel as they continue to learn.
