Show Me the Money
Aetna brought in Bright Horizons, a
provider of employer-sponsored child
care, early education and work/life
solutions, to help assess the challenges
employees were facing when it came to
furthering their education. The two top
concerns—time and money—weren’t
surprising, says Mooney.
“From an affordability perspective,
it was really two-fold,” she says. “The
first is the risk of incurring student-
loan debt … . How do we help our
employees get an education without
incurring debt? The second one is the
inability to pay upfront costs.”
Concerns about time and money
go hand in hand for many Aetna
employees. Approximately 36 percent
of employees earn less than $50,000 a
year, and 75 percent of these earners
are female—a significant portion of
whom are single moms, for whom lack
of time is a huge barrier, Mooney says.
From these data, Aetna created an
education-benefits objective: to help
employees get the skills they need
quickly at a price they can afford and in
a way that fits into their busy lives.
First, Mooney says, the company
looked at its current employee tuition-assistance program, which was created
in 2011 and offered an 80-percent
benefit—up to a $3,000 annual cap—for
degree progress. In 2013, the company
upped the amount to $5,000 because of
the inflation rate of college education.
Two years later, the social compact was
born; in addition to the minimum-wage
increase, the compact promised to
enhance employee benefits, empower
employees through wellness programs
and provide education assistance.
In 2016, Aetna began covering
non-degree programs and formed
partnerships with Capella University
and College for America for alternative-learning programs. The following year,
employees participating in the ETAP
would receive 100-percent coverage,
up to the $5,000 annual cap (or $2,500
for part-time workers), for eligible
expenses associated with degree or
job-related college courses, certificates
and certifications. Aetna also launched
its student-loan-repayment program in
2017. The company matches student-loan payments up to $2,000 a year, for
a lifetime max of $10,000 for full-time
employees. Part-time employees are
eligible to receive up to $1,000 a year,
with a max of $5,000.
“When we think about it, if an
employee struggles with financial
stress, that impacts the quality of their
work,” Mooney says. “If employees
are healthy and happy, they’re more
productive and engaged and can better
focus on our customers. It helps them,
and it helps us. It’s a win-win.”
Beyond helping Aetna employees,
she adds, student-loan-repayment
programs also contribute to the
economy.
The stats are bleak: Americans
currently owe approximately $1.4
Student-Loan
Strategizing
BY DANIELLE
WESTERMANN KING
to its larger mission of building a
healthier world and effecting positive
change in community health. Mooney
says the first incentive in that compact
was a company-wide minimum-wage
hike to $16 an hour. Though it was a
great first step, Aetna wanted to dig
deeper.
“If five to 10 years down the road
our employees are still only earning
$16 an hour, we’ve failed them,” says
Mooney.
After bringing in third-party vendors
to analyze employee demographics,
Aetna decided to strengthen its tuition-assistance program and offer a student-loan-repayment program. Experts say
such initiatives—as long as they align
with a company’s culture—can lessen
financial burden on employees. This,
in turn, can pave the way for increased
productivity and better business
outcomes, and also enable companies
to embrace corporate expectations for
social responsibility.
“In the end, we looked at it this way:
When they thrive, we thrive.”
Lifelong learning is a habit many successful leaders practice, but employees may struggle to find the time, money and support to pursue higher education. Additionally, existing loans, low pay and long hours create serious financial stress—which not only impacts employees’
personal lives, but their professional
ones, too.
