How Companies Can Attract and Retain Talent With a University Partnership

Competing for the best and brightest employees is harder today. The unemployment rate is stabilizing, and there are fewer people without jobs. Many gainfully employed workers are itching to make a move, but what are they looking for in a new employer? And does your company offer enough to entice them away?

If you work in Human Resources or are a recruiting manager, you already know that today’s workers are picky. They want more freedom, higher compensation, more possibilities at work, and more on-the-job perks.

The threat of a pandemic is also on everyone’s mind. Its influence on workplace mentality is becoming more widely recognized and studied. Aside from the numbers, it’s no wonder that people are becoming more cautious about accepting a new job offer or reconsidering why they should stay in their existing position.

Employees Want Education, Training

If you’re in charge of hiring, you must make your organization stand out to this eager yet wary workforce. Having a solid professional development program is one approach to thriving in talent acquisition.

A recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article focused on employee preferences and why more businesses are rethinking how they attract, retain and manage their talent. What Your Future Employees Want Most makes a strong case for why you should prioritize learning and development activities. Citing a Citrix survey of more than 2,000 workers and 500 HR professionals, the collective feedback emphasizes the pressing need for upskilling and re-skilling — that is, helping employees learn additional skills or enhance existing abilities or learn a new set of skills for a new or hoped-for position.

HBR’s article states that 82% of employees and 62% of HR directors believe workers will need to hone their current skills or acquire new ones at least annually to maintain a competitive advantage in a global job market.

The time could never be better for a more robust learning and development benefit at your company.

Benefits of a U2B (University-to-Business) Partnership

When employees can “learn while they earn,” it’s a win/win. The company benefits from a more-educated, better-trained workforce, and employees feel more motivated and better-positioned to excel at work with their increased knowledge and marketability.

While some companies have people on staff dedicated to employee education and training, many do not. That’s why partnering with a respected university, such as the University of Cincinnati (UC) Online, is growing in appeal.

At UC Online, we have a team dedicated to establishing academic partnerships with companies throughout our region and beyond.

Our higher-education corporate partnership program includes:

• Tuition scholarships you can offer employees and their qualified family members in your employee benefits package
• More than 100 online programs where your employees will learn critical skills that aid professional and organizational development
• UC Online’s Student Success Coordinators who provide direct support to employees, starting when they first enroll through graduation
• Benefits you can offer employees and their families at no cost to you

The UC Online Difference

If you know anything about UC Online, you likely know our affiliation with the University of Cincinnati, a 200+-year-old public research university named “Among the top tier of the Best National Universities,” by U.S. News & World Report.

What you may not know is we’re a pioneer in the field of online education, with experience dating back more than 20 years. Our focus on high-quality, fully online certification and degree programs earned us the distinction of being the best online college in Ohio from study.com. And we earned other accolades along the way for individual degree program excellence.

Here’s what your employees will enjoy about earning a certificate or an associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degree from UC Online:

• Study when and how it works best for them, including a full- or part-time schedule.
• Save time traveling to and from school since no campus visits are required.
• Choose from a variety of online programs — from a certificate in Business Foundations to an Associate degree in Business Information Technology, Bachelor of Technical and Applied Studies, Master of Business Administration, and more.
• Start a program almost any time of the year without having to wait until the fall semester begins.
• Interact online with instructors and fellow students living in or outside the Cincinnati metro.
• Get the support and resources they need to succeed while earning a degree from a nationally recognized university.

Ready to Learn More About a University Partnership?

If you’re interested in exploring a UC Online partnership, contact us today. We’re here to help you build a better business — and better employees — with an exciting continuing education benefit you can bring to your organization.