NEVER STOP LEARNING Keep Your Staff Educated.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)(IBD'S 10 SECRETS TO SUCCESS)

Byline: Robin Grugal

4 Cost-cutting has been a way of life at most companies recently. It seems nothing's untouchable, not even employee learning and development. Some 70% of major companies have eyed it as a good place to whittle. But is it a wise move?

The many companies that cut these programs did so at their own risk, says Thomas Casey, principle at human resources consulting firm Buck Consulting. They could lose their more valuable workers and hurt morale, loyalty and productivity. The effects might not be seen right away -- but watch out as the economy turns around, he says.

One of the more enlightened companies, Casey says, is United Technologies Corp. It has a generous employee education program that it hasn't tampered with, not even in light of recent layoffs. (It's cut some 5,000 jobs in the past year.)

100% Committed

UTC's Employee Scholar Program pays 100% of tuition, books and other fees upfront for course work completed at one of 700 accredited schools. Also, if a worker's studies result in a bachelor's or advanced degree, it grants the employee a graduation award of $10,000 in common stock. For an associate's degree, the worker gets 5,000 UTC shares.

Over the past several years, the company has devoted $60 million a year to the program -- $40 million for tuition and other fees and $20 million for stock awards. If anything, the spending has increased slightly, despite economic conditions. Before the program began in 1996, only 6% of UTC's workers took advantage of ...