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Continuing education Professional development


BENEFITS IN ACTION: FOR THIS LOWE'S EMPLOYEE, EDUCATION BENEFITS BREED COMPANY
LOYALTY

By  Stephanie Schomer
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August 23, 2022, 5:30 a.m. EDT 4 Min Read
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Lowe's
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Damian Whilby had long considered going back to school. But the timing was never
right. 

"There were several barriers to education, the first being financial," says
Whilby, a husband and father of three. "I didn't have that security blanket to
help with additional expenses." 

All that changed earlier this year. 



Whilby has spent the last 10 years working at a Lowe's in Snellville, Georgia,
having started as a part-time worker before climbing his way up the company
ladder to an assistant store manager of operations. He's committed to Lowe's, he
says, because the organization is invested in its workers — Lowe's has long
offered $2,500 annual tuition reimbursement benefits, as well as access to trade
certificate programs for its employees, through which Whilby completed a
carpentry program in 2019. In the spring of 2022, when Lowe's announced a new
debt-free education benefit, he felt his loyalty swell. 

Read more: How an education program helped this product manager land her dream
role at Spotify

Lowe's assistant store manager Damian Whilby is working toward his bachelor's
degree with the financial support of his employer.
Courtesy of Damian Whilby

"I'm going for that bachelor's degree, baby," says Whilby, who signed up to get
a bachelor's degree in operations management through Lowe's partnership with
Guild Education, a platform that works with employers to give workforces access
to high school diploma programs, professional certificates and college and
master's degrees. The benefit is available to all part- and full-time
employees. 

"The program offers 100% reimbursement and even covers books, so I basically pay
nothing, and I had all these different avenues and degrees to choose from," says
Whilby, who's enrolled in online courses through Southern New Hampshire
University (SNHU). "It's not costing me a penny." 



Much like they have for Whilby, education benefits can strengthen employees'
commitment to an organization at a time when companies are struggling to recruit
and retain labor and talent. A study by education benefits program EdAssist and
Bright Horizons found that 85% of workers who participate in tuition assistance
programs provided by their employer say they're a better employee because of the
program, while 84% say access to a tuition assistance program impacted their
decision to join a company in the first place. 

Providing valuable education benefits combined with a company culture of support
and flexibility can drive both employee retention and benefit utilization. For
Whilby, taking advantage of Lowe's previous tuition-reimbursement program wasn't
always a possibility, despite appreciation of the benefit's existence. In recent
years, Whilby explains, his wife went back to school to become a registered
nurse — and in support of her goals, the father of three temporarily put his own
education on the back burner. 

Read more: The Muse CEO shares 4 ways to make sure your good hires stick around

"I didn't want to put that extra burden on my family, for both of us to be
trying to go back to college at the same time," he says. "It would have been too
much to do, so I had to step in and just be that primary breadwinner, so to
speak." 

Once the timing was right (and coincided with the expanded Lowe's offering), he
was eager to hit the books — but managing a course load with a full-time job
comes with its own challenges. Whilby knew it would take some work to fit all
his responsibilities in, but he figured he'd leap first and perfect his schedule
later. 

"I had a conversation with my family and just said, 'Lowe's is presenting me
with this opportunity, and I have to jump on it,'" he says. "I didn't know how I
would juggle it all, but I knew I'd never find the formula unless I really
needed to." 

After enrolling, an introductory time-management course through SNHU helped him
perfect that formula, offering strategies to make space for family, work, and
school. 

"It really teaches you to pencil out your schedule and priorities, being as
realistic as possible," he says. "Once you start looking at a 24-hour time
frame, you start to see that you can have way more time than you anticipated, as
long as you put that into focus and prioritize what you want to accomplish." 

Read more: Microlearning can be the key to balancing workload with manager
development

He adds that the company, even at the store level, works to create systems of
support for its employees. Not only does Whilby have a good relationship with
his manager, but says the company creates scheduling options to support other
priorities its team members may be juggling. 

"You can work in the morning, you can build a more structured schedule," he
says. "So just in case you want to go back to college, you can do that without
having to worry about your job being in the way."

Whilby says he's already encouraged colleagues to take advantage of the benefits
provided by the company, stressing the zero-cost, zero-strings-attached programs
that can help advance one's career, either at Lowe's or beyond. For Whilby, who
anticipates completing his bachelor's degree in the next four to five years, he
hopes the additional skills set him up to continue climbing the ladder at
Lowe's. 

Read more: McDonald's tuition benefit put this employee on the road to higher
education

"My ultimate goal is to be a store manager," he says. "This degree will put me
on a level playing field to compete for higher-paying positions within the
company, and it will put me in a position where I can impact other associates,
and bring them along with me." 

As he's watched the company's benefits offerings continue to expand to meet the
needs of their employee base, Whilby has felt reassured that he's a priority to
the organization. 

"One thing about our core values is, Lowe's is very open about learning," he
says. "If you want to move up and you're willing to commit to the company, they
provide avenues for you to learn about the areas in which you want to improve,
get better, and grow as an individual."

Stephanie Schomer
Editor-in-chief, Employee Benefit News
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Continuing education Professional development Back to School 2022
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